Skillnad mellan versioner av "Eugene Debs"

Nuvarande version från 19 november 2011 kl. 15.31

Eugene Victor Debs (1855 – 1926) var en amerikansk socialist, ledare för Socialist Party of America och av grundarna av IWW. Debs ställde upp som presidentkandidat vid fem tillfällen, han fick han 6 % av rösterna vid valet 1912, men även nästan en miljon röster vid valet 1920, då han satt i fängelse för sin anti-militarism.

Citat

Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like all other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.

If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and misrepresentatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind then 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.

I am not a Labor Leader; 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 lead you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.

Litteratur

• Ginger, R: The bending Cross: A Biography of E V Debs, 1948.