STRIKES, BOMBS & BULLETS: Big Bill Haywood and the IWW

by Jules Archer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1972

Archer pulls no punches with regard to Big Bill's tolerance of/involvement with violence in the mineworker and IWW ranks (""No socialist can be a law-abiding citizen,"" was a Haywood credo), but the exhaustively described tyranny of the mine owners stands as an implicit defense. The Wobblies' differences with Gompers and the AFL are crystallized in matters of style (one AFL official aroused wrath by booking a first class passage to Europe) and principle (Haywood believed that no-strike contracts were a form of forced labor), and background characters are humanized in a few, quick strokes -- Debs, though he drank a little, comes off well against the pompous theoretician Daniel DeLeon of the SLP. Haywood himself, freed from the common tough-guy stereotype, emerges as a complicated figure; he dried rose petals to stuff a silk pillow for his wife while in prison, was a self-taught intellectual, opposed segregation within of union membership, and deeply felt the pacifism which brought his organization's downfall (""we are against slaughtering and maiming the workers of any country""). A fair and non-simplistic rendering of the factual background is combined here with a dramatic, high-interest journalistic style, and, like the contemporary newspaperman he quotes, Archer successfully communicates his qualified admiration for fiery, headstrong Big Bill -- ""He's no murderer or labor racketeer. He's out to get a square deal for the working stiffs who are his buddies.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION