Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was an agitator and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a Communist Party official. In an era when street life and mass strikes were important in people's lives, Flynn's notoriety was akin to that accorded to modern media stars. In major strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey, the "Rebel Girl," as she was called, led immigrant workers. A great orator, Flynn saw labor-court trials as important extensions of organizing and participated in fights for free speech in Missoula, Montana (in 1908), and Spokane, Washington (in 1909-1910). She created the Workers' Defense League, an organization to fight for the victims of the post-World War I Red Scare, and helped establish the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She also pursued her protest campaigns by writing leaflets, pamphlets, articles, and a regular newspaper column for twenty-six years.

Comrades in the movement...