ISM | Ideas Meet Power

What is Unionism? Building Power From Below

How can workers build power in an economy dominated by giant corporations and monopolies? To explore that question, we turn to the history of unionism and the rise of the American labor movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1905, labor organizers gathered in Chicago to found the Industrial Workers of the World, better known as the Wobblies. Their goal was to unite workers of every trade, skill level, race, nationality, and gender into One Big Union capable of challenging the power of industrial capitalism. In this episode, we trace the origins of that idea through the history of the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, Samuel Gompers, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Along the way, we explore the central debates that shaped the labor movement: craft versus industrial unionism, reform versus revolution, and the challenge of building working-class power in an economy increasingly dominated by concentrated wealth and corporate power. From Chicago to Spokane, this is the story of revolutionary industrial unionism and the movement that sought to transform not only the workplace, but society itself. This is Season Two—The Age of Anarchism: Chicago and the American Labor Revolt Next: Chicago 1886: The Fight for the Eight-Hour Workday Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/] Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ [https://www.jamesianpayne.com/] Support the Show: PayPal [https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=CLKDEFJA5MR5U&no_recurring=0¤cy_code=USD] Contact: ismhistorypodcast@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Chicago 1877: The Great Railroad Strike (S2E2)

The moment when the belief that the United States was immune to class conflict was shattered. In July 1877, railroad workers across the United States stopped work. What began as a wage dispute in a small rail town in West Virginia quickly became the largest labor uprising in American history. Trains sat idle, freight yards were occupied, and entire cities ground to a halt. In Chicago, unemployed workers, socialists, labor organizers, and immigrant communities joined a movement that seemed capable of bringing the nation’s economy to a standstill. In response, business leaders armed private militias, police opened fire on crowds, and federal troops occupied American cities. The violence of 1877 exposed deep divisions between labor and capital and helped lay the foundations of both the modern labor movement and American anarchism. In this episode, we follow the strike from the rail yards of Martinsburg to the streets of Chicago, where Albert and Lucy Parsons first encountered the movement that would transform their lives and American history. This is Season Two—The Age of Anarchism: Chicago and the American Labor Revolt Next: What is Unionism? Building Power From Below Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/] Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ [https://www.jamesianpayne.com/] Support the Show: PayPal [https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=CLKDEFJA5MR5U&no_recurring=0¤cy_code=USD] Contact: ismhistorypodcast@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

What is Anarchism? Liberty's Great Refusal (S2E1)

Anarchism emerged not simply as a theory, but as a response to hunger, repression, industrial capitalism, and the growing power of the modern state. In this opening episode of Season 2, we trace anarchism's roots in the late nineteenth century, from the aftermath of the Paris Commune to the labor struggles of industrial Chicago. Through figures like Louise Michel, Lucy Parsons, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, and Peter Kropotkin, we explore how anarchism evolved from a critique of authority into a mass movement rooted in strikes, unions, and collective action. Along the way, we examine the origins of the black flag, the rise of anarcho-syndicalism and anarchist communism, and the radical vision that inspired workers across the globe to imagine a world beyond capitalism and the state. This is the story of anarchism’s great refusal. This is Season Two—The Age of Anarchism: Chicago and the American Labor Revolt Next: Chicago 1877: The Great Railroad Strike Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack: https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/ [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/] Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ [https://www.jamesianpayne.com/] Support the Show: PayPal [https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=CLKDEFJA5MR5U&no_recurring=0¤cy_code=USD] Contact: ismhistorypodcast@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Thoreau’s Plea for John Brown: Conscience Against the State

In the wake of John Brown’s raid, Henry David Thoreau delivered one of the most forceful defenses of moral action in American history. While much of the North recoiled after Harpers Ferry, Thoreau stood up in Concord and defended Brown as a man of principle, willing to act where others would only speak. What follows is a reading of Thoreau’s A Plea for Captain John Brown, one of the clearest expressions of the idea that when a government becomes unjust, the individual conscience may stand above it. This episode serves as a bridge into Season 2 of ISM: The Age of Anarchism and the American Labor Revolt, where these same questions about conscience, resistance, violence, and legitimacy will reappear in new and more collective forms. Next: Season Two — The Age of Anarchism: Chicago and the American Labor Revolt Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/] and Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/c/ismhistorypodcast]. Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ [https://www.jamesianpayne.com/] Support the Show: PayPal [https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=CLKDEFJA5MR5U&no_recurring=0¤cy_code=USD] Contact: ismhistorypodcast@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Harpers Ferry 1859: John Brown, An American Radical

In October of 1859, a small band of abolitionists led by John Brown seized the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Their goal was simple but audacious: to ignite a mass slave uprising and bring an end to slavery by force. Within 36 hours, the raid had collapsed. Brown’s men were killed, captured, or scattered. Brown himself was wounded, arrested, and sentenced to hang. But Harpers Ferry was never just a failed insurrection. In the aftermath of the raid, something shifted. Across the North, Brown was transformed from criminal to martyr. Across the South, his actions ignited fear, mobilization, and a growing sense that war was no longer avoidable. The illusion that slavery could be contained, or compromised with, began to dissolve. This episode traces the rise and fall of John Brown: from the violent struggles of Bleeding Kansas, to the quiet planning of his final campaign, to the last stand at the Engine House, and the trial that turned him into a national symbol. But more than that, it asks a deeper question: What happens when a political problem becomes a moral one? And what happens when a nation begins to believe that justice may require violence? From Harpers Ferry to the Civil War, and beyond, this is the story of how one man’s radical act helped transform the moral language of the United States and how that transformation would echo far beyond the abolition of slavery. Because the questions raised at Harpers Ferry did not end in 1865. They moved. This is an ISM Interlude on John Brown and the American Radical Tradition. Next: Thoreau’s Plea for John Brown — Conscience Against the State Written and produced by Matt Payne. Support, Subscribe, Read on Substack [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com/] and Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/c/ismhistorypodcast]. Original Musical Compositions by Ian Payne: https://www.jamesianpayne.com/ [https://www.jamesianpayne.com/] Support the Show: PayPal [https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=CLKDEFJA5MR5U&no_recurring=0¤cy_code=USD] Contact: ismhistorypodcast@gmail.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ismhistorypodcast.substack.com [https://ismhistorypodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]