[The labor movement is] a movement of the working people, for the working people, by the working people, governed by ourselves, with its policies determined by ourselves.
SAMUEL GOMPERSThe trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers… It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.
More Samuel Gompers Quotes
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There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.
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So long as we have held fast to voluntary principles and have been actuated and inspired by the spirit of service.
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No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.
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Let social busybodies and professional “public morals experts” in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under this pretense of social welfare.
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Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people. . . .
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There may be here and there a worker who for certain reasons unexplainable to us does not join a union of labor. That is his right. It is his legal right, no matter how morally wrong he may be. It is his legal right, and no one can or dare question his exercise of that legal right.
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There are such wonderful possibilities in the life of each man and woman!
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The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers… It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.
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We will stand by our friends and administer a stinging rebuke to men or parties who are either indifferent, negligent, or hostile, and, wherever opportunity affords, to secure the election of intelligent, honest, earnest trade unionists, with clear, unblemished, paid-up union cards in their possession.
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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.
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The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.
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Workingmen are at the foundation of society.
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The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press have not been granted to the people in order that they may say things which please, and which are based upon accepted thought, but the right to say the things which displease.
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Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.
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So long as there is one [person] who seeks employment and cannot find it, the hours of work are too long.
SAMUEL GOMPERS