Labor and Freedom: The Voice and Pen of Eugene V. DebsDebs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor)
History
Labor and Freedom: The Voice and Pen of Eugene V. Debs
Debs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor)
Labor -- United States; Socialism -- United States; Socialist Party (U.S.); Working class -- United States
In the name of the workers the Socialist party condemns the capitalist
system. In the name of freedom it condemns wage-slavery. In the name of
modern industry it condemns poverty, idleness and famine. In the name of
peace it condemns war. In the name of civilization it condemns the
murder of little children. In the name of enlightenment it condemns
ignorance and superstition. In the name of the future it arraigns the
past at the bar of the present, and in the name of humanity it demands
social justice for every man, woman and child.
The Socialist party knows neither color, creed, sex, nor race. It knows
no aliens among the oppressed and down-trodden. It is first and last the
party of the workers, regardless of their nationality, proclaiming their
interests, voicing their aspirations, and fighting their battles.
It matters not where the slaves of the earth lift their bowed bodies
from the dust and seek to shake off their fetters, or lighten the burden
that oppresses them, the Socialist party is pledged to encourage and
support them to the full extent of its power. It matters not to what
union they belong, or if they belong to any union, the Socialist party
which sprang from their struggle, their oppression, and their
aspiration, is with them through good and evil report, in trial and
defeat, until at last victory is inscribed upon their banner.
_Fighting Labor's Battles._
Whether it be in the textile mills of Lawrence and other mills of New
England where men, women and children are ground into dividends to gorge
a heartless, mill-owning plutocracy; or whether it be in the lumber and
railroad camps of the far Northwest where men are herded like cattle and
insulted, beaten and deported for peaceably asserting the legal right to
organize; or in the conflict with the civilized savages of San Diego
where men who dare be known as members of the Industrial Workers of the
World are kidnaped, tortured and murdered in cold blood in the name of
law and order; or in the city of Chicago where that gorgon of
capitalism, the newspaper trust, is bent upon crushing and exterminating
the pressmen's union; or along the Harriman lines of railroad where the
slaves of the shops have been driven to the alternative of striking or
sacrificing the last vestige of their manhood and self-respect, in all
these battles of the workers against their capitalist oppressors the
Socialist party has the most vital concern and is freely pledged to
render them all the assistance in its power.
These are the battles of the workers in the war of the classes and the
battles of the workers, wherever and however fought, are always and
everywhere the battles of the Socialist party.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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