Item no. 28205
| January 1910 |
| Collection: Other |
"The Mailed Fist of the Law" by anonymous, Industrial Worker January 8, 1910.
With their capacity to organize destroyed and their constitutional right to free speech overturned, the Wobblies declared war in the cities of Missoula (1909), Spokane (1909-10), Fresno (1910-11), and San Diego (1912). IWW publications issued a nationwide call to members and sympathizers to convene in these cities for the purpose of defending the rights of the people. The One Big Union led a massive campaign of non-violent civil disobedience aimed at overwhelming the state machinery and forcing a retraction of the unjust law. Police responded with violence breaking up public meetings and beating speakers. The brutality continued in the jails, as Wobblies were roughed-up, packed tightly into small cells, and kept on bread and water diets. In this anonymous cartoon, a Spokane police officer is pictured clubbing a Wobbly free speech advocate as he tramples the Constitution underfoot.
See this image in the Solidarity Forever: A Look at Wobbly Culture exhibit.
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