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All quotes in the Topic section appear in the alphabetical listings; the reverse cannot be said to be so.

AUTOMATION

Automation may be a good thing, but don't forget that it began with Frankenstein.—Anonymous

Automation has opened up for thousands of skilled employees a whole new world of unemployment.—Anonymous

Why should we take it upon ourselves to pick up the pieces after industry discards people for machines?  Isn't it about time unions got in there before the fact to insist that there must be some obligation to people in all this?—Harry Bridges

It is appallingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity.—Albert Einstein

As machines become more and more efficient and perfect, so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man.—Ernst Fischer

Clearly the most unfortunate people are those who must do the same thing over and over again, every minute, or perhaps twenty to the minute. They deserve the shortest hours and the highest pay.—John Kenneth Galbraith, American economist

Instead of proving to be "labor saving devices," our machines create more work for more of us to do! Instead of the "problem" of leisure, we face an array of problems caused by overwork; families that erode because we have less time to be at home, troubled and troubling young people who share little or no time with adults, anemic communities bled dry of the people's time, their life's blood, and institutions that focus solely on teaching people how to work rather than how to live together freely.—Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.—John F. Kennedy

You can not endow even the best machine with initiative.— Walter Lippmann

Instantly, the noise stopped. The whole room lay in perfect silence. The tire builders stood in long lines, touching each other, perfectly motionless, deafened by the silence....  For the first time in history, American mass-production workers had stopped a conveyor belt and halted the inexorable movement of factory machinery.— Ruth McKenney, ("Industrial Valley")

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even tacitly take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.—Mario Savio

Too often man becomes clever instead of becoming wise, he becomes inventive but not thoughtful--and sometimes...he can create himself right out of existence.—Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone (closing of "The Brain Center at Whipple's")

Those machines had kept going as long as we could remember. When we finally pulled the switch and there was some quiet, I finally remembered something... that I was a human being, that I could stop those machines, that I was better than those machines anytime.—Striking machine worker

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BIG BUSINESS/POWER AND CORRUPTION

When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money.—Alice Adams

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.—Aesop

At critical times the authorities always claim they have no authority.—Anonymous

Every year, the compensation representatives at the various plants were instructed to compute and estimate the Workmen's Compensation costs for the plant for the coming year and we had to turn those estimates in to the accountants for the corporation. The safety personnel at the plant did the same. They computed their costs...then it was just a question of the corporation deciding which was cheaper, to take some injuries, take some deaths, pay some Workmen's Compensation or spend a lot of money and make it safe.—Daniel M. Berman

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it in practice.—Bismarck

Wherever you are, there are people who are greedy and will take advantage of their workers.—Jim Blau, SEIU

Ways may some day be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home. —Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928

You may be sure that in this "new international system," the American citizen will count for precious little.—Pat Buchanan

At the moment, we have leaders in this country who care more about the short-term profits of big corporations than they do about the long-term well being of the average working man and woman.—R.T. Buffenbarger, IAM, September 20, 2004

Management doesn't seem to understand the importance of the human factor.— Charles, Prince of Wales

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.— Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

If you ever saw a cat and a dog eating out of the same plate, you can bet your ass it was the cat’s food.— Congressman William Clay

If you object to unfair treatment, you're an ingrate.  If you seek equity and fair consideration, you're uppity.  If you demand union security, you're un-American.  If you rebel against repressive management tactics, they will lynch and scalp you.  But if you are passive and patient, they will take advantage of both.— Congressman William Clay, Sr., speaking to the AFL-CIO Federation of Government Employees, 1975

I have no intention of representing those powerful interests who walk over powerless people.— Congressman William Clay, Sr.

I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.—Frank More Colby

Plato told Aristotle no one should make more than five times the pay of the lowest member of society. J.P. Morgan said 20 times. Jesus advocated a negative differential - that's why they killed him.—Graef Crystal (1998)

Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.— Leonardo da Vinci

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.— Denis Diderot

Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.—Frederick Douglass

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.—Frederick Douglass

Business knows no pity, and cares for justice only when justice is seen to be better policy. If it had power to control the elements, it would grasp in its iron clutches the waters, sunshine and air and resell them by measure, and at exorbitant prices to the millions of famished men, women and children.—W.A. Duncan, in the Cherokee Advocate, 1892

To the fervent proponents of ruthless corporate capitalism I say: make a millionaire CEO live as a poor sweatshop worker in Indonesia for one month and then ask him about the merits of the world economic system.—Vassilis Epaminondou

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.—Benjamin Franklin

The topdog may win the game of force. But not the moral issue - and when that dawns upon him and his allies, change of consciousness sets in, and demoralization starts thawing the frozen heart. The game is over.—Dr. Johan Galtung

There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs, but not for everyone's greed.—Mahatma Gandhi

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No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money.—Samuel Gompers, on child labor

Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday.—Rebecca Gordon

The ongoing fight for justice does not end on an American factory floor. It extends to many regions of the world. We are all exploited by these global companies, by globalization.—Ed Havaich, GE worker and Union member

When Reagan and Bush were running in 1980, they said, "We're going to get American industry moving again." And they did--to Taiwan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia--everywhere except here.—Jim Hightower, columnist and commentator

If the vote could do you any good, they would make it illegal!—Industrial Unionist slogan

I know that there are no limits to which the powers of privilege will not go to keep the workers in slavery.—Mother Jones

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.—Abraham Lincoln (attributed)

You can not endow even the best machine with initiative.— Walter Lippmann

Your silence will not protect you.— Audre Lorde

Never descend to the ways of those above you.— George Mallaby

We live in the richest country in the world. There's plenty to spare and for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great , true principle -- the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of this start? There are corporations worth billions of dollars--and hundreds of thousands of people who don't get to eat. — Carson McCullers

This troubled planet is a place of the most violent contrasts. Those that receive the rewards are totally separate from those who shoulder the burdens. It is not a wise leadership.—Mr. Spock of "Star Trek"

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The workers of this country do not worry me. I can hire one half to kill the other half.— J.P. Morgan

A Society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure and to another all the burdens of work condemns both classes to spiritual sterility.—Lewis Mumford

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.—George Orwell (Animal Farm)

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

The present age handed over the workers, each alone and defenseless, to the unbridled greed of competitors... so that a very few and exceedingly rich men have laid a yoke of almost slavery on the unnumbered masses of non-owning workers.—Pope Leo XIII

Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress and touches even the ermine of the bench. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty.— National platform of the Populist Party, 1892

Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.—William Proxmire

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level --I mean the wages of decent living.—Franklin D. Roosevelt

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even tacitly take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.—Mario Savio

You never expected justice from a company, did you?  They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick.— Sydney Smith

Once, a union job at GM or AT&T was a bridge to success. Now, a nonunion Wal-Mart job is a bridge to nowhere.—Andy Stern, SEIU President

When fewer workers have unions, the standard of living falls for everyone and the gap between the rich and poor grows.—John Sweeney, 2003

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.—Jonathan Swift

The freest government cannot long endure when the tendency of the law is to create a rapid accumulation of property in the hands of a few, and to render the masses poor and dependent.— Daniel Webster

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BROTHERHOOD

If you come only to help me, you can go back home.  But if you consider my struggle as part of your struggle for survival, then maybe we can work together.—Aboriginal wise woman

If nothing we do matters...then all that matters is what we do.  Cause that's all there is.  What we do now. Today.  The smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.—Angel (TV series Angel, from the episode "Epiphany")

You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.—Charles Bukowski, poet and postal worker, author of Post Office

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our education system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.—Charles Bukowski, poet and postal worker, author of Post Office

[T]he most memorable concern of mankind is the guts it takes to face the sunlight again.—Charles Bukowski, poet and postal worker, author of Post Office

If we continue to buy imports...where will our children work?—bumper sticker

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.—Edmund Burke (attributed)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.—Leo Buscaglia

The Union is not a fee-for-service organization, it is a family.—Sue Carney, APWU Director of Human Relations

The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.— Cesar Chavez

You are never strong enough that you don't need help.— Cesar Chavez

I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.—Frank Moore Colby

What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?—Elvis Costello

It is when you have done your work honestly, when you have contributed your share to the common fund that you begin to live.—Eugene V. Debs

While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.—Eugene V. Debs

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.—Albert Einstein

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed; those who are cold and are not clothed.—Dwight D. Eisenhower

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, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.—Samuel Gompers

Time is the most valuable thing on earth: time to think, time to act, time to extend our fraternal relations, time to become better men, time to become better women, time to become better and more independent citizens.—Samuel Gompers, on the 8 hour work day

I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.—Edward E. Hale

The ongoing fight for justice does not end on an American factory floor. It extends to many regions of the world. We are all exploited by these global companies, by globalization.—Ed Havaich, GE worker and Union member

What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the Law, all else is commentary.—Rabbi Hillel

We want a better America, an America that will give its citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard of living so that no child will cry for food in the midst of plenty.—Sidney Hillman

Don’t let any man into your cab, your home, or your heart, unless he’s a friend of labor.— Jimmy Hoffa (attributed)

This is my creed: Happiness is the only good; reason the only torch; justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest.— Robert Green Ingersoll

It's no use trying to be clever--we are all clever here; just try to be kind--a little kind.—F.J. Foakes Jackson

The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few (born) to ride them.—Thomas Jefferson

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We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are American workers and, most importantly, we are human beings!—Moe Lepore, Boston Metro Area Local APWU (1985)

How lucky am I?—Moe Lepore, President Boston Metro Area Local APWU

The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak.—John L. Lewis

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.—Abraham Lincoln

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.—Abraham Lincoln

The day you no longer burn with love, many others will die of the cold.—Mauriac

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.—Martin Niemoeller

There is an innate spring of healthy action in every human being who has not been crushed and pinched by poverty and drudgery from before his birth, that impels him onward and upward.—Lucy Parsons

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.— Plato

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.— Plato

What care I how time advances?  I am drinking ale today.— Edgar Allen Poe

Too Old to Work--Too Young to Die!—Walter Reuther devised slogan in the UAW fight for pension plans

There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.—Walter Reuther

There is no greater calling than to serve your Brother.  And, no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.—Walter Reuther

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live. —Socrates

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.—Socrates

Let him who would move the world first move himself.—Socrates

The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.—Lech Walesa

Every day, try to help someone who can't reciprocate your kindness.—John Wooden, college basketball coach

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ECONOMICS & INEQUALITY

When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money.—Alice Adams

I will always have enough money to last the rest of my life...as long as I don't buy anything.—Ed Asner, Postal Press Association Conference, 8/2/03

Every year, the compensation representatives at the various plants were instructed to compute and estimate the Workmen's Compensation costs for the plant for the coming year and we had to turn those estimates in to the accountants for the corporation. The safety personnel at the plant did the same. They computed their costs...then it was just a question of the corporation deciding which was cheaper, to take some injuries, take some deaths, pay some Workmen's Compensation or spend a lot of money and make it safe.—Daniel M. Berman

Wherever you are, there are people who are greedy and will take advantage of their workers.—Jim Blau, SEIU

We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.—Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Yes, it is bread we fight for--but we fight for roses too.—"Bread and Roses," a strike poem

You may be sure that in this "new international system," the American citizen will count for precious little.—Pat Buchanan

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.— Cesar Chavez

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.— Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

Workers and their families may starve to death in the New World Order of economic rationality, but diamond necklaces are cheaper in elegant New York shops, thanks to the miracle of the market.—Noam Chomsky

The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor.—William Cobbett

I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.—Frank Moore Colby

The superior person understands rightness; the inferior person understands profit.— Confucius

Plato told Aristotle no one should make more than five times the pay of the lowest member of society. J.P. Morgan said 20 times. Jesus advocated a negative differential - that's why they killed him.—Graef Crystal (1998)

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While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.—Eugene V. Debs

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.— William O. Douglas

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed; those who are cold and are not clothed.—Dwight D. Eisenhower

To the fervent proponents of ruthless corporate capitalism I say: make a millionaire CEO live as a poor sweatshop worker in Indonesia for one month and then ask him about the merits of the world economic system.—Vassilis Epaminondou

Why did good hard-working people suffer so? Why were men who were willing, able, and anxious to work, denied jobs? Why was there so much unemployment? Why were there rich people who apparently did little but enjoyed life? I hated poverty.  I was determined to do something about the bad conditions under which our family and all around us suffered. I have stuck to that purpose for 46 years. I consider in so doing I have been a good American. I have spent my life among the American workers all over this country, slept in their homes, eaten at their tables. They are the majority of the people who have the inalienable right in our view to govern the country.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1952

It is not the employer who pays the wages-he only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages.—Henry Ford

There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs, but not for everyone's greed.—Mahatma Gandhi

Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.—Henry George

The man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day. . . .  We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more.  And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor.—Samuel Gompers

No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money.—Samuel Gompers, on child labor

Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday.—Rebecca Gordon

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.—Benjamin Harrison

The ongoing fight for justice does not end on an American factory floor. It extends to many regions of the world. We are all exploited by these global companies, by globalization.—Ed Havaich, GE worker and Union member

Every dollar that the boss did not work for, one of us worked for a dollar and didn't get it.—William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood

You ask me why the IWW is not patriotic to the United States. If you were a bum without a blanket; if you had left your wife and kids when you went west for a job, and had never located them since; if your job had never kept you long enough in a place to qualify to vote; if you slept in a lousy, sour bunkhouse, and ate food just as rotten as they could give you and get by with it; if deputy sheriffs shot your cooking cans full of holes and spilled your grub on the ground; if your wages were lowered on you when the bosses thought they had you down...if every person who represented law and order and the nation beat you up, railroaded you to jail, and the good Christian people cheered and told them to go to it, how in hell do you expect a man to be patriotic?  This war is a businessman's war and we don't see why we should go out and get shot in order to save the lovely state of affairs that we now enjoy.—William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood, on IWW neutrality and opposition to World War I

If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel in the creation every mine and every mill; fleets and armies of the nation, will at their command stand still.—Joe Hill

We want a better America, an America that will give its citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard of living so that no child will cry for food in the midst of plenty.—Sidney Hillman

Oh!  God!  That bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap!—Thomas Hood

The mountain rests on the earth: the image of splitting apart.  Thus those above can insure their position only by giving generously to those below.—I Ching (The Book of Changes)

Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them.—Ivan Illich

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.— Robert Green Ingersoll

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I know that there are no limits to which the powers of privilege will not go to keep the workers in slavery.—Mother Jones

I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.—Mother Jones

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.—John F. Kennedy

What good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger?— Martin Luther King, Jr.

In our society it is murder, psychologically, to deprive a man of a job or an income. You are in substance saying to that man that he has no right to exist. You are in a real way depriving him of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, denying in his case the very creed of his society.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Better to starve fighting than to starve working.— A slogan of the Lawrence, Massachusetts strike of 1912

The union miner cannot agree to the acceptance of a wage principle which will permit his annual earnings and his living standards to be determined by the hungriest unfortunates whom the non-union operators can employ.—John L. Lewis

The balancing of the budget will not in itself place a teaspoonful of milk in a hungry baby’s stomach, or remove the rags from its mother’s back.—John L. Lewis, 1933

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.—Abraham Lincoln

Anyone with a part-time job works full-time for half salary.—Denise D. Lynn

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him whose.— Don Marquis

We live in the richest country in the world. There's plenty to spare and for no man, woman, or child to be in want. And in addition to this our country was founded on what should have been a great , true principle -- the freedom, equality, and rights of each individual. Huh! And what has come of this start? There are corporations worth billions of dollars--and hundreds of thousands of people who don't get to eat. — Carson McCullers

This troubled planet is a place of the most violent contrasts. Those that receive the rewards are totally separate from those who shoulder the burdens. It is not a wise leadership.—Mr. Spock of "Star Trek"

The workers of this country do not worry me. I can hire one half to kill the other half.— J.P. Morgan

A Society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure and to another all the burdens of work condemns both classes to spiritual sterility.—Lewis Mumford

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Never be deceived that the rich will permit you to vote away their wealth.—Lucy Parsons

Strike not for a few cents more an hour, because the price of living will be raised faster still, but strike for all you earn, be content with nothing less.—Lucy Parsons

Art thou less a slave by being favoured by thy master? Thou art indeed well off, slave. Thy master favours thee; he will soon beat thee.— Pascal, Pensees, 1670

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

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.— Plutarch

The present age handed over the workers, each alone and defenseless, to the unbridled greed of competitors... so that a very few and exceedingly rich men have laid a yoke of almost slavery on the unnumbered masses of non-owning workers.—Pope Leo XIII

Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress and touches even the ermine of the bench. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty.— National platform of the Populist Party, 1892

He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich--both come to poverty.—Proverbs 22:16

The right to a job without a right to a living wage is just as weak as the right to a living wage without a job.  Both rights must remain intact and linked together.— William P. Quigley

A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.—A. Philip Randolph

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level --I mean the wages of decent living.—Franklin D. Roosevelt

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.—Franklin D. Roosevelt

United we bargain; divided we beg!—SEIU Health Care Workers Union Local 250 button

Once, a union job at GM or AT&T was a bridge to success. Now, a nonunion Wal-Mart job is a bridge to nowhere.—Andy Stern, SEIU President

What is economics? A science invented by the upper class in order to acquire the fruits of the labor of the underclass.—August Strindberg, 1884

When fewer workers have unions, the standard of living falls for everyone and the gap between the rich and poor grows.—John Sweeney, 2003

I think the greedy corporate owners have to be confronted with the fact that they are ignoring their most powerful resource -- their workers.—John Sweeney, 1995

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.—Jonathan Swift

Our cause is a common one. It is war between poverty and wealth. … This moneyed power is fast eating up the substance of the people. We have made war upon it, and we mean to win it. If we can, we will win through the ballot box; if not, then we shall resort to sterner means.—William Sylvis

People who have to fight for their living and are not afraid to die for it are higher persons than those who, stationed high, are too fat to dare to die.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

I cannot be fired.  Slaves have to be sold.—Unknown

The freest government cannot long endure when the tendency of the law is to create a rapid accumulation of property in the hands of a few, and to render the masses poor and dependent.— Daniel Webster

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.—Oscar Wilde

The Constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens.—Wendell Lewis Willkie

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GOOD AND EVIL

I would have worked with the devil himself if he'd been for the six hour day and worker control of the hiring hall.—Harry Bridges

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.—Edmund Burke (attributed)

The superior person understands rightness; the inferior person understands profit.— Confucius

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.— John Philpot Curran

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.—Albert Einstein

History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom, against political oppression and economic slavery.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

The topdog may win the game of force. But not the moral issue - and when that dawns upon him and his allies, change of consciousness sets in, and demoralization starts thawing the frozen heart. The game is over.—Dr. Johan Galtung

Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.—Goethe

What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the Law, all else is commentary.—Rabbi Hillel

Each of us has the power to be good or to be evil. That choice is yours and yours alone. The tragedy of our world is not that so many have chosen to be evil, but that so few have made any choice at all. —Martin Johns, Red Bank Local, APWU

I learned in the early part of my career that labor must bear the cross for others' sins, must be the vicarious sufferer for the wrongs that others do.—Mother Jones

The time is always right to do what is right.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

We're the good guys.  We get to wear the white hats.—Moe Lepore, President Boston Metro Area Local APWU

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.—Abraham Lincoln

Never descend to the ways of those above you.— George Mallaby

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever.—George Orwell (1984)

Art thou less a slave by being favoured by thy master? Thou art indeed well off, slave. Thy master favours thee; he will soon beat thee.— Pascal, Pensees, 1670

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

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.— Plato

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.— Plato

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live. —Socrates

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.—Socrates

Nothing can harm a good man, either in life or after death.—Socrates

The only antidote to dangerous ideas is strong alternatives vigorously advocated. —Lawrence Summers, President of Harvard University

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.—Jonathan Swift

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LABOR DAY

Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.—Bill Dodds

Labor Day differs in every essential from other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflict and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.—Samuel Gompers

If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.—Douglas Larson

No festival of martial glory or warrior's renown is this; no pageant pomp of war-like conquest, no glory of fratricidal strife attend this day. It is dedicated to peace, civilization and the triumphs of industry. It is a demonstration of fraternity and the harbinger of a better age--a more chivalrous time, when labor shall be best honored and well rewarded..— Peter J. McGuire, the reported "father" of Labor Day

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THE LAW

Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim -- when he defends himself -- as a criminal.—Frederic Bastiat, "The Law"

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their government.—William E. Borah

Now the problem I had in understanding the law was because of the language of the law. Instead of taking each word and finding out the case that the word related to, once in a while I got lazy and I would apply common sense. And then I got really screwed up.—Lenny Bruce, comedian

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

“Equal Justice Under The Law.”  That is a great goal.  But that goal has not been realized.—Arthur Joseph Goldberg

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.—Judge Learned Hand

What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole of the Law, all else is commentary.—Rabbi Hillel

In the old days all you needed was a handshake. Nowadays you need forty lawyers. — Jimmy Hoffa

No lawyer should ever excite his employer that he has found a new way to beat a Union.  Because it doesn't work.— Jimmy Hoffa

In present conditions a workman may not unnaturally believe that only by belonging to a union can he secure a contract that shall be fair to him....If that belief, whether right or wrong, may be held by a reasonable man, it seems to me that it may be enforced by law in order to establish the equality of position...in which liberty of contract begins.—Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

I have come to regard the law courts not as a cathedral but rather as a casino.—Richard Ingrams

On their side the workers had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets.—Mother Jones

I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.—Mother Jones

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining... We demand this fraud be stopped.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many. Government in its last analysis is this power reduced to a science. Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.—Lucy Parsons

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.— Plato

Law! What do I care about the law? Ain't I got the power?—Cornelius Vanderbilt, robber baron

The freest government cannot long endure when the tendency of the law is to create a rapid accumulation of property in the hands of a few, and to render the masses poor and dependent.— Daniel Webster

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LEADERSHIP

The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity.  He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion.—Saul Alinsky

As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be - it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system.—Saul Alinsky

Those who want change must be against sacred cows and not only innately irreverent but outwardly, purposefully irreverent in their actions. They must be iconoclastic bulldozers willing to be regarded as profane spoilers of the sacred myths.—Saul Alinsky

I've often said that if you could awaken all the martyrs in history and ask them if they wanted to be martyrs again, my belief is that they would say not. But if you asked them would they do it all over again, they would say yes.—Moe Biller, APWU

I'm a working stiff.  I just happened to be around at the right time and nobody else wanted the job.—Harry Bridges, President of the ILWU (Longshoremen) for 40 years

It is a good union policy that officers shouldn't earn so much that they drift away from the members.—Harry Bridges

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.—Charles Bukowski, poet and postal worker, author of Post Office

Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. —Chinese Proverb

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right than to be responsible and wrong.—Sir Winston Churchill

Members will hear me say repeatedly words are important; deeds are a reality.—US Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ)

Be a light, not a judge; Be a model, not a critic.—Stephen Covey

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.—Marie Currie

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.— Leonardo da Vinci

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.—Mahatma Gandhi

We have our principles, but we also must do things that are constantly compromising those principles.—Arthur Joseph Goldberg

I have nothing to say for myself, only that I have always tried to make this earth a little bit better.—Joe Hill

We are all here because we want to serve our brothers and sisters, and each individual should be given a constant opportunity to do that in the ways that will best benefit the Union as a whole.— Peter Holter-Mehren, WAPWU President (2002)

One man with courage makes a majority.—Andrew Jackson

I'm not going to quit. There is too much to do. People need jobs, equality, education. We still need to organize to learn how the economics and politics drive everything in life. Can't stop now.—Nellie Stone Johnson, at the age of 90 in 1995

I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser.—Mother Jones

The question is:  How does a person react to an obstacle?—Carl Jung (Psychological Types)

And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:  First, were we truly men of courage... Second, were we truly men of judgment... Third, were we truly men of integrity... Finally, were we truly men of dedication?—John F. Kennedy, 1961

It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.—Elizabeth Kenny

The time is always right to do what is right.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

All men dream:  But not equally.  Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity:  But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.—T.E. Lawrence

If nobody quits until I do, there will be no quitting!— UMWA organizer John R. Lawson

Personally, I look forward to continuing the fight for justice and equality on the workroom floor.  APWU will never NEVER allow [the] heinous thinking by management to continue without a battle.  It's an atrocity which must be and will be stamped out.  We are American workers and, most importantly, we are human beings!—Moe Lepore, Boston Metro Area Local APWU (1985)

How lucky am I?—Moe Lepore, President Boston Metro Area Local APWU

We're the good guys.  We get to wear the white hats.—Moe Lepore, President Boston Metro Area Local APWU

If they're cutting your legs out from under you, that just means you're taller than they are; if they stab you in the back, it's because they can't face you.—Mike Levine, Red Bank Local APWU (attributed)

Tough times will not last forever; only tough leaders do.—Alberto Ortiz, APWU, Puerto Rico Area Local (as posted on 21st Century Postal Worker)

There is no greater calling than to serve your Brother.  And, no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.—Walter Reuther

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.—George Bernard Shaw

Let him who would move the world first move himself.—Socrates

One who recognizes all persons as members of their own body is a sound person to guard them.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
`Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you;'
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, `We did this ourselves.'—Lao Tzu (attributed)

The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit.  And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

When armies are mobilized and issues are joined, the man who is sorry over the fact will win.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

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MANAGEMENT

To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.—Bronson Alcott

Just because we've tried to kill or corrupt each and every one of you at one time or another...doesn't mean we can't be trusted.—Lilah Morgan, of the law firm Wolfram and Hart (TV series Angel, from the episode "Home")

I can be a patient man with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it.—Ed Asner, Postal Press Association Conference, 8/2/03

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it in practice.—Bismarck

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.—Arthur Bloch

The quality of employees will be directly proportional to the quality of life you maintain for them.—Charles E. Bryan

Management doesn't seem to understand the importance of the human factor.— Charles, Prince of Wales

If you object to unfair treatment, you're an ingrate.  If you seek equity and fair consideration, you're uppity.  If you demand union security, you're un-American.  If you rebel against repressive management tactics, they will lynch and scalp you.  But if you are passive and patient, they will take advantage of both.— Congressman William Clay, Sr., speaking to the AFL-CIO Federation of Government Employees, 1975

I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.—Frank More Colby

Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.— Leonardo da Vinci

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.— Denis Diderot

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.—Frederick Douglass

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.— Peter Drucker

Win by persuasion when possible.  Beat them at the table when necessary.  And give 'em hell generally.—Donald L. Foley, APWU National Business Agent

Personally, I look forward to continuing the fight for justice and equality on the workroom floor.  APWU will never NEVER allow [the] heinous thinking by management to continue without a battle.  It's an atrocity which must be and will be stamped out.  We are American workers and, most importantly, we are human beings!—Moe Lepore, Boston Metro Area Local APWU (1985)

Never descend to the ways of those above you.— George Mallaby

A child of five could understand this.  Send somebody to fetch a child of five.—Groucho Marx (Duck Soup)

 I don't wear a tie because it is a symbol of management. I don't think like management, I don't act like management, and I damn sure don't want to look like them.— Leo Persails, APWU

Divide and Conquer. As long as some people have commanded the work of others, this has been management's basic principle.—Peter Rachleff, labor historian

Management has no divine rights.—Walter Reuther

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.—Jonathan Swift

Conduct your triumph as a funeral.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

Neckties strangle clear thinking.—Lin Yutang

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NEGOTIATING

The lion and the calf shall lie down together, but the calf won't get much sleep.—Woody Allen

No issue can be negotiated unless you first have the clout to compel negotiation.—Saul Alinsky

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.—Saul Alinsky

Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have...tactics is the art of how to take and how to give. —Saul Alinsky

The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.—Saul Alinsky, from his Thirteen Tactical Rules

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.—Edmund Burke

Diplomacy is saying 'nice doggy' until you find a rock.—Wyn Catlin

The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining-it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process.— Paul Clark, 1989

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.—Abba Eban

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved through understanding.—Albert Einstein

They did not believe in making any contracts. They believed that as long as you were organized, you could hold the office to what it said it was going to do. But a contract, a piece of paper held you and so they didn't make any contracts.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1962, on the philosophy of the IWW

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.—James Goldsmith

Do I believe in arbitration? I do.  But not in arbitration between the lion and the lamb, in which the lamb is in the morning found inside the lion.  I believe in arbitration between two lions or two lambs.  When a man puts a pistol to my head and tells me to deliver, there is no arbitration. There can be arbitration only between equals.  Let us organize: then we will stand on an equal footing with the employers.—Samuel Gompers

There is a time to be tough, a time to be adamant, a time to be open to compromise, and a time to reach agreement.— Jimmy Hoffa 

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.—Eric Hoffer

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I have come to regard the law courts not as a cathedral but rather as a casino.—Richard Ingrams

The least powerful person in the country, understanding collective bargaining, can become the most powerful, and that is what politics is all about.—Nellie Stone Johnson

The question is:  How does a person react to an obstacle?—Carl Jung (Psychological Types)

Never get into an argument with people who buy printing ink by the barrel.— Lane Kirkland

The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.— Hugh Latimer

The union miner cannot agree to the acceptance of a wage principle which will permit his annual earnings and his living standards to be determined by the hungriest unfortunates whom the non-union operators can employ.—John L. Lewis

No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.— George Jean Nathan

You win some, and some get stolen.—U.S. Representative C.L. "Butch" Otter (R-ID)

 I don't wear a tie because it is a symbol of management. I don't think like management, I don't act like management, and I damn sure don't want to look like them.— Leo Persails, APWU

Divide and Conquer. As long as some people have commanded the work of others, this has been management's basic principle.—Peter Rachleff, labor historian

Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action.—A. Philip Randolph

Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie--labor is fighting for a larger pie.—Walter Reuther

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears--by listening to them.—Dean Rusk

United we bargain; divided we beg!—SEIU Health Care Workers Union Local 250 button

If you cannot convince them, confuse them.—Harry S Truman

When armies are mobilized and issues are joined, the man who is sorry over the fact will win.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

Conduct your triumph as a funeral.—Lao Tzu (attributed)

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OUTSOURCING AND GLOBALIZATION

NAFTA and GATT have about as much to do with free trade as the Patriot Act has to do with liberty.—Michael Badnarik, Libertarian Presidential candidate

You may be sure that in this "new international system," the American citizen will count for precious little.—Pat Buchanan, 1993

Where are the jobs?  Have they come and gone?  To China.  Or maybe to India?  When we find those infamous weapons of mass destruction, will we also find the missing jobs?—R.T. Buffenbarger, IAM, September 20, 2004

At the moment, we have leaders in this country who care more about the short-term profits of big corporations than they do about the long-term well being of the average working man and woman.—R.T. Buffenbarger, IAM, September 20, 2004

If we continue to buy imports...where will our children work?—bumper sticker

Workers and their families may starve to death in the New World Order of economic rationality, but diamond necklaces are cheaper in elegant New York shops, thanks to the miracle of the market.—Noam Chomsky

If CEOs insist that middle class Americans compete with cheap foreign labor, why not outsource the jobs of CEOs?  If business is all about cost, they should be the first to volunteer.— Lou Dobbs, CNN financial correspondent and author of Exporting America (September 2004)

When was the last time you heard of a CEO's job being outsourced?  It just doesn't happen.— Lou Dobbs, CNN financial correspondent and author of Exporting America (12/2/04)

The fact is whether one looks at this [outsourcing] in terms of men and women, working men and women in this country who are simply being screwed, or whether one looks at this in terms of corporations who are benefiting, the fact is it is certainly not helping the American economy.— Lou Dobbs, CNN financial correspondent and author of Exporting America (5/22/03)

I am pro-business, not pro-stupidity.— Lou Dobbs, CNN financial correspondent and author of Exporting America (12/2/04)

To the fervent proponents of ruthless corporate capitalism I say: make a millionaire CEO live as a poor sweatshop worker in Indonesia for one month and then ask him about the merits of the world economic system.—Vassilis Epaminondou

The ongoing fight for justice does not end on an American factory floor. It extends to many regions of the world. We are all exploited by these global companies, by globalization.—Ed Havaich, GE worker and Union member

When Reagan and Bush were running in 1980, they said, "We're going to get American industry moving again." And they did--to Taiwan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia--everywhere except here.—Jim Hightower, columnist and commentator

From the social point of view, the educational systems are oriented to maintaining the existing social and economic structures instead of transforming them.—Wilhelm von Humboldt

The union miner cannot agree to the acceptance of a wage principle which will permit his annual earnings and his living standards to be determined by the hungriest unfortunates whom the non-union operators can employ.—John L. Lewis

Today I send this message to every emerging global corporation: "justice; family, community, and union" are the same in every language and, wherever you go and whatever you do, a new global labor movement is coming to find you.—Andy Stern, SEIU President

Today's global corporations have no permanent home, recognize no national borders, and salute no flag but their own corporate logo and take their money to anywhere where they can make the most--and pay the least... So today I am asking you, SEIU’s 21st century leaders, to decide to go where no union has ever gone before to authorize SEIU to pursue alliances that will build the first truly global union in world history.—Andy Stern, SEIU President

There is a growing consensus that Globalization must now be reshaped to reflect values broader than simply the freedom of capital.—John Sweeney

Clearly, the Global Economy isn't working for workers in China and Indonesia and Burma any more than it is for workers here in the United States.—John Sweeney

We can no longer allow multi-nationalists to parade as agents of progress and democracy in the newspapers, even as they subvert it at the workplace.—John Sweeney

If Free Trade has been so good to our standard of living, then WHY has our largest employer gone from high union wage paying and benefits GM to low wage paying benefits skirting Wal-Mart???—Barbara Toncheff (from jobjournal.com)

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SOLIDARITY

If you come only to help me, you can go back home.  But if you consider my struggle as part of your struggle for survival, then maybe we can work together.—Aboriginal wise woman

Union gives strength.—Aesop

Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.—Alexander The Great

Power goes to two poles -- to those who've got the money and those who've got the people.—Saul Alinsky

In Unity there is strength; We can move mountains when we're united and enjoy life --Without unity we are victims. Stay united.—Bill Bailey

The most important word in the language of the working class is "solidarity."—Harry Bridges

The people united will never be defeated.— Cesar Chavez

When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.—Ethiopian Proverb

If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists. . . .—Joseph Ettor, IWW organizer

They did not believe in making any contracts. They believed that as long as you were organized, you could hold the office to what it said it was going to do. But a contract, a piece of paper held you and so they didn't make any contracts.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1962, on the philosophy of the IWW

It is always somewhat perplexing and sometimes shocking to hear, from respected unionists, a lack of concern for the struggle of brothers and sisters outside their own backyards. Such failure to bear faith and allegiance to real solidarity is what lies at the heart of labor's inability to coalesce into the force that some of our greatest leaders have envisioned. We must come to the realization that we are all coworkers, brothers and sisters in the struggle with owners.—Donald L. Foley, APWU National Business Agent (posting on 21st Century Postal Worker)

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.—Henry Ford

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.—Benjamin Franklin, July 4, 1776

If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped.—William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood

Don't mourn for me--ORGANIZE!—Joe Hill

If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel in the creation every mine and every mill; fleets and armies of the nation, will at their command stand still.—Joe Hill

I am convinced that if the members of labor organizations would follow some of the tactics of the employers organizations their movement could more successfully withstand its opponents and to progress as it has in the past. But if we are to be successful we must have, above all things, more loyalty and less selfishness.— Charles E. James, African-American Union leader, 1907

There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve alone.—Lyndon Baines Johnson

My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: “We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.”—Mother Jones, 1902

We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are American workers and, most importantly, we are human beings!—Moe Lepore, Boston Metro Area Local APWU (1985)

Our America is under siege. Everywhere we look labor is being attacked and, to our chagrin, so are our Veterans, elderly and disenfranchised.  There should be outrage from one and all.  This is OUR America, isn't it?  DAMN RIGHT!—Moe Lepore, President Boston Metro Area Local APWU (2003)

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

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has.— Margaret Mead

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.—Martin Niemoeller

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.—Thomas Paine

Organize, and stand together.  Claim something together, and at once; let the nation hear a united demand from the laboring voice, and then, when you have got that, go on after another; but get something.— Wendell Phillips

Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure through broad organized aggressive mass action.—A. Philip Randolph

Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers.—A. Philip Randolph

There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.—Walter Reuther

There is no greater calling than to serve your Brother.  And, no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.—Walter Reuther

If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I'd do would be to join a Union.—Franklin D. Roosevelt

United we bargain; divided we beg!—SEIU Health Care Workers Union Local 250 button

We must remember that a right lost to one is lost to all.—William Reece Smith, Jr.

Today, we say that when you pick a fight with any of us, you pick a fight with all of us! And that when you push us, we will push back! —AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka Oct. 26, 1995

A downtrodden class... will never be able to make an effective protest until it achieves solidarity.—H.G. Wells

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STRIKES AND STRUGGLE

In my time we was beaten, rotten egged, cussed, threatened, tarred and feathered and blackballed from other jobs. Hurt in so many different ways. But at our meetings our advice to the men and women that was hurt, we would just say to them what the good book says, the Lord will not put more upon you than you can bear, at least none of us lost our lives like some did in the early 30's. Thank God!... —W.M. "Jack" Anderson, first local president, UAW local 645 (TX)

We'll hold this line until Hell freezes over -- Then we'll hold it on ice skates.—Anonymous, picket sign

Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.—Roger Baldwin

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.—Steven Biko

We are not complaining about the work. We want to see our hard work reflected in our pay.—Emmett J. Bogdon, President NALC Branch #116 (IN)

Yes, it is bread we fight for--but we fight for roses too.—"Bread and Roses," a strike poem

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?—Robert Browning

Those unions that enjoy the right to strike have no guarantee that sacrificing their jobs and their livelihood will result in victory but they nevertheless engage in lengthy strikes, not because they are assured of winning but because they are determined to fight.—William Burrus, 1998

Tell them that the APWU is united and strong.  Here we are, and we are prepared to fight.—APWU President William Burrus

The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.— Cesar Chavez

Because we have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything -- even our lives -- in our struggle for justice.— Cesar Chavez

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.— Cesar Chavez

When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.— Cesar Chavez

The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining-it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process.— Paul Clark, 1989

If you object to unfair treatment, you're an ingrate.  If you seek equity and fair consideration, you're uppity.  If you demand union security, you're un-American.  If you rebel against repressive management tactics, they will lynch and scalp you.  But if you are passive and patient, they will take advantage of both.— Congressman William Clay, Sr., speaking to the AFL-CIO Federation of Government Employees, 1975

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The most heroic word in all languages is revolution.—Eugene V. Debs

While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.—Eugene V. Debs

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.— Frederick Douglass

People might not get all that they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all that they get.—Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.—Frederick Douglass

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.—Frederick Douglass

The revolution starts now.—Steve Earle, singer/songwriter

Why did good hard-working people suffer so? Why were men who were willing, able, and anxious to work, denied jobs? Why was there so much unemployment? Why were there rich people who apparently did little but enjoyed life? I hated poverty.  I was determined to do something about the bad conditions under which our family and all around us suffered. I have stuck to that purpose for 46 years. I consider in so doing I have been a good American. I have spent my life among the American workers all over this country, slept in their homes, eaten at their tables. They are the majority of the people who have the inalienable right in our view to govern the country.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1952

What precipitated the big strike in 1912, which is one of the great historical struggles in our country, was a political act on the part of the State. The hours of labor were reduced to 54 hours. You can imagine what they were before. That was only for women and children, but it affected something like 75% of the workers in the mills.  On the first pay after the law went into effect, the employers cut the wages proportionately to the cut in-hours and the wages were on the average of $7 and $8 a week at that time, and the highest pay to loom fixers and more highly skilled were getting possibly, $15 and $20. It was a margin between mere subsistence and starvation and so there was a spontaneous strike.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1962, on the Bread and Roses Strike

It is difficult to go on strike if there is no work in the first place.—Lord George-Brown

Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people. . . . There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.—Samuel Gompers

It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.—Samuel Gompers

The man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day. . . .  We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more.  And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor.—Samuel Gompers

Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday.—Rebecca Gordon

A strike is an incipient revolution. Many large revolutions have grown out of a small strike.—William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood

We want a better America, an America that will give its citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard of living so that no child will cry for food in the midst of plenty.—Sidney Hillman

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Oh!  God!  That bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap!—Thomas Hood

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.—Thomas Jefferson

The governor can stop a strike any time. If I were the governor I would stop a strike by simply saying, "These men have a grievance and demand redress from you. Come and discuss these questions with the miners on the fair soil of America like intelligent, law-abiding citizens. If you refuse I will close up your mines. I will have the state operate mines for the benefit of the nation." It is not right for public officials to bring scabs and gunmen into any state. 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.—Mother Jones, 1913

On their side the workers had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets.—Mother Jones

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.—John F. Kennedy

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining... We demand this fraud be stopped.— Martin Luther King, Jr.

What good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger?— Martin Luther King, Jr.

We have come too far, -- struggled too long, -- sacrificed too much and have too much left to do, -- to allow that which we have achieved for the good of all to be swept away without a fight. And we have not forgotten how to fight.— Lane Kirkland

The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.— Hugh Latimer

Our America is under siege. Everywhere we look labor is being attacked and, to our chagrin, so are our Veterans, elderly and disenfranchised.  There should be outrage from one and all.  This is OUR America, isn't it?  DAMN RIGHT!—Moe Lepore, President Boston Metro Area Local APWU (2003)

The political stability of the republic is imperiled. In excess of twelve million wage earning are unemployed. In certain industrial states the percentage of unemployed equals 40 percent of the enrolled workers. Of the remaining 60 percent a large number are employed on a part-time basis, and are the victims of a continuous schedule of wage cutting. Those who are employed, directly or indirectly, must inevitably bear the burden of supporting the millions to whom employment is unavailable.... We are victims of our own national short-sightedness by failure in the halcyon days of prosperity to intelligently plan for the future.—John L. Lewis, 1933

Never descend to the ways of those above you.— George Mallaby