Don’t waste any time mourning—organize!

The slogan is associated with labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill (IWW), and is commonly linked to the period immediately surrounding his execution in Utah (1915). It is often presented as part of Hill’s last message to fellow workers—an admonition that grief should be converted into collective action. In labor movement memory, the phrase became a rallying cry emphasizing organization over sentiment, reflecting the IWW’s emphasis on solidarity, direct action, and building durable worker institutions rather than focusing on individual martyrdom.

The line compresses a strategic lesson into a blunt imperative: mourning is emotionally understandable but politically unproductive if it substitutes for action. Hill frames loss—whether of a comrade, a strike, or a life—as a moment that should intensify organizing rather than dissolve into private sorrow. The quote also resists the romanticization of martyrdom; it insists that the meaning of sacrifice is realized only when others continue the struggle in practical ways (recruiting, union-building, mutual aid, coordinated pressure). Its enduring power comes from turning grief into discipline and solidarity.

“Don’t mourn—organize!”; “Don’t waste time mourning. Organize!”; “Don’t mourn, organize.”