Little Frank Little was a giant of the American labor movement. Small of stature, half-Indian, half-white and totally fearless, Little had organized metal miners, oilfield workers and unskilled fruit pickers.

The Industrial Workers of the World fit his pistol perfectly. The IWW (also called “the Wobblies”) divided America into two parts:

I. The 20 percent (including bankers, CEOs and other tycoons) who controlled 93 percent of the nation’s wealth.

II. The rest of us.

The interests of these two classes (capitalists and workers) are opposed. This fact shapes the entire social life of the world.

Little spoke out against America’s entry into World War I and urged miners not to join the armed forces.

It was a dangerous time to oppose war and an even more dangerous time to promote a strike against a company producing a strategic material. Little knew the risks. He had been beaten by cops and company goons before. He had once been jailed for reading the Declaration of Independence on a street corner.

In the summer of 1917, Little was organizing copper miners in Butte and had helped plan a strike against the Anaconda Co. In the early hours of Aug. 1, six masked men broke into Little’s hotel room, beat him nearly lifeless,  tied him to a car and dragged him out of town where he was hanged from a railroad trestle. Thousands followed Little’s funeral procession as he was put to rest in Butte’s Mountain View Cemetery.

Little’s murder may have been:

I. A random act of violence.

II. The work of Esquimo assassins who entered the country illegally.

III. A hit planned and paid for by the corporate sisters that ran Montana like their personal plantation – Montana Power and the Anaconda Co.

• • •

There are several explanations for the derivation of the term “wobblies.”   One should be interesting, clever or witty. None is.

• • •

Today, America is again at war and in financial trouble caused by bankers,  corporate capitalists and other members of the elite 20 percent, Republicans are calling the president a socialist, and the Wobblies are back.

***

Jim Del Duca stands nearly 6 feet tall with an auburn braid falling to the small of his back. Del Duca is a sun dancer and adopted son of former Big Horn County Sheriff Larson Medicine Horse. He is the new agent for the IWW’s Billings Branch.

Over coffee, Del Duca shared IWW philosophy last week.

Government and capital are partners in the exploitation of workers:

“In the first two hours of the day, workers produce enough goods and services to pay the company’s bills. The next six hours’ production goes to profits and taxes,” he said.

The system keeps people poor and drives them crazy.

Del Duca explains, “Americans are driven to work longer and harder. They come home, hurry through supper and collapse in front of the TV. There’s no time to nurture children or marriage. The system keeps people broke, so there is no time for family activities or personal healing.

“European workers work 35 hours a week and have time to spend with their children. They get six weeks vacation and have enough money in the bank to take the family on vacation.

“America is rich enough to provide a comfortable living for all. Instead, it provides an unconscionable income for the few at the top while the majority is scrambling to pay the light bill and mortgage.”

There is no middle class in America.

“American workers are the most misinformed in the world. They are enthusiastic and willing slaves to an unfair system, a system that pays some people $250,000 a year and others $7 an hour. In a cooperative (such as IWW members would organize within an industry) everyone would know what everyone else was paid. Workers would vote on the boss’s salary and their own,” Del Duca said.

“The IWW’s task is to educate, organize and emancipate the wage slaves.”

The IWW has  been called socialist, communist and other names. Del Duca prefers the term “industrial democracy.” The IWW’s goal is to educate workers so they might take over the means of production and run industries themselves.

The IWW  philosophy is as much libertarian as socialist. “We do not want  to force anyone to do anything,” Del Duca said. “Workers can solve their own problems.”

“America calls itself a democracy, Del Duca added, “but business is run by kings. It is the IWW’s aim to replace corporate interests with employee control in every single enterprise in the country.”

The resurgent IWW has organized Starbucks outlets, truck drivers, garment workers, printers and others. For more information, contact Jim Del Duca at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 860-0331.