A Spirit of Revolt examines the lives and histories of mine workers who were at the center of an understudied statewide strike led by the Industrial Workers of the World in Colorado from 1927 to 1928. The book explores the biographies and genealogies of union activists from southern Colorado, roughly half of whom were Spanish speakers. These miners' stories are contextualized within broader histories of colonization, migration, exploitation, and resistance that shaped their communities. Mine worker and anticapitalist union organizer Conrado Alvillar plays a central role, a talented artist whose paintings were displayed in union halls across the state and whose articles, in both Spanish and English, were printed in the IWW press. Alvillar was deeply troubled by violent state and vigilante repression and by how racism divided the working class, thus fueling his optimistic faith in the revolutionary potential of industrial unionism, the organizing philosophy of the IWW. To better understand the collective intellectual efforts of Alvillar and the other strikers, this book explores the intersections and contradictions between industrial unionism, the broad labor movement, and other revolutionary ideologies.
About the Author
Michael Robert Gonzales teaches history and ethnic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a researcher of twentieth-century working-class social and political movements. A Spirit of Revolt is Gonzales's first book.
What People Are Saying
“A deeply researched, innovative, and passionate history of the rank-and-file activists behind one of the most important labor strikes of America’s ‘roaring twenties.’ Gonzales unearths the lives and struggles of a generation of long-forgotten men and women in Colorado’s coal fields who revolted against intolerable conditions to demand a better world.” Kenyon Zimmer, author of Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America
"'Big' Bill Haywood, Ben Fletcher, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Carlo Tresca, Joe Hill . . . in the pantheon of Wobbly heroes, we might also remember Conrado Alvillar. A Spirit of Revolt recovers the life and work of this organic intellectual as well as the many Spanish-speaking and Italian-speaking Wobblies surrounding him. Michael Robert Gonzales deftly traces the ways that immigration, colonization, racism, patriarchy, and exploitation can shape rebel consciousness. This richly researched and passionately argued book teaches us how much we stand to learn from rank-and-file organizers who came before us. By recounting their courage, strategy, and intellectual contributions, Gonzales reminds us that there is still a world still to win." Christina Heatherton, author of Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution
"This book is exactly what labor history needs to be today. Michael Robert Gonzales adds volumes to our understanding of the Wobblies. Unraveling the story of one of the most important strikes you might have never heard of; he navigates themes of race, class, and repression with skill. A Spirit of Revolt should be on the bookshelf of any labor partisan." James R. Tracy, Chair of Labor and Community Studies, City College of San Francisco and coauthor of Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power
