68 ChaPter 2
Industrial Workers of the World [the IWW, or Wobblies, which will be dis-
cussed below] rushed to Lawrence to support the workers there with relief,
like food and medicine, and by joining the picket line, while local militia and
police forces were called in to oppose them and stop the strike. Local workers
even put their children on trains to be moved to other cities where they could
be fed and cared for by pro-labor volunteers. An IWW activist, Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn, “The Rebel Girl,” became an outspoken strike leader and was
able to gain significant popular support for the workers, especially the women.
Flynn and other Wobblies talked to them about the cost of living, how the
bosses had “fooled” them into thinking “they were rich ‘till they had to pay
rent, buy groceries, clothes, and shoes. Then they knew they were poor.” A
Wobblie songwriter, Joe Hill, even wrote a rousing tribute to Flynn, and to
feminism, singing “That’s the Rebel Girl, that’s the Rebel Girl!/To the working
class she’s a precious pearl/She brings courage, pride and joy/To the fighting
Rebel Boy/We’ve had girls before, but we need some more/In the Industrial
Workers of the World/For it’s great to fight for freedom/With a Rebel Girl.”
When the bosses tried to get one of their agents to secretly plant a bomb
and try to blame it on the workers, the set-up failed, and the strike becameFIGuRE 2-3 Bread and Roses Strike