About Organizations
Black Panther Party
Black Liberation Army
American Indian Movement
FALN
Weather Underground
Earth Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
MOVE
Republic of New Afrika
Symbionese Liberation Army
Los Macheteros
United Freedom Front
May 19th Communist Organization
Young Lords
George Jackson Brigade
Students for a Democratic Society
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Industrial Workers of the World
Communist Party USA
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Brown Berets
Socialist Workers Party
African People's Socialist Party
Nation of Islam
About Industrial Workers of the World
Founding of the IWW
Goldfield Organizing Drive
McKees Rocks Strike
Missoula Free Speech Fight
Spokane Free Speech Fight
Fresno Free Speech Fight
Lawrence Textile Strike ("Bread and Roses")
San Diego Free Speech Fight
Paterson Silk Strike
Wheatland Hop Riot
Joe Hill's Trial and Execution
Everett Massacre
Bisbee Deportation
Pacific Northwest Lumber Strike
Federal Raids & Mass IWW Trials
Centralia Massacre
FRESNO FREE SPEECH FIGHT
The Fresno free-speech fight of 1910–1911 carried the IWW’s street-speaking campaign into California’s agricultural heartland, where the union was organizing migratory farm and construction laborers. When Fresno authorities denied the IWW a permit and began arresting its speakers, Wobblies from across the country answered the call to "fill the jails."
Jailed strikers endured beatings, freezing hosings, and a vigilante mob that burned the IWW’s tent encampment. But as more free-speech fighters arrived and the jails overflowed, the city gave way in 1911, conceding the right to speak. Fresno confirmed that the "fill the jails" tactic could defeat local repression, and it deepened the IWW’s presence among California’s farm workers.