Home / Quotes / Quote by Noam Chomsky

Quote by Noam Chomsky

“I had two spinster aunts who were seamstresses, and of course unemployed in the 1930s, but the union gave them a life. They had a couple of weeks in the country for a union installation and they had educational programs and all sorts of things. There was a life, you know, a real community.”

Quote by Noam Chomsky

Author

Noam Chomsky, born on December 7, 1928, is a renowned linguist from the United States. His research in generative grammar and transformational grammar has had a profound impact on modern linguistics. Chomsky's academic achievements extend beyond linguistics, as he is also an active political commentator and philosopher, known for his unique perspective and profound insights. more

You May Also Like

“They [the union] were members of the Communist Party - they didn't care one way or another about Russia, they just cared about the United States.”

Way States Care United Party United States Members Unions Russia One Way Communist Communist Party

Author:Noam Chomsky

“[My father] came over as an immigrant and didn't know any English. He went to work at a sweat shop in Baltimore. He told me later that this guy was coming around, and the guy seemed to be for the workers, so he signed up. It turned out that guy was an IWW organizer . My father didn't regret signing up; he just really didn't know what was going on.”

Knows Guy Father Regret Workers Shops Immigrants Sweat This Guy That Guy Signing Baltimore Organizer Signing Up

Author:Noam Chomsky

“You've just got to get people organized and tell them the truth. There aren't any magic tricks to it. You know, sometimes it's pretty amazing. Actually, I mentioned a pretty striking case of this in "Crisis and Hope," which was the Caterpillar case in the early 1990s.”

People Knows Sometimes Cases Magic Crisis Tricks Organized Caterpillars Magic Tricks

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Caterpillar was quite important because that was the first manufacturing industry that used Reaganite strike-breaking techniques. They illegally called in scabs to break a major strike. It was reported pretty well in the Chicago Tribune, who pointed out something very interesting. They said that the workers got very little support in Peoria when scabs illegally broke the strike, and that was particularly striking because that whole community had been built up by the union - it was a union-based community.”

“The community itself didn't support the union. Now that's kind of interesting about [Barack] Obama, because Obama was supposedly a community organizer in Chicago at that time. Now I'm sure he read the Chicago Tribune, so he knew about it, but when he went to show his solidarity with the workforce, the first place he went was Caterpillar. I don't think he's forgotten, and the labor movement didn't react. Even radical labor historians didn't remember. It was only 15 years ago, after all, but that's a real triumph of propaganda in many ways.”

“For a while, after the Second World War, when there was strong support for labor, this was done subtly.”

World War Done Strong Support Labor War Of The Worlds Second World War

Author:Noam Chomsky

“[Ronald] Reagan bitterly hated unions and wanted them destroyed. This began with the air controllers' strike and went on from there.”

Wanted Air Unions Strikes Destroyed Hated Controllers

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The [Ronald] Reagan administration told the business world that they were not going to enforce the labor laws.”

World Law Labor Administration Business World Labor Laws

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The number of illegal firings tripled during the [Ronald] Reagan years. It was at that time that you started getting these companies that specialized in how to destroy unions.”

Years Numbers Company Unions Illegal Firing

Author:Noam Chomsky

“[Companies that specialized in how to destroy unions] don't make it a secret, and they have all sorts of techniques for management to destroy unions.”

Secret Company Management Unions Technique

Author:Noam Chomsky