Mother Jones Quotes
On their side the workers had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets.
Mary Harris Jones, 1830-1930, [Mother Jones], Co-Founder, Social Democratic Party and IWW, Labor Organizer, Autobiography
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
While Ray was very sympathetic towards the strike, his father’s attitude was typical of that of business men across the nation. A picket line or demonstration was a “mob” and mobs should be broken up before they do physical damage to people or property. “Grape” and “canister” were types of ammunition for cannon that was used against personnel in war. One shell could kill 20-30 men in a crowd.
This was a great victory for the Victor Berger wing of the party. They purged the violence advocates and communists from the party. Despite this, a few right wingers call any socialist a communist and a revolutionary.
This statement from an avowed Marxist illustrates the complexity of the Cold War. Marxists and Communists like Pannekoek felt that there had to be a workers’ movement to overcome the capitalist interest in a nuclear arms race. However, they also believed that Russia had botched communism so badly that there could be no workers’ movement in the Soviet Union because of the repression. Only in America they believed could the impetus for disarmament come.
Muste raised money for the strikers and was soon made the executive secretary of the strike committee for 25,000 strikers. A. J. placed himself at the head of the picket line and was beat to exhaustion by the police and arrested. Several weeks into the strike, the police tried to provoke violence by lining up machine guns and having a labor spy urge the strikers to overcome them.
Commenting on the 1886 Knights of Labor strike.
This quotation became a slogan of the miners. Lewis did not originate it. It has been referred to as early as 1902 in the bitter coal strike of that year. Generally coal mining strikes have involved more force and military than most labor disputes. While labor representatives maintain that force does not help, mine owners have believed that force is absolutely necessary. See Richard B. Mellon’s testimony to Congress in 1937--{563576}.
Labor unions as we know them did not then exist. Calhoun and many others saw the struggle as a inherent class struggle, not unlike that particular view of Karl Marx. See {606584} for one his more extreme views on the subject.
Holland was officially Napoleon’s ally, but he and the French military leaders were not satisfied with the military or logistical support they were getting from the Dutch. Field Marshal Marmont was sent to Holland to “improve” the situation. When one of his demands seemed excessive a delegation of leading Dutch politicians met with him and reminded him that Holland was a sovereign country and France military officers could not issue orders in Holland. This was his famous response.
In 1902 there was a major coal strike in which Roosevelt pressured the coal operators to make concessions to labor. The abuses of some of the large monopolistic enterprises were turning large segments of America against capitalism. TR always believe that he saved capitalism from its own self destruction. The same has been felt about Franklin Delano Roosevelt who many believe saved American capitalism in the Great Depression.
The second statement was made after he had been arrested and was in jail.
Mary G. Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She helped coordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World.
