If you're not big enough to lose, you're not big enough to win.
Walter ReutherRead
There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.
Interpretation
Political and economic power are interconnected, and gains achieved through union efforts can be lost through legislation.
This quote by Walter Reuther highlights the essential relationship between political influence and economic security. It suggests that while labor unions work hard at the bargaining table to secure rights and benefits for workers, those achievements can be vulnerable to changes in laws and legislation, emphasizing the need for continuous political engagement to protect what has been gained.
In practice
During a discussion on labor rights at a community meeting.
If you're not big enough to lose, you're not big enough to win.
There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.
Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie-labor is fighting for a larger pie.
Partisans fight on familiar territory with professed political objectives to conquer power. This is what distinguishes them from terrorists
We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute.
By their subjugation of the press, the political powers in America have conferred on themselves the greatest of political blessings -- Gyges' ring of invisibility. And they have left the American people more deeply baffled by their own country's politics than any people on earth. Our public realm lies steeped in twilight, and we call that twilight news.'
I am mortal. I want the nation to get used to freedom before I die.
Look: I don't want to live with a nuclear Iran. I would like to make it uncomfortable for them to seek it.
The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can’t separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.
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