After School Fighting Videos

After School Fighting Videos

After School Fighting Videos

In 1908 Stevens Street in Spokane was lined with employment agencies that charged a dollar to the many transient workers who were looking for work in the mining, logging or construction industries. The employers kept the worker for a day or two and then fired him, forcing him to go back to the employment agencies and pay another dollar for another job. This was repeated over and over. One company, Somers Lumber Company, hired 3,000 workers that summer to maintain a workforce of 50. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the Wobblies), organizer James Walsh arrived in Spokane in 1908 to address this issue.

The Free Speech Fight

At first the Wobblies tried to work within the system but when the Spokane City Council refused to revoke the licenses of 19 employment agencies, the Wobblies began a public speaking campaign to inform the public of the abuses. Late in the year the Spokane City Council passed an ordinance banning public speaking on the streets. The IWW continued to cooperate with the police, holding meetings indoors; but when the City Council passed an exception allowing the Salvation Army to speak on the streets, the Wobblies objected and started one of the most significant actions of civil disobedience in American history, an action that would spread to 26 other cities across the nation. The Wobblies sent out a call for supporters to come to Spokane and they arrived by the hundreds. On November 2, 1909, a crate was overturned and one by one the Wobblies got onto the “soapbox” and spoke against the employment agency abuses. One by one they were arrested until over 500 were carted off to jail.


  • After School Fighting Videos

    After School Fighting Videos

    After School Fighting Videos

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