Sixto Rodriguez Quotes
I'm a worker, but I think that all workers get an idea of what to do to get free. Any kind of bondage, even economic bondage, is slavery.
Sinclair had written an expose of the meat packing industry – the Jungle – which used as its setting the Armour meat packing factory. It changed the way the public thought about the industry, the role of government and regulation. President Roosevelt took up the reform role, and got Congress to Regulate the quality and cleanliness of the meat packing industry. Sinclair, however not only wanted that reform, but also wanted the labor wages and conditions reformed. He referred to the Armour plant as the fortress.
Labor reform was a burning issue in most of the industrialized countries of the world. The two areas that legislation was under consideration all over were working hours and child labor. There were no overtime provisions, employers were free to require workers to work 7 days for as many hours as they wanted. There were no limitations on the use of child labor. This is one of the classic conservative oppositions to these reforms. Ironically to us today, those against reform argued that it was disrespectful of the working man to take away his freedom to work whatever hours he so chose, and it was disrespectful of the workers role as a head of family to decide for him when and under what conditions his children could work. Germany at the time was a very dramatic example of the struggle as the Chancellor was opposed to all labor reform and Kaiser Wilhelm II felt that reforms were needed. The two most powerful Germans were split on this issue as were people in most countries.
This quotation is interesting for two reasons. First it is a good example of the twisted logic of some of the Slavery apologists who claimed that the Negro slave was better off than the free wage earner. The second reason is that it illustrates the norms of the treatment of the working man before the Civil War. The union movement would change the situation for the free laborer over the next century and then holidays and worker rights became normalized in American society. See {641290} for another of his absurd arguments.
Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, known professionally as Rodriguez, is an American singer-songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. Though his career was initially met with little fanfare in the United States, he found success in Australia, touring the country twice, and New Zealand. Unbeknownst to him for decades, his music was also extremely successful and influential in South Africa, where he is believed to have sold more records than Elvis Presley., as well as other countries in Southern Africa. Information about him was scarce, and it was incorrectly rumored there that he had committed suicide shortly after releasing his second album.
