Howard Zinn Quotes

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.

When millions of people stand up and fight...they win.

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.

Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.

We have to realize we are building a movement.

We have to organize. We have to build up coalitions across all of these people who are considered "the other." If we all banded together and built coalitions that were truly intersectional, we would be in power. I believe in the power of the people.

Movements are not radical. Movements are the American way. A small group of abolitionists writing and speaking eventually led to the end of slavery. A few stirred-up women brought about women's voting. The Populist movement, the Progressive movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the women's movement - the examples go on and on of 'little people' getting together and telling the truth about their lives. They made our government act.

Individual struggles merge into larger social movements.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

So we must stand together to resist, for we will get what we can take - just that and no more.

Being part of social movements like Black Lives Matter or organizations like NAACP, or any group representing a cause, gives you more resources, knowledge, and power. They can help you use your voice.

Hillary Clinton is the problem; she is not the solution to Donald Trump. We are the solution. We are the ones we've been waiting for. This is our moment. Together, we do have the power to create an America and a world that works for all of us.

People don't realize they have the power. People don't realize that if they come together, there are more of them than those who occupy the seat that I'm in right now.

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 essence of Ferguson is the spirit of the people, and I'm so happy to see the spirit because I haven't seen it like that since the Civil Rights Movement.

The first step in community organization is community disorganization.

It's about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It's not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them... 'Black Messiah' is not one man. It's a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.

In Chile, they had penas, where the community would come together to sing and plan how they were going to overthrow the government. There's a real hopefulness in that community style of organizing.

We the voice of the young world. We the voice of the people.

There is no sound more powerful than the marching feet of a determined people.

I think we're at a time where people just want to join together and cause change. People don't want to live like this any more.

If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.

The point is change can come about, but it only comes about when millions of people are actively involved in political struggle, the billionaires may have the money, but we have the people.

True resistance begins with people confronting pain... and wanting to do something to change it.