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AHJO. THE FORGE. VOL II 1917 NRS 1-4; VOL III 1918, NRS 1-4 [8 ISSUES TOTAL, COMPLETE FOR VOLS II & III] [ASSOCIATION COPY WITH STAMPS OF THE PUBLISHER, WORK PEOPLE’S COLLEGE]

Duluth, Minnesota: Työväen-Opiston (Work People’s College), 1917-1918

1st edition. Publisher’s red cloth, 8vo, 80 pages per issue [640 pages total]. In Finnish. Includes cartoons, photos and other illustrations. For Finnish radicals in America, “The newspaper Sosialisti and its successors, as well as the Ahjo (The Forge) produced at the Work People's College, served as the major forum for ideological discussions. Participants included editors, agitators, organizers and ordinary workers from various locals. Certain American socialist leaders like Eugene V. Debs were often cited and their articles reissued in Finnish-language translations” (Auvo Kostiainen, “A Dissenting Voice of Finnish Radicals in America: The Formative Years of Sosialisti-Industrialisti in the 1910s” in American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol. 23, 1991). Gary A. Kaunonen notes that “a host of socialist or labor colleges were springing up in the United States in the early 20th century such as the Peoples’ College in Fort Scott, Kansas, which was founded in 1915, and the Brookwood Labor College, founded in Katonah, New York, in 1921. A precursor to many of these colleges espousing a proletarian curriculum was the Industrial Workers of the World affiliated Work Peoples’ College (WPC), founded in 1907 in Smithville, now Duluth, Minnesota. The WPC was a center of proletarian education that based its curriculum specifically on propaganda of the deed ideology, which advocated economic and physical responses to capitalist exploitation in lieu of political mechanisms of change. The school was a bastion of socialist and later specifically anarcho-syndicalist and industrial unionist thought, with many of the professors, such as Leo Laukki, teaching direct action tactics such as the general strike and industrial sabotage. …. The WPC housed its own publishing company on the college’s campus in Smithville. This faculty and student-run press printed numerous relevant titles but also a periodical appropriately titled Ahjo (The Forge), which discussed current issues in industrial unionism and official IWW business, while at the same time being a forum for student generated essays, prose, and poetry. The importance of this periodical cannot be understated as a vehicle for increasing literacy efforts at the WPC. What better way to encourage ascending levels of literacy in both reading and writing than to have a place for students to submit and read the fruits of their proletarian education” (“From the Escuela Moderna to the Escuela Moderna to the Työväen Opisto: Reading, (W)Riting, and Revolution, the 3 ‘Rs’ of Expanded Proletarian Literacy” in Community Literacy Journal, Vol 5 Issue 2, Spring 2011).SUBJECT(S): Socialism -- Periodicals. Finns -- United States. OCLC: 8618723. OCLC lists 3 holdings for any issues worldwide (MN Hist Soc, UMN, Wisc Hist Soc). Of these, Wisconsin Historical Society holds only one single issue (Vol 4, Nr 2 June 1919); UMN holds this issue and some others; and Minnesota Historical lists “v.1-7(1916-1922)” but notes “Issues missing.” So at most there is only one holding for this issue in OCLC–and quite possibly issues here are missing at UMN and they are not available anywhere. Most of one leaf removed (Vol II, Nr. 2 page 63/64), light wrinkling and light dampstaining to many pages, but no real damage to paper and all pages lie flat. Vol II printed on higher quality paper than Vol III, so Vol II paper remains bright white wile Vol III paper is toning, but entire set of 8 issues remains solid and nice. Good+ Condition thus, association copy of this rare and important IWW-oriented publication. (FIN-7-25)

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