Ben Fletcher: the Life and Times of a Black Wobbly

The Irish People

Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly by Dr Peter Cole tells the story of one of the greatest heroes of the American working class.

A brilliant union organiser and a humorous orator, Benjamin Fletcher was a tremendously important and well-loved African American member of the IWW during its heyday. Fletcher helped found and lead Local 8 of the IWW’s Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, unquestionably the most powerful interracial union of its era, taking a principled stand against all forms of xenophobia and exclusion.

The Irish people podcast spoke to Dr Peter Cole, professor of history at Western Illinois University in the United States and a Research Associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is the author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area, winner of the Philip Taft Labor History Book Prize, and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He co-edited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW, and edited Ben Fletcher: The Life & Times of a Black Wobbly. He holds degrees from Georgetown University and Columbia University. He tweets from @ProfPeterCole