Category: Stickerettes

Early history of I.W.W. “stickerettes” or “silent agitators”

[Note: a shorter version of this essay first appeared as “Silent Agitators: Early Stickerettes from the Industrial Workers of the World” in Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture. Volume 6 (February 2018), PM Press. See also the timeline I put together of early advertisements and newspapers articles about I.W.W. stickerettes.] Founded in Chicago in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W. or “Wobblies”) fought for economic justice for the working class using many tactics, including the widespread use of cartoons, slogans, leaflets, poetry, and songs that appealed to uneducated, immigrant, and itinerant workers. As early as…

I.W.W. “stickerettes” or “silent agitators” newspaper articles and advertisements – timeline

Special thanks to DJ Alperovitz and the I.W.W. Materials Preservation Project for sending me the earliest example of a stickerette from 1906 and for the advertisements from the I.W.W. newspapers Solidarity and Industrial Worker (primarily 1910-1917 with some later ads done in 1933). The other newspaper articles reported on Ralph Chaplin, who designed many of the first stickerettes, and the over 100 I.W.W. members who were arrested by the U.S. government in September 1917 for alleged acts of sabotage under the Espionage Act of 1917. Ralph Chaplin edited Solidarity from March 10 through September 6, 1917, according to the Sacramento…

1937 Advertisement for I.W.W. “Stickerettes”

Someone who asked to remain anonymous kindly sent me a gift out of the blue last month of the May 1937 edition of the I.W.W. publication, The One Big Union Monthly. Featured on the back cover is an advertisement for stickers on sale for $2.00 per thousand. It still surprises me how prolific these stickerettes/stickers were in the early 1900s and how rare they are to find today. While I recognize most of the images, the two black and white cartoons featured here are completely new to me. These are some of the actual stickers. This was also on the…

Vote Republican 1926 sticker

I recently came across a U.S. political sticker from Iowa in 1926 that is one of the first of its kind, from what I’ve seen, that isn’t an I.W.W. Wobbly labor union stickerette (see previous posts on I.W.W. stickerettes).  What’s interesting, however, is how Ralph Chaplin, a 1910s-era I.W.W. key artist/agitator, talked about printed labels on various fruit and vegetable cartons that helped inspire him to create political stickers.  I’ll dig up those references for a later post.

Two new “stickerettes”

I’ve acquired two new unused stickerettes for my collection and sticker exhibition.  The smaller stickerette is a real favorite.  NYU has one, too.  It measures 3 1/4 x 2 3/8 inches, and the text reads: “The capitalist’s [heart] is in his pocketbook, And he uses the [club] Over you so he can wear [diamonds].  By organizing right, we can give him a [spade] With which to earn an honest living.” The second stickerette measures 6 x 6 inches and is the largest and rarest I’ve ever come across.  It was issued by the S.F. (San Francisco) Trades Union Promotional League…