Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes
The recent dastardly attack on Walter Reuther of the United Automobile Workers was a shocking occurrence. No matter how great our disagreements are, if we are to continue to be a country ruled by law and not by violence, we must try to bring the whole force of public opinion against actions of this kind, whether they are individual actions motivated by some personal feeling or whether they are group actions.
The great union leader had been shot at though his home window in an attempted assassination. Fortunately, the bullet missed, but national tension was very high. In the half of the 20th century a not uncommon way of busting unions was to hire goons to assault and/or kill union leaders and organizers. A not uncommon method of putting pressure on companies was for unions to have goons sabotage machinery, burn facilities, and destroy or ruin inventory. The WWII period saw this class warfare violence for settling labor issues diminish greatly, and the attack on Reuther potentially might have been the trigger to return to the pre war days of much violence in labor disputes. Mrs. Roosevelt and other national leaders weighed in by many means to prevent that. They were successful, and although there have been a few throwbacks, the class warfare of physical violence is no longer a characteristic of American labor relations. The class warfare has moved to the courts, the lobbyists, campaign organizing and contributions and economic intimidation.
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, First Lady (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), U. S. Delegate to the United Nations, Newspaper Column, My Day, April 29, 1948
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He had squads of thugs that he would “rent” out to other gangsters for their enforcement activities and to unions to protect themselves from goons and intimidate non union workers. However, he would not let his men work as goons and strike busters or for companies—despite huge pay offers—to keep their workers in line, a common practice at the time.
Vladimir Lenin
Big Bill Haywood. Historically, the upper economic and business class, including currently, tend to view all labor organizations and unions as socialistic and or communistic and attach them for being such. However, in many industries in America today labor has a great deal of power and the industries are not socialistic or communist. The IWW however was one of the labor organizations that was based on socialism and contained many communists over the years. Haywood himself was a leader of the Socialist Party and campaigned for Eugene Debbs. Like Debbs he was convicted of an unconstitutional law of speaking against the WWI draft. Unlike Debbs who went to prison and was released later, Haywood skipped bail and lived in Russia for the rest of his life.
It was written from prison while he was awaiting execution.
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.
The speech was in the midst of a very bitter strike where goons and strikebreakers assaulted miners and a few miners resorted to violence.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat and activist. She served as the First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1933, to April 12, 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving First Lady of the United States. Roosevelt served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.
