Return to Granma Nudge Return to Columns Page Return to Sonoma CountyFree Press Home Page

Last Revised: October, 1993

GRANMA NUDGE

JOE MURPHY & THE WOBBLIES

by MARY MOORE

BREAK THEIR HAUGHTY POWER, JOE MURPHY in the HEYDAY of the WOBBLIES by Eugene Nelson, ism press, San Francisco

I knew Joe Murphy at the end of his life as a neighbor and fellow activist in Occidental. At the request of his wife Doris I attended and spoke at his memorial service in 1987 and still have the IWW button he impulsively gave me one day. At the time I was certainly aware of the history of the glorious IWW and Joe's long involvement with the ONE BIG UNION but I knew little of the details, so when this book suddenly appeared in the mail I took the opportunity to learn. I'm so glad I did.

One of the things I've griped about for years is the fact that as activists we don't have or don't take the time to learn our history. If we did perhaps we wouldn't continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. If we knew our history perhaps we could achieve some real solidarity within our ranks so forces like COINTELPRO and Bruce Anderson wouldn't be able to get away with their dirty deeds. While reading this book I was struck with how little human beings have changed in the 75 years since Joe at age 13 began to "glom the guts of a rattler" (hop aboard freight trains). Consider the similarities between today's movement and that of the early l900's:

*The splits between centralist (communist/socialist/liberal) and decentralist (anarchist, libertarian) tendencies.

*The agreement about the problem/issue but the sometimes very painful differences about strategies for overcoming the problem.

*The top down vs. bottom up kinds of organizing.

*The splits between those with faith in electoral politics and those with little or no faith.

*The egos that often cloud the issues and get in the way of solutions and consensus building.

*The differences over tactics of violence/non violence re: property/people

*The differences between people motivated by idealism and those motivated by opportunism.

*The always present suspicions regarding agent provacateurs and how to deal with our suspicions without splitting the ranks (I could open up a whole can of worms by going into this one as regards Sonoma and Mendocino counties in the '90's.)

See what I mean?? Wouldn't you think we could get it right after all this time? That's why our history is so important to us. How can we know where we're going if we don't know where we've been?? We can learn alot by understanding our history/herstory.

This book deals with Joe's early years organizing in the IWW. Before he reached the age of 20 he had been involved with the Centralia jailing of Wobblies after their hall was attacked by American Legionnaires (1919), the Palmer Raids (early '20s), the Great Railroad Strike (1922), the coalminer struggles where he became a labor spy, the "Portland Revolution" (a Wobbly longshoreman strike), and many other smaller but effective actions. He seldom paid to ride the trains yet managed to get all across the country on them working (and organizing) in the fields of the midwest, the forests of the northwest and on the ships at sea. The tactics used, sometimes effective and sometimes not would probably make your average liberal cringe as would the lifestyle. Comfort needers need not apply. But as the book points out this was more than compensated for by the people he met: Helen Keller, Emma Goldman, Boxcar Bertha, Eugene Debs, Bill Haywood, Vincent St.John (the Saint) and so many o! ther lessor known names who gave selflessly in the search for worker justice.

Joe loved the Wobblies and what they stood for: Justice, Solidarity, a better world for all, so he was understandably very disillusioned with the big split within the IWW ranks at the mid 1920's Chicago convention where the afore mentioned simmering philisophical differences finally had their cumulative effect. He continued his organizing despite the national split and tried to figure out how the dream of the ONE BIG UNION could live on.

I loved reading this book because despite the depressing similarities of human nature then and now, it gave me the sense of roots for those of us who continue the many faceted struggle for justice today.

If only we could learn the lessons and move on...........

Some Wobbly maxims that are just as good today as they were in the early 1900's are:

"Direct action gets the goods"

"We're ALL leaders"

"I love my country but hate my government"

"The workers can be crushed to any depth if it is done gradually enough"

"The greatest myth the working class can have is that they're going to elect somebody that's going to emancipate them. They can never be emancipated through electoral politics."

"I don't give a damn about semi-radicals" and finally......

An appeal for solidarity re: Jealousy

"If intelligence antagonizes ignorance then, verily, ignorance antagonizes intelligence. To prevent frictions in any group requires the utmost caution of its members...It behooves every sincere worker to look at the facts as they really are. Who amongst us has not at some time felt a keen sense of inferiority in the presence of a superior intellect? Instinctively the human passion is aroused and nothing short of pure reason can prevent us from showing our antagonism. On the other hand, for individuals to parade their superiority before others invariably breeds jealousy, and jealousy ultimately spells ruin.

Fellow workers, to maintain a spirit of solidarity in any group requires the utmost tolerance for each other's views. Let us beware of this pitfall which organized labor has through all ages fallen into.....Let us guard against this human impulse....and prove to the world that our idea of a labor organization is something different, something new, something big." Return to Granma Nudge Return to Columns Page Return to Sonoma CountyFree Press Home Page