Best Labour Movement Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“You might think that the Left could have a regime-change perspective of its own, based on solidarity with its comrades abroad. After all, Saddam's ruling Ba'ath Party consolidated its power by first destroying the Iraqi communist and labor movements, and then turning on the Kurds (whose cause, historically, has been one of the main priorities of the Left in the Middle East). When I first became a socialist, the imperative of international solidarity was the essential if not the defining thing, whether the cause was popular or risky or not. I haven't seen an anti-war meeting all this year at which you could even guess at the existence of the Iraqi and Kurdish opposition to Saddam, an opposition that was fighting for 'regime change' when both Republicans and Democrats were fawning over Baghdad as a profitable client and geopolitical ally. Not only does the 'peace' movement ignore the anti-Saddam civilian opposition, it sends missions to console the Ba'athists in their isolation, and speaks of the invader of Kuwait and Iran and the butcher of Kurdistan as if he were the victim and George W. Bush the aggressor.”

Source: Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left

“And that's the real reason the powerful fear open systems and networks. If anyone can set up a free voicecall to anyone else in the world, using the net, then we can all communicate with the same ease that's standard for the high and mighty. [...] And if any worker, anywhere, can communicate with any other worker, anywhere, for free, instantaneously, without the boss's permission, then, brother, look out, because the Coase cost of demanding better pay, better working conditions and a slice of the pie just got a *lot* cheaper. And the people who have the power aren't going to sit still and let a bunch of grunts take it away from them.”

Labour Movement Economics Society

Book:For The Win

Source: For The Win

“The right of the labour movement, to be honest, has no ideas of any compelling quality, except the instinct for short-term political survival. It would not know an ideological struggle if it stumbled across one in the dark. The only ‘struggle’ it engages in with any trace of conviction is the one against the left.”

Labour Movement

Book:The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left

Source: The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left

“But what if all the workers we went to said the same thing? What if, everywhere he [the boss] went, there were workers saying, 'We are worth so much,' and 'We will not be treated this way,' and 'You cannot take away our jobs unless there is a just reason for doing so'? What if all workers, everywhere, demanded this treatment?”

Labour Movement

Book:For The Win

Source: For The Win

“Labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.”

Today Certain Known Sun Planets Labor Ultimate Missions Setting Settings Realization Historic Labor Movement Organized Labor Unionism Labour Movement

Author:Eugene V. Debs

“I have been very interested in labor movement. If I could have wished another life, I would have loved to be a pioneer woman in the beginning of labor movement.”

Ifs Has Beens Movement Labor If I Could Pioneers Another Life Labor Movement Labour Movement

Author:Astrid Lindgren

“The British Labour movement is today, and for many years has been, working in a narrow circle of strikes that are looked upon, not as an expedient, and not as a means of propaganda, but as an ultimate aim.”

Years Mean Has Beens Today Movement Ultimate Aim British Strikes Circles Propaganda Labour Labour Movement

Author:Friedrich Engels

“Ive been really clear that my first job as leader of the Labour Party and co-leader of the labour movement is to engage with our base.”

Firsts Jobs Party Leader Clear Movement Labour Labour Party Labour Movement

Author:David Cunliffe

“Arthur Scargill is the Labour movements nearest equivalent to a First World War General.”

World Firsts War Movement War Of The Worlds Labour Arthur First World War Labour Movement

Author:Neil Kinnock

“United we stand, divided we fall is one of the oldest and truest slogans of the Labour movement.”

Fall United Movement Labour Divided Slogans Truest Labour Movement United We Stand

Author:Jeremy Corbyn

“Security was the demand which set in motion labour movements in history; trade unions, friendly societies, consumer cooperatives were all about compensating for the impotence of individual resistance.”

Individual Security Movement Demand Trade Unions Resistance Consumers Labour Friendly Impotence Cooperatives Trade Unions Labour Movement

Author:Zygmunt Bauman

“The deliberate weakening of the labour movement by the machinations of market fundamentalists, gaining momentum during the periods when Margaret Thatcher led the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan governed in the United States, contributed to the decline of human rights.”

Humans States United United States Rights Movement Periods Human Rights Kingdoms Labour Decline Deliberate Momentum United Kingdom Weakening Labour Movement

Author:Richard A. Falk

“Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.”

Source: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

“Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.”

Firsts Wealth Labor All Things Paid Originals Labour Labor Day May Day Labour Day Happy Labor Day Labor Day Wishes Labour Day Weekend Funny Labor Day Labour Movement

Author:Adam Smith

“Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.”

“The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.”

People Mean Lasts Evil Wealth Movement Labor Unions Noble Protest Disobedience Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor Union Solidarity Labour Movement

Book:Speeches, Lectures, and Letters: Second series

Source: Speeches, Lectures, and Letters: Second series

“What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.”

“The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.”

Has Beens America Interest Movement Labor Unions Devotion Presidential Consistently Organize Public Interest Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor Unionism Union Solidarity Labour Movement

Author:John F. Kennedy

“Such a scheme.. the betrayal of the national democracy of Industrial Ulster, would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements while it lasted.”

Mean Democracy Progress Movement Unity South Betrayal Reactions Wheels Labour Schemes Carnivals North And South Labour Movement Ulster

Book:James Connolly: Selected Writings

Source: James Connolly: Selected Writings

“We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for.”

Ifs Giving May Helping Hands Light Fighting Mankind Movement Aim Objectives Hills Labour Helping Hand Betterment Worth Fighting For Labour Movement

Author:Ben Chifley

“The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.”

“If a Labour movement, on a bourgeois basis, has hitherto existed in the country where the new movement is awakening it will certainly not disappear all at once.”

Ifs Country Movement Bases Disappear Awakening Labour Bourgeois Labour Movement

Author:Karl Radek

“I had the good fortune to be thrown unexpectedly into something called the Labour Research Unit - a little known organisation set up to assist the fledgling labour movement. It was not a company, nor a statutory board, nor a government department - in fact it did not exist at all as a legal entity. Thus in slightly unorthodox circumstances I became part of that struggle.”

“History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.”

“The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak.”

Helping Strong Principles Movement Labor Weak Unions Organized Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor Labour Movement

Author:John L. Lewis

“In general, if signs of sectarianism do appear in a Socialist Party, these are only the products of the absence of a broad Labour movement in the country.”

Ifs Country Party Movement Products Absence Labour Broads Socialist Sectarianism Labour Movement Socialist Party

Author:Karl Radek

“The labour movement had the best opportunity in 50 years to transform not merely an industrial situation and win an important battle for workers in struggle, but an opportunity to change the government of the day.”

Years Important Government Opportunity Winning Situation Struggle Movement Battle Workers Labour Best Opportunity Opportunity To Change Labour Movement

Author:Arthur Scargill

“Is Tony Blair of the Labour party? The answer to that is profoundly 'yes', but that is not how, sentimentally, he is regarded in the Labour movement generally.”

Answers Party Movement Labour Blair Labour Party Labour Movement

Author:Neil Kinnock

“The history of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. We ought to be proud of it!”

Labour Movement Quotes

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Labour Movement Quotes