29 quotes found
"When things are exquisitely beautiful and rare, they shouldn't be privately owned."
"If making sure that workers get out of poverty would severely impact the economy, then maybe we don't need this economy."
"We did this. Workers did this. Today's first major victory for 15 will inspire people all over the nation. We need to recognize what happened here in Seattle that led us to this point. 15 was not won at the bargaining table as the so-called "sensible compromise" between workers and business. It was not the result of the generosity of corporations or their Democratic Party representatives in government."
"As Marxists, we use the capitalist electoral system to win concrete victories for the working class, popularize and build the socialist movement, and expose in real time the limits of the fundamentally undemocratic electoral system we are using. Ultimately, we know we can’t win a socialist transformation of society through the capitalist electoral system because it’s not our system; in fact, it’s designed specifically to prevent systemic change."
"Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the party have, for nearly a decade, waged one of the most effective battles against the city’s moneyed elites. She and the SA have adopted a series of unorthodox methods to fight the ruling oligarchs and, in that confrontation, exposed the Democratic Party leadership as craven tools of the billionaire class. Her success is one that should be closely studied and replicated in city after city if we are to dismantle corporate tyranny."
"Lobbyists in Washington have a saying, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." You know who is at the table? It's lobbyists for big corporations. It's lobbyists for the wealthiest people in world history. Guess who's not at the table right now. Working families. Clean water. Public education. And our infrastructure."
"On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg was in the hot seat. Cameras surrounded him. The energy in the room – and on Twitter – was electric. At last, the reluctant CEO is made to answer some questions! Except it failed. It was designed to fail. It was a show designed to get Zuckerberg off the hook after only a few hours in Washington DC. It was a show that gave the pretense of a hearing without a real hearing. It was designed to deflect and confuse. ... The worst moments of the hearing for us, as citizens, were when senators asked if Zuckerberg would support legislation that would regulate . I don’t care whether Zuckerberg supports Honest Ads or or GDPR. By asking him if he would support legislation, the senators elevated him to a kind of co-equal whose view on Facebook regulation carried special weight. It shouldn’t. Facebook is a known behemoth corporate monopoly. It has exposed at least 87 million people’s data, enabled foreign propaganda and perpetuated discrimination. We shouldn’t be begging for Facebook’s endorsement of laws, or for Mark Zuckerberg’s promises of self-regulation. We should treat him as a danger to democracy and demand our senators get a real hearing."
"The tools Facebook provides make discrimination easy. Facebook has monopoly profit margins, so it could easily provide real staffing to protect against discrimination, if it wanted to. It doesn’t want to."
"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
"My beautiful, now 22-year-old child told me last year that they were gender nonconforming. The only thought I wake up with every day is: My child is free. My child is free to be who they are, and in that freedom comes a responsibility for us as legislators to protect that freedom."
"As I listened to some of you today, I was struck by this push to presume that these provisions would somehow be manipulated or used by people in ways that would hurt existing sex protections. It occurred to me that we are talking about fear versus love; we are talking about fear versus freedom."
"To the protesters, I stand in solidarity with you. Stay vigilant to what is happening around you, record instances of injustice with detail, and continue responding to violence with non-violence. You are on the right side of history."
"As one of the 1 in 4 women in this country who have chosen to have an abortion, I am outraged & disgusted by the reported draft SCOTUS opinion."
"We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ shocking and horrifying terrorist attack on Israel. This is the worst perpetration of violence inflicted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Our hearts are with those who were tragically killed and their loved ones who mourn their loss. We also continue to hope for the safe return of those who were taken hostage by Hamas, including American citizens, and stand ready to support your Administration in bringing them home."
"We strongly believe that Israel’s response must take into account the millions of innocent civilians in Gaza who themselves are victims of Hamas and are suffering the consequences of their terror campaign. However this current conflict plays out, we feel strongly that the US government and the global community must continue the tough work to achieve lasting peace in the region. The future and safety of Israelis and Palestinians are intertwined. We cannot achieve lasting peace and security for Israelis without addressing the humanitarian crises in Gaza and the West Bank."
"It is outrageous. I am embarrassed for those Democrats who voted to censure their own colleague. Who voted against free speech. It is an embarrassment."
"While the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress has received much attention, she is far from the only congressional victory we have achieved. In addition to Alexandria, strong young progressives like Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, and Chuy García, of Illinois, were also elected in 2018. They will join Pramila Jayapal, of Washington, and Nanette Diaz Barragán, of California, who were elected in 2016 with the strong support of the progressive community."
"Four of the most dynamic women of color in Congress – representatives Pramila Jayapal, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – have endorsed Bernie."
"We haven't [helped pay for schools, roads and even day care centers]. How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"
"For millions of American women, reading the news this morning was like stepping into a time machine and going back 50 years, seeing the headlines and the photos of this all-male panel in the House talking about a woman's right to access birth control, and no women on the panel. It turns out the chairman of the House oversight committee decided he was not going to allow a young woman who had been asked by the minority to testify and tell her story--actually of a friend who had lost an ovary because of her lack of contraception coverage. So this 19-year-old woman was left to watch, like the rest of us, as all five men addressed the committee about how they supported efforts to restrict access to care. I am sure by now many of my colleagues here have seen this picture of this all-male panel, the picture that says a thousand words. It is one that most women thought was left behind when pictures only came in black and white."
"I’m honored to officially become the President Pro Tempore of the Senate today."
"We are in a global race for the future and if we don’t make these key investments, we put our national security, our allies, and our values at risk"
"Abortion is a critical health care service, but it is also so much more"
"The truth is, Republicans have no plan. While they're playing the blame game and waging culture wars, we're keeping our heads in the game, improving our economy and safeguarding Americans' hard-earned freedoms."
"Technology has created incredible new opportunities, but our laws have not kept up"
"We don’t have human rights and constitutional rights, civil rights, civil liberties protected in a digital world"
"People want us to show them that governance is working and that we're focused on these issues and moving forward"
"The goal is not just to get strong care and cost savings for Medicare but also to give patients a more holistic approach to care"
"I think that there has to be a huge effort to keep the government funded and pass important legislation to help the country build back better both on infrastructure and small business that has got to be the focus"