Eugene V. Debs Quotes
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As long as this great army of workers is scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for them to unite and act in harmony together. Craft unionism is the negation of solidarity. The more unions you have, the less unity.
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Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage... I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves.
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You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder.
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The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society - we are on the eve of universal change.
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I would no more teach children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination.
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Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results.
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The economic owning class is always the political ruling class.
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The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter, the robber. So the truth must be supressed.
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I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out.
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One glance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that these unions (railroad craft unions) are exceedingly useful to the corporations; and to the extent that they serve the economic and political purposes of the corporations, they are the foes – and not the friends – of the working class.
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I would rather be arrested as a traitor than fight a war for Wall Street.
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While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
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Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.
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I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.
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In all the history of organized labor, from the earliest times to the present day, no body of union workingmen ever served in a more humiliating and debasing role than that in which the railway unions appear at this very hour before the American people and the world.
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The American people can have anything they want; the trouble is, they don't know what they want.
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The guns on the walls that surround the prison accurately, though unwittingly, index the true character of the penitentiary in our day.
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I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.
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Nothing is more humiliating than to have to beg for work, and a system in which any man has to beg for work stands condemned. No man can defend it.
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I do not oppose the insane asylum - but I abhor and condemn the cutthroat system that robs man of his reason, drives him to insanity and makes the lunatic asylum an indispensable adjunct to every civilized community.
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Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
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Riches are the savings of many in the hands of one.
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If the people would but analyze the human equation of a prison they might better account for the crimes that are visited upon them in cities, towns, and hamlets, ofttimes by men who graduated with an education and equipment for just that sort of retributive service from some penal institution.
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Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.