On the 27th of June, 1905, the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, called upon by its manifesto on the 2nd of January brought together 203 radical unionists from 43 different organizations, of which the most notable are delegates from The Western Federation of Miners, the Socialist Party of America, and the Socialist Labor Party.
Later, from December, 1906 to April, 1907, the IWW gained further attention for its participation in the Goldfield Strikes in Nevada pushing for the 8 hour day. As a result, the Western Federation of Miners broke away in June, 1907, with concerns that the IWW was encouraging revolutionary actions with which the Western Federation wanted no involvement. Splits with the major socialist parties of the time followed for similar reasons in September of 1908.
The IWW was involved in a variety of strikes and direct action political movements during this time: too many to list here. One significant early example, though, is the Free Speech Fights which occurred from 1909 to 1910. Spurred by a ban on street corner speeches in Spokane, Washington, IWW members across the United States (and especially in the West) protested actions against free speech by, famously, urging police to arrest massive crowds of people such that it became too costly for small towns to maintain the jails.
Eventually, the IWW fell into decline, after government suppression in the form of mass arrests targeting IWW workers following the Espionage Act of 1917 preventing interference with military operations during wartime, McCarthyist governmental reactions to union activities, and political schisms in the IWW between socialist ideologies following Stalinist atrocities in the USSR.
Today, the IWW is still alive and well, but the historical circumstances that led to its early momentum cannot be replicated, and its ultimate goal of "One Big Union of All The Workers" has yet to be realized.
