[citation needed] It covers industrial conditions, strikes, workplace organizing experiences, and features on labor history.

It was edited by A. S. Edwards, and early contributors included Eugene V. Debs, Jack London, Daniel DeLeon, Bill Haywood, and James H. Walsh.

While the IWW's "Official Eastern Organ" was Solidarity, published in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and later, Cleveland, which continued until it merged with the Industrial Worker in Chicago in the 1930s.

The Spokane paper was the birthplace of the comic strip character Mr. Block, later commemorated in a Joe Hill song.

Circulation fell off due to the repression of the IWW during and after the First World War, reflecting a decline in the influence of radical unionism more generally.