55 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
55 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
The following is the start of 'The Living Spirit Of The Wobblies', by Len De
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Caux, International Publishers, 1978, ISBN 0-7178-0431-3.
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"The Wobblies are coming! The Wobblies are coming!"
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Down the long train, from boxcar to boxcar, the whispered word was passed.
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Our freight had stopped far out on the flat prairie. We had been stretching
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our legs, sunning ourselves, chatting, visiting from car to car. Now all
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seemed to disappear. In the silence, we could hear the engine watering up,
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the wind rustling to the wheatfields.
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A teenage boy came back on the run to my car, to bring the word. Then he was
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gone. We were debating the news in low voices, when we heard the gravel crunch.
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A tall man came first. Slim, hatless, with skinn tanned tough, he was like any
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other hobo in his overalls and blue workshirt. But his stride was more purposeful.
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A dozen more men of the road followed close behind.
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He stopped at our open door. "Hi, fellers, headin' for the harvest, huh?" Then
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he became offical.
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"I'm an IWW delegate. I got credentials." He patted a pocket. "You guys gotta
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know that you can't ride the freights to the harvest without you join the IWW.
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IWW is for Industrial Workers of the World, case you don't know it. They call us
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Wobblies. You sure heard of the Wobblies ain't you?". We nodded.
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"Our Red Card don't cost no more than a buck. It's good for a year. You can
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ride on it anywhere."
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The delegate told us that the Wobblies weren't working for less than six bucks
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a day in the North Dakota harvest. (On the way we'd heard of farm wages as low
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as $3 or $4). If we had to strike against slave wages or lousy grub, there'd be
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no scabs, said he - not when every guy coming in on the frieghts was carrying a
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Red Card.
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We saw the point. The trouble for us, and for the IWW, was that we hadn't a buck,
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or even 2 bits. Few harvest-bound hobos had. At the moment I had a dime in my sock,
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and a couple of nickels I kept feeling in my pocket. My partners swore that they
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hadn't a red cent.
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Would they put us off the freight? The delegate turned to the other Wobblies and
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they debated in undertones. They'd let us ride, they decided, if we'd join as
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soon as we got a job. We promised.
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The delegate told us we couldnt' "buck the system" without organising. He left
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us a copy of the IWW paper, 'Industrial Solidarity'. His face was grim as he
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moved on to the next car.
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ian
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--
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