Episode 11 - Black-Led Antiracist Unionism: The Legacy of Ben Fletcher & I.W.W.

This episode shines a light on the political and intellectual contributions of Ben Fletcher, one of the most important, yet least well-known African American labor activists of the twentieth century. Peter Cole’s recently re-issued book, Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, goes a long way toward bringing Fletcher out of the shadows, enabling contemporary activists and scholars to learn from his work to build a militant, multi-racial union among Philadelphia dockworkers during the early 1900s. In his conversation with New Labor Forum Editor-at-Large, Kafui Attoh Peter Cole paints a picture of Ben Fletcher, a man whose contributions he ranks with the likes of Fred Hampton and A. Philip Randolph.