[2] Idaho legislation defines it as "the doctrine which advocates crime, sabotage, violence, or other unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform".
[4] Criminal syndicalism became a matter of public attention during and after the World War I period, and has been used to stymie the efforts of radical labor movements.
Government officials on the state and federal level ordered arrests, imprisonments and killings of people who challenged industrial capitalism or made militant demands under the pre-existing economic structure.
[8][9] Patriotic societies alleged that German gold financed IWW operations, and that the organization received support from hostile nations.
[10] The red scare exacerbated public distrust and fear against all radical leftist organizations, including the IWW.
[13][14] While repressions against the IWW through government actions and vigilantism were rampant, the public continued to perceive efforts to suppress the organization as insufficient.
[19] One such example was the court's overturning of the conviction of Dirk DeJonge due to protesting the police brutality in the longshoreman's strike, as violating Oregon's criminal syndicalism law.
[21] Businesses which stood to lose the most at the hands of the IWW, including lumber and mining interests, lobbied for the statute's enactment.
[25] Organized labor opposed the amendment because the expanded definition of sabotage might be applied against recognized trade union practices.
It led to the arrests of Warren K Billings and Thomas Mooney – both of whom were associated with militant labor movement – and two others.
[14] Fresno and Riverside agricultural strikes took place in 1917, months preceding the California criminal syndicalism bill's first introduction.
[31] In the same year, the federal government increased crackdowns against IWW on suspicion of the organization's financial ties with foreign hostiles.
The Department of Justice conducted raids on IWW headquarters across the country, including bases in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Fresno.
[32] In addition to the protests, IWW was accused of sabotaging Fresno farmers by burning hay stacks and covering raisins with dirt.
These events coincided with the bombing of the governor's residence at Sacramento, which led to arrests of IWW members.
[34] In January 1919, Senator William Kehoe made the second introduction of the criminal syndicalism bill in California.
[16] In 1924, Kansas' state criminal syndicalism law was challenged by a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Fiske v. Kansas, which would become critically important in the future of legal battles over freedom of speech, and which was an early case supported by the American Civil Liberties Union.
[38] The State relied on film from the rally which showed abhorrent messages denigrating black people and Jews as well as several articles including firearms and ammunition to make their case against Brandenburg.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that Ohio's criminal syndicalism law used to prosecute Brandenburg was unconstitutional.