Ben Fletcher

"This article is about the IWW organizer. For the colonial governor, see Benjamin Fletcher"

Benjamin Harrison Fletcher (April, 1890 - 1949) was among the greatest black labor leaders of the early 20th century, the most important African American in the most influential radical union of his time. In an era when few blacks were permitted in American unions and fewer still belonged to left-wing organizations, Fletcher was nationally known. Fletcher helped lead Local 8, the largest, most powerful, and longest lasting interracial union of the World War I era, though today his name is largely forgotten.

Fletcher became active in the IWW at an early age. Born in Philadelphia in 1890, Fletcher seemed a typical young black man. He worked as a day laborer, a catchall term for men who bounced between short-term jobs, that generally required a great deal of hard, manual labor. One of the better jobs a black man could find in early 20th century Philadelphia, was longshoring, the loading and unloading of ships. Fletcher worked on the docks when, around 1912, he joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), nicknamed the Wobblies, and Socialist Party. It is unknown how he became radicalized, presumably he heard Wobbly soapbox speakers address working class audiences in riverside neighborhoods and was attracted to the message. Shortly thereafter, Fletcher became a leader of the IWW in Philadelphia, beginning a long career in public speaking that won him a great many accolades for his fine voice and incisive arguments for overthrowing capitalism, for that was the goal of both the Wobblies and Socialists.

Fletcher was the most prominent member of the IWW branch of Philadelphia longshoremen, Local 8. In May 1913 thousands of longshoremen struck for better wages and union recognition; their new union—the IWW. After that strike, Fletcher led Local 8 and was celebrated in the Wobbly press. Local 8 in general and Fletcher in particular seemed to prove one of the anti-capitalists’ central tenets: race was used to divide workers who shared a more important identity, that of class, but unions could overcome that challenge. While this notion still is debated hotly, it is undeniable that thousands of African American longshoremen belonged on an equal terms to an organization that proved that interracialism was not only possible but essential to true working class might. That Local 8 remained a powerful force despite employer and governmental hostility indicates as much.

However, that power did not last and Fletcher, again, played a central role. As America formally entered World War I, Philadelphia became one of the most important ports for the war effort. Though they engaged in but a single work stoppage (Local 8’s anniversary was celebrated annually with a one-day strike), the federal government targeted Local 8’s leaders, Fletcher included, in its national raids on the IWW. Demonstrating his importance and singularity, Fletcher was the only African American among the hundred Wobblies tried in 1918 for treasonous activities. Though no direct evidence ever was provided against Fletcher, Local 8, or even the IWW (most of the “evidence” were statements of the IWW’s anti-capitalist beliefs, not any planned actions to interrupt the war effort), all of the defendants were found guilty--the jury came back in under an hour, all guilty on all counts. Fletcher’s punishment was ten years in the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas and an astronomical $30,000 fine. As the sentences were announced, the Wobbly leader “Big” Bill Haywood reported that, “Ben Fletcher sidled over to me and said: ‘The Judge has been using very ungrammatical language.’ I looked at his smiling black face and asked: ‘How’s that, Ben? He said: ‘His sentences are much too long.’” While in jail, Fletcher’s release became a celebrated cause among black radicals, championed by The Messenger, a monthly co-edited by A. Philip Randolph. Fletcher served around three years, before his sentence was commuted, along with most of the other jailed Wobblies, in 1922.

After his release, Fletcher remained committed to the IWW, though never played as active a role as he had before his imprisonment. He stayed involved in Local 8 but generally remained in the background. He still gave occasional speeches, on tours and street corners, into the 1930s. Fletcher’s health failed while still young, typical of longshoremen and other manual laborers. Along the way, he started rolling cigars, moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn with his wife, worked as a building superintendent, and died in 1949. He is buried in Brooklyn.

Though he did not wish it, Fletcher was almost unique in his position as a black leader in the revolutionary IWW (Hubert Harrison and Lovett Fort-Whitman were two other prominent African Americans in the IWW). The union that he helped lead for a decade, Local 8, stands at the pinnacle of interracial equality in the early 20th century. Widely acclaimed for decades, he is now largely forgotten, though his legacy of working class power and racial equality lives on.

External links

* [http://www.iww.org/culture/biography/BenFletcher1.shtml Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher - A Legacy of Solidarity]