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    Overview of IWW

    Number of Pages: 6

     

    Summary of the research paper:

    In six pages this paper discusses the Industrial Workers of the World in a consideration of class divisions and the inadequacies of the labor unions of the time period to bridge the gaps that existed between them. Six sources are cited in the bibliography.

    Name of Research Paper File: LM1_TLCIndWk.rtf

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    Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
    of any organization of the workers in their struggle for economic independence" (St. John, 1917, p. PG). While labor unions may have already been in existence during this time,  there was an integral component conspicuously absent from the manner by which they operated, pointing to a severe separation between the working class and the employing class. "To call  it the workers of the World was rather an ambitious name as actually it never did go beyond the confines of the United States and it grew out of the  desire of American workers to continue the traditions and the form of organization of the old Knights of Labor" (Gurley Flynn, 1962).  The primary goals of the Knights of Labor, formed in 1869, were to acquire higher wages, shorter working days (maximum eight hours) and better working conditions; it also set out  to rid the labor force of child and convict workers. The movement also served to opened doors for women and African Americans that had up until then been shut  tight. In short, the Knights of Labor bravely stepped in to change the way the American worker was treated and would be a strong force with which to be  reckoned, and the IWW was looked upon to carry the torch in a more detailed and somewhat offshoot manner (Voss, 1994). By 1878,  the Knights of Labor, initially a private and very secret society, had become a national union; eight years later, the continued success of the organization was evident by the support  of over 700,000 members (Usery et al, 1990). Even with all the positive changes evoked by the labor movement, however, there was also an underlying barrier of unrest and 

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