Editing Industrial Workers of the World (section)

===1950–2000===
====Taft–Hartley Act====
{{See also|Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union#Decline}}
[[File:An-injury-to-one.png|frame|right|alt=IWW globe logo encircled by an IWW slogan.|IWW logo: "[[An injury to one is an injury to all]]"]]
After the passage of the [[Taft-Hartley Act]] in 1946 by Congress, which called for the removal of Communist union leadership, the IWW experienced a loss of membership as differences of opinion occurred over how to respond to the challenge. In 1949, US Attorney General [[Tom C. Clark]]<ref name="Tyler1967">{{cite book | last=Tyler | first=Robert L. | title=Rebels of the woods: the I.W.W. in the Pacific Northwest | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GI6xAAAAIAAJ | access-date=October 20, 2011 | date=January 1967 | publisher=University of Oregon Books | page=227 | isbn=9780870713880 | archive-date=January 1, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101150441/http://books.google.com/books?id=GI6xAAAAIAAJ | url-status=live }}</ref> placed the IWW on the [[Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations]]<ref name="LeeBekken2009">{{cite book | last1=Lee | first1=Frederic S. | last2=Bekken | first2=Jon | title=Radical economics and labor: essays inspired by the IWW Centennial | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_F54Pi4lFIMC&pg=PA3 | access-date=October 20, 2011 | year=2009 | publisher=[[Taylor & Francis US]] | isbn=978-0-415-77723-0 | page=3 | archive-date=January 1, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101150422/http://books.google.com/books?id=_F54Pi4lFIMC&pg=PA3 | url-status=live }}</ref> in the category of "organizations seeking to change the government by unconstitutional means" under [[Executive Order 9835]], which offered no means of appeal, and which excluded all IWW members from Federal employment and federally subsidized housing programs (this order was revoked by [[Executive Order 10450]] in 1953).

At this time, the Cleveland local of the [[Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union]] (MMWIU) was the strongest IWW branch in the United States. Leading figures such as [[Frank Cedervall]], who had helped build the branch up for over ten years, were concerned about the possibility of raiding from AFL-CIO unions if the IWW had its legal status as a union revoked. In 1950, Cedervall led the 1500-member MMWIU national organization to split from the IWW, as the [[Lumber Workers Industrial Union]] had almost 30 years earlier. This act did not save the MMWIU. Despite its brief affiliation with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, it was raided by the AFL and CIO and defunct by the late 1950s, less than ten years after separating from the IWW.<ref name=ECH_IWW>{{cite web |url=http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=IWOTW |title=Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) |website=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History |publisher=[[Case Western Reserve University]] |location=[[Cleveland]] |access-date=May 20, 2016 |archive-date=June 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605123141/http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=IWOTW |url-status=live }}</ref>

The loss of the MMWIU, at the time the IWW's largest industrial union, was almost a deathblow to the IWW. The union's membership fell to its lowest level in the 1950s during the [[Red Scare|Second Red Scare]], and by 1955, the union's fiftieth anniversary, it was near extinction, though it still appeared on government lists of Communist-led groups.<ref name=chronology4671 />

====1960s rejuvenation====

The 1960s [[civil rights movement]], anti-war protests, and various university student movements brought new life to the IWW, albeit with many fewer new members than the great organizing drives of the early part of the 20th century.

The first signs of new life for the IWW in the 1960s were organizing efforts among students in San Francisco and Berkeley, which were hotbeds of student radicalism at the time. This targeting of students resulted in a Bay Area branch of the union with over a hundred members in 1964, almost as many as the union's total membership in 1961. Wobblies old and new united for one more "[[free speech fight]]": Berkeley's [[Free Speech Movement]]. Riding on this high, the decision in 1967 to allow college and university students to join the [[Education Workers Industrial Union]] (IU 620) as full members spurred campaigns in 1968 at the [[University of Waterloo]] in Ontario, the [[University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee]], and the [[University of Michigan]] in Ann Arbor.<ref name=nothingincommon>{{cite book |editor-last=Silvano |editor-first=John |title=Nothing in Common: An Oral History of IWW Strikes 1971–1992 |date=1999 |isbn=978-1-892779-22-9 |lccn=99-65777 |publisher=[[Cedar Publishing]] |location=[[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]] |url=https://archive.org/details/nothingincommon00john }}</ref>{{rp|13}} The IWW sent representatives to [[Students for a Democratic Society]] conventions in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and as the SDS collapsed into infighting, the IWW gained members fleeing this discord. These changes had a profound effect on the union, which by 1972 had 67% of members under the age of 30, with a total of nearly 500 members.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|14}}

The IWW's links to the 1960s counterculture led to organizing campaigns at counterculture businesses, as well as a wave of over two dozen co-ops affiliating with the IWW under its [[Wobbly Shop]] model in the 1960s to 1980s. These businesses were primarily in printing, publishing, and food distribution, from underground newspapers and radical print shops to community co-op grocery stores. Some of the printing and publishing industry co-ops and job shops included [[Fredy Perlman|Black & Red]] (Detroit), Glad Day Press (New York), RPM Press (Michigan), New Media Graphics (Ohio), Babylon Print (Wisconsin), Hill Press (Illinois), Lakeside ([[Madison, Wisconsin]]), Harbinger ([[Columbia, South Carolina]]), Eastown Printing in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where the IWW negotiated a contract in 1978),<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|17}} and {{lang|fr|italic=no|La Presse Populaire}} (Montreal). This close affiliation with radical publishers and printing houses sometimes led to legal difficulties for the union, such as when {{lang|fr|italic=no|La Presse Populaire}} was shut down in 1970 by provincial police for publishing pro-[[FLQ]] materials, which were banned at the time under an official censorship law. Also in 1970, the [[San Diego, California]], "street journal" {{lang|es|El Barrio}} became an official IWW shop. In 1971 its office was attacked by an organization calling itself the [[Minutemen (anti-Communist organization)|Minutemen]], and IWW member Ricardo Gonzalves was indicted for criminal syndicalism along with two members of the [[Brown Berets]].<ref name=chronology4671 />

====Return to workplace campaigns====
[[File:Anarchists attend ALP policy launch 24 November 1975 (16890014601).jpg|upright=1.2|thumb|IWW and anarchists protesting in 1975]]

Invigorated by the arrival of enthusiastic new members, the IWW began a wave of organizing drives. These largely took a regional form and they, as well as the union's overall membership, concentrated in Portland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and throughout the state of California, which when combined accounted for over half of union drives from 1970 to 1979. In Portland, Oregon, the IWW led campaigns at Winter Products (a brass plating plant) in 1972, at a local [[Winchell's Donuts]] (where a strike was waged and lost), at the Albina Day Care (where key union demands were won, including the firing of the director of the day care), of healthcare workers at [[West Side School]] and the [[Portland Medical Center]], and of agricultural workers in 1974. The latter effort led to the opening of an IWW union hall in Portland to compete with extortionate hiring halls and day labor agencies. Organizing efforts led to a growth in membership, but repeated loss of strikes and organizing campaigns anticipated the decline of the Portland branch after the mid-1970s, a stagnancy period lasting until the 1990s.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|15}}

In California, union activities were based in [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]], where in 1977 the IWW engaged in one of its most ambitious campaigns of the 1970s: an attempt in 1977 to organize 3,000 workers hired under the [[Comprehensive Employment and Training Act]] (CETA) in [[Santa Cruz County, California|Santa Cruz County]]. The campaign led to pay raises, the implementation of a grievance procedure, and medical and dental coverage, but the union failed to maintain its foothold, and in 1982 the CETA program was replaced by the [[Job Training Partnership Act of 1982|Job Training Partnership Act]].<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|15{{ndash}}16}} The IWW won some lasting victories in Santa Cruz, such as campaigns at the Janus Alcohol Recovery Center, the Santa Cruz Law Center, Project Hope, and the Santa Cruz Community Switchboard.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|16}}

[[File:Remember our fallen comrades.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A seated crowd facing a standing woman. Behind her is a table with flowers. Above the table is a large banner with the text, "We never forget!" along with the IWW name and globe logo. A variety of United Auto Workers logos are visible on the wall in the background.|Memorial service]]

Elsewhere in California, the IWW was active in [[Long Beach]] in 1972, where it organized workers at [[International Wood Products]] and [[Park International Corporation]] (a manufacturer of plastic swimming pool filters) and went on strike after the firing of one worker for union-related activities.<ref name="Park Int'l poster">{{Citation |title=Strike Support |date=1972 |publisher=Portland General Membership Branch, IWW}}</ref> Finally, in San Francisco, the IWW ran campaigns for radio station and food service workers.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|15{{ndash}}16}}

In Chicago, the IWW was an early opponent of so-called [[urban renewal]] programs and supported the creation of the "Chicago People's Park" in 1969. The Chicago branch also ran citywide campaigns for healthcare, food service, entertainment, construction, and metal workers, and its success with the latter led to an attempt to revive the national [[Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union]], which twenty years earlier had been a major component of the union. Metalworker organizing mostly ended in 1978 after a failed strike at Mid-American Metal in [[Virden, Illinois]]. The IWW also became one of the first unions to try to organize fast food workers, with an organizing campaign at a local [[McDonald's]] in 1973.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|16}}

The IWW also built on its existing presence in Ann Arbor, which had existed since student organizing began at the University of Michigan, to launch an organizing campaign at the University Cellar, a college bookstore. The union won [[National Labor Relations Board]] (NLRB) certification there in 1979 following a strike, and the store became a strong job shop for the union until it was closed in 1986. The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|17}}

In the late 1970s, the IWW came to regional prominence in entertainment industry organizing, with an Entertainment Workers Organizing Committee being founded in Chicago in 1976, followed by campaigns organizing musicians in Cleveland in 1977 and Ann Arbor in 1978. The Chicago committee published a model contract which was distributed to musicians in the hopes of raising industry standards, as well as maintaining an active phone line for booking information. IWW musicians such as [[Utah Phillips]], [[Faith Petric]], [[Bob Bovee]], and [[Jim Ringer]] also toured and promoted the union,<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|17}} and in 1987 an anthology album, ''Rebel Voices'', was released.

Other IWW organizing campaigns of the 1970s included a [[ShopRite (United States)|ShopRite]] supermarket in Milwaukee, at Coronet Foods in [[Wheeling, West Virginia]], chemical and fast food workers (including [[KFC]] and [[Roy Rogers]]) in [[State College, Pennsylvania]], and hospital workers in Boston, all in 1973; shipyards in [[Houston, Texas]], and restaurant workers in Pittsburgh in 1974; unsuccessful campaigns at the Prospect Nursing Home in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], and a [[Pizza Hut]] in [[Arkadelphia, Arkansas]], in 1975; and a construction workers organizing drive in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], in 1978.<ref name=nothingincommon />{{rp|18}}

====1990s====

In 1996, the IWW launched an organizing drive against [[Borders Books]] in Philadelphia. In March, the union lost an NLRB certification vote by a narrow margin but continued to organize. In June, IWW member Miriam Fried was fired on trumped-up charges and a national boycott of Borders was launched in response. IWW members picketed at Borders stores nationwide, including Ann Arbor, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, California; Miami, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Palo Alto, California; Portland, Oregon; Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Albany, New York; Richmond, Virginia; St. Louis, Missouri; Los Angeles, California; and other cities. This was followed up with a National Day of Action in 1997, where Borders stores were again picketed nationwide, and a second organizing campaign in London, England.<ref name=chronology9697>{{cite web |url=http://www.iww.org/about/chronology/11 |title=IWW Chronology (1996–1997) |website=IWW.org |publisher=Industrial Workers of the World |access-date=December 24, 2016 |archive-date=December 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224172216/http://www.iww.org/about/chronology/11 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Also in 1996, the IWW began organizing at [[Wherehouse Music]] in [[El Cerrito, California]]. The campaign continued until 1997, when management fired two organizers and laid off over half the employees, as well as reducing the hours of known union members. This directly affected the NLRB certification vote which followed, where the IWW lost over 2:1.<ref name=chronology9697 />

[[File:Remember 2.jpg|thumb|alt=A group of seven people stand near the entrance of a building.|Three IWW General Secretary-Treasurers: Mark Kaufmann, Jeff Ditz, and Fred Chase, at a funeral for a friend.]]

In 1998, the IWW chartered a San Francisco branch of the [[Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union]] (MTWIU), which trained hundreds of waterfront workers in health and safety techniques and attempted to institutionalize these safety practices on the San Francisco waterfront.<ref name=chronology9899>{{cite web |url=http://www.iww.org/about/chronology/12 |title=IWW Chronology (1998–1999) |publisher=Industrial Workers of the World |access-date=December 24, 2016 |archive-date=December 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225083240/http://www.iww.org/about/chronology/12 |url-status=live }}</ref>