Strike Tactics Quotes

The Socialists are no fomenters of strikes; they know too well that a strike is a two-edged weapon, wounding the proletariat more deeply and more grievously than the capitalist. But, when the strike is declared, they take their part in the fight. They organize and assist the workers, protecting them against the snares of the police and the brutality of the military, and giving them such moral and material support as is in their power

No society can tolerate strikes that endanger the general welfare, such as a strike that shuts down an entire industry. Nor can any government tolerate a strike aimed at its authority. But the “right to strike” is absolutely necessary to the cohesion, if not indeed to the survival, of the union; without it it cannot discharge its function.

No strike has ever been lost.

No strike could ever be won with a Communist at its head since the employers would make victory impossible.

If the weapon of the general strike is to be utilized, then the organization must be so built up that this weapon will stand ready for instant use. For the certainty of success in a general strike lies in its suddenness. Ever more numerous and greater will become the great strikes and outbreaks of this character which shake the social life of the nation to its foundation …

The fact is, as all we strikers know, we tend to get judged just on the number of goals.

At first everyone predicted that it would be impossible to hold these divergent people together, but aside from the skilled men, some of whom belonged to craft unions, comparatively few went back to the mills. And as a whole, the strike was conducted with little violence.

Strikers get periods like this, periods when you do everything right and others when you can't do anything properly.

No strike is a loss or failure to the workers, even if the point sought is not gained for the time being. If naught else they teach the capitalists that they are expensive luxuries.