What Was the Political Climate After World War One?

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The US entry into World War one really stopped these progressive era efforts to protect labor rights amid this climate of overwhelming national emergency. In response, some of these progressive social workers involved in those labor reform efforts founded an organization called the American Union against militarism. The bureau for conscientious objectors later became the National Civil Liberties Bureau. And finally, ultimately, the ACLU. What was the political climate like after the war broke out and why did it lead to such draconian repression of the labor left? Then why amid all that, did this more left wing subset of progressive era labor reformers found an organization to defend anti war dissent and conscientious objection to serving in the war? How did that one thing connect

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