A member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) for 65 years, he was first elected to the General Executive Board in 1928.
In a 1987 obituary published by Labour/Le Travail, scholar and poet Franklin Rosemont described Thompson as "the most influential Wobbly since the 1930s.
"[1] Born in 1900 in Saint John, New Brunswick to Frederick Sommerville Thompson and Florence Adelaide Olive, he was the youngest of seven children.
[2] He became interested in politics at an early age and was an organizer for the Socialist Party of Canada as a teenager during World War I.
[6] His papers, which "reflect his involvement with the IWW and his interest in preserving its history," are held by the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.