Haywood

Haywood was a very threatening figure; his physical appearance and booming voice caused enough intimidation to make civil negotiations seem unnecessary. His presence alone was enough to make company bosses grow pale with fright. Unfortunately for these company bosses, Haywood’s rough physical characteristics reflected his personality as well. He aggressively fought for the working class, leading the International Workers of the World (IWW) and leading several strikes, including the Colorado Labor Strikes. He felt that employers were in essence abusing their workers, who stood trapped in a corner. Workers truly had no place to turn to, not even so-called righteous and virtuous politics. Politics had, in essence, become blind to the issues that the working class experienced because there was virtually no presentation of the working class in politics; it was not allowed. Therefore, Haywood determined that since justice could not be attained through a civil and political route, he would have to take another path to attain this justice, even if it required the use of force to get there.

Haywood completely disregarded politics because he felt that politics disregarded him. He stated that America’s labor force had “a very small political representation". A majority of the workers were not allowed to vote simply based on restrictions that seemed to be targeting the workers themselves. A majority of women, for example, worked as laborers for the textile industry. They were only allowed to vote in "ten free states". The migratory worker was furthermore not allowed to vote because he required to travel between states to work, never staying in one state for more than one-two years. This allotted time was never enough to qualify to vote as a citizen of a particular state. Therefore, this type of worker would never attain the right to vote in any state. Even laboring teenagers, specifically those under 21 have no say in politics because they cannot vote. And finally, black men in the south are denied the right to vote, despite the fact that they must work the hardest of all to keep and maintain their jobs. To Haywood, politics ignored and disregarded the voices of all these groups, despite the fact that they created a good portion of the labor force that pushed America’s economy. Their presence was known, it had to have been, but it was not acknowledged.

The working class was, to Haywood, an underappreciated and abused class of society. Not only were they politically ignored but also politically powerless. The working class was not able to implement any sort of industrial reform because they