Ralph Chaplin began writing "Solidarity Forever" in 1913, while he was covering the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in Kanawha County, West Virginia, having been inspired by the resolve and high spirits of the striking miners and their families who had endured the violent strike (which killed around 50 people on both sides) and had been living for a year in tents. He completed the song on January 15, 1915, in Chicago, on the date of a hunger demonstration. Chaplin was a dedicated Wobbly, a writer at the time for "Solidarity", the official IWW publication in the eastern United States, and a cartoonist for the organization. He shared the analysis of the IWW, embodied in its famed "Preamble", printed inside the front cover of every "Little Red Songbook".