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see also biography
books listings of this site's booklist
this is a beginning selection. There will be more listed on this site in the future
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Listings from other sites
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Samuel Gompers
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| "We want more school
houses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less
vice; more constant work and less crime; more leisure and less greed; more
justice and less revenge; |
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Eugene Debs, 1885-1926
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"The earth is for all the people. That is the demand.
The machinery of production and distribution for all the people. That is the demand. The
collective ownership and control of industry and its democratic management
in the interest of all the people. That is the demand. " |
Lucy Parsons 1853-1942
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| "The great strike
of May 1886 was an historical event of great importance, inasmuch as it
was . . . the first time that the workers themselves had attempted to get
a shorter workday by united, simultaneous action.... This strike was the
first in the nature of Direct Action on a large scale. . . .Of course the
eight-hour day is as antiquated as the craft unions themselves. Today we
should be agitating for a five-hour workday." |
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Fannie Sellins
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Kate Richards O"Hare 1876-1948
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| "Dimly I began to realize that if we would
win (the fight against poverty) we must fight the cause and not the effects,
and since poverty was the fundamental cause of the things I abhored, I
began to study poverty, its whys and wherefores, and to try to understand
why there should be so much want in such a world of plenty."
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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1890-1964
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| "The majority of our
workers are foreigners, one or two generations removed, and with their European
home-ties and American environment, internationalism becomes the logical
patriotism of a heterogeneous population....America--not as a melting-pot,
that produces a jingoistic, mercenary, one-mold type, but as a giant loom
weaving into a mighty whole the sons, the poetry, the traditions, and the
customs of all races, until a beautiful human fabric, with each thread intact,
comes forth--would stretch forth a myriad hands of brotherhood to the four
quarters of the globe." |
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Rose
Schneiderman 1882-1972
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"I know from my
experience it is up to the working people to
save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class
movement." |
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Frank Little 1880 – 1917
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"I don't give a damn what country your
country is fighting, I am fighting for the solidarity of labor." |
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| Little's gravestone remains a much visited site in Butte, where he was
killed. His graveston reads: "slain by capitalist interest for organizing
and inspiring his fellow men" |
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A. Philip Randolph, 1889-1979
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| "The combination
of black and white workers will be a powerful lesson to the capitalists
of the solidarity of labor. It will show that labor, black and white, is
conscious of its interests and power. This will prove that unions are not
based upon race lines, but upon class lines. This will serve to convert
a class of workers, which has been used by the capitalist class to defeat
organized labor, into an ardent, class conscious, intelligent, militant
group." |
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Harry Bridges
1901 - 1990
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| "There will always be a place for us somewhere, somehow,
as long as we see to it that working people struggle on, fight for everything
they have, everything they hope to get, for dignity, equality, democracy,
to oppose war and to bring to the world a better life." |
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Others in rough chronological order --send me your suggestions
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Oral Histories
Available on-line
see History Matters guide to evaluating oral history use
- American Memory site, has over 2000 life histories from the WPA, many deal with workers and working conditions
- Roosevelt University Center for New Deal Studies Oral History Project in Labor History: Posted transcripts of labor activists
- Studs Terkel: Conversations with America
- Bridgeport, Connecticut Oral Histories (click on oral history at site) dozens of full transcripts of workers
- Lowell Massachusetts digital oral histories
- Like a Family -selected interviews about life on farm, mill villages and textile factories in south, and resistance to the regime
- Documenting the American South -southern workers and others discuss work and conflicts among other topics, conducted from 1970s to 2005
- Seattle Oral Histories with civil rights activists (most working class)and
- Seattle Oral Histories of Communists
- Genora (Johnson) Dollinger Remembers the 1936-37 General Motors Sit-Down Strike (long-oral history account)
- GE woman workers’ memories of WWII
- Ruth Young Jandreau’s memories of the United Electrical Workers union and women during War and post-war era
- U.S. Latinos and Latinas in WWII America Oral History project –follow links to one or two stories
- Long-Haul American workers series-many occupations, many interviews; "examines the meaning of work in people's lives. These stories profile workers' dreams and aspirations; their goals and motivations. Their stories show how they deal with power and authority, humiliation and stress; how they maintain dignity in tedious, thankless jobs; and how they measure their contributions, worth and importance."
- Waterfront Workers oral histories
- Farmworkers union organizing oral histories -many of the key players
- Virtual Oral History Archive. California State University Long Beach collection of 300 hours of interviews with labor activists and workers
- U.S. Labor and Industrial History www audio archive collection -- audio recordings
- Dead Anarchists
- Pauline Newman Working for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company
- Margaret Darin (UE-CIO 1930s-1940s activist)
- WTO History Project “Our unique collection of interviews with protest organizers and participants sheds light on the behind-the-scenes cooperative (and sometimes contentious) relationships among social movement organizations involved in the protests. While many additional materials may be physically examined at MSCUA, we have selected for electronic access from the collection some materials which are most illustrative of the diversity of the protests and which most represent the intense mobilization that made the events so dramatic. Our collection, donated by a great number of generous individuals, seeks to be representative of the diversity of interests that participated in the protests while paying special attention to the role played by organized Labor in these historic events. "
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Sources
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