Labor battle reignited

In 1909, Spokane laborers spoke about the abuses they were experiencing by “labor sharks” and deceitful companies. They organized under the Industrial Workers of the World, or “Wobblies,” and demanded fair treatment by publicly speaking out. The men who owned 31 labor agencies on Stevens Street called such union workers “hobos,” “un-American” and “slobs.” Using this kind of terminology, a “no street speaking ordinance” was passed by the City Council. In civil disobedience, hundreds were arrested, thrown in jail, and tortured. Some were killed.

After the Spokane jail was packed with Wobblies, the abandoned Franklin School downtown and Fort George Wright also became prisons.

As word traveled around the country, thousands of Wobblies came to Spokane to help their peers. At its height, 7,000 union workers converged on Spokane to fight for fairness, assembly and free speech.

Does any of this sound familiar from recent weeks in Wisconsin and other states?

By design, actions of the right serve to obliterate education, destroy the middle class and reduce this country to a Third-World one. All this is coming to a state near you, and it ought to be flatly rejected by sensible minds.

Brian Shute

Spokane