"Up to the present time, all governments, including the government of which I was a member, dependent as they are for their existence on those who support Capitalism, have attempted to reconcile that which is impossible of reconciliation. …the workers who assist in productive work are denied the use of the goods they produce. Miners see their children shivering in the cold of winter while outside their home are thousands of tons of the coal they have helped to produce. I ask those who profess and call themselves Christians to face up to this dilemma in which Capitalist society and Capitalist governments have landed us. Priests, bishops, ministers, urge their congregations to pray for God's blessing on the labour of our brain and hands, and when in answer to these prayers, or otherwise [what a man he is for placating those who don't believe as he does], a bountiful return comes in the form of a bumper harvest and huge production in every sphere of industrial enterprise, those who control finance and our whole economic life, tell us that God or Nature has made a mistake, that food-stuffs must be burned, that cotton must be ploughed back into the soil, that further production must be restricted and millions of people suffer privation and want."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Socialists from EnglandPacifistsLabour Party (UK) politiciansFeminists from EnglandSocial justice activists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Excerpts from a broadcast by Lansbury dated the 19th of October 1933, as quoted in George Lansbury, My Father (1934), p. 172
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Lansbury
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
George Lansbury
George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who was leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. He served as Leader of the Opposition against Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's National Government during the Great Depression, but later had to resign in favor of Clement Attlee because of his opposition to British re-armament.
32 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by George Lansbury →
Related Quotes
"Liberalism would progress just as far as the great money bags of capitalism would allow it to progress, and so I took…"
"The workers of all countries have no quarrel. They are ... exploited in times of peace and sent out to be massacred i…"
"The workers must be given tangible proof that Labour administration means something different from capitalist adminis…"
"A few centuries ago one King who stood up against the common people of that day lost his head—lost it really. (Laught…"
"There is only one way to peace, and it is to be found in the words, "Throw down your arms.""
"I object altogether to the idea of teaching children that the British Empire is something which ought to be preserved…"
"[F]or years I worshipped at the political shrine of Mr. Gladstone."
"'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' was the basis of policy where jobs and contracts were concerned ... the …"
"I want the Church to say in a clear language that it is against God's Law that in the midst of abundance there should…"
"The time has arrived for the working classes to seize political power and use it to overthrow the competitive system …"