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\title{Ben Fletcher}
\date{1987}
\author{Jeff Stein}
\subtitle{Portrait of a black syndicalist}
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{\usekomafont{subtitle}{Portrait of a black syndicalist\par}}%
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\par
% Ben Fletcher – Portrait of a black syndicalist (1987)
“I have heard all the big shots of the labor movement over a period of 25 years from coast to coast
and it is no exaggeration when I state that this colored man\dots{} is the only one I ever heard who cut
right through the bone of capitalist pretensions to being an everlasting ruling class, with a concrete
constructive working class union argument”, wrote E.S. Marlin, an AFL officer, in 1931. Marlin
was not alone in his respect and admiration for Ben Fletcher. Emil John Lever, a white organizer
who first met Fletcher on the Philadelphia docks, told Herbert Hill of the NAACP in 1968, “Ben
Fletcher, I always thought, was one of the best organizers I knew.” A. Phillip Randolph, himself a
well known labor leader, in 1923, referred to Ben Fletcher as “the most prominent Negro labor
leader in America.”
Benjamin Harrison Fletcher was born in Philadelphia on April 13, 1890. Little is known about his
early life, except that in 1910 he began working on the Philadelphia docks as a longshoreman. The
work was hard and dangerous, and the pay was poor. Employers pitted white stevedores and black
stevedores against each other. Attempts to unionize the docks had been long hampered by the fact
that the white members of the AFL affiliated union, the International Longshoremen’s Association,
discriminated against black workers, reserving the docks for whites. This played into the hands of
the employers, who had little trouble recruiting black workers to take the jobs of ILA strikers.
Racism was common among AFL unions of the time. In an article Fletcher wrote in 1923, he
pointed out what was wrong with the AFL:
“The International Association of Machinists as well as several other International bodies of the
AFL along with the Railroad Brotherhoods, either by constitutional decree or general policy, forbid
the enrolment of Negro members, while others if forced by his increasing presence in their
jurisdictions, organize him into separate unions. There are but few exceptions that are not covered
by these two policies and attitudes. It is needless to state that the employing class are the
beneficiaries of these policies of Negro Labor exclusion and segregation\dots{} What a sad commentary
upon Organized Labor’s shortsightedness and profound stupidity.”
(“The Negro and Organized Labor”
The Messenger, July 1923)
One exception to this racist policy, was the Industrial Workers of the World. The IWW saw the need
for industry-wide unions to unite all workers regardless of occupation, race or sex, in short, “One
Big Union”. The IWW was among the first to defy Jim Crow laws in the southern states which
prohibited multi-racial meetings and assemblies. It organized black workers in the same union
branches as white workers when it held organizing drives in the lumber mills of Louisiana and
Texas in 1910. At the time when Fletcher was working on the Philadelphia waterfront, a wave of
IWW organizing was sweeping the east coast. The IWW had just won a major textile strike in
Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. Ben Fletcher joined the IWW in 1911, became correspondence
secretary of the IWW Local No.57 in 1912, and became an organizer in 1913.
Sixteen hundred dockworkers in Philadelphia went on strike on May 17, 1913 over intolerable
conditions. Organizers from both the IWW and the ILA addressed a mass meeting encouraging
affiliation to their respective unions. Fletcher argued that the AFL was made up of “labor fakirs”
while the IWW was “the labor movement. All else is fake and fraud.” On May 20, the strikers
joined the IWW. Fletcher worked hard to bring all dockworkers into the union. Polish, Jewish, and
English-speaking workers, both white and black, were lined up. By the time the strike was settled,
3,000 dockworkers had been organized. Most of the demands had been won, including the ten-hour
workday, time and a half for overtime, and union recognition.
After the victory in Philadelphia, Fletcher was sent to Baltimore in hopes of repeating his success.
The ILA, however, had learned something from its defeat in Philadelphia. The ILA launched a drive
to organize all of the nearly 2,000 black dockworkers there. The ILA was afraid if they didn’t, the
IWW would. Although this at first stymied Fletcher’s efforts, the ILA soon fell back into its old
habits of reserving work for its white members. As a result, a second effort in 1916, quickly brought
1,400 black dockworkers into the IWW.
In spite of opposition from the American Federation of Labor, the ILA, and the local chapter of the
Socialist Party, the Philadelphia branch of the Marine Transport Workers of the IWW continued to
grow. Successful strikes were waged in 1914 and 1915. The reason for the success was the local’s
attention to organizing, solidarity, and education about IWW principles and the evils of racism. The
IWW expanded from the docks to include boatmen and other transport workers. When the
employees of the Spreckels sugar company struck in early 1917, the Marine Transport Workers
struck in sympathy and helped spread the strike to include 5,000 workers. Social and educational
activities continued throughout this period, while families of black and white workers came together
without any sign of racial prejudice.
Another key to the IWW’s success was its willingness to adopt unorthodox tactics. In a letter
written in 1914, Fletcher told how IWW members crossed their own picket lines during a strike and
then stopped the scabs from getting any work done. By 1916, the IWW had won job control at all
but two of Philadelphia’s docks. The Philadelphia IWW won wages and conditions beyond anything
the ILA had anywhere in the country. Using Philadelphia as his base, Fletcher travelled up and
down the east coast, spreading the word about “One Big Union”. Fletcher reported in 1917, “It just
requires a little more effort to prove to the other marine transport workers that the IWW is the ship
and all else is the deep blue sea.”
Unfortunately, time was running out for Ben Fletcher’s plans. In April, 1917 the U.S. entered World
War I. The American Federation of Labor made a no-strike pact with the Wilson administration, but
the IWW refused to follow suit. Figuring that the industrialists had not patriotically renounced
higher profits because of war, the IWW didn’t see any reason for workers to stop struggling for a
decent standard of living. The question of compliance with the draft was left up to each member’s
own conscience. The IWW was branded as pro-German by the press and the employers took this as
an opportunity to eliminate the radical wing of the labor movement. Local patriotic vigilantes
smashed IWW offices and state governments passed criminal syndicalism laws. The federal
government was glad to oblige the calls for repression of the IWW by arresting every prominent
IWW organizer it could get its hands on.
Ben Fletcher was arrested in February, 1918 and charged with interfering with the draft, espionage,
violating the constitutional rights of employers with government contracts, and using the mails to
conspire to defraud employers. Fletcher was put on trial with nearly 100 other IWW officers and
organizers. Although no evidence was produced at the trial to show that Fletcher had done anything
besides labor organizing, he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in Leavenworth Penitentiary.
As the judge was giving out similar harsh sentences to the other IWW organizers, Fletcher
commented to former IWW General Secretary-Treasurer Bill Haywood, “Judge Landis is using
poor English today. His sentences are too long.”
An amnesty campaign was begun for Fletcher and the other imprisoned IWW members. The
General Defense Committee of the IWW sent Fletcher’s wife ten dollars weekly to help support
their son. Personal letters and petitions were sent to the Justice Department signed by housewives,
lawyers, labourers, merchants, clergymen, and college professors, all attesting to Fletcher’s good
character and asking for his release. A. Philip Randolph in his magazine, The Messenger, wrote an
editorial saying, “Ben Fletcher is in Leavenworth for principle—a principle which when adopted,
will put all the Negro leaders out of their parasitical jobs. That principle is that to the workers
belong the world.”
Between February, 1920 and April, 1921, Fletcher was allowed out of prison on bail. He returned to
Philadelphia to find the local IWW in turmoil. Communist-influenced members of the IWW had
been elected to the IWW General Executive Board in Chicago. The Communists tried to get the
IWW to accept Lenin’s policy of scrapping left-wing unions in favor of a policy of infiltrating and
capturing the conservative unions. When the IWW refused, the Communists decided to wreck the
organization. The Philadelphia dockworkers were falsely accused of loading arms for the counter-
revolutionaries in Russia and their charter was suspended, despite depositions Fletcher sent to the
contrary. In November, 1921, with a new General Executive Board, the suspension was overturned.
Finally in October, 1922, Fletcher received a commuted sentence with the restriction that he “stay
out of trouble”. When Fletcher returned to Philadelphia, the IWW was embroiled in a strike for the
44-hour workweek. The ILA encouraged scabbing on the strike and the employers locked out all
IWW members. The strike collapsed with much bitterness. Fletcher criticized the strike as being the
result of “Foot Loose Wobblies\dots{} stampeding the union into an insane attempt to wrest\dots{} the 44-
hour week single handed.” The Communists had done such a good job ruining the Philadelphia
local’s reputation that the blame was put on the local officers. The IWW General Administration
sent the Philadelphia local an ultimatum to “remit all funds except \$100 or so from now on to the
Central Office, or by the authority vested in the General Executive Board your charter will be
annulled and your funds seized.”
Outraged at constantly having their loyalties questioned, the remnants of Local 8 of the Marine
Transport Workers pulled out of the IWW. An independent union, the “Philadelphia
Longshoremen’s Union” was set-up along the same One Big Union principles of the IWW. Fletcher
believed that the Philadelphia local could go it alone. Unfortunately the earlier momentum had been
broken and the independent union died out in the 1930s. Ben Fletcher, however, kept up his
personal membership in the IWW throughout this time, trying to help it revive. In a personal letter
written in 1942, Fletcher wrote that the IWW “carried the ball further than any other labor
movement and\dots{} will be in there carrying the ball right over the goal line.”
Fletcher died in his home in Brooklyn in 1949. Over 150 IWW members and their families attended
his funeral. At the memorial service, fellow IWW organizer Sam Dolgoff spoke the thoughts of
many, “Ben, we won’t forget the great part you played in the struggle to emancipate the workers
and we will carry on inspired by your example.” Herbert Mahler, a close friend and former
secretary of the General Defense Committee read a poem:
\begin{verse}
Rest, rest old fighter, rest, \\{}
Your noble deeds by Memory blest, \\{}
Inspire us all in Freedom’s quest, \\{}
Rest, rest old fighter, rest.
\end{verse}
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The Anarchist Library (Mirror)
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Anti-Copyright
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\begin{center}
Jeff Stein
Ben Fletcher
Portrait of a black syndicalist
1987
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Libertarian Labor Review
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\textbf{usa.anarchistlibraries.net}
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