Essay On The Philadelphia Waterfront

In the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia Waterfront was the home of one of the most enduring, multiethnic unions in the United States at the time. Most unions during this period segregated and rejected blacks; the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) wanted racial equality. In particular, Local 8 had a majority of African Americans, Eastern Europeans, and Irish Americans. Local 8 was an interracial, multiethnic labor union. When the United States entered the war, the longshoremen in Philadelphia helped to serve the nation, yet they used the war as an opportunity to improve their wages. In 1917, there was a remarkable growth in the city’s industry and in trading. Local 8, and its leader, Walter T. Nef took advantage of the economic growth. Around 1901, Nef came to California as a logger and milk driver; he took union cards in an industrial union that was affiliated with the AFL. He heard George Speed, who would later charter the Local 8; his talk led Nef to join the IWW. Eventually, he led the IWW out of its stagnation at the onset of the war. Local 8, led by

The fact that African-Americans grew to leadership positions helped showed that they had a strong voice. Cole points out that racial unity had a major influence on the union’s direction. What I enjoyed about Wobblies On The Waterfront is that Cole uses materials from the leaders of the IWW as well as newspapers, government documents, and newspapers, which help to tell the story. This novel is a tremendous account of Local 8 before and after World War I; it is thorough in its descriptions. However, Cole does not go into great detail about the Local 8’s success. Cole was effective because he described Local 8’s short-lived success had to do with the workers overcoming ethnic and racial differences, which seemed rare at the