Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly

by Peter Cole (Editor), Robin D.G. Kelley (Foreword by)

Overview

In the early twentieth century, when many US unions disgracefully excluded black and Asian workers, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) warmly welcomed people of color, in keeping with their emphasis on class solidarity and their bold motto: “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All!” Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly tells the story of one of the greatest heroes of the American working class.

A brilliant union organizer and a humorous orator, Benjamin Fletcher (1890–1949) was a tremendously important and well-loved African American member of the IWW during its heyday. Fletcher helped found and lead Local 8 of the IWW’s Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, unquestionably the most powerful interracial union of its era, taking a principled stand against all forms of xenophobia and exclusion.

For years, acclaimed historian Peter Cole has carefully researched the life of Ben Fletcher, painstakingly uncovering a stunning range of documents related to this extraordinary man. Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly is the most comprehensive look at Fletcher ever to be published. It includes a detailed biographical sketch of his life and history, reminiscences by fellow workers who knew him, a chronicle of the IWW’s impressive decade-long run on the Philadelphia waterfront in which Fletcher played a pivotal role, and nearly all of his known writings and speeches, thus giving Fletcher’s timeless voice another opportunity to inspire a new generation of workers, organizers, and agitators. This revised and expanded second edition includes new materials such as facsimile reprints of two extremely rare pamphlets on racism from the early twentieth century, more information on his prison years and personal life, additional recollections from friends, greater consideration of Fletcher from a global perspective, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629638621
Publisher:	PM Press
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Edition description:	Second edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois Universityin Macomb and a research associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cole is the author of the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He coedited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW. He is the founder and codirector of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project.

Robin D.G. Kelley is an American historian and academic and is the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA. During the academic year 2009–10, Kelley held the Harmsworth Chair of American History at Oxford University, the first African-American historian to do so since the chair was established in 1922. He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014. Author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression; Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class; Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora; Into the Fire: African Americans Since 1970; Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America; Three Strikes: The Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century; and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Preface to the Second Edition xv

Introduction 1

Writings and Speeches by and about Ben Fletcher

1 Soapboxer 64

2 On the Importance of the IWW Press 65

3 The Seventh Convention of the IWW 67

4 Philadelphia Organizing 68

5 The Strike at Little Falls 69

6 The Eighth Convention of the IWW 71

7 War on the Waterfront 83

8 Solidarity Wins in Philadelphia 87

9 Free Ford and Suhr! 89

10 Transport Workers Strike in Philadelphia 90

11 Philadelphia Strike Ends 92

12 The Struggle in Baltimore 93

13 IWW Growing in Baltimore 94

14 Providence MTW 95

15 Boston Organizing 97

16 Federal Investigation of Fletcher Begins 99

17 A Bad Man or Gun Fighter 101

18 The Rebel Girl Remembers 103

19 Fletcher Indicted 104

20 Fletcher Investigation Continues 107

21 Fletcher and Cape Verdeans 108

22 The Search for Fletcher Continues 110

23 The Chase Is On 112

24 Fletcher Arrested (Finally) 114

25 Fletcher on Trial 118

26 Fletcher and Haywood Cutting It Up 120

27 Fletcher Sentenced 121

28 Fletcher Holding Court 123

29 We Won't Forget 125

30 Fletcher in Forma Pauperis 126

31 Du Bois on Fletcher and the IWW 128

32 The Messenger on Ben Fletcher 131

33 Fletcher's Prison Letters 133

34 Fletcher's Black Radical Networks 139

35 Fletcher Reflects on Past and Future 141

36 Fletcher Out on Bond-Still Troublemaking 145

37 The Price of Progress 150

38 The Abolition Movement of the Twentieth Century 152

39 Organizing the Atlantic Coast 155

40 On the Baltimore Waterfront 157

41 Fletcher's Sterling Honesty and Humor 158

42 Solving the Race Problem 160

43 The Forum of Local 8 163

44 The Task of Local 8 167

45 Advice from a Black, Radical Friend 170

46 A Miscarriage of Justice 172

47 Feds Oppose Releasing Fletcher 176

48 A Call to Solidarity 177

49 Free the Local 8 Four! 179

50 Feds Can't Figure Out Why They Imprisoned Fletcher 182

51 Why Should These Men Be Released? 184

52 Free at Last! 188

53 Longshoremen Fighting for Life 189

54 Philadelphia's Waterfront Unions 190

55 The Negro and Organized Labor 193

56 Solidarity-Black & White 197

57 Fletcher Speaks in Philadelphia 200

58 Fletcher Won't Give Up the Waterfront 201

59 Communist Praises Wobbly 203

60 Defy the Blacklist 205

61 Speaking Tour 208

62 Hello, Detroit 209

63 Speaking to Finnish Workers in Canada 211

64 Fletcher Visits Work People's College 214

65 Fifteen Hundred Have Listened, Spellbound 217

66 Claude McKay on Local 8 219

67 Fletcher Thrills Crowd in Philadelphia 221

68 Industrial Unionism & Black Workers 223

69 The IWW & Negro Wage Workers 225

70 Race Consciousness 230

71 Heartache 233

72 A Thousand Join in One Day! 235

73 Fletcher Recalls Nearly Being Lynched 237

74 Cuts to the Bone of Capitalist Pretension 242

75 Fletcher Knows Which Side He's On 243

76 IWW Attempts a Comeback 245

77 A Communist Cynically Exploits Fletcher's Story 248

78 Fletcher Corresponds with Anarchist Archivist 250

79 The IWW Celebrates Fletcher's Life 254

80 Fletcher's Obituary in the New York Times 258

81 Philadelphia Tribune Obituary 259

82 Brooklyn Eagle Obituary 261

83 Atlanta Daily World Obituary 262

84 A Tribute to Fletcher 264

85 Brave Spirit 265

86 Fred Thompson on Meeting Fletcher 267

87 Esther Dolgoff Remembering Fletcher 269

88 A Fellow Philadelphia Longshoreman Remembers 271

89 Ellen Doree Rosen Remembers Fletcher 275

90 Harry Haywood on Fletcher 278

91 Fletcher Meets Joe Hill? 280

92 Fletcher and T-Bone 282

93 Give Them a Chance 284

94 As Black as I Am 286

95 Anatole Dolgoff Remembers Fletcher 288

96 Sam Dolgoff's Children and Fletcher at the MTW Hall 289

Appendix

Colored Workers of America: Why You Should Join the IWW 295

Justice for the Negro: How He Can Get It 299

The Negro Worker Falls into Line 305

Bibliography 310

Acknowledgments 314

Index 316

About the Authors 324

Editorial Reviews

This stirring collection gives us the drama, largely in his own exciting words, of the life and work of black radical labor leader Ben Fletcher. It is a story of suffering, fighting, and organizing but also of thinking deeply and writing clearly about the social power of labor, and particularly of maritime workers, and the possibility of a world beyond racial division and class exploitation.”
—David Roediger, University of Kansas, author of Class, Race, and Marxism

“This book tells the unusual story of an African American who became a leader of racially integrated dockworkers in Philadelphia before, during, and after World War I. It poses two questions. First, can a black worker become a spokesperson for a workforce made up of blacks from the American South, whites born in the United States, and immigrants from Europe? The inspiring answer is yes. The second is, to what extent can Wobbly ideas be made part of a local union with a collective bargaining agreement so that what results is ‘a radical yet stable union.’ Here the evidence is more mixed, but the question is an essential one and every reader should feel challenged to find their own answer.”
—Staughton Lynd, author of Wobblies and Zapatistas and Labor Law for the Rank and Filer

“Prior to A. Philip Randolph, Ben Fletcher was one of the most important black labor figures of the twentieth century. He led an interracial, multiethnic union with a racially diverse leadership. Fletcher was a Wobbly through and through, an unapologetic radical who envisioned a postcapitalist, revolutionary society. Yet his vision did not inhibit him from actively engaging in the reform struggle. In fact, the antiracist component of their radical vision was central to the day-to-day unionism he advanced. Cole’s book is an important intervention in discussions regarding the state of organized labor today.”
—Bill Fletcher Jr., racial justice, labor, and international activist, and author of “They’re Bankrupting Us!” and 20 Other Myths about Unions

“In a unionism noted for great organizers, Fellow Worker Fletcher was one of the greatest. Nearly a hundred years later, Local 8’s great achievements are still a model for us all.”
—Carlos Cortez, poet, artist, social activist, member of the IWW for more than six decades

“Ben Fletcher’s all-out, front-door-to-back revolutionary industrial unionism exemplifies Wobbly-style working-class solidarity at its creative best. This is the kind of no-compromise, multi-racial, direct-action organizing that labor needs today.”
—Franklin Rosemont, author of The Big Red Songbook and Joe Hill

From the Publisher