The "Wooblies" (1979, ISBN 0-7670-8966-9, 90 minutes)
An outstanding docudrama on the class struggle during the turn of the century (1900) of the International Workers of the World (IWW; - The "Wooblies" and big business. The film includes interviews with aged IWW members who were present at early events including the 1912 Lawrence, MA strike, 1913 Patterson, NJ strike and 1916 Everett, WA free speech fight. It also shows numerous newspaper articles about the events as well as black & white film footage of the times. The basic theme is the struggle between big business and the working class. Students find the first-hand accounts from elderly members of the union especially interesting.
Labor Issues: The class struggle between workers and big business during the early 1900s. Strikes, free speech, immigrant workers
1. Summarize the Labor Relations Media film selection.
2. What changes in American industry caused the issues of the workers of the early 1900s?
3. By what methods did they express their concerns?
4 How did the owners respond to workers concerns?
5. What issues did the workers in the Massachusetts textile mills, and Washington loggers and dock workers have in common? What did you learn from this film? What surprised you?
6. To what extent and how does this film relate to our course material? Describe specific details-including Chapter references and specific vocabulary relevance to the film. For example-"In Chapter 4-we discussed Organizing Campaigns, within this film it demonstrates ... by showing..."
7. Research and also cite via footnotes, one external source/website to provide back-up references to help in our summary of the paper. For example, related websites AFL-CIO httio://www.afIcio.ore discuss more about why we join unions. Research the site and draw connections to our course studies and the film.