The ACLU and the Broader Labor Movement in the 1920s

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When the ACLU was founded in 1920, it declared itself to be frankly, as it put it, a partisan of labor. It said our place is in the fight. Roger Baldwin had in fact briefly joined the IWW. The founder of the ACLU traveled around the country doing some manual labor basically to live his commitment to the IWW philosophy before coming back and founding an organization to defend striking workers.

Featuring Laura Weinrib on The Taming of Free Speech: America’s Civil Liberties Compromise. Did you know that the ACLU was founded as a radical labor organization allied with the IWW? Weinrib traces the rise of the modern civil liberties movement, and modern constitutional liberalism more broadly, from World War I through the New Deal. She explains how the ACLU went from defending free speech as a means to revolutionary ends to a liberal position exalting free speech as an end unto itself—including the anti-union speech of bosses and the political speech of corporations. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America by Joshua Frank haymarketbooks.org/books/1940-atomic-days Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages by Ray Acheson haymarketbooks.org/books/1883-abolishing-state-violence