Paul R. Soglin Quotes

I have been arrested several times protesting.

After the first International Days of Protest in October, 1965, Senator Mansfield criticized the 'sense of utter irresponsibility' shown by the demonstrators.

Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act.

We are on the threshold of a significant breakthrough, and the greatest weapon is the mass demonstration.

October of 2011, Occupy protestors descended upon McPherson Square, and they decided to stay. Despite the clear language of the law, these protestors camped at McPherson Square with the definition of camping being sleeping or preparing to sleep.

But why shouldn't I speak out? Don't you speak out in this country?

It's beyond me how anybody can look at these protestors and call them anything other than what they are: anti-American, anticapitalist, pro-Marxist communists.

If you athletes boycott the Olympics, it will be like a rock dropping in the water. The ripples and waves will be felt all over. You can be that rock. No one will die and that is the way to fight.

Surely one can be a dissident without intending to run for a higher public office.

A boycott is the most peaceful and passive kind of protest there is and can be. We do not say we hate you or even say that you are wrong. We just say that we don’t want to ride your bus.

Peoples do not defy repression and death, nor do they remain for nights on end protesting energetically, just because of merely formal matters.

Different people were complaining, and I remember saying, 'Why don't we just demonstrate?' The Whitney was the first.

'Boycott caused all the trouble,' they say, as if I could have canvassed all those people personally to take a stand in 1983. Nonsense! The committee were the ones with the power to make the decisions, not me. They started the unrest, they did the sackings, and they reaped what they sowed.

Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.

I think the Women's March is actually reflective of this idea that you can create a big tent, but that doesn't mean the people inside of the tent are going to agree on everything. In fact, they might have very public fights about the things that they don't agree with.

Even as a child, I was witness to protests against a film or a play or a book. All through my growing years, I found various people or organisations protesting against something.

As a life-long liberal who has engaged in protests against the government and for civil rights, I am saddened at efforts by some of my fellow liberals to silence commencement speakers with whom they might disagree on some issues.

The point that I would make is it's easy for somebody like me to be critical of Colin Kaepernick, but I haven't suffered some of the same issues that Colin Kaepernick has. On some level, it's like, how dare I weigh in on what Kaepernick is doing or feeling?

It's interesting to me that the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, and in the marches, people were singing 'Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.'

As a protester, I protested because I had to, not because it was exciting. I don't want to get tear-gassed again.

They [President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton] have said that everybody should root for the success of President-Elect [Donald] Trump, but what about - those are the protesters protesting President-Elect Trump.

I marched and I protested against the war in Vietnam, along with many, many thousands of others. But I never quite understood the bombs that were placed in science labs or office buildings.

It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.

Mass civil disobedience can use rage as a constructive and creative force.

I think that any time you look at the fact that boycotts have historically led to change, whatever temporary inconvenience there may be, it in the long run leads toward, in my opinion, a better change for everybody.