Tom Perez Quotes

Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life.

In order to have economic democracy you have to have equal access to property.

Fair Shares for All, is Labour's Call

Economic democracy and political democracy are like two legs of a person. They must go side by side…. Once people know about their rights and claim their rights, nothing is going to stop them.

Equality begins with economic empowerment.

Unless you’re at the very top, you need a more equitable economy.

The history of the African American community is one of enduring, relentless struggle with a vision of accepting nothing less than full social and economic equality.

My goal is to eradicate poverty. I think we can't have equality until we eradicate poverty.

[Martin Luther King, Jr.] would want us to celebrate him, his birth, and his legacy by acting upon his agenda, by realizing the dream, by making the minimum wage a living wage, by having not just family and medical leave, but paid sick leave for our workers, [and] by having quality, affordable child care so that our families, the power of women can be unleashed in our economy and in our society.

I believe what Martin Luther King Jr. believed. You remember what the title of the March on Washington was? "Jobs and Freedom." What King understood is that you have to deal with the economic issues as well as the political issues and the civil rights issues.

If the world is made to furnish each individual with the means of livelihood and the instruments for his growth and progress, each man has therefore the right to find in the world what is necessary for himself. The recent Council reminded us of this: "God intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of every human being and people. Thus, as all men follow justice and unite in charity, created goods should abound for them on a reasonable basis."

I'm still committed to the socialist idea because the socialist idea, correctly understood, includes the principles of freedom and social justice. It also includes the recognition of the value of democracy. When we speak about social justice, it means that freedom should be used not only in the interest of profit but also in the interest of the advancement of the people who create all values.

The Democratic party is one that I've always observed. I have struggled greatly in life from the day I was born and I am honored to be apart of something that focuses on working class citizens and molds them into a proud specimen. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Kennedy have done so much in that regard for the two generations they've won over during their career course.

Martin Luther King took us to the mountain top: I want to take us to the bank.

We need to go everywhere. There is not one county in this state, I don't care how far west you go, that doesn't have Democrats. We have to be proud of who we are.

And my approach has always been to stand up and speak out on behalf of the economic rights of people.

There's a wider agenda that speaks to what the Democratic Party has historically stood for, which are economic rights for those who are struggling in the middle class, concern for the poor, for economic justice for those who are marginalized in our society.

I am a social democrat - I believe in pursuing greater equality and tackling social justice - but... you can't do that unless you have got a strong economy, unless you have got a vibrant business base earning the wealth that makes that possible.

Civil rights are meaningless without economic rights.

Until economic freedom is attained for everybody, there can be no real freedom for anybody.

Prohibiting Poverty

I have tried to suggest that injustice is not necessary economic -- that the economics can work, and has often worked, when the constituency for it is animated. The politics of equality -- that is a little harder.

I don't believe we need to choose between addressing economic issues and addressing issues of social or racial justice.

Worrying about the poor is one thing. To contend that equality is necessary for growth is an altogether different and more radical idea.

As someone who has dealt with economic hardship, I am committed to making the changes necessary for our country to become more equitable. And to do so, I believe we need to think big.