Tom Perez Quotes

It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential.

The economists are blind leaders of the blind; they know what is, they do not know what ought to be. They know how the present economic machinery works, they cannot give the drawings for a better machine. That will come from forces outside of professional economics — quite outside of it.

Addressing the weaknesses of capitalism will require us, above all, to do two things: first, to take a long-term perspective, and second, to re-set the priorities of business.

The important part of the present development is the anti-capitalist sentiment that is permeating our people.

We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.

Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.

Occupy is anything but a protest movement. That's why it has been so hard for news agencies to express or even discern the 'demands' of the growing legions of Occupy participants around the nation, and even the world.

We're not short of movements proclaiming that a different world is possible, but unless we can coordinate them into an international movement, capitalism just laughs at all these little organisations.

The thing I have learned this year is that any improvement in the great mass of women is only possible through socialism…

My personal belief in doing Brand New Congress is that the movement needs something to focus on that's constructive.

I think it's important for us not just to edit the culture that capitalism creates but to create the material basis for a culture that we want.

As a society, we need to refocus on creating an economy that works for everyone. I believe the business community is in the best position to lead the way.

Once we link up and network, there will be new institutions, new beginnings, and a change in the economy because capitalism is destroying many people's lives. It's just one leap to think in a different way.

You can't raise the aspirations of a child and then leave them hanging. Poverty can't be solved by a project. It's solved by a relationship, collaboration.

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.

We need a collective moment where we commit ourselves to long-term solutions.

As the Occupy Movement demonstrated, it's tough to change anything when you're talking about everything.

I want the United States to be having a much larger and more public conversation about racist capitalism. We need a radical reimagining of the economy in this country.

If we genuinely believe in a bigger future for our country, we have to redistribute both wealth and power - so people can take back control for good, not just for one vote.

We need to learn how to organize, not just to let our anger explode. We need to have organization for the long run, not for one issue, not for one murder, but for everything coming to us in the next 20, 30 years.

Yes, we believe in globalization and trade, but we also believe in you being able to benefit from that more. For too long, we progressives have seemed like part of the system. We need to start thinking about whether or not it's delivering for us now.

To the extent that Bernie Sanders was about building a movement of people where challenging things that up until then were unchallengeable, then absolutely we want to be seen in that mould.

I'm an organizer at heart. Organizers know that giving information, being in front of people, talking to people, to build our movement for the kind of country that we see is the most important thing.

We've all got to get together and demand something better out of our government and out of each other. We've got a system that's making us working harder, and isn't giving us satisfaction. We've got to sit down and decide what the hell we really want to be as human beings.

A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.