Portal:Organized Labour/Featured Quote

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"Every advance in this half-century: Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education... one after another- came with the support and leadership of American Labor."

-- Jimmy Carter.

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"History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them."

-- Martin Luther King Jr., Speaking to the AFL-CIO on December 11, 1961.

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"It calls me 'Machine' and it cries to me 'Sew!'" - Morris Rosenfeld

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"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures."

-- Samuel Gompers.

/5 - "Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America." -- John L. Lewis.

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"I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and, also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field."

-- Albert Einstein, on why he joined American Federation of Teachers, Local 552, as a charter member.

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"If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves."

-- Lane Kirkland.

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"The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor."

-- A. Philip Randolph.

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"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

-- Abraham Lincoln.

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"With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men."

-- Clarence Darrow.

/11 - "The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."

-- César Chavez.

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"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun."

-- Eugene V. Debs.

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"It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions."

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt.

/15 - "The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak. The strength of a strong man is a prideful thing, but the unfortunate thing in life is that strong men do not remain strong. And it is just as true of unions and labor organizations as it is true of men and individuals. And whereas today the craft unions of this country may be able to stand upon their own feet and like mighty oaks stand before the gale, defy the lightning, yet the day may come when those organizations will not be able to withstand the lightning and the gale. Now, prepare yourselves by making a contribution to your less fortunate brethren... Organize the unorganized!"

-- John L. Lewis.

/16 - "Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts."

-- Molly Ivins.

/17 - "The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good."

-- Pope Paul VI.

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File:Susan B Anthony Older Years.png

"Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work."

-- Susan B. Anthony.

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

-- Wendell Phillips.

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"I am opposed to 'right to work' legislation because it does nothing for working people, but instead gives employers the right to exploit labor."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt.

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"The miners are out of work... Their problem is much more than a mining problem—it concerns the standards of living not only for themselves but in other parts of the world."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt.

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"In spite of oppressors, in spite of false leaders, in spite of labor's own lack of understanding of its needs, the cause of the worker continues onward. Slowly his hours are shortened, giving him leisure to read and to think. Slowly his standard of living rises to include some of the good and beautiful things of the world. Slowly the cause of his children becomes the cause of all. His boy is taken from the breaker, his girl from the mill. Slowly those who create the wealth of the world are permitted to share it. The future is in labor's strong, rough hands."

-- Mary Harris Jones.

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"I am directly opposed to it myself, but if it is a question of strike or you go into slavery, then I say strike until the last one of us drop into our graves."

-- Mary Harris Jones.

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"Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living."

-- Mary Harris Jones.

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"Don't mourn for me—Organize!"

-- Joe Hill, last words.

/26 - "If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I'd do would be to join a union."

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt.

/27 - Y Free-use status checked by Haus on 2008-04-09 - "When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I did not speak out; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out."

-- Martin Niemoeller.

/28 - Y Free-use status checked by Haus on 2008-04-09 -

"What labor everywhere wants, what it ought to have, and will someday demand and receive, is an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. As the laborer becomes more intelligent he will develop what capital he already possesses—that is the power to organize and combine for its own protection."

-- Frederick Douglass.

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"The workers have nothing to lose in this but their chains. They have the world to gain. Workers of the world unite!"

-- Karl Marx.

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"Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong."

-- Ralph Chaplin, lyricist, "Solidarity Forever"

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"One man quitting out of 50,000 is nothing or even ten men or one hundred men, but if they all quit, so they can do with the employer what the employer does with you, when he discharges you, then they can bargain and there is no other kind of bargaining but collective bargaining."

-- Clarence Darrow.

/32 - "The idea that businesses will be driven to bankruptcy if strict environmental standards are adopted is the same tired line that has been brought up again and again since workers first organized to improve working conditions. It was brought up when child labor was eliminated, when the minimum wage was introduced, when Social Security and Unemployment Insurance were developed."

-- Leonard Woodcock.

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"The hospital strikers have demonstrated that you don't get a job done unless you show the Man you're not afraid...If you're not willing to pay that price, then you don't deserve the rewards or benefits that go along with it."

-- Malcolm X.

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"The strike is the weapon of the oppressed, of men capable of appreciating justice and having the courage to resist wrong and contend for principle. The nation had for its cornerstone a strike, and while arrogant injustice throws down the gauntlet and challenges the right to conflict, strikes will come, come by virtue of irrevocable laws, destined to have a wider sweep and greater power as men advance in intelligence and independence."

-- Eugene V. Debs.

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"Nothing moves in the city, without our say-so. Let the bosses curse, let the papers cry. This morning I saw it happen with these ancient eyes of mine. Without our say-so nothing moves but the tide!"

-- Rob Rosenthal, written during the Seattle General Strike of 1919.

/36 - "When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs, angels weep in heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of Hell to keep him out. ... Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared to a scab. For betraying his master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab has not."

-- Jack London.

/37 - Y Free-use status checked by Haus on 2008-04-09 - "Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their men there would have been no unions."

-- Stanley Baldwin

/38 - "Walter Reuther is the most dangerous man in Detroit because no one is more skillful in bringing about the revolution without seeming to disturb the existing forms of society."

-- George W. Romney

/39 - Y Free-use status checked by Haus on 2008-04-09 -

"If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men to capitalize their labor."

-- Frank Lloyd Wright

/40 - "Labor can not stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under."

-- Harry Bridges

/41 - Y Free-use status checked by Haus on 2008-04-09 -

"The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America."

-- John F. Kennedy

/42 - "To a right-winger, unions are awful. Why do right-wingers hate unions? Because collective bargaining is the power that a worker has against the corporation. Right-wingers hate that."

-- Janeane Garofalo

/43 - "To remember the loneliness, the fear and the insecurity of men who once had to walk alone in huge factories, beside huge machines—to realize that labor unions have meant new dignity and pride to millions of our countrymen—human companionship on the job, and music in the home—to be able to see what larger pay checks mean, not to a man as an employee, but as a husband and as a father—to know these things is to understand what American labor means."

-- Adlai Stevenson

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"Long ago we stated the reason for labor organizations. We said that they were organized out of the necessities of the situation: that a single employee was helpless in dealing with an employer; … that union was essential to give the laborers opportunity to deal on equality with their employer."

-- Charles Evans Hughes

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"There is nothing fairer than workmen having unions of their mutual benefit."

-- Will Rogers

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"The history of the labor movements needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. … We ought to be proud of it!"

-- Hubert Humphrey

/47 - "The first thing a dictator does is abolish the free press. Next he abolishes the right of labor to go on strike."

-- George Seldes

/48 - Y Free-use status checked by Haus on 2008-04-09 -

"What is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory. For workers to gain a few cents more a day, a few minutes less a day, and go back to work with the same psychology, the same attitude toward society is to achieve a temporary gain and not a lasting victory."

-- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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"If I could have wished another life, I would have loved to be a pioneer woman in the beginning of the labor movement."

-- Astrid Lindgren, author, Pippi Longstocking

/50 - "When people ask me, 'Why can't labor organize the way it did in the thirties?' the answer is simple: everything we did then is now illegal."

-- Thomas Geoghegan

/51 - "Size alone I don't think is the only measurement for a labor union. It's vitality. Your resources are more limited, but it's how you spend those resources. If you spend them on communications and organization and political activity, you can be a very viable force with a much smaller number than we had in the past."

-- Douglas Fraser

/52 - "I would rather sit with the rural poor, the desperate children of urban blight, the victims of racism, and working people seeking a better life than with those whose religion is the status quo, whose goal is profit and whose hearts are cold."

-- Douglas Fraser

/53 - "There is a dawn approaching that is indicating and shouting to us that it's our moment. But we've got to seize that moment and use what we know so well—how to organize and, fundamentally, how to fight!"

-- Tony Mazzocchi, speech to the 1998 convention of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America

/54 - "We're the only industrial nation in the world where if you strike the employer can replace you with scabs—permanently. That's not a right to strike. That's a right to commit suicide."

-- Tony Mazzocchi

/55 - Y Free-use status checked by Tim1965 on 2010-02-08 -

We were never meant to be beggars at the table of wealth. We were never meant to be the apostles of labor cannibalism on the world stage. We were meant for a higher destiny! We were never meant to be the lieutenants of capitalism. We were never meant to be the pallbearers of the workers of the world.

-- John F. Henning, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California Labor Federation, 1994

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Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

— Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

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I'm convinced that if a company has a union in its plant, the union was pretty much invited in by the actions of the company. People don't pay union dues if they are entirely happy.

— John H. Fanning, 1977

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By virtually all measures [the National Labor Relations Act] is derelict if not dead.

— Wilma B. Liebman, National Labor Relations Board member, May 2007.

/59 -

Our main duty is to consider the needs of others. If we become alive to this duty, there will be no unjustly treated people in our midst, and we, in turn, shall not be treated unjustly. Our day-to-day motto should be: "Your problems are also my problems." We must extend our friendship and strengthen our solidarity.

-- Anna Walentynowicz.

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