“Smiling Joe” Ettor (1885 - 1948)

Tue Oct 06, 1885

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“Smiling Joe” Ettor, born on this day in 1885, was an Italian-American union organizer who, in the middle-1910s, was one of the leading public faces of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Although Ettor is best remembered for his role in the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912, he had been active in several strikes in the years leading up to it. Ettor also served on the governing General Executive Board of the IWW from 1908 to 1914.

Ettor was particularly useful for organizing immigrant workers because he could speak five languages, and he used these skills as a leader of the Lawrence Textile Strike. During the strike, a worker was shot and killed, and he and another IWW leader present, Arturo Giovannitti, were arrested on scarce evidence.

Both were eventually acquitted of charges of having been an accessory to the murder. Ettor was one of the leaders of the Waiters Strike of 1912 in New York City, and the Brooklyn Barbers Strike of 1913.

“If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists.”

- Joe Ettor