William “Big Bill” Haywood, born on this day in 1869, was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Haywood 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. He believed that workers of all ethnicities should be united, and favored direct action over political action.
Haywood was renowned for leading strikes in times of crisis. When martial law was declared during the Lawrence Textile Strike, Haywood traveled to the strike and implemented many innovative tactics to help the workers involved. One such ploy was to conspicuously send the hungry children of striking workers to host families in other states, garnering good press for the working families.
In 1917, Big Bill Haywood was arrested for espionage, along with 164 other members of the IWW. He was convicted, and, while temporarily released from prison due to an appeal, fled to the Soviet Union, where he served as labor advisor to Vladimir Lenin and spent the rest of life.
“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!”
- Big Bill Haywood
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