Metrograph

Perhaps the most feared and debated group in the history of American labor, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were open to all workers, race, gender, or trade notwithstanding, their motto: “Solidarity! All for One and One for All!” Surviving “Wobblies,” as they were called, were in their eighties or older when they sat for the camera for Bird and Shaffer’s documentary testament, but their memories of the early years of the 20th century are remarkably vivid, and when combined with archival newsreel footage and photographs of strikes, work stoppages and performances of songs from the IWW’s Little Red Songbook, they create a stirring, rabble-rousing piece of living history.