William Dudley Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...
(IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor 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 Colorado Labor Wars were a series of labor strikes in 1903 and 1904 in the U.S. state of Colorado, by gold and silver miners and mill workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Opposing the WFM were associations of ...
, the
Lawrence Textile Strike, and other textile strikes in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
.
Haywood was an advocate of
industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in b ...
,
and
syndicalism
Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through Strike action, strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goa ...
, 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 union
Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the sa ...
s that were prevalent at the time, such as the
AFL.
[William Cahn, ''A Pictorial History of American Labor.'' New York: Crown Publishers, 1972; pp. 137, 169.] He believed that workers of all ethnicities should be united,
[Howard Zinn, ''A People's History of the United States.'' Revised and Updated. New York: HarperCollins, 2009; pp. 337–39.] and favored
direct action
Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...
over political action.
Haywood was often targeted by prosecutors due to his support for violence.
[ An attempt to prosecute him in 1907 for his alleged involvement in the murder of ]Frank Steunenberg
Frank Steunenberg (August 8, 1861December 30, 1905) was the fourth governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was assassinated in 1905 by onetime union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple ...
failed, but in 1918 he was one of 101 IWW members jailed for anti-war activity during the First Red Scare
The first Red Scare was a period during History of the United States (1918–1945), the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of Far-left politics, far-left movements, including Bolsheviks, Bolshevism a ...
. He was sentenced to twenty years. In 1921, while out of prison during an appeal of his conviction, Haywood fled to the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, where he spent the remaining years of his life and where he died in 1928.[ Paul Freeman, John Reed, Charles Ruthenberg, William Z. Foster and Haywood are the only five Americans to be buried at the ]Kremlin Wall Necropolis
The Kremlin Wall Necropolis is the former national cemetery of the Soviet Union, located in Red Square in Moscow beside the Moscow Kremlin Wall, Kremlin Wall. Burials there began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolsheviks who died during the Mosc ...
.
Biography
Early life
Haywood was born in 1869 in Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
, Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th st ...
. His father, a former Pony Express
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company.
During its 18 months of opera ...
rider, died of pneumonia when Haywood was three years old.[Douglas Linder]
"The Trial of Bill Haywood"
His mother, Elizabeth, was an Episcopalian.
At age nine, Haywood injured his right eye while whittling
Whittling may refer either to the art of carving shapes out of raw wood using a knife or a time-occupying process of repeatedly shaving slivers from a piece of wood. It is used by many as a pastime, or as a way to make artistic creations.
Backgr ...
a slingshot with a knife, permanently blinding that eye. He never had his damaged eye replaced with a glass eye
An ocular prosthesis, artificial eye or glass eye is a type of craniofacial prosthesis that replaces an absent natural eye following an enucleation, evisceration, or orbital exenteration. Someone with an ocular prosthesis is altogether blind ...
; when photographed, he would turn his head to show his left profile. After his uncle Richard arranged for Haywood to work as an indentured laborer on a farm, a job Haywood disliked, he changed his name from William Richard to William Dudley after his father. At age 15, with very little formal education, Haywood began working in the mines. After brief stints as a cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
and a homesteader, he returned to mining in 1896.[ High-profile events such as the Haymarket Massacre in 1886 and the ]Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike comprised two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company' ...
in 1894 fostered Haywood's interest in the labor movement
The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...
.[Willam D. Haywood, ''The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood'' (pg. 59). New York: International Publishers, 1966.]
Western Federation of Miners involvement
In 1896, Ed Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into ...
(WFM), spoke at the Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
silver mine where Haywood was working.[ Inspired by his speech, Haywood signed up as a WFM member, thus formally beginning his involvement in America's labor movement. He immediately became active in the WFM, and by 1900 he had become a member of the union's General Executive Board. In 1902, he became secretary-treasurer of the WFM, the number two position after President Charles Moyer.
The following year, the WFM became involved in the ]Colorado Labor Wars
The Colorado Labor Wars were a series of labor strikes in 1903 and 1904 in the U.S. state of Colorado, by gold and silver miners and mill workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Opposing the WFM were associations of ...
, a struggle centered in the Cripple Creek mining district in 1903 and 1904, and took the lives of 33 union and non-union workers.[ The WFM initiated a series of strikes designed to extend the benefits of the union to other workers. The defeat of these strikes led to Haywood's belief in " One Big Union" organized along industrial lines to bring broader ]working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
support for labor struggles.[
]
Foundation of the Industrial Workers of the World
Late in 1904, several prominent labor radicals met in Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
to lay down plans for a new revolutionary union.[For an official account, see: Vincent St. John]
''The IWW: its History, Structure and Methods.''
Chicago: IWW Publishing Bureau, 1917. A manifesto
A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...
was written and sent around the country. Unionists who agreed with the manifesto were invited to attend a convention to found the new union which was to become the Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...
(IWW).
At 10 a.m. on June 27, 1905, Haywood addressed the crowd assembled at Brand's Hall in Chicago.[Zinn, ''A People's History of the United States,'' pp. 329–330.] In the audience were two hundred delegates from organizations all over the country representing socialists
Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...
, anarchists
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...
, miners, industrial unionists and rebel workers. Haywood opened the IWW's first convention with the following speech:[
]Fellow Workers, this is the Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...
of the working-class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working-class from the slave bondage of capitalism. The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working-class in possession of the economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution, without regard to capitalist masters.
Other speakers at the convention included Eugene Debs, leader of the Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
; Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unit ...
;[ and Lucy Parsons, a major labor organizer whose husband was hanged in relation to the Haymarket affair. After its foundation, the IWW would become aggressively involved in the labor movement.
]
Murder trial
On December 30, 1905, Frank Steunenberg
Frank Steunenberg (August 8, 1861December 30, 1905) was the fourth governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was assassinated in 1905 by onetime union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple ...
was killed by an explosion in front of his house in Caldwell, Idaho
Caldwell (locally CALL-dwel) is a city in and the county seat of Canyon County, Idaho, United States. The population was 68,336 at the time of th2023 United States census making it the List of cities in Idaho, 5th most populous city in Idaho.
C ...
. A former governor of Idaho
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' may ...
, Steunenberg had clashed with the WFM in previous strikes. Harry Orchard, a former WFM member who had once acted as WFM President Charles Moyer's bodyguard[Haywood, ''The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood,'' pg. 158.] was arrested for the crime, and evidence was found in his hotel room. Famed Pinkerton detective James McParland, who had infiltrated and helped to destroy the Molly Maguires
The Molly Maguires was an Irish people, Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool, and parts of the eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish diaspora, Irish immigrant coal miners i ...
, was placed in charge of the investigation.[
Before the trial, McParland ordered that Orchard be placed on death row in the ]Boise
Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...
penitentiary, with restricted food rations and under constant surveillance. After McParland had prepared his investigation, he met with Orchard over a "sumptuous lunch" followed by cigars.[ The detective reportedly told Orchard that he could escape ]hanging
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
only if he implicated the leaders of the WFM. In addition to using the threat of hanging, McParland promised food, cigars, better treatment, possible freedom, and even a possible financial reward if Orchard cooperated.[ The detective obtained a 64-page confession from Orchard in which the suspect took responsibility for a string of crimes and at least seventeen murders.][
]
Extradition
Of the four men named by Orchard as having a part in Steunenberg's murder, Jack Simpkins had fled, and the other three were known to be in Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
. The prosecution
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
feared that if they knew that Orchard was cooperating with the prosecution, the other three would also flee. At McParland's urging, the three were arrested in Denver on February 17, 1906.
Although none of the three had set foot in Idaho while Orchard was stalking
Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance or contact by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitorin ...
Steunenberg and planning his murder, under Idaho law, conspirators were considered to be legally present at the scene of the crime. Using this provision, the local county prosecutor in Idaho drew up extradition
In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...
papers for Haywood, Moyer, and George Pettibone, which falsely alleged that they had been physically present in Idaho at the time of the murder.[
McParland arrived in Denver on Thursday, February 15, and presented the extradition papers to Colorado Governor Jesse Fuller McDonald, who, by prior arrangement with Idaho Governor Frank R. Gooding, accepted them immediately. McParland had planned the arrests for early Sunday morning, when a special train would be ready to take the prisoners to Idaho. The prosecution plans were upset when Moyer went to the Denver train station on Saturday evening carrying a satchel, evidently to leave town. The police arrested him before he could board a train. Moyer's arrest caused the police to move up the arrests of Haywood and Pettibone. The train would not be ready until Sunday morning and so the prisoners were taken to the Denver city jail, but were forbidden from communicating to lawyers or families. Since reporters began nosing around the jail anyway, the prisoners were secretly taken to the Oxford Hotel, near the train station, where they were again held ''incommunicado''. On Sunday morning, the three men were put on the special train, guarded by Colorado militia, which sped out of Denver through ]Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
, and by nightfall they were in Idaho. To thwart any attempts to free the prisoners, the train sped through the principal towns, and stopped for water and to change engines and crew only at out-of-the-way stations.
Trade union members regarded the incident as a kidnapping
Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...
[ that occurred to extradite them to Idaho before the courts in Denver could intervene.][ The extradition was so extraordinary that the president of the AFL, ]Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 11, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's ...
, directed his union to raise funds for the defense
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
.[ However, the ]United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
denied a ''habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
'' appeal, ruling that the arrest and extradition were legal, with only Justice Joseph McKenna
Joseph McKenna (August 10, 1843 – November 21, 1926) was an American politician who served in all three branches of the Government of the United States, U.S. federal government as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Attorne ...
dissenting.[
While in jail in Idaho, Haywood was put forth by the Socialist Party of Colorado as their candidate in the 1906 Colorado gubernatorial election. He finished with over 16,000 votes, just under eight percent.
]
Trial
Haywood's trial in Boise
Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...
began on May 9, 1907, with famed Chicago defense attorney Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the ...
defending him. The government had only the testimony of Orchard,[ the confessed bomber, to implicate Haywood and the other defendants, and Orchard's checkered past and admitted violent history were skillfully exploited by Darrow during the trial, though he did not lead Orchard's ]cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (known as examination-in-chief in Law of the Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Law of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, Austra ...
.[ During the trial, Orchard admitted that he had acted as a paid informant of the Mine Owners' Association,][ in effect working for both sides. He also admitted to accepting money from Pinkerton detectives, and had caused explosions during mining disputes before he had met Moyer or Haywood.][
After Darrow's final summation,][ the jury retired on July 28, 1907. After deliberating nine hours, the jury returned on July 29 and ]acquitted
In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an o ...
Haywood.[ During the subsequent trial of Pettibone, Darrow conducted a powerful cross-examination against Orchard before falling ill and withdrawing from the trial, leaving Orrin N. Hilton of Denver to head the defense. After a second jury acquitted Pettibone, the charges against Moyer were dropped.
Despite his radical views, Haywood emerged from the trial with a national reputation. Eugene Debs called him "the Lincoln of Labor." Along with his colorful background and appearance, Haywood was known for his blunt statements about ]capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
. "The capitalist has no heart," he often said, "but harpoon him in the pocketbook and you will draw blood." Another time, he began a speech by noting, "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." Yet Haywood also had a flair for dangerous hyperbole that, when quoted in newspapers, was used to justify wholesale arrests of IWW strikers. "Confiscate! That's good!" he often said. "I like that word. It suggests stripping the capitalist, taking something away from him. But there has got to be a good deal of force to this thing of taking."
When the WFM withdrew from the IWW in 1907, Haywood remained a member of both organizations. His murder trial had made Haywood a celebrity, and he was in demand as a speaker for the WFM. But his increasingly radical speeches became more at odds with the WFM, and in April 1908, the union announced that they had ended Haywood's role as a WFM representative. Haywood left the WFM and devoted all his time to organizing for the IWW.
Lawrence Textile Strike
Haywood had left the WFM by the time the Lawrence Textile Strike garnered national attention. On January 11, 1912, textile mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen, Massachusetts, Methuen ...
, left their jobs in protest of lowered wages. Within a week, twenty thousand workers were on strike. Authorities responded by calling out police, and the strike quickly escalated into violence. Local IWW leaders Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti were jailed on charges of murdering Anna LoPizzo, a striker whom nineteen witnesses later said was killed by police gunfire, and martial law
Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
was declared. In response, Haywood and other organizers arrived to take charge of the strike.
Over the next several weeks, Haywood personally masterminded or approved many of the strike's tactical innovations. Chief among these was his decision to send strikers' hungry children to sympathetic families in New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, and Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...
. After hearing from immigrants how European strikers had used this tactic during prolonged strikes, Haywood decided to take the gamble in Lawrence, a first in American labor history. He and the IWW used announcements in socialist newspapers to solicit host families, then screened strikers to see who might be willing to send their children into the care of strangers. On February 10, 1912, the first group of "Lawrence Strike Children" bid tearful goodbyes to their parents and, with chaperones to guide them, boarded a train for New York. The children arrived safely in New York that evening where they were taken to a meeting hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...
. They were soon lavished with food and clothes and would stay in New York another seven weeks. Despite their excellent treatment, officials in Lawrence and elsewhere were shocked by the move. "I could scarcely believe that the strike leaders would do such a thing as this," Lawrence mayor Michael Scanlon said. "Lawrence could have very easily cared for these children."
On February 24, when strikers attempted to send still more children away, police were ready. During a melée, women and children were forcibly separated, police lashed out with clubs, and dozens of strikers and their children were jailed. National outrage resulted. The ''New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...
'' wrote, "The Lawrence authorities must be blind and the mill owners mad."[Watson, ''Bread and Roses,'' pg. 175.] The ''New York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...
'' called the police response "as chuckle-headed an exhibition of incompetence to deal with a strike situation as it is possible to recall". The incident led to a congressional
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...
hearing and the attention of President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
. Nationwide publicity pressured the mill owners into cooperating with the strikers; on March 12, the owners agreed to all the demands of the strikers, officially ending the strike.
However, Haywood and the IWW were not yet finished in Lawrence; despite the success of the strike, Ettor and Giovannitti remained in prison. Haywood threatened the authorities with another strike, saying, "Open the jail gates or we will close the mill gates." Legal efforts and a one-day strike on September 30 did not prompt the authorities to drop the charges. Haywood was indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...
in Lawrence for misuse of strike funds, a move that kept him from returning to the city and eventually led to his arrest on the Boston Common
The Boston Common is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by five major Boston streets: Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street, Charl ...
. However, on November 26, Ettor and Giovannitti were acquitted, and upon their release were treated to a massive demonstration of public support.
Socialist Party of America involvement
For many years, Haywood was an active member of the Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
. Haywood had always been largely Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
in his political views, and campaigned for Debs during the 1908 presidential election, traveling by train with Debs around the country.[Sam Dolgoff, "Revolutionary Tendencies in American Labor – Part 2," ''The American Labor Movement: A New Beginning.'' Resurgence.] Haywood also represented the Socialist Party as a delegate to the 1910 congress of the Second International
The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...
, an organization working towards international socialism. In 1912, he was elected to the Socialist Party National Executive Committee.
However, the aggressive tactics of Haywood and the IWW, along with their call for abolition of the wage system and the overthrow of capitalism, created tension with moderate, electorally-oriented leaders of the Socialist Party. Haywood and the IWW focused on direct action
Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...
and strikes, which often led to violence, and were less concerned with political tactics.[Harry Siitonen]
"The IWW: Its First 100 Years,"
Industrial Workers of the World, March 2005. When Haywood was quoted speaking at public meetings in New York City to the effect that he had never advocated the use of the ballot by the workers but had instead favored the tactics of direct action, an initiative recalling Haywood from the NEC was launched by the State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of New York.["Result of Referendum D, 1912: Vote Closed February 26 ]913
__NOTOC__
Year 913 ( CMXIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* June 6 – Emperor Alexander III dies of exhaustion while playing the game '' tzykanion'' (Byzantine n ...
" ''Cleveland Socialist,'' vol. 2, whole no. 73 (March 15, 1913), pg. 4. In February 1913 the recall of Haywood was approved by a margin of more than 2-to-1. Following his defeat, Haywood left the ranks of the Socialist Party, joined by thousands of other IWW members and their sympathizers.
Other labor involvement
In 1913, Haywood was involved in the Paterson silk strike. He and approximately 1,850 strikers were arrested during the course of the strike. Despite the long holdout and fundraising efforts, the strike ended in failure on July 28, 1913.
While in Paris in 1913 he heard about the Dublin lockout
The Dublin lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers that took place in Dublin, Ireland. The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often viewed as the most severe and ...
in Ireland. He collected 1000 francs in aid of the workers and travelled to Dublin.
In January 1915, Haywood replaced Vincent St. John as General Secretary-Treasurer of the IWW, which he held until October 1917. He returned to the position of GST from February 1918 until December of the same year when he was replaced by Peter Stone Peter Stone may refer to:
*Pete Stone, Australian footballer in the 1956 Summer Olympics
*Peter G. Stone (born 1957), British archaeologist
*Peter Stone (cricketer) (born 1938), New Zealand cricketer
*Peter Stone (professor) (born 1971), professor ...
.
Espionage trial
Haywood and the IWW frequently clashed with the government during their labor actions. The onset of World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
gave the federal government the opportunity to take action against Haywood and the IWW.[Zinn, ''A People's History of the United States,'' pp. 372–373.] Using the newly passed Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code ( ...
as justification, the Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
raided forty-eight IWW meeting halls on September 5, 1917. The Department of Justice, with the approval of President Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
, then proceeded to arrest 165 IWW members for "conspiring to hinder the draft
Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes."
In April 1918, Haywood and 100 of the arrested IWW members began their trial, presided over by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Kenesaw Mountain Landis (; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball, commissioner of baseball from 1920 until his death. ...
. The trial lasted five months, the longest criminal trial up to that time; Haywood himself testified for three days. All 101 defendants were found guilty, and Haywood (along with fourteen others) was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Despite the efforts of his supporters, Haywood was unable to overturn the conviction. On March 31, 1921, he skipped bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...
while out on appeal and fled to the Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
. IWW officials were taken by surprise that Haywood had jumped bail, with his own attorney declaring that, "Haywood has committed hara-kiri so far as the labor movement is concerned if he has really run away. He will be disowned by the IWW and all sympathizers." A bond in the amount of $15,000 posted by millionaire supporter William Bross Lloyd was forfeited as a result of Haywood's flight.
Life in Soviet Russia
In Soviet Russia, Haywood became a labor advisor to Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
's Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
government, and served in that position until 1923. Haywood also participated in the founding of the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony. Various visitors to Haywood's small Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
apartment in later years recalled that he felt lonely and depressed, and expressed a desire to return to the U.S. In 1926 he took a Russian wife, though the two had to communicate in sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...
, as neither spoke the other's language.
Death
On May 18, 1928, Haywood died in a Moscow hospital from a stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
brought on by alcoholism and diabetes. Half of his ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall
The Moscow Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognisable by the characteristic notches and its Kremlin towers. The original walls were likely a simple wooden fence with guard towers built in 1156. The Kremlin ...
; an urn containing the other half of his ashes was sent to Chicago and buried near the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument.
Haywood's labor philosophy
Industrial unionism
Even before Haywood first became an official with the WFM, he was convinced that the system under which working people toiled was unjust. He described the execution of the Haymarket leaders in 1887 as a turning point in his life, predisposing him toward membership in the largest organization of the day, the Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor (K of L), officially the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was the largest American labor movement of the 19th century, claiming for a time nearly one million members. It operated in the United States as well in ...
. Haywood had watched men die in unsafe mine tunnels, and had marched with Coxey's Army
Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington, D.C., in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United S ...
. Haywood had suffered a serious hand injury in the mines, and found that his only support came from other miners. When Haywood listened to Ed Boyce of the WFM addressing a group of miners in 1896, he discovered radical unionism and welcomed it.
Haywood also shared Boyce's skepticism of the role played by the AFL. He criticized labor officials who were, in his view, insufficiently supportive of labor militants. For example, Haywood recalled with disdain the opening remarks of Samuel Gompers when the AFL leader appeared before Illinois Governor Richard Oglesby on behalf of the Haymarket prisoners:
I have differed all my life with the principles and methods of the condemned.
Gompers was an advocate of craft unionism
Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the sa ...
, the idea that workers should be separated into unions according to their skills. The AFL disdained to organize workers who were not skilled. Furthermore, in 1900, Gompers became the first vice-president of the National Civic Federation, which was "dedicated to the fostering of harmony and collaboration between capital and organized labor". But Haywood had become convinced by the experiences of striking railroad workers that a different union philosophy, some form of industrial unionism, was necessary for workers to obtain justice. This had become apparent in 1888 when the craft-organized locomotive firemen kept their engines running, helping their employers to break a strike called by the railroad engineers.
Debs had been head of the locomotive firemen's union, but he resigned to create the American Railway Union
The American Railway Union (ARU) was briefly among the largest labor unions of its time and one of the first Industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States. Launched at a meeting held in Chicago in February 1893, the ARU won an early ...
(ARU), organized industrially to include all railroad workers. In June 1894, the ARU voted to join in solidarity with the ongoing Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike comprised two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company' ...
. Railroad traffic throughout the nation was "largely paralyzed. The effectiveness of the industrial form of unionism was evident from the start." The strike was eventually crushed by massive government intervention that included 2600 Deputy U.S. Marshals, and 14,000 state and federal troops in Chicago alone. Debs attempted to seek help from the AFL, asking that AFL railroad brotherhood affiliates present the following proposition to the Railway Managers' Association:
...that the strikers return to work at once as a body, upon the condition that they be restored to their former positions, or, in the event of failure, to call a general strike.[The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood, 1929, pp. 77–78.]
Observing that the ARU was defenseless, AFL officials viewed the plight of the rival organization as an opportunity to bolster the railway brotherhoods, which the AFL was courting, and instructed all AFL affiliates to withhold help. In spite of what Haywood perceived as "treachery" and "double-cross" by the AFL leadership — the ARU members had put their own organization at risk for others, but the AFL refused to even help them try to end the strike in a draw — the power of workers crossing their trade lines and jurisdictional boundaries to join together in a fight against capital greatly impressed him. He described the revelation of such power as "a great rift of light".
For Haywood, industrial union principles were later confirmed by the defeat of the WFM in the 1903–05 Cripple Creek strike due — he believed — to insufficient labor solidarity. The WFM miners had sought to extend the benefits of union to the mill workers who processed their ore. Since the government had crushed the ARU, the railroad workers were again organized along craft lines, similar to the AFL. Those same railroad unions continued to haul the ore ''from mines'' that were run by strike breakers, ''to mills'' that were run by strike breakers. "The railroaders form the connecting link in the proposition that is scabby at both ends," Haywood complained. "This fight, which is entering its third year, could have been won in three weeks if it were not for the fact that the trade unions are lending assistance to the mine operators." The obvious solution, it seemed to Haywood, was for all of the workers to join the same union, and to take collective action in concert against the employers. The militants of the WFM referred to the AFL as the "American ''Separation'' of Labor," a criticism that was later echoed by the IWW.
Haywood's revolutionary imperative
Haywood's industrial unionism was much broader than formulating a more effective method of conducting strikes. Haywood grew up a part of the working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
, and his respect for working people was genuine. He was quickly angered by the arrogance of employers "who had never ... spoken to a workingman except to give orders." Having met Debs during his WFM days, Haywood had also become interested in the former railway leader's new passion, socialism. Haywood subscribed to the belief, and with Boyce, formulated as a new motto for the WFM, that:
Labor produces all wealth; all wealth belongs to the producer thereof.
Haywood observed how the government frequently took the side of business to defeat the tactics and the aspirations of the miners. During an 1899 organizing drive in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene ( ; ) is a city and the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the most populous city in North Idaho and the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 54,628 at th ...
, with pay cuts as a motivating issue, the company hired spies and then fired organizers and pro-union miners. Some frustrated miners responded with violence and when two men were killed, martial law was declared. As they had done in a strike in Coeur d'Alene seven years earlier, soldiers acted as strike breakers. They rounded up hundreds of union members without formal charges and put them in a filthy, vermin-infested warehouse without sanitation services for a year. They were so crowded that the soldiers locked the overflow of prisoners in boxcar
A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
s. One local union leader was imprisoned for 17 years.
Haywood considered the brutal conditions in Coeur d'Alene a manifestation of class warfare. In 1901 the miners agreed at the WFM convention that a "complete revolution of social and economic conditions" was "the only salvation of the working classes".
In the WFM's 1903–1904 struggle in Colorado, with martial law once again in force, two declarations uttered by the National Guard and recorded for posterity further clarified the relationship of the mine operator's enforcement army—provided courtesy of the Colorado governor—to the workers. When union attorneys asked the courts to free illegally imprisoned strikers, Adjutant General Sherman Bell declared, "Habeas corpus be damned, we'll give 'em post mortems." Reminded of the Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
, one of Bell's junior officers declared coolly, "To hell with the Constitution. We're not going by the Constitution."
General Bell had been the manager of one of the coal mines in Cripple Creek where the strike was taking place. It wasn't any surprise to Haywood that soldiers seemed to be working in the interests of the employers; he had seen that situation before. But when the Colorado legislature acknowledged the complaints of organized labor and passed an eight hour law, the Colorado supreme court declared it unconstitutional. So the WFM took the issue to the voters, and 72 percent of the state's voters approved the referendum. But the Colorado government ignored the results of the referendum.
To members of the WFM, it became clear that government favored the companies, and only direct action by organized workers could secure the eight-hour day for themselves. When miners in Idaho Springs and Telluride decided to strike for the eight-hour day, they were rounded up at gunpoint by vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...
groups and expelled from their communities. Warrants were issued for the arrest of the law-breaking vigilantes, but they were not acted upon.
Haywood complained that John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...
was "wielding more power with his golf sticks than could the people of Colorado with their ballots." It appeared to Haywood that the deck was stacked, and no enduring gains could be won for the workers short of changing the rules of the game. Increasingly, his industrial unionism took on a revolutionary flavor. In 1905 Haywood joined the more left-leaning socialists, labor anarchists in the Haymarket tradition, and other militant unionists to formulate the concept of revolutionary industrial unionism that animated the IWW. Haywood called this philosophy "socialism with its working clothes on".
Haywood favored direct action. The socialist philosophy — which WFM supporter the Rev. Fr. Thomas J. Hagerty called ''"slowcialism"'' — did not seem hard-nosed enough for Haywood's labor instincts. After the Boise murder trial, he had come to believe,
It is to the ignominy of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 192 ...
that they have so seldom joined forces with the I.W.W. in these desperate political struggles.
While Haywood continued to champion direct action, he advocated the political action favored by the socialists as just one more mechanism for change, and only when it seemed relevant. At an October 1913 meeting of the Socialist Party, Haywood stated:
I advocate the industrial ballot alone when I address the workers in the textile industries of the East where a great majority are foreigners without political representation. But when I speak to American workingmen in the West I advocate both the industrial and the political ballot.
The "industrial ballot" referred to the direct action methods (strikes, slowdowns, etc.) of the IWW.
Haywood seemed most comfortable with a philosophy arrived at through the hard-scrabble experiences of the workers. He had the ability to translate complex economic theories into simple ideas that resonated with working people. He distilled the voluminous work of Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
into a simple observation, "If one man has a dollar he didn't work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn't get." While Haywood respected the work of Marx, he referred to it with irreverent humor. Acknowledging his scars from dangerous mining work, and from numerous fistfights with police and militia, he liked to say, "I've never read Marx's Das Kapital, Capital, but I have the marks of capital all over me."
Haywood demonstrated his Marxist roots when, confronted by the Commission on Industrial Relations with an argument about the sanctity of private property, he responded that a capitalist's property merely represented "unpaid labor, surplus value." But the forum also gave Haywood an opportunity to compare the philosophy of the IWW with that of Marx and the socialist parties. Reminded by the Commission that socialists advocated ownership of the industries by the state, Haywood remembered in his autobiography that he had drawn a clear distinction. All of industry should be owned "by the workers", he observed.
Racial unity in the labor movement
Much of Haywood's philosophy relating to socialism, preferring industrial unionism, his perception of the evils of the wage system, and his attitude about corporations, militias, and politicians seems to have been held in common with his WFM mentor Ed Boyce. Boyce also called for legislation to forbid employment of aliens. Unlike Boyce and many other labor leaders and organizations of the time, Haywood believed that workers of all ethnicities should organize into the same union. According to Haywood, the IWW was "big enough to take in the black man, the white man; big enough to take in all nationalities – an organization that will be strong enough to obliterate state boundaries; to obliterate national boundaries."
Haywood criticized the U.S. government's attempts to turn whites against blacks during the 1899 Coeur d'Alene labor confrontation. Haywood wrote: "it was a deliberate attempt to add race prejudice ... race prejudice had been unknown among the miners."[Bill Haywood's Book. 1929, International Publishers. Chapter 5.] In 1912, Haywood spoke at a convention for The Brotherhood of Timber Workers in Louisiana; at the time, interracial meetings in the state were illegal.[ Haywood insisted that the white workers invite the African American workers to their convention, declaring:
]You work in the same mills together. Sometimes a black man and a white man chop down the same tree together. You are meeting in a convention now to discuss the conditions under which you labor. Why not be sensible about this and call the Negroes into the Convention? If it is against the law, this is one time when the law should be broken.
Ignoring the law against interracial meetings, the convention invited the African American workers. The convention would eventually vote to affiliate with the IWW.[
]
Works
*
Industrial Socialism
' With Frank Bohn (socialist), Frank Bohn. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1911.
''The General Strike.''
Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., n.d. [1911]. Speech of March 16, 1911.
Speech of William D. Haywood on the Case of Ettor and Giovannitti, 1912.
Bill Haywood Remembers the 1913 Paterson Strike
''With Drops of Blood the History of the Industrial Workers of the World Has Been Written.''
n.c. (Chicago): Industrial Workers of the World, n.d. (1919).
''Raids! Raids!! Raids!!!''
n.c. (Chicago): Industrial Workers of the World, n.d. (Dec. 1919).
* ''Bill Haywood's Book: The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood.'' New York: International Publishers, 1929. Reissued as ''The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood.''
See also
*Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...
*Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into ...
*1913 Paterson Silk Strike
*International Labor Defense
*Are They Going To Hang My Papa?
Footnotes
Further reading
*
* Joseph R. Conlin, ''Big Bill Haywood and the Radical Union Movement.'' Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1969.
* Sam Dolgoff
"Revolutionary Tendencies in American Labor – Part 2,"
''The American Labor Movement: A New Beginning.'' Resurgence.
*
* Beverly Gage, ''The Day Wall Street Exploded: The Story of America in its First Age of Terror.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
* Elizabeth Jameson, ''All That Glitters: Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
* J. Anthony Lukas, ''Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America.'' New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
* Harry Siitonen
"The IWW: Its First 100 Years,"
Industrial Workers of the World, March 2005.
* Vincent St. John
''The IWW: its History, Structure and Methods.''
Chicago: IWW Publishing Bureau, 1917.
* Fred W. Thompson, ''The IWW: Its First Seventy Years 1905–1975.'' Industrial Workers of the World, 1976.
* Bruce Watson, ''Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and The Struggle for the American Dream.'' New York: Viking-Penguin, 2005.
* Howard Zinn, ''A People's History of the United States.'' Revised and Updated. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
External links
at marxists.org
*
Max Eastman "Bill Haywood, Communist"
David Karsner "William D. Haywood, Communist Ambassador to Russia"
Lewis Gannett "Bill Haywood in Moscow"
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