A. Phillip Randolph:

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. Phillip Randolph:

Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within.  Freedom is never granted; it is won.  Justice is never given; it is exacted.

 

Abraham Lincoln:

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:

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.

 

Aesop:

Union gives strength.

 

Aesop: 

Any excuse will serve a tyrant. 

 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he is doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devil doing its long-sought justification and gives the evil doer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses, but will receive praise and honors.

 

Alice Adams:

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

 

Angela Davis:

Radical simply means grasping things at the root.

 

Anonymous: 

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

 

Anonymous Picket Sign:

We'll hold this line until Hell freezes over -- Then we'll hold it on ice skates. 

 

Audre Lourde:

Your silence will not protect you.

 

Benjamin Franklin:

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately.

 

Bill Bailey: 

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

 

Cervantes:

The man who fights for his ideals is the man who is alive.

 

Cesar Chavez:

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

 

Chinese Proverb: 

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

 

Clarence Darrow:

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.

 

Clarence Darrow:

Industrial contests take on all the attitudes and psychology of war, and both parties do many things that they should never dream of doing in times of peace.  Whatever may be said, the fact is that all strikes and all resistance to strikes take on the psychology of warfare, and all parties in interest must be judged from that standpoint.

 

Clarence Darrow:

There is no such thing as the open shop, really.  There is a union shop and a nonunion shop.  Everybody that believes in the open shop disbelieves in the union shop, whatever they say.

 

Clarence Darrow:

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.

 

Confucius: 

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

 

Congo Proverb:

A single bracelet does not jingle.

 

Denise D. Lynn:

Anyone with a part-time job works full-time for half salary.

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower:

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

 

Ed Asner:  

I will always have enough money to last the rest of my life... as long as I don't buy anything. 

 

Ed Asner:   

I can be a patient man with stupidity, but not with those who are proud of it.

 

Edmund Burke: 

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

 

Eleanor Roosevelt:

You in the Unions do not yet represent all of labor.  But I hope some day you will, because I believe that it is through strength, through the fact that people who know what people need are working to make this country a better place for all people, that we will help the world accept our leadership and understand that, under our form of government and through our way of life, we have something to offer them.

 

Eleanor Roosevelt:

I have always felt that it was important that everyone who was a worker join a labor organization.

 

Eleanor Roosevelt:

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:

I believe you should tell the story of injustices, of inequalities, of bad conditions, so that the people as a whole in this country really face the problems that people who are pushed to the point of striking know all about, but others know practically nothing about.

 

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn:

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. For workers to go back with a class-conscious spirit, with an organized and determined attitude toward society means that even if they have made no economic gain they have the possibility of gaining in the future.

 

Emma Goldman:

It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom.

 

Ethiopian Proverb:

When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.

 

Eugene V. Debs:

Am I my brother's keeper?  That frequently asked question has never been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.  Yes, I am my brother's keeper.  I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by maudlin sentimentality, but by the higher duty I owe myself.  It is when you have done your work honestly, when you have contributed your share to the common fund that you have begun to live.  Then, as Whitman said, you can take out your soul; you can commune with yourself; you can take a comrade by the hand and you can look into his soul and in that holy communion you live.  And if you don't know what that is, or if you are not at least on the edge of it, it is denied you even to look into the Promised Land.

 

Eugene V. Debs:

Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that 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:

The most heroic word in all languages is revolution.

 

Eugene V. Debs:

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 it’s 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:

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:

I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets.  If it had not been for the men and women who, in the past, have had the moral courage to go to jail, we would still be in the jungles.

 

Eugene V. Debs:

When I rise it will be with the ranks and not from the ranks.

 

Eugene V. Debs:

Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results.

 

Father Thomas Hagerty:

In spite of petty national lines, in spite of international division lines, the workers of the world over are coming together on the ground of their common working class interest, without regard to race, color, creed or flag, and they are coming together because the earth and all the earth holds, and all its possibilities are theirs.

 

Frank Lloyd Wright:

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.

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

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

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I’d do would be to join a Union.

 

Frederick Douglas:

It is a great mistake for any class of laborers to isolate itself and thus weaken the bond of brotherhood between those on whom the burdens and hardship of labor (fall).  The fortunate ones of the Earth, who are abundant in land and money and know nothing of the anxious care and pinching poverty of the laboring classes, may be indifferent to the appeal to justice at this point, but the laboring classes cannot afford to be indifferent.  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 capitol he already possesses -- that is the power to organize and combine for its own protection.

 

Frederick Douglas:

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.  The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both.  But it must be a struggle.  Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.

 

Frederick Douglas:

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

 

Jawaharlal Nehru:

The man who has got everything he wants is all in favor of peace and order.

 

Jimmy Carter:

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 Hoffa:

In the old days all you needed was a handshake. Now you need forty lawyers.

 

Jimmy Hoffa:

Don’t let any man into your cab, your home, or your heart, unless he’s a friend of labor.

 

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.

 

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:

Don’t mourn for me – ORGANIZE!

 

John L. Lewis:

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 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:

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.

 

Karl Liebknecht: 

The basic law of capitalism is you or I, not both you and I. 

 

Karl Marx: 

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

 

Kigezi Proverb:

United jaws crush the bone.

 

Lane Kirkland:

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

 

Lee “Buddy” Boyce:

Treat a piece of shit like a piece of shit.

 

Leonardo da Vinci:  

Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.

 

Leonardo da Vinci:

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:

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

 

Lya Sorano:

When we talk about equal pay for equal work, women in the workplace are beginning to catch up. If we keep going at this current rate, we will achieve full equality in about 475 years. I don't know about you, but I can't wait that long.

 

Lyndon B. Johnson:

The AFL-CIO has done more good for more people than any group in America in its legislative efforts.  It doesn’t try to do something about wages and hours for its own people.  No group in the country works harder in the interests of everyone.

 

Madagascar Proverb:

Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won't eat you.

 

Mahatma Gandhi:

First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; then they attack you; then you win.

 

Malcolm X:

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.

 

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

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.:

We must learn to live together as brothers or we are going to perish together as fools.

 

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 Niemoeller:

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.

 

Molly Ivins:

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.

 

Mother Jones:

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:

The governor can stop this 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 grave.

 

Mother Jones:

One of the boys said I was looking well.  Of course I am.  There is going to be a racket and I am going to be in it!

 

Mother Jones:

I want you to pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor.  Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it.  We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props.  Look things in the face.  Don't fear a governor; don't fear anybody.  You pay the governor; he has the right to protect you.  You are the biggest part of the population in the state.  You create its wealth, so I say, "let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will."

 

Noam Chomsky: 

Labor Unions are the leading force for democratization and progress.

 

Old Song:   

The boss don’t listen when one guy squawks; but he’s gotta listen when the Union talks.

 

Pope Paul VI:

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. 

 

Rebecca Gordon:

Never forget – people DIED for the eight-hour workday.

 

Richard Trumpka:

While we are always willing to negotiate as equals, the era of union busting, contract trashing, and strike breaking is at an end.  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!

 

Samuel Gompers:

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:

You can't do it unless you organize.

 

Shirley Chisolm:

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.

 

Slogan of The Knights of Labor:  

An injury to one is the concern of all.

 

Steve Biko:  

The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people.  This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.

 

Steve Biko:   

The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

 

Susan B. Anthony:

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

 

Thomas Jefferson:   

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.

 

Tony Mazzocchi:

If we don’t lead the way, groups with an ugly agenda will capture the minds of our members.

 

Wendell Phillips:   

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

 

Wife of Striking Auto Worker, 1934:

Just being a woman isn't enough anymore.  I want to be a human being with the right to think for myself.

 

William Burroughs:

The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn’t going to work.  This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and non-violence.  The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high window.

 

Winston Churchill:

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

 

Winston Churchill:

We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.  You do your worst--and we will do our best.