Early Life
Benjamin Harrison Fletcher was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1890. He worked as a day laborer and a longshoreman, loading and unloading ships. Fletcher joined the IWW and the Socialist Party around 1912. He first heard IWW soapbox speakers addressing working class audiences in riverside neighborhoods. Shortly thereafter, Fletcher became a leader of the IWW in Philadelphia, beginning a long career in public speaking that won him a great many accolades for his fine voice and incisive arguments for overthrowing capitalism.
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