A quotation from Samuel Gompers

We have been accused of being selfish, and it has been said that we will want more; that last year we got an advance of ten cents and now we want more. We do want more. You will find that a man generally wants more. Go and ask a tramp what he wants, and if he doesn’t want a drink he will want a good, square meal. You ask a workingman, who is getting two dollars a day, and he will say that he wants ten cents more. Ask a man who gets five dollars a day and he will want fifty cents more. The man who receives five thousand dollars a year wants six thousand a year, and the man who owns eight or nine hundred thousand dollars will want a hundred thousand dollars to make it a million, while the man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day.

Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) British-American cigar maker, activist, labor leader [b. Samuel Gumpertz]
Speech (1890-05-01), “What Does the Working Man Want,” American Federation of Labor Convention, Louisville, Kentucky

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Today in Labor History January 27, 1850: Class traitor Samuel Gompers was born. He became president of the Cigar Makers’ Union in 1875. He helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881. This later became the American Federation of Labor, which quickly surpassed the Knights of Labor in size and power. Gompers supported the U.S. imperialist intervention in Cuba and its war against Spain. He later sided with the anti-imperialists in their opposition to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. However, his motivation had nothing to do with compassion for the Philippine people, nor for the lives of working-class Americans sent there to kill and die. Rather, he feared competition from low-paid Filipino workers. For this same reason, he opposed immigration to the U.S. and supported xenophobic legislation, like the Chinese Exclusion Act. Gompers, and the AFL, supported “class harmony” and the right of bosses to exploit workers. Gompers supposedly said that the “greatest crime an employer can perpetrate against his employees is to fail to operate at a profit.” He led the anti-socialist faction within the AFL and only lost to them once. And he collaborated with the federal government in their harassment and arrests of members of the IWW.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #gompers #IWW #socialism #union #strike #imperialism #knightsoflabor #xenophobia #philippines #AmericanFederationOfLabor

Today in Labor History January 27, 1850: Class traitor Samuel Gompers was born. He became president of the Cigar Makers’ Union in 1875. He helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881. This later became the American Federation of Labor, which quickly surpassed the Knights of Labor in size and power. Gompers supported the U.S. imperialist intervention in Cuba and its war against Spain. He later sided with the anti-imperialists in their opposition to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. However, his motivation had nothing to do with compassion for the Philippine people, nor for the lives of working-class Americans sent there to kill. Rather, he feared competition from low-paid Filipino workers. For this same reason, he opposed immigration to the U.S. and supported xenophobic legislation, like the Chinese Exclusion Act. Gompers, and the AFL, supported “class harmony” and the right of bosses to exploit workers. Gompers supposedly said that the “greatest crime an employer can perpetrate against his employees is to fail to operate at a profit.” He led the anti-socialist faction within the AFL and only lost to them once. And he collaborated with the federal government in their harassment and arrests of members of the IWW.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #gompers #IWW #socialism #union #strike #imperialism #knightsoflabor #xenophobia #philippines #AmericanFederationOfLabor