Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood

by William D. Haywood

Boyhood among the Mormons
Miners, Cowboys & Indians
Homestead & Hard Times
Silver City
The Western Federation of Miners
Telluride
The Houses & Autocracy
Cripple Creek
In the Crucibles of Colorado
Deportation or Death
Industrial Workers of the World
Undesirable Citizens
The Boise Trial
The World Widens
The Lawrence Strike
Article 2, Section 6
The Pageant
The US Industrial Relations Commission
Raids! Raids! Raids!
The I.W.W. Trials
The Prison
With Drops of Blood
The Centralia Tragedy
Farewell, Capitalist America!
Haywood's Life in the Soviet Union
Appendices

Genres: Labor, Biography, History, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

Reviews

[Joe Surkiewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating to read about the brutality of government and business, the ruthless exploitation of workers and the poor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the sacrifices made by union organizers. A 100 years later, the hammer is coming down again, hard-earned rights are evaporating along with jobs, the standard of living is collapsing, the rich are getting richer, the corporate media are all singing the same depressing song of fear and mindless obedience. Nothing new. But people like Big Bill Haywood fought the good fight then and I can't help but think others like him will rise to the occasion now for a new struggle against corporate and government oppression. These are dark times, but we've been through it before. The book's language and style is dated, sure, but it's a good read. The word "hero" is thrown around a lot these days to the point where it's meaningless. But Haywood is a guy who deserves to be called a hero for his bravery and sacrifice for his lifelong fight for justice.

[Eli N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s nothing new under the sun.

Big Bill lived in a great romantic era of militant unionism, pinkerton agents and company thugs shot at miners and the miners showed solidarity unto death.

But between the lines there are the same roadblocks as today: opportunist and collaborationist union leaders, press as an appendage of moneyed interests, and a legal system stacked against labor. Big Bill, the way he recounts it, took everything in stride, never seriously considering surrender.

He also was an uncompromising radical, an unmatched organizer, and an administrator with unlimited motor. He was a hero.

I only wish he had spoke more in depth about what it took to achieve the victories he did. He makes it seem that he pulled 1000+ member locals out of the ground and conducted strikes effortlessly.

[kz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible tale of one of the most important lives in the American Labor movement. Faced with incredible hardships, Bill overcame each obstacle the capitalists and imperialistic government could think of to squash and terrorize the working class coming together to fight for better treatment. I hope this reading leads me to think of better ways to help support my fellow worker and not let defeatist attitudes of many people today get me down.

It’s wild how this book starts off like a setting for an amazing western. The court case chapters, the unjust prosecution of workers that were aligned with any communist party or Industrial union. There was even a tiny sip of a reference to the epidemic of 1918 and how at the court house all the judges and juries and legal teams were wearing masks while the men who weren’t even convicted yet were refused proper protective gear. I don’t think America has really changed much at all since Bill’s time.

[Tom Costello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly edited by the stalinist censors. It does not reflect his disappointment and dissatisfaction with the USSR. A sad ending to a great american labor leader hounded into exile by the US Government red baiters.

[T.J. Petrowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one-eyed William D. “Big Bill” Haywood (1869-1923) was a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a member of the Communist Party of the USA, and a revolutionary fighter against capitalism and exploitation.

His autobiography is a riveting working-class history of the USA. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1869, he describes growing up in the “Wild West” with all its evils: racism, poverty, outlaws, mob violence, street shootings, religious fanaticism, and lynches of Mexicans, Native Americans, and African-Americans. At age 9, while carving a slingshot, Bill stabbed himself in the eye with a knife (ouch!), and at age 15, he began work as a miner.

Major labour uprisings such as the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in defense of the 8-hour workday and the Great Pullman Strike of 1894 greatly influenced Bill’s ideological development. By 1900, Bill had become a member of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) General Executive Board. As a member of the WFM executive, Bill was actively involved in the Colorado Labour Wars of 1903-1904. According to Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr,
“There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado labor war of 1903 and 1904.” As a founding and leading member of the IWW, Bill was also actively involved in other significant strikes, such as the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912 and the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913.

Bill’s labour and IWW activities and his opposition to World War I earned him the wrath of state and federal authorities. Police repression and his many legal troubles feature prominently in his memoirs. In 1905, Bill was kidnapped in Colorado by Pinkerton detectives working for Idaho state officials to face trial for the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. He was acquitted and became a national labour icon. In 1917, the Justice Department raided IWW offices and arrested more than 100 activists under the Espionage Act for “conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes.” Bill was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but skipped bail and fled to the USSR, where he lived until his death in 1928.

An excellent memoir by one of America’s most powerful trade unionists.

[Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Bill's Book is a must-read for anyone interested in labor history--and for sure for the IWW. I read this book decades ago and am recenth going back to my roots. Bill has influenced me much of my adult life, which I have only begun to realize now. The Wobblies had it right and still do. I joined the IWW in 1972 and still belong--though with a large gap. Get your Red Card today!

That said, I do not believe that Bill supported Lenin etc once he got settled in Russia, but that's for another book. But he is bured in the Kremlin Wall. I have been to Moscow several times, but could the wall has always been shut so I could see the site.

[M.T. Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's first part was exciting, giving a glimpse of the last of the old west and his views on native Americans. The labor side of the book gave great inside into the nefarious nature of the ruling class and the government's role in helping to hold the working class down.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big Bill Haywood was a union organizer back in the days when employers thought nothing of using violent force to compel workers to accept whatever wages and conditions they decided. Of course, when it wasn't enough to hire and arm scabs and gunmen, the employers could always call on a the governor to call in the state militia, or, failing that, the military. Haywood's account of his activities and court trials is pretty interesting, though it is filled with lots of documentation. His account of these events is clearly colored by his perspective, but there are, after all, things that only he can tell us about his experiences. Haywood is clear about his revolutionary labor philosophy, and it is interesting to see how he reacts to the labor movement's long push away from it.