The Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World, is recognized as “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism” (IWW). It is currently released every three months. The journal, which is frequently distributed at radical bookshops, protests, strikes, and labor rallies, is printed and edited by union employees. Workplace conditions, strikes, workplace organizing experiences, and labor history are all covered. It had formerly been published as a newspaper.

Beginning in January 1906, the newspaper was published in a journal format in Joliet, Illinois, merging “The Voice of Labor,” a former American Labor Union publication that had joined the IWW, with “International Metal Worker.” Eugene V. Debs, Jack London, Daniel DeLeon, Bill Haywood, and James H. Walsh were among the first contributors, along with poetry by Covington Hall, and it was edited by A. S. Edwards. After the group led by ousted President Charles O. Sherman took physical custody of the paper during the union’s 1906 Convention and continued publication under that name for a few months, the IWW produced the Industrial Union Bulletin for several years (before giving up the ghost). A.S. Edwards was chosen editor of the Bulletin in 1906.

The second series of the Industrial Worker began in Spokane, Washington, in 1909 and has continued to this day, with just one notable break between 1913 and 1916. It was produced weekly in the early years and primarily circulated west of the Mississippi, whereas Solidarity, the IWW’s “Official Eastern Organ,” was published in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and later, Cleveland, and lasted until the 1930s, when it merged with the Industrial Worker in Chicago.

The Spokane newspaper gave birth to Mr. Block; the comic strip character immortalized in a Joe Hill song. The Industrial Worker was usually four pages long, with an annual May Day edition of eight pages focusing on the previous year’s labor movement successes. Circulation fell as a result of the IWW’s persecution during and after World War I, mirroring a broader drop in radical unionism’s effect.

The post of IW editor is chosen every two years by an IWW vote. The most recent editors are Jon Bekken, Peter Moore, Diane Krauthamer, and Roberta McNair. A committee is currently in charge of editing the publication. IWW members and working-class people are encouraged to submit writings for publication.

Issues of the Industrial Worker may often be found on microfilm at university libraries and other research institutes, and they provide a wealth of information regarding the wobblies’ worldview during the past century.

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