Industrial Workers of the World Founded, Challenges AFL Craft Unionism

From June 27 through July 8, 1905, two hundred socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and radical trade unionists convened at Brand’s Hall in Chicago to found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), launching the most significant challenge to corporate capitalism and conservative trade unionism in American history. William “Big Bill” Haywood opened the convention with a declaration that framed the gathering as a revolutionary moment: “This is the Continental Congress of the working class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism.” The founding delegates included Eugene V. Debs, Mother Jones, Lucy Parsons, Daniel De Leon, and hundreds of rank-and-file leaders, primarily from the Western Federation of Miners.

The IWW—whose members became known as “Wobblies”—rejected the American Federation of Labor’s acceptance of capitalism, craft union elitism, and exclusion of unskilled workers, immigrants, women, and people of color. The informal planning had begun in fall 1904 when six labor leaders including William Trautmann and Thomas J. Hagerty recognized that existing American unions were structurally incapable of achieving real benefits for workers. The IWW embraced industrial unionism, organizing all workers in an industry regardless of skill level, and advocated direct action including strikes, boycotts, and sabotage rather than political compromise. Their preamble declared: “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.”

The IWW’s radical vision and inclusive organizing posed such a threat to corporate power that it faced systematic state repression, including surveillance, prosecution under sedition laws, and violent suppression of strikes. Despite this persecution, the IWW organized successful strikes in textile mills, logging camps, agricultural fields, and ports, demonstrating that solidarity across racial, ethnic, and skill divisions could challenge capitalist exploitation. The IWW’s legacy influenced later industrial union organizing, including the CIO’s formation in 1935, and established principles of democratic worker control that directly challenged the corporate capture of both government and conservative labor leadership.