Big Red Songbook: 250+ IWW Songs! (Charles H. Kerr Library)

In 1905, representatives from dozens of radical labor groups came together in Chicago to form One Big Union— the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as the Wobblies.

The union was a big presence in the labor movement, leading strikes, walkouts, and rallies across the nation.

And everywhere its members went, they sang.

Their songs were sung in mining camps and textile mills, hobo jungles and flop houses, and anywhere workers might be recruited to the Wobblies’ cause.