Joseph James "Smiling Joe" Ettor (1885–1948) was an

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

organizer who, in the middle-1910s, was one of the leading public faces of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

. Ettor is best remembered as a defendant in a controversial trial related to a killing in the seminal Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912, in which he was acquitted of charges of having been an accessory.

Biography

Early years

Joseph James Ettor, known to his friends as "Joe" or "Smiling Joe," was born on October 6, 1885, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the son of a laborer who had

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to America from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

.Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), ''The American Labor Who's Who.'' New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 67. Ettor went to work at the age of 12 selling newspapers. He later worked as a waterboy on a railroad, as a saw-filer in a lumber mill, as a barrel-maker, as a shipyard worker, and in a cigar factory.

Union career

Joe Ettor went to work for the

(IWW) in 1906 as an organizer, continuing in that capacity for the next decade. An outstanding and inspirational public speaker who was fluent in Italian and English, Ettor's earliest organizing work on behalf of the IWW took place in the Western United States, where he had worked unionizing miners and migrant laborers.Philip S. Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement of the United States: Volume 4: The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917.'' New York: International Publishers, 1965; pg. 317. He also had cut his teeth organizing foreign-born workers in the steel mills and shoe factories of the East. Ettor was active in the 1907 lumber strike in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, the 1909 McKees Rocks Strike and another lesser-known steel strike later that year in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

, a strike of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

coal miners in 1909–10, and a

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

shoe factory strike in 1910–11. Iww in ohio american employer

In 1908, Ettor was named to the governing General Executive Board of the IWW, remaining in that capacity until 1914. On January 1, 1912, in accordance with a new state law, the

textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...

s of

Lawrence, Massachusetts Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen, Massachusetts, Methuen ...

, posted new rules limiting the hours of workers to 54 a week, down from a standard of 56 previously in effect.Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement of the United States: Volume 4,'' pg. 315. It soon became clear that the employers had no intention of adjusting wage rates upwards to compensate for the lost work time, and a strike ensued. Ettor-JJ-barbersstrike-nyc-130517

On January 12, 1912, the Italian language branch of IWW Local 20 decided to send to New York City for Joe Ettor, the organization's top Italian language leader, to come to Lawrence and lead the strike. Ettor arrived with Arturo Giovannitti, secretary of the Italian Socialist Federation, a language federation of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...

and editor of the socialist newspaper ''Il Proletario'' he Proletarian who was not himself at the time a member of the IWW. Ettor instantly called on all his skills, including his ability to speak five languages, to rally the strikers. On his first afternoon in Lawrence, he addressed thousands of strikers, fostering solidarity and discouraging violence. "All the blood that is spilled in a strike is your blood," he told strikers.Watson, Bruce, ''Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and The Struggle for the American Dream,'' pg. 59. Denouncing the mill owners, sympathizing with the toil of textile workers, Ettor called for an even larger walkout. "Monday morning you have got to close the mills that you have caused to shut down, tighter than you have them now." Ettor then set up fourteen strike committees based on nationality, and began meeting daily with everyone from the mayor of Lawrence to the various strikers in committee. Mill owners instantly recognized Ettor's power and tried to discredit him by planting dynamite in a store where he picked up his mail. But the plot was quickly detected and Ettor continued organizing the strike. During the walkout, which came to be known as the Bread and Roses Strike, IWW striker Anna LoPizzo was shot and killed. Joseph Caruso was charged with the murder and Ettor and Giovannitti, both of whom were giving speeches several miles away from the crime scene, were arrested as accomplices. The three were eventually acquitted in a trial before Salem judge Joseph F. Quinn. Ettor was one of the leaders of the Waiters strike of 1912 in

, and the

barbers strike of 1913. The question of violence was a perennial matter of discussion and debate within the IWW. Some, like Giovannitti, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Vincent St. John, took the position that while the union did not favor violence, it would not shy away from its use if necessary to accomplish the social revolution.Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement of the United States: Volume 4,'' pg. 164. Ettor, on the other hand, shared the orientation of "Big Bill" Haywood that the only kind of force to which the organization could lend its name was the use of the

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

for the overthrow of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

. Ettor became a member of the executive council of the IWW. In 1916, he left the IWW along with Flynn after a dispute over the

Mesabi range The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district and mountain range in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iro ...

strike.

Death and legacy

In later years, Ettor ran a fruit orchard in

San Clemente, California San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement" ) is a coastal city in southern Orange County, California, United States. It was named in 1925 after the Spanish colonial island (which was named after a Pope from the first century). Located in the ...

, where he died in 1948.

Footnotes

Works

* ''.'' Debate with Arturo Caroti. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, n.d. 912 * ''Industrial Unionism: The Road to Freedom.'' Chicago : Industrial Workers of the World Pub. Bureau, 1913. —''also translated into Swedish.'' * Watson, Bruce, ''Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and The Struggle for the American Dream,'' Viking, New York, 2005—The only full-length narrative of the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence.

External links

Spartacus Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ettor, Joseph 1885 births 1948 deaths American anti-capitalists American people of Italian descent Industrial Workers of the World leaders Trade unionists from New York (state)