Paul Wellstone Quotes

But when others suggested that the poor should not simply be the objects of these programs but also the subjects - that they should be actively involved in shaping the programs, making decisions about how to spend the money etc. - some of the previous supporters reconsidered.

We have to trust the voices of the community to be in leadership and know what we need for our communities.

Democracy must be internally generated. You cannot force it from the top - it's not going to work.

I've done community organizing my whole life and I think to myself, as an organizer, we don't wait for people to come to us and say, 'Help us organize something.' We go out into the community, and we bring the skills to a group of people to organize themselves.

If the government fails to listen to your demands, then you will decide what is best for you.

'Unlikely Brothers' talks about the importance of citizen action and shows why and how we can make a difference.

Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.

If we don't heal our own hood, who will?

This administration and these folk who run Washington are no more interested in our welfare and our well being than the man on the moon. And we have got to start taking our destiny into our hands.

Turmoil is everywhere, and the whole world is waiting for solutions to come from the top down. That's not how it works - community change from the bottom up makes a real difference.

Democracy comes alive not when government does anything, because government cannot be depended on to rectify serious injustices. It comes alive when people organize and do something about it.

Our Revolution has been the keeper of the flame doing the vital work of building a grassroots movement that leverages the people's agenda.

We can't sit around waiting for big government, big business, big religion etc. to save us. We need to get informed and take inspired action.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish - people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people - and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

The first step in community organization is community disorganization.

We want to use our site to galvanize people to give but also to take important steps toward real change.

Public service and community organizing and movement building is such a part of my DNA that it's really hard to separate it.

To rebuild confidence in the power of people working together to create something better, we must give people the power to do precisely that for themselves.

When things happen socially in our community, as artists, we've got the right to exercise our voices if we choose to, use our powers for good.

We're seeing young people find their own voices and find their activism.

The movement for equality and justice can only be a success if it has both a mass and militant character; the barriers to be overcome require both.

We the people are the change makers.

When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress.

We are tired of words, of betrayals, of indifference...they years are gone when the farm worker said nothing an did nothing to help himself...Now we have new faith. Through our strong will, our movement is changing these conditions...We shall be heard.

Sharing experience and building public support for the full range of rights is more powerful than legal cases.