On this day, 13 April 1890, African-American dock worker and leading Industrial Workers of the World union activist, Ben Fletcher, was born in Philadelphia. Starting work on the docks in 1910, he joined the revolutionary syndicalist IWW three years later and became the lead organiser of its Local 8 on the Philadelphia docks. At a time when most unions were racially segregated, Fletcher helped build a powerful, multiracial workers’ organisation which organised a strike in 1913 and won many improvements.
In 1918, after the entry of the US into World War I, Fletcher was arrested and charged with dozens of other IWW members for supposedly hampering the war effort. Despite there being no witnesses to testify against Fletcher, he and all the others were convicted. Fletcher was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, after which he quipped to fellow defendant Big Bill Haywood: “"The Judge has been using very ungrammatical language.”“ When Hayward asked him ”“How is that, Ben?”“ Fletcher replied: ‘His sentences are much too long.’”
His sentence was commuted in 1922, and he immediately returned to Philadelphia to take part in a strike for a maximum 40 hour work week.
Today we are pleased to be making available for preorder a new book on Fletcher’s life, for shipping in November 2020. Get yours here in our online store: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/ben-fletcher-the-life-and-times-of-a-black-wobbly-peter-cole
Learn more about the IWW at this time in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/05/23/wch-e6-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-the-us-1905-1918/https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1399838343534645/?type=3
