Labor Movements Quotes

Some say politics means destruction to labor organizations, but the reverse is the fact.

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

There are only two ways to bring about protection of the workers, however, legislation and unionization. So far the majority of the people in this country seem to favor unions as a more democratic and elastic method, though certain things must be dealt with by legislation

If I were the president of the United States, I would make unions illegal. They no longer serve a functional purpose in democracy, in my view.

It was impossible to govern the industrial sector in opposition to the workers … it was equally impossible to govern the great agrarian sector in opposition to the peasants.

I think it is just stupid economics for a government to approach economic management from a strand of thinking regarding unions as enemies.

The trade unions, far from being content with these declarations, established international liaisons and supported every policy based on pacification and understanding.

I got my start in lefty journalism as a labor reporter at 'In These Times', and it's in my blood.

Republicans are always much more supportive of unions in Poland than they are of unions in the United States.

At school, up to the age of sixteen, I found history boring, for we were studying the Industrial Revolution, which was all about Acts, Trade Unions and the factory system, and I wanted to know about people, because it is people who make history.

I look back at history, and some of the worst governments we've ever had, you know one of the first things they ever did? They went after the trade unions.

The things you have to do to be effective - like forming a union at a fast food joint or a telemarketing company - aren't going to work unless you do things like solidarity strikes. Solidarity strikes are illegal. They've been illegal since the '40s, and they were made illegal because they work.

Unionization, as opposed to communism, presupposes the relation of employment; it is based upon the wage system and it recognizes fully and unreservedly the institution of private property and the right to investment profit.

FDR was enormously influenced by this, and afraid. I mean, his intervention was to save capitalism. It wasn't to basically appease the workers. And I think that today you don't have those movements.

English labor and Continental socialism do not speak at all the same language. Such differences in terminology are the external expression of differences that strike deeper and are due to the various social environments in which contemporary socialism has been formed and developed.

I am not a labor hater.

It is true that they paid much more attention to the trade unions because the trade unions were after all speaking for the rights and conditions of working men and women in their employment.