In honor of Labor Day.....Workers of the World Unite!

[marmar]

"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

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

- Cesar Chavez

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"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."

- Eugene Debs

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"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.

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

- Molly Ivins

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"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

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

- Wendell Phillips

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

- Jimmy Carter

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

- Shirley Chisholm

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"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor."

- George Orwell

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"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 to 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

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"As it has over the decades, the union movement stands for the fundamental moral values that make America strong: quality education for our children, affordable health care for every person—not just some—an end to poverty, secure pensions and wages that enable families to sustain the middle-class life that has fueled this nation’s prosperity and strength. Union members and other working family activists don’t just vote our moral values—we live them. We fight for them, day in, day out. Our commitment to economic and social justice propels us and everything we do."

- John Sweeney

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"It was early springtime that the strike was on
They moved us miners out of doors
Out from the houses that the company owned
We moved into tents at old Ludlow

I was worried bad about my children
Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge
Every once in a while a bullet would fly
Kick up gravel under my feet

We were so afraid they would kill our children
We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep
Carried our young ones and a pregnant woman
Down inside the cave to sleep

That very night you soldier waited
Until us miners were asleep
You snuck around our little tent town
Soaked our tents with your kerosene

You struck a match and the blaze it started
You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns
I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me
Thirteen children died from your guns

I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner
Watched the fire till the blaze died down
I helped some people grab their belongings
While your bullets killed us all around

I will never forget the looks on the faces
Of the men and women that awful day
When we stood around to preach their funerals
And lay the corpses of the dead away

We told the Colorado governor to call the President
Tell him to call off his National Guard
But the National Guard belong to the governor
So he didn't try so very hard

Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes
Up to Walsenburg in a little cart
They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back
And put a gun in every hand

The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corner
They did not know that we had these guns
And the red neck miners mowed down them troopers
You should have seen those poor boys run

We took some cement and walled that cave up
Where you killed those thirteen children inside
I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union"

- Woody Guthrie

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Those are great quotes...

Here's mine:

Work is love made visible...

~Khalil Gibran, "The Prophet."

Happy Labor Day!


:patriot:

[marmar]

2. That quote is brilliant in its simplicity!

Happy Labor Day, californiapeggy.

[RB TexLa]

3. Of the world???? Good luck with that concept at this site! In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ....

You will get some saying. "of the world? You talking about supporting foreigners stealing our jobs! Only red blooded Mericans are worthy of having a job! Your nothing but an God damn outsourcing republican!"

[Doctor Cynic]

4. Sorry. That's May 1.

[marmar]

5. Oh, so I suppose you can't use that phrase on any day but May 1......

:eyes:

[bread_and_roses]

6. It works on any day for me. I'll say it with marmar

"Workers of the world, unite!"