On this day, 29 September 1909, the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union began the first of what became known as the free speech fights, in Missoula, Montana. Members would publicly speak on the streets of the town in open defiance of a law banning public speaking. When one speaker was arrested another took their place, including well known organisers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who was pregnant at the time, and Frank Little. As a result, the local jail was filled with no end to the stream of workers coming in to speak. By 8 October the council declared the IWW could speak wherever they liked and dropped all charges against members who had been arrested for speaking. This campaign would be the first of many similar free speech fights throughout the United States.
Learn more about the IWW and the free speech fights in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/05/23/wch-e6-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-the-us-1905-1918/
Pictured: Flynn speaking during an IWW strike in Paterson https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1541568056028339/?type=3
