A Baking Powder in the Masses

Abstract

Though the IWW was effectively incapacitated by government attacks and infighting following World War I, craft unionism—as opposed to industrial unionism—remained still very much alive. A craft or trade union organizes workers according to skill, e.g., electricians and carpenters each in their own union even though they may share a work site, while industrial unions, like the IWW, organize all workers at a workplace, everyone in one union, whether skilled or unskilled. The AFL, which represented mostly skilled craftsmen, claimed close to 3 million members throughout the 1920s.