The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years
General
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years
Social justice; Social problems
I will destroy the existing order of things which divides one
humanity into hostile peoples, into strong and weak, into
privileged and outlawed, into rich and poor; for that makes
unfortunate creatures of one and all. I will destroy the order
of things which makes millions the slaves of the few, and
those few the slaves of their own power, of their own wealth.
I will destroy the order of things which severs enjoyment from
labor, which turns labor into a burden and enjoyment into a
vice, which makes one man miserable through want and another
miserable through super-abundance. I will destroy the order of
things which consumes the vigor of manhood in the service of
the dead, of inert matter, which sustains one part of mankind
in idleness or useless activity, which forces thousands to
devote their sturdy youth to the indolent pursuits of soldiery,
officialism, speculation and usury, and the maintenance of
such like despicable conditions, while the other half, by
excessive exertion and sacrifice of all the enjoyment of life,
bears the burden of the whole infamous structure. I will
destroy even the very memory and trace of this delirious order
of things which, pieced together out of force, falsehood,
trouble, tears, sorrow, suffering, need, deceit, hypocrisy and
crime, is shut up in its own reeking atmosphere, and never
receives a breath of pure air, to which no ray of pure joy ever
penetrates....
Arise, then, ye people of the earth, arise, ye sorrow-stricken
and oppressed. Ye, also, who vainly struggle to clothe the
inner desolation of your hearts, with the transient glory of
riches, arise! Come and follow in my track with the joyful
crowd, for I know not how to make distinction between those
who follow me. There are but two peoples from henceforth on
earth--the one which follows me, and the one which resists me.
The one I will lead to happiness, but the other I will crush
in my progress. For I am the Revolution, I am the new creating
force. I am the divinity which discerns all life, which
embraces, revives, and rewards.
Cry of the People
BY JOHN G. NEIHARDT
(Western poet and novelist, born 1881)
Tremble before your chattels,
Lords of the scheme of things!
Fighters of all earth's battles,
Ours is the might of kings!
Guided by seers and sages,
The world's heart-beat for a drum,
Snapping the chains of ages,
Out of the night we come!
Lend us no ear that pities!
Offer no almoner's hand!
Alms for the builders of cities!
When will you understand?
Down with your pride of birth
And your golden gods of trade!
A man is worth to his mother, Earth,
All that a man has made!
We are the workers and makers!
We are no longer dumb!
Tremble, O Shirkers and Takers!
Sweeping the earth--we come!
Ranked in the world-wide dawn,
Marching into the day!
_The night is gone and the sword is drawn
And the scabbard is thrown away!_
Woman's Right
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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