This reminds me of the reason the Spanish anarchist workers were such capable urban combatants from the very beginning of the Spanish Civil War - over the years they'd gotten plenty of practice fending off thugs and death squads sent by the capitalists...
Great article. I think that part of the reason the Wobblies were so fierce was that physical labor was so dangerous. Long hours, dangerous conditions, low wages, horrible living conditions. If you were going to die, may as well die standing up and fighting. For example, (from Wikipedia) between 10 and 12,000 Chinese worked on the Western leg of the Central Pacific Railroad. About 1,000 of these workers had their bones shipped back to China. That's an eight to 10% death rate.
This essay deserves a lot of comments. The IWW are class heroes and deserve our utmost respect and yes, gratitude. I have an IWW pin I wear on my beret at protests here in PDX.
"As it is today, right-wing forces would happily use murderous violence against people trying to make a better nation for the American working class."
And they don't even have to be union organizers - today's right wing is only itching to attack the libs. Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, talking about a "bloodless" revolution, if "only the libs allowed it", just shows how dangerous the right wing has become ( even as they point their stupid fat fingers at the left ).
It still amazes me that around a century ago, companies were hiring goons to shoot striking workers and there were almost never any criminal charges. Unless they were against the organizers.
At the very least these goons must have been more competent than the goobers running around in tactical gear today. They can’t even come up with a believable lie when claiming someone else assaulted them.
This "feminization" of society has been retreaded and update forever. Suffragettes, women's right to vote, women in factories in WWI, WWII, bra burning, equal pay, equal right amendment. I really feel like this is the same shit different day. These kinds of "discussion" put a faux-intellectual context to what is plain old, vanilla, garden variety discrimination and misogyny. Period, end of story.
The New Yorker had a review of a book, or maybe several, about whether women should "be themselves" in the workplace. I started reading it (the review, not the book), and will never finish.
Sorry, but the premise is stupid. The "self" you should strive to be in the office, or wherever you work, is that of a competent person who's there to work. In my observation, the biggest problem a lot of women have at work is that they are *not allowed* to simply present themselves that way. They get obstacles put in their way, because they have to put up with stereotyping, harassment and other nonsense.
IOW, stop worrying about how women present themselves at work. Start worrying about how their colleagues and supervisors -- and yes, in most but not all cases that means MEN -- often treat them inappropriately.
Waiting for my email. They already cancelled our original connecting flight to ATL to an early morning flight. Now we not only have to leave the house at 5 AM... we now have a 5 hour layover in ATL. I hate Delta.
This reminds me of the reason the Spanish anarchist workers were such capable urban combatants from the very beginning of the Spanish Civil War - over the years they'd gotten plenty of practice fending off thugs and death squads sent by the capitalists...
Police were created to oppress the working class. Always remember.
That's why they're majority right. Lefties don't want to join the police.
Wonder if we'd have a gentler, more competent police force if all the good lefties joined.
Then what would the Usual (Right) Suspects do? Start an Anti-Wonket to complain about the woke police lowering the crime rate?
But I've had very little to do with actual live cops. Virtually all I know is what I've been told by the media.
Ta, Erik. This is a labor story with which I was unfamiliar. I appreciate that. Solidarity forever.
You know who wasn't in a Union? The trafficked girls exploited by Epstein. Epstein! EPstein!! EPSTEIN!!! E-P-S-T-E-I-N!!!!
Great article. I think that part of the reason the Wobblies were so fierce was that physical labor was so dangerous. Long hours, dangerous conditions, low wages, horrible living conditions. If you were going to die, may as well die standing up and fighting. For example, (from Wikipedia) between 10 and 12,000 Chinese worked on the Western leg of the Central Pacific Railroad. About 1,000 of these workers had their bones shipped back to China. That's an eight to 10% death rate.
The Chinese were given the dynamite to go in and expand the mines. That's where the expression "a Chinaman's chance" came from.
This is such an interesting piece of history. The Wobblies were a fierce force.
Thank you for helping to keep US labor history alive.
This essay deserves a lot of comments. The IWW are class heroes and deserve our utmost respect and yes, gratitude. I have an IWW pin I wear on my beret at protests here in PDX.
ONE BIG UNION!
"As it is today, right-wing forces would happily use murderous violence against people trying to make a better nation for the American working class."
And they don't even have to be union organizers - today's right wing is only itching to attack the libs. Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, talking about a "bloodless" revolution, if "only the libs allowed it", just shows how dangerous the right wing has become ( even as they point their stupid fat fingers at the left ).
It still amazes me that around a century ago, companies were hiring goons to shoot striking workers and there were almost never any criminal charges. Unless they were against the organizers.
At the very least these goons must have been more competent than the goobers running around in tactical gear today. They can’t even come up with a believable lie when claiming someone else assaulted them.
Go beat Defector's headline on the Sandwich Guy case, I dare you:
𝗜𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘁, 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁
My parents and grandparents are also buried at Mt. Pleasant. I will look for the Wobblies at my next visit.
Capitalism is good.
Unfortunately the United States does not really have a capitalist economic system.
Big business in the US:
<> is allowed to create monopolies
<> and allowed to collude to fix wages and prices
<> and allowed to break unions and break strikes
Labor and capital are supposed to be on equal footing. Sellers and buyers of goods are supposed to be on equal footing.
Average Americans are fucked coming and going.
"The dignity of work"
OPINION
INTERESTING TIMES
Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?
And if so, can conservative feminism fix it?
Nov. 6, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/opinion/women-workplace-feminism-conservative.html
This "feminization" of society has been retreaded and update forever. Suffragettes, women's right to vote, women in factories in WWI, WWII, bra burning, equal pay, equal right amendment. I really feel like this is the same shit different day. These kinds of "discussion" put a faux-intellectual context to what is plain old, vanilla, garden variety discrimination and misogyny. Period, end of story.
Where’s Camille Paglia?
Regarding these “theorists” as Douthat calls them, I paraphrase the glorious lamented Molly Ivins, “Geez, what an asshole.”
The New Yorker had a review of a book, or maybe several, about whether women should "be themselves" in the workplace. I started reading it (the review, not the book), and will never finish.
Sorry, but the premise is stupid. The "self" you should strive to be in the office, or wherever you work, is that of a competent person who's there to work. In my observation, the biggest problem a lot of women have at work is that they are *not allowed* to simply present themselves that way. They get obstacles put in their way, because they have to put up with stereotyping, harassment and other nonsense.
IOW, stop worrying about how women present themselves at work. Start worrying about how their colleagues and supervisors -- and yes, in most but not all cases that means MEN -- often treat them inappropriately.
"She made me do it" is one of the Ten Commandments.
"By being female."
WHAR BROLLY BUNNY?
(Found him)
https://substack.com/profile/157455618-wobbly/note/c-174333373?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2lqtj6
Ross Douthat? Yeah, if I want to know anything about issues affecting women, I'll ask a conservative man.
Oh no no no. He doesn’t care about affecting women. He’s upset women ruined the workplace for men
The original title of the piece was just “Did women ruin the workplace?”
https://bsky.app/profile/jamielynnkitten.bsky.social/post/3m4xsa2t6k22c
Should women have right? We go through the pros and cons.
By The NYT
Just received:
𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘵 40 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳 𝘜.𝘚. 𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 7𝘵𝘩, 𝘥𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯.
𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨-𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘥. 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵, 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦, 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘭, 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴—𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘴—𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘺 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥.
𝘊𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢.𝘤𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘭𝘺 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢 𝘢𝘱𝘱. 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢 𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.
FUCK YOU, Moses Mike Grindr Johnson
Can't wait for Thanksgiving week - assuming the shutdown is still on
Waiting for my email. They already cancelled our original connecting flight to ATL to an early morning flight. Now we not only have to leave the house at 5 AM... we now have a 5 hour layover in ATL. I hate Delta.
Just in time for Thanksgiving!
And it's all totally unnecessary... none of this bullshit needs to be happening.
Maybe the media will call Sean Duffy on his bullshit??
> But... We were already shorthanded! (Because you DOGED the fuck out of Air Traffic Controllers?)
It's especially unnecessary when you remember we could have elected a smart, competent woman who loves this country and the people in it.
🏆🏆🏆
IMO KH should run again
"FURTHER READING:
Erik Loomis, Empire of Timber: Labor Unions and the Pacific Northwest Forests"
Wait a fucking second, that's the guy who wrote the article.
I kid a little.
Really appreciate your articles, Erik.
Ditto