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Bill Haywood Quotes

William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood was a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, he was involved in several important labor battles, including the Colorado Labor Wars, the Lawrence Textile Strike, and other textile strikes in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Haywood was an advocate of industrial unionism, a labor philosophy that favors organizing all workers in an industry under one union, regardless of the specific trade or skill level; this was in contrast to the craft unions that were prevalent at the time, such as the AFL. His belief that workers of all ethnicities should be united also clashed with many unions. His preference for direct action over political tactics alienated him from the Socialist Party leadership and contributed to his recall from the party's executive committee in 1913.Never one to shy from violent conflicts, he was often the target of prosecutors. His trial for the murder of Frank Steunenberg in 1907 drew national attention; in 1918, he was one of 101 IWW members convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 during the First Red Scare. In 1921, while out of prison during an appeal of his conviction, Haywood fled to Bolshevik Russia, where he spent the remaining years of his life.

✵ 4. February 1869 – 18. May 1928
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Bill Haywood: 8   quotes 0   likes

Famous Bill Haywood Quotes

“The bandage will remain on the eyes of Justice as long as the Capitalist has the cut, shuffle, and deal.”

Bill Haywood

Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 146.

“The capitalist has no heart, but harpoon him in the pocketbook and you will draw blood.”

Bill Haywood

Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and The Struggle for the American Dream, Bruce Watson. Viking-Penguin, 2005; pg. 93.

“Eight hours of work, eight hours of play, eight hours of sleep - eight hours a day! (From the Haymarket era eight hour campaign)”

Bill Haywood

(Haywood variation) Eight hours of work, eight hours of play, eight hours of sleep - and eight dollars a day!
Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 147.

“The mine owners "did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them!"”

Bill Haywood

Haywood, William D. The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood. New York: International Publishers, 1929, p. 171.

“I've never read Marx's Capital, but I've got the marks of capital all over my body.”

Bill Haywood

Humour and Social Protest, By Marjolein t'Hart & Dennis Bos, 2007, page 39.

“If one man has a dollar he didn't work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn't get.”

Bill Haywood

Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 146.

“Tonight I am going to speak on the class struggle and I am going to make it so plain that even a lawyer can understand it.”

Bill Haywood

Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and The Struggle for the American Dream, Bruce Watson. Viking-Penguin, 2005; pg. 95.

“Sabotage means to push back, pull out or break off the fangs of Capitalism.”

Bill Haywood

Rebel Voices, pp. 65

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