Harry Bridges famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

The most important word in the language of the working class is "solidarity."
-- Harry Bridges

#Class #Important #Language
No man has ever been born a Negro hater, a Jew hater, or any other kind of hater. Nature refuses to be involved in such suicidal practices.
-- Harry Bridges

#Suicidal #Men #Practice
Labor cannot stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under.
-- Harry Bridges

#Goes On #Retreat #Labor
Finally, it was about how people treat one another. It was about human dignity. We forced the employers to treat us as equals, to sit down and talk to us about the work we do, how we do it, and what we get paid for it. And I believe that the principles for which we fought in 1934 are still true and still useful. Whether your job is pushing a four-wheeler, or programming a computer, I don't know of any way for working people to win basic economic justice and dignity except by being organized into a solid, democratic union.
-- Harry Bridges

#Jobs #Believe #Winning
I would have worked with the devil himself if he'd been for the six hour day and worker control of the hiring hall.
-- Harry Bridges

#Evil #Six #Hours
There will always be a place for us somewhere, somehow, as long as we see to it that working people 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.
-- Harry Bridges

#War #Fighting #Equality
I'm a working stiff. I just happened to be around at the right time, and nobody else wanted the job.
-- Harry Bridges

#Jobs #Right Time #Wanted
Im a machine man, and I head a machine.
-- Harry Bridges

#Men #Machines
There is a weapon we can fight with. That is the weapon of political action.
-- Harry Bridges

#Fighting #Political #Weapons

In the 18th century, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people - the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same.
Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition
I think the success of democracy is not really police security; it's the presence of a broad middle class. The stronger the middle class of a people is, the less you have to worry about one group coming in and exploiting the democratic process for its own ends.
The difference between a gourmet and a gourmand we take to be this: a gourmet is he who selects, for his nice and learned delectation, the most choice delicacies, prepared in the most scientific manner; whereas the gourmand bears a closer analogy to that class of great eaters ill-naturedly (we dare say) denominated, or classed with, aldermen.
I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands.
I taught a lot of art history, especially Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. But the painting classes came back. The nudes came back. Not so much the still lifes. So now our department is the worst department, partly because it has the worst facilities.
Every time a congressman or pundit says its 'class warfare' to increase taxes on the wealthy, it's a massive lie.
I think bad politics are incredibly dangerous, so it's important to make sure that people are communicating well. Culture and morale are super important. It's best to not force it, but let it happen organically and genuinely.
One of the very important characteristics of a student is to question. Let the students ask questions.
Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe.

Harry Bridges famous quotes

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