Social Justice Activists

"Lansbury obviously is the idol of all these workers and their women-folk. He has moved, in his time, in proud places. But his heart remains with people."

"Although I have listened to many of his speeches and heard him say many things with which, rightly or wrongly, I have disagreed, I think I have never heard him say anything unkind, ungenerous or unfair. His earnestness, dignity and sincerity and his faithful and even passionate devotion to the people whom he served commanded our admiration while he lived and will now enrich the traditions of Parliament."

"Lansbury was a talented politician, speaker, and organizer. What made him remarkable was the stubbornness with which he clung to his principles... [He] became one of the best-loved and most-respected figures in the labour movement. Lansbury's legacy has been the adamantine insistence among an element within the Labour Party that Britain must stand for moral principles, must set the world a moral example. Concretely, this has meant demanding the total abolition of capitalism and unilateral disarmament, policies that Labour's leaders have usually thought utopian or worse"

"It should not be forgotten that until long after Hitler was in power the Leader of the Labour Party was an out-and-out pacifist. Everybody loved old Mr. Lansbury, and nobody could possibly doubt his sincerity. And this is what he said nearly ten months after Hitler came into power: "I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army and dismiss the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world 'Do your worst'." Never had the leader of a great party in this country used words so wild and irresponsible. Mr. Lansbury was a sincere and devout Christian, but it may be said with certainty that, had he been Prime Minister, there would have been no Battle of Britain seven years later."

"Generally speaking, anyone who expressed any desire to improve the lot of the exploited and injured, or proposed any remedy for the mortal sickness of acquisitive society, was regarded by the Conservative class as the vilest of criminals, an untouchable, an outcast, in short—a "Bolshevik." George [Lansbury] himself, had been imprisoned by the Tories in the days when he was a Poplar Guardian, and therefore, like so many heroes of the class-struggle, a "gaol-bird.""

"In his later years Mr. Lansbury's intense hatred of war became more and more the leading feature of his political creed. I dare say there were not many hon. Members who felt convinced of the practicability of the methods which he advocated for the preservation of peace, but there was no one who did not realise his intense conviction, which arose out of his deep humanitarianism. He has perhaps been spared much that would have given him pain. He has left behind him the memory of a man who was deeply loved by all who knew him best, on account of his passionate devotion to the cause of the poor and helpless and his unselfish and kindly nature. I feel sure that in the Angel's Book his name will be found to be written like that of Abou ben Adhem as one who loved his fellow man."

"George Lansbury was filled with the burning zeal of the prophet. He hated cruelty, injustice and wrongs, and felt deeply for all who suffered. In the course of his long life he was ever the champion of the weak, and with that immense vitality of his, sustained right to the end of his life, he strove for that in which he believed."

"[Lansbury attracted large audiences throughout Britain who saw] an old man full of energy, very much alive and possessed of an unquenchable zeal, breathing love and kindliness, and yet all the time a fighter, vehement and determined."

"I hope that out of this terrible calamity there will arise a real spirit, a spirit that will compel people to give up reliance on force, and that perhaps this time humanity will learn the lesson and refuse in the future to put its trust in poison gas, in the massacre of little children and universal slaughter. Mr. Gladstone once said, from the other side of the House, that the cause he represented was going down, but he was sure the day would come when it would triumph. There cannot be a man or woman in this assembly to-day who takes part in the Prayers in this House, every day, and there cannot be any men or women who go to church and believe in their faith but must in their hearts believe that sooner or later, if mankind is to live in freedom and peace, there is only one way by which it can do that, and that is by a complete and entire change of mind and outlook, which enables us to see ourselves in other people and God in everybody."

"I think history will regard Hitler as one of the great men of our time."

"Hitler] appeared free of personal ambition ... wasn't ashamed of his humble start in life ... lived in the country rather than the town ... was a bachelor who liked children and old people ... and was obviously lonely. I wished that I could have gone to Berchtesgaden and stayed with him for a little while. I felt that Christianity in its purest sense might have had a chance with him."

"Here in Britain the Socialist movement is struggling to establish a Socialist state and is confronted with a form of centralized capitalism; which shows quite remarkable signs of vitality. This apparent vitality of British capitalism; has discouraged many Socialists, who point with derision at the present concentrated and over- dictatorial form of the trade unions, and ask us if we ever hope to create a Socialist state with such an implement as the contemporary Trade Union movement. But this certainly is no time for despair. British capitalism; is as fragile as any other capitalism;, and it is only showing signs of life now, firstly because it has more places in which it can distribute its surplus goods than has any other capitalism;, and secondly, because of the artificial stimulus the rearmament boom has given to the heavy industries. British capitalism; cannot possibly remain as it is, any more than Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy can continue as they are to-day. Nor can the British trade unions for long suppress their Left Wing."

"I believe that both men desire peace every bit as fervently as I do myself, but I believe also that owing to their outlook on life, an outlook based in the main on British imperial interests and all that those interests imply, their policy is incapable of its very nature of making effective contribution to the cause of world peace. Peace and imperialism cannot go hand in hand- and when I say that, it is the same as saying that peace and capitalism; cannot go hand in hand. The capitalist system, the system under which you and I are living, is a system based on exploitation. Exploitation of man by man, the enslavement of the many by the few, is as I have already said, evil and unchristian; but for the moment I do not want to discuss the ethical side of the question. I want rather to concentrate on the economic foundations of the system under which we live, to examine them, and after I have examined them, to ask you the question: 'Do you honestly think that such a system can make for peace?'"

"I believe that force never has and never will bring permanent peace and goodwill in the world ... God intends us to live peacefully and quietly with one another. If some people do not allow us to do so, I am ready to stand as the early Christians did, and say, this is our faith, this is where we stand, and, if necessary, this is where we will die."

"I do not want, and my friends would not want me, to do anything to jar with any effort on the part of the Government for real peace, but we have no confidence at all in a proposal to secure peace by pacts based on enormous armaments. We have great faith in peace being brought about through the League of Nations and disarmament. We cannot believe that the piling up of armaments will bring peace, and we think that fundamentally peace between nations in the last resort must be based on a realisation of the interest of each nation in an economic sense and of the fact that they are all part of the human family."

"I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army and disarm the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world: “Do your worst”."

"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."

"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 be poverty. I want them to rally the people to a great crusade to compel Parliament to alter the system which dooms the people to these conditions."

"'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' was the basis of policy where jobs and contracts were concerned ... the slum owner and agent could be depended upon to create the conditions which produce disease; the doctor would then get the job of attending the sick, the chemist would be needed to supply drugs, the parson to pray, and when, between them all, the victims died the undertaker was on hand to bury them."

"[F]or years I worshipped at the political shrine of Mr. Gladstone."

"The coming of George Lansbury, whose daring rectitude expressed itself in splendid, shameless words and deeds, seemed to herald a better time."

"I hold fast to the truth that this world is big enough for all, that we are all brethren, children of one Father."

"I object altogether to the idea of teaching children that the British Empire is something which ought to be preserved in its present form, and that the British Empire is something which, through the mercy and help of God, has been brought into being."

"There is only one way to peace, and it is to be found in the words, "Throw down your arms.""

"A few centuries ago one King who stood up against the common people of that day lost his head—lost it really. (Laughter and cheers.) Later, one of his descendants was told to get out as quickly as he could. Since that day Kings and Queens had been what they ought to be. They never interfered with ordinary politics, and George V would be well advised to keep his finger out of the pie now."

"The workers must be given tangible proof that Labour administration means something different from capitalist administration, and in a nutshell this means diverting wealth from wealthy ratepayers to the poor."

"The workers of all countries have no quarrel. They are ... exploited in times of peace and sent out to be massacred in times of war."

"What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven't done."