author
Ralph Chaplin
1887–1961
A poet, artist, and labor organizer, he is best remembered for writing the union anthem "Solidarity Forever." His work grew out of firsthand encounters with industrial conflict and became part of the voice of the American labor movement.
2 Audiobooks
Bars and Shadows: The Prison Poems of Ralph Chaplin
by Ralph Chaplin
The Centralia Conspiracy
by Ralph Chaplin
About the author
Born in 1887, Ralph Chaplin became an American writer, artist, and labor activist whose life was closely tied to the struggles of working people. Accounts of his early years often note that, as a child in Chicago, he witnessed violence during the Pullman Strike, an experience that shaped his politics and later writing.
Chaplin became active in the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, and served as editor of Solidarity, one of the union's key publications. In 1915 he wrote the lyrics to "Solidarity Forever," which went on to become one of the best-known songs in U.S. labor history. He was also known for his drawings and visual work connected to the labor press.
His activism came at a cost: during World War I, Chaplin was among IWW members prosecuted and imprisoned under the Espionage Act. Even so, his reputation endured through his poems, journalism, memoir, and songs, which preserve the spirit of an era when writers and organizers often worked side by side.