142:, and bourgeois values. He portrayed Mr. Block as a man "devoid of class-consciousness" who blindly believes that America is the land of opportunity, hard work pays off, and the boss looks out for the employee. However, in each strip, Riebe has Mr. Block faced with setback after setback. He gets laid off from his job because the company has been overproducing goods, gets abused by the police, is sent to jail, among other things. Often, Riebe depicts the employers as manipulators of the workers. For instance, in one comic strip, the employer speaks individually with the mixed race employees and makes them work hard by pitting the workers against each other.
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According to historian
Franklin Rosemont, IWW cartoonists like Riebe did not profit from their comics. Twenty-four of the strips were compiled into America’s first radical comic book in 1913, and it was advertised by the IWW press. Riebe’s comic strips were anti-racist, and during the early 1920s, he
159:. The booklet was written in a tongue-in-cheek manner to show the merits of Bolshevism. It also ridiculed the values of the bourgeois and showed that the complaints of the middle class were unwarranted because the Bolsheviks were trying to end
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Riebe wrote and illustrated the forty-seven page booklet, which was published in 1919. Half of the book consists of original illustrations and captions by Riebe, and the other half contains a reproduction of the
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in 1912, and until 1922, IWW publications issued his work. For at least a decade, Riebe helped the IWW, and it is assumed he lived in
Minneapolis and possibly later in Chicago.
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this booklet was an illustrated story, which focused on Mr. Block and further advanced IWW beliefs. Riebe also wrote a poem and play about Mr. Block for the IWW press.
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a weekly newspaper published by the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). His most famous work was
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Crimes of the
Bolsheviki: Dedicated to the Interests of the International Proletariat.
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Crimes of the
Bolsheviki: Dedicated to the Interests of the International Proletariat.
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and trying to get fair treatment across classes, specifically the working class.
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Joe Hill: The IWW and the Making of a
Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture.
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The
Production of Difference: Race and the Management of Labor in U.S. History.
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humor he used in his comic strips. He is best remembered for his comics series
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Cover of Ernest Riebe's ironically-titled pro-revolutionary pamphlet,
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Chicago: Charles H. Kerr
Publishing Company, 1998; p. 427.
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Chicago: Charles H. Kerr
Publishing Company, 2003, p. 185.
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Chicago: Charles H. Kerr
Publishing Company, 1984; p. 4.
98:. On November 7, 1912, Mr. Block first appeared in the
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Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States
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and other similar cartoonists were criticized by the
120:, and white-supremacist preachers and politicians.
332:Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1984.
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166:Riebe wrote another booklet, which was titled
134:Through the comic strip, Riebe assailed the
340:Chicago: All-American Publishing Co., 1919.
191:IWW cartoon character Mr. Block burns his
300:David R. Roediger and Elizabeth D. Esch,
215:IWW cartoon character Mr. Block, gets an
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90:Ernest Riebe worked as a cartoonist for
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379:Industrial Workers of the World members
304:New York: Oxford University, 2012; p.4.
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330:Mr. Block: Twenty-Four IWW Cartoons.
289:Mr. Block: Twenty-Four IWW Cartoons.
127:Cartoon from Riebe's 1919 pamphlet,
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170:also published in 1919. Like the
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157:Constitution of the Soviet Union
315:Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology.
69:in the early 20th century from
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354:American editorial cartoonists
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150:Another piece of work was the
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168:Mr. Block and the Profiteers,
42:(IWW), who was known for the
359:German editorial cartoonists
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16:German-American cartoonist
172:Crimes of the Bolsheviki,
129:Crimes of the Bolsheviki.
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25:Crimes of the Bolsheviki
364:American comics artists
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92:The Industrial Worker,
34:was a German-American
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369:German comics artists
200:Saturday Evening Post
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65:He immigrated to the
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38:and a member of the
313:Joyce L. Kornbluh,
235:Franklin Rosemont,
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194:Industrial Worker
108:for three years.
100:Industrial Worker
79:Industrial Worker
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67:United States
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114:Ku Klux Klan
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32:Ernest Riebe
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161:World War I
146:Other works
61:Early years
348:Categories
274:Rosemont,
261:Rosemont,
248:Rosemont,
105:Solidarity
36:cartoonist
276:Joe Hill,
263:Joe Hill,
250:Joe Hill,
224:Footnotes
96:Mr. Block
56:Biography
49:Mr. Block
44:slapstick
197:to read
278:p. 258.
252:p. 158.
178:Gallery
75:Spokane
71:Germany
138:, the
86:Career
324:Works
136:AFL
350::
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52:.
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