What does Labor Day mean to you? September 3, 2007

— Ricardo Levins Morales, Northland Poster Cooperative

Labor can not stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under.

—Harry Bridges

When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.

— Cesar Chavez

The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining-it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process.

— Paul Clark

When people ask me, “Why can’t labor organize the way it did in the thirties?” the answer is simple: everything we did then is now illegal.

— Thomas Geoghegan

If you object to unfair treatment, you’re an ingrate. If you seek equity and fair consideration, you’re uppity. If you demand union security, you’re un-American. If you rebel against repressive management tactics, they will lynch and scalp you. But if you are passive and patient, they will take advantage of both.

— Congressman William Clay, Sr.

It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.

—Samuel Gompers

Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday.

—Rebecca Gordon

The mountain rests on the earth: the image of splitting apart. Thus those above can insure their position only by giving generously to those below.

—I Ching

For more on what Labor Day means to me, read my original screenplay, Equity.

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