Demonstrators marching and displaying the motto

An injury to one is an injury to all is a motto popularly used by the Industrial Workers of the World who are also known as the "Wobblies." In his autobiography, Bill Haywood credited David C. Coates with suggesting a labor slogan for the IWW: an injury to one is an injury to all.^[1] The slogan has since been used by a number of labor organizations. The slogan reflects the fact that the IWW was "One Big Union" and organized skilled and unskilled workers. Despite the reduced number of organized Wobblies today, the slogan is still popular with Wobblies, other unions and organizations.

[edit] Origin

The expression is similar to, and may be derived from, a slogan popularized in the prior quarter century by the Knights of Labor, "that is the best government in which an injury to one is the concern of all".^[2]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ William Dudley Haywood,The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood, 1929, pp. 186.
2. ^ Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, Michigan Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1884, pages 68-71.

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