Dunne, William Francis, 1887-1953

William Francis Dunne was a labor organizer, politician, editor, and Communist Party activist for most of his life. Born in 1887 in Kansas City, Missouri, Dunne was a football player at the University of Minnesota. As a result of the Panic of 1907, Dunne dropped out of college to become an electrician. He worked for the Northern Pacific Railway until 1910, when he joined the Socialist Party. Dunne was a middleweight boxer of some local note in 1914. In this period he was elected Business Agent of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Vancouver and eventually vice-president of the Pacific District Council of the IBEW. He resigned after several years and in 1916, moved to Butte, Montana. There he married Marguerite Walsh, c.1918.

In Butte, Dunne worked for several copper mining companies. He worked for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1917 when 164 men were smothered to death. As a Joint Chairman of the Miners and Metal Trades Mechanics Strike Committee, Dunne participated in leading a strike of 28,000 men against the mining company. In 1918, Dunne became vice-president of the Montana Federation of Labor and was elected to the Montana State legislature as a Democrat on a radical platform. He introduced the first resolution in any United States legislative body calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Siberia and for recognition of the Soviet Union. That same year, Dunne became editor of the newly-founded Butte Daily Bulletin, the official organ of the Butte Central Labor Council. He remained editor until 1922. It was also during this period that Dunne, along with Louis Lochner of the Milwaukee Leader, Leland Olds, and Carl Haessler, founded the Federated Press, a labor news service.

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