A radical labor union committed to empowering all workers, especially the nonskilled laborers excluded from the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the so-called Wobblies, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), played a pivotal role in America's labor history. Believing that the nation's most exploited and poorest workers deserved a voice, the Wobblies called for "One Big Union" that would challenge the capitalist system first in the United States and later worldwide.

In 1905 a group of two hundred radical labor activists met in Chicago and formed the IWW. The group was overwhelmingly leftist and called for the ultimate overthrow of capitalism worldwide. Immediately feared by most and despised by AFL leader Samuel Gompers, the Wobblies challenged the status quo and fought for the rights of America's working poor. The Wobblies planned to do what no union had tried before: unite blacks, immigrants, and assembly-line workers into...