November 2, 1909, was “Free Speech Day” in Spokane, Washington. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) — Wobblies, as they were commonly known — set up a soapbox on the street to denounce the evils of capitalist exploitation, the virtues of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech, and the need to organize the working class into one big union.
Free Speech Day was not a state-sanctioned holiday. The Spokane City Council, concerned by IWW organizing efforts and the threat of “revolutionists,” had actually barred public speaking in the town. The IWW responded by putting out a call to action: “Wanted: Men to Fill the Jails of Spokane.”
As each labor activist stepped up on the soapbox to speak, local police quickly arrested and in many cases beat them. The radicals’ claims that as Americans they were entitled to free speech rights were not recognized by the arresting officers. In just one day, 103 people were arrested for the crime of speaking in public.
Police violence failed to deter the IWW. Members continued to travel to Spokane to attempt to speak freely and were arrested in the process. At one point, police unleashed fire hoses on a soapbox orator. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, nineteen years old and pregnant, chained herself to a nearby lamppost before standing up on the soapbox to make it more difficult for police to arrest her. After a stint in the city jail, Flynn wrote shocking exposés of the squalid conditions, including claims that police used the women’s jail as a brothel. The city attempted to suppress the publication of the stories.
This brutality and heavy-handed response to mere public speaking is unfortunately not a relic of the past. Over the last eleven months, we’ve seen students protest…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Chip Gibbons
