DebsSpeak: On Labor Day

“The workingman – and this is the day to write him in capital letters – has given me what I have, made me what I am, and will make me what I hope to be; and I thank him for all, and above all for giving me eyes to see, a heart to feel and a voice to speak for the workingman.”

“Comrades, this is the day for Workingmen to think of the Class Struggle and the Ballot …. ”

(Eugene V. Debs, “Labor Day Greeting”, Social Democrat Herald, September 1904)

Celebrating Labor Day

Thank you, Labor. The time has come for you rise again.

“Bryan-College Station for Bernie Sanders”

The “Bryan-College Station for Bernie Sanders” Facebook page is one of thousands of social media sites that have been started over the recent months to promote Senator Bernie Sanders’ candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.

The page consists of posts of articles that pertain to Bernie, his campaign, and his positions on issues that all of America is concerned about, There are also posts about Bernie supporters in the Bryan-College Station-Texas A&M University communities in Texas and their grassroots activities to bring about the political change in America that Bernie Sanders is so passionately advocating.

Please visit and “like” the “Bryan-College Station for Bernie Sanders” Facebook page.

“35 Mind-Blowing Facts About Inequality”

On July 13, AlterNet, the on-line news source, posted an article titled “35 Mind-Blowing Facts About Inequality”.

In the introductory paragraph of the article, Larry Schwartz, the author of the article writes

” … (Bernie Sanders) has even blasted the orthodoxy of economic growth for its own sake, saying according to Monday’s Washington Post that unless economic spoils can be redistributed to make more Americans’ lives better, all the growth will go to the top 1% anyway, so who needs it?”

Schwartz then recounts the growth of income and wealth inequality in the United States and the world since World War Two.

He concludes his article with thirty-five facts about inequality that will “fry your brain”.

Here are several of those facts:

• ” … the poorest half of the US owns 2.5% of the country’s wealth. The top 1% owns 35% of it.”
• “Over 20 percent of all American children live below the poverty line. This rate is higher than almost all other developed countries.”
• “Four hundred Americans have more wealth, $2 trillion, than half of all Americans combined. That is approximately the GDP of Russia.”

You can read the article and the other 32 facts about inequality here.

Syd Hoff: The Upper Crust – Cartooning Capitalism

Syd Hoff (1912-2004) was a cartoonist and children’s book author. In 1933, Hof began contributing political cartoons to leftist newspapers and magazines such as The Daily Worker and New Masses under the pseudonym, A. Redfield. Hoff also drew cartoons for the New Yorker magazine under the title of “The Ruling Clawss.”

Below are two of Hoff’s political cartoons that speak to the economic inequality that existed between the wealth class and the working class in the 1920’s and ’30’s. These cartoons could just as well have been drawn today to cartoon the economic inequality that exists in the United States and World.

The cartoons are entitled “The Upper Crust.”

Information about Syd Hoff can be found here.

Income And Wealth Inequality

This political cartoon was drawn by Walter Steinhilber. Steinhilber drew many of his cartoons for the Socialist Labor Party during the 1920s.

Bernie Sanders: The Wealthy’s War On The Working Class

Trade Treachery: Stop Trans Pacific Partnership

Trade Treachery

DebsSpeak: Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech

On the afternoon of June 16, 1918, Eugene V. Debs delivered what is perhaps the most well-known and famous speech of his labor and political career. The speech was delivered in Canton, Ohio and is known as the Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech.

For this speech, the federal government charged Debs with “obstructing recruitment” under the provisions of the Espionage Act of 1917. He was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in federal prison.

“To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil ; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.”

“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.”

” … in every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people.”

“Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. … The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose – especially their lives.”

“There is no room in our hearts for hate, except for the system, the social system in which it is possible for one man to amass a stupendous fortune doing nothing, while millions of others suffer and struggle and agonize and die for the bare necessities of existence.”

“You need at this time to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder. You need to know that you were not created to work and produce and impoverish yourself to enrich an idle exploiter. You need to know that you have a mind to improve, a soul to develop, and a manhood to sustain.”

“… the capitalists and their henchmen … know how to exploit, how to gouge; how to rob, and do it with legal sanction. They always proceed legally for the reason that the class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery.”

” … you insist upon voting a capitalist ticket and giving your support to the present wage-slave system. The trouble with you is that you are still in a capitalist state of mind.”

Debs’ sentence was commuted in December  of 1921.

DebsSpeak: Workers Fight the Master’s Wars

“Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. … The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose – especially their lives.”

(Eugene V. Debs, “Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech”, June 16, 1918)