unions

I am a citizen of this country,_ I declare, __nd Mr. Mayor, tonight I will be a citizen of this city when I put my shoes under my bed. The courageous men, women and children who are with me (blocked from crossing the bridge into NYC) are also citizens of this country and will be sleeping near their shoes too. I want them with me tonight, here, in the city of New York. We are all American citizens._ _ Mother Jones

Go home now,_ says I. __eep away from the saloons. Save your money. You are going to need it.___hat are we going to need it for?_ asks a voice from the crowd.__or guns and ammunition,_ says I.

Honey, it isn__ democracy that runs this country. Capitalism rules. It does no good to reason with the capitalists or their politicians. This is a class war. We have to stir up the American people, the lower class. Some of the better-off lower class do show some sympathy for us when they__e smacked with the facts. And when they voice themselves collectively, good things happen._ _ Mother Jones

What the hell__ the matter with you men? Are you cowards as well as stupid? You boys make me sick. I__ done with you. You hear me? I want you to go back to your places now and stay with your children until I say you__e needed.__ell your wives and your older children to bring with them dish pans and cooking pots. Tell them to bring their stirring spoons and ladles. Tell them to carry a mop over their shoulders. We__e goin_ to march on that mine and we__e going to stand guard to see that no scabs are allowed in. Do you hear me?_ _ Mother Jones

Well, honey, it__ capitalism that brings out the meanness and greed,_ says I. __ur founding fathers did a decent job of framing our democracy. They wrote the Constitution and added a Bill of Rights that intended for people of all classes to enjoy the freedoms the Constitution offers. But capitalism came along without a constitution or a bill of rights and the industrialists grabbed unrestricted power. The capitalists wrote their own __eclaration of Capitalism_._ _ Mother Jones

Turning back to the crowd I say, __ am duty bound to make this plea, but I want to say, with all due respect to the governor here, that I doubt seriously that he will do _ cannot do _ anything. And for the reason that he is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the capitalists who placed him here in this building._ _ Mother Jones

Democracy is supposed to be __f the people, by the people and for the people_. Capitalism is __f the capitalist, for the capitalist_. Period.

What do you see out there?_ I ask. __ittsburgh,_ he replies. Now I laugh. __o, young man. What you see is hell with the lid taken off._ _ Mother Jones

I go back to the union man and say, __ir, this is a house of God, not a proper place for a union meeting. I have some things to say today that God would not want to hear in His own house. Boys, I want you to get up, every one of you, and go across the road. I want you to sit down on the hillside over there and wait for me to speak to you.

To the RKO motion picture camera at her 100th birthday party: __ pray for the day when working men and women are able to earn a fair share of the wealth they produce in a capitalist system, a day when all Americans are able to enjoy the freedom, rights and opportunities guaranteed them by the Constitution of the United States of America._ _ Mother Jones

That__ got to stop,_ says I. __he idea of any blood-thirsty pirate (Mexican President Diaz) sitting on a throne and reaching across the border to tromp on our Constitution makes my blood boil._ _ Mother Jones

I would rather have strong enemies than a world of passive individualists. In a world of passive individualists nothing seems worth anything simply because nobody stands for anything. That world has no convictions, no victories, no unions, no heroism, no absolutes, no heartbeat. That world has rigor mortis.

Organized labor is organized to take control of an asset away from its rightful owners without paying for it. Organized labor is organization of property by those who don't own it. Organized labor, by driving up the costs of production through coercive means, destroys industries. Organized labor is piracy without the boats and eye patches. Why would anybody want to celebrate organized labor?

Separate is not equal. Civil unions are civil unions. Marriage is marriage. They're different institutions.

The working people of the Flint area hated this rag, but it was our only daily so you read it. Everyone called it the "Flint Urinal." Editorially, the paper had historically been on the wrong side of every major social and political issue of the twentieth century -- "the wrong side" meaning: whatever side the union workers were on, the Urinal took the opposite position.

The time between two seconds was immeasurable, and though I knew our moment would come to an end, it would be a limitless one. We were two halves of one being who had at last found each other and come together in this union.

Let the Unions become engines for the working people to right their wrongs. Not benefit societies, or burial clubs. Let the Unions become civilian regiments to fight in the cause of the people.

In spring, 1937, of course, families still rode the rails because of the Depression, which everyone said was already in the history books as the worst ever. The jobs still couldn__ be found, at least for most people. Everett itself__he smaller, poorer, little brother lying north of Seattle__ched with the unemployed and the hopeless. The labor union tensions in the woods still festered and got bloody at times. But Skybillings__nd the railroad logging shows of the Cascade Mountains__elt like they were, inch-by-inch, rebuilding America.