because politics will not leave unions alone.There was one outstanding exception to the pragmatic "bread and butter" approach to unionism, which characterized most of American labor. This was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a revolutionary labor union launched in Chicago in 1905 under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs. The IWW the overthrow of capitalism through strikes, boycotts and sabotage. Particularly strong among textile workers, dockworkers, migratory farmers and lumberjacks, the union reached its peak membership in 1912. But the IWW had practically disappeared by 1918, because of federal prosecutions and a national sentiment against radicalism that began in 1917. Adding to more tensions, the continual influx of new immigrants and workers did not make it easy for unions who supported them. Americans were both afraid of, and hostile towards these new groups. They differed from the "typical American" in language, customs, and religion. Many individuals and industries alike played upon Americas fears of immigration to further their own goals. The immigrants, in response to the economic hardship and social inequality which they found in Americas industrial cities, were attracted to the utopian promises of socialist, communist and other radical political groups which advocated a drastic change in American society. There was widespread fearalmost hysteriaamong more established Americans that a revolution might break out in the United States. In response to this fear, the federal government launched a series of raids that resulted in the arrest and sometimes the deportation of aliens who were members of socialist, anarchist or communist organizations. Many people began to denounce labor unions, the Socialist party, and the Communist party in America, as being infiltrated with radicals who sought to overturn Americas political, economic, and social institutions.During the years following World War I, the labor movement suffe...
