William Dudley Haywood Quotes

Fellow workers, this is the Continental Congress of the working class. The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working class in possession of economic power.

Universal economic evils afflicting the working class can be eradicated only by a universal working-class movement. Such a movement of the working class is impossible while separate craft and wage agreements are made favoring the employer against other crafts in the same industry, and while energies are wasted in fruitless jurisdictional struggles which serve only to further the personal aggrandizement of union officials.

Only with the tools of production in their own hands could the workers ever hope to control their own lives and receive the fruits of their labor.

Unions are about the collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital.

The labor movement means just this: it is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.

I am always on the side of labor when there is any compromise to be made.

A struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.

The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown

The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.

I'm a big believer in the value of labor unions and with what collective effort gets people.

The labor movement has failed to capture the support of the public at large.

Why does the great body of workingmen still permit itself to be ruled and exploited by the capitalists? Why are they not in a position to drive the minority of exploiters from power? Because they are an unorganized, undisciplined, individualistic and ignorant mass. The majority is impotent because it consists of a divided crowd of individuals each one of whom wishes to act according to his own impulse, regard his own interests.

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism.

The history of all countries shows that, by its own efforts, the working class can develop only a trade-union consciousness—that is, the realization of the need of getting together in unions in order to fight employers and to demand from the government the passing of laws necessary for the workers.

Let him who will, be he economic tyrant or sordid mercenary, pit his strength against this mighty upsurge of human sentiment now being crystallized in the hearts of thirty million workers who clamor for the establishment of industrial democracy and for participation in its tangible fruits. He is a madman of a fool who believes that this river of human sentiment can be damned.

The worker retains no respect for the property “rights” of the profit-takers … He knows that the present laws of property were made by and for the capitalists. Therefore he does not hesitate to break them.

It is essential that there be organization of labor…. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

What the labor movement did in this country is to make sure that capitalism worked.

It is impossible to place labor and capital in harmonious or friendly relations, except by the means of slavery

My heart lies with the workers.

The labor movement was a reaction to capitalism.

Instead of focusing on attacking unions and the labor movement, we need to find ways to strengthen and empower workers so we can put more money in the pockets of middle class families.

I stand with the working-class citizens.

My parents were both union members, and I grew up hearing how important it was to empower workers and have fair labor practices.

While unions did not play a part in my family life when I was being brought up, my early years were most certainly spent in a working-class community.