Peter Cole

Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University (USA) and a research associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. Cole is the author of the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He edited Ben Fletcher: Life and Times of a Black Wobbly and coedited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW. He is the founder and codirector of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project.

Stories by: Peter Cole

Features

Angela Davis joins America’s most radical union

On Juneteenth, one of the country’s best-known radicals was inducted into the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, known for standing against capitalism, racism and sexism.

By: Peter Cole
24 Jun 2021

Features

New Books | The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly

As an organiser and orator for the Industrial Workers of the World – historically, America’s most radically inclusive union – Ben Fletcher was a working-class hero in his time.

By: Peter Cole
13 Jan 2021

Features

New Books | Fighting apartheid on the Durban docks

Dockworkers kept their elected representative secret so that the state could not persecute any individual in the union. This strategy was later widely adopted during strikes.

By: Peter Cole
4 Apr 2019