‘I.W.W. Statuary Workers Rebel’ from Solidarity. Vol. 8 No. 387. June 9, 1917.

Makers of Saviours and Madonnas Strike for Better Wages.

There is a strike on at the Da Prato Statuary Company, in Chicago. The strikers are mostly Italians. They are the men who make the statues that are extensively used in the Catholic churches of this and other countries. These men have suffered intolerable exploitation and slavery for years. Out of 165 of those who struck to get better conditions, 130 have been lined up in the I.W.W. The strike is in charge of a strike committee of Italian fellow-workers from the Statuary Workers’ Industrial Union.

When the strike started the entire force was called out. A mass meeting was called and the I.W.W, men among them helped the crowd to organize the strike and to form the union. This action followed an attempt made over a year ago to form an independent union, which was broken up by the bosses. On May 1st the new organization was started from the inside. As soon as the boss got wind of what was happening he called fellow-worker Silvestri down to the office and told him that the strikers would have to modify their demands and that if they persisted in trying to organize he would close down the shop. To this ultimatum Silvestri told the boss that it was up to him, that the strikers intended to stick to their demands and to stick to their union.

And so on May 9th a notice was served that the shop would close down indefinitely. After this everything possible was done to discourage the strikers and to break the strike. But to no avail. After twenty-one days of complete shutdown the bosses tried to open up again with scabs–thirty-five of them. A guard of police was requested and the scabs were fed and lodged in the factory. The union promptly got out handbills and printed the names of all the scabs to distribute around the neighborhood. The strikers hope for an early victory as the highly skilled workers are all in the union and it is impossible to do the work without them. So in a short time it will not be surprising to find the good old wobbly label on statues of Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1917/v8-w387-jun-09-1917-solidarity.pdf