Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Quotes

• The IWW [Industrial Workers of the World] has been accused of pushing women to the front. This is not true. Rather, the women have not been kept in back, and so they have naturally moved to the front.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  World, Pushing, Accused

  71 Copy quote

• I fell in love with my country - its rivers, prairies, forests, mountains, cities and people. No one can take my love of country away from me! I felt then, as I do now, it's a rich, fertile, beautiful land, capable of satisfying all the needs of its people. It could be a paradise on earth if it belonged to the people, not to a small owning class.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Beautiful, Country, Falling In Love

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1973). “The Rebel Girl: an autobiography, my first life (1906-1926).”

  79 Copy quote

• History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom, against political oppression and economic slavery.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Peace, Freedom, Tyrants

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1949). “Labor's Own William Z. Foster: A Communist's Fifty Years of Working-class Leadership and Struggle”, New York : New Century Publishers

  63 Copy quote

• A popular saying in Alderson went as follows: 'They work us like a horse, feed us like a bird, treat us like a child, dress us like a man - and then expect us to act like a lady.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Horse, Children, Work

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1963). “The Alderson story: my life as a political prisoner”, Intl Pub

  65 Copy quote

• What is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory. For workers to gain a few cents more a day, a few minutes less a day, and go back to work with the same psychology, the same attitude toward society is to achieve a temporary gain and not a lasting victory.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Inspirational, Attitude, Order

  79 Copy quote

• a labor victory must be economic and it must be revolutionizing.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Victory, Economic, Labor

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall (1987). “Words on fire: the life and writing of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn”, Rutgers Univ Pr

  25 Copy quote

• The wage-earning class the world over are the victims of society.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Class, World, Earning

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1973). “The Rebel Girl: an autobiography, my first life (1906-1926).”

  22 Copy quote

• We who are members of the Communist Party repudiate the exclusive identification of democracy with capitalism. We declare that democracy can be widened, take on new aspects, become truly a rule of the people, only when it is extended to the economic life of the people, as in the Soviet Union. As far as women are concerned, the U.S.S.R. is a trailblazer for equal rights and equal opportunities.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Women, Party, Opportunity

  27 Copy quote

• They did not believe in making any contracts. They believed that as long as you were organized, you could hold the office to what it said it was going to do. But a contract, a piece of paper held you and so they didn't make any contracts.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Believe, Long, Office

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1977). “Memories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)”

  18 Copy quote

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