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George Lansbury
20 quotes
“The time has arrived for the working classes to seize political power and use it to overthrow the competitive system and establish in its place state cooperation.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Todmorden, Lancashire, reported in the Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter (29 November 1895), quoted in John Shepherd, George Lansbury: At the Heart of Old Labour (2002), p. 47
“Liberalism would progress just as far as the great money bags of capitalism would allow it to progress, and so I took the plunge and joined the SDF ... because I felt that they stood in England for revolt against present conditions, and for a reorganised society which would be built up by the efforts of the workers themselves.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'How I Became a Socialist', Labour Leader (17 May 1912), quoted in John Shepherd, 'A Life on the Left: George Lansbury (1859—1940): A Case Study in Recent Labour Biography', Labour History, No. 87 (Nov., 2004), p. 151
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a anti-war demonstration in Trafalgar Square (2 August 1914), quoted in Jonathan Schneer, George Lansbury: Lives of the Left (1990), p. 136
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poplar and the Labour Party: a Defence of Poplarism", Labour Monthly (June 1922), quoted in John Shepherd "A Life on the Left: George Lansbury (1859—1940): A Case Study in Recent Labour Biography", Labour History, No. 8…
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Shoreditch Town Hall at a meeting to celebrate the Labour Party's gains in the general election (5 January 1924), quoted in The Times (7 January 1924), p. 9
“There is only one way to peace, and it is to be found in the words, "Throw down your arms.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Birmingham (1928), quoted in Talus Your Alternative Government (1945), p. 12
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (27 April 1928)
“[F]or years I worshipped at the political shrine of Mr. Gladstone.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Life (1928), p. 86
“'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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Life (1928), pp. 134-135
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sermon in St Edmund's Church in the City of London (29 October 1932), Daily Herald (30 October 1932), quoted in John Shepherd, 'A Life on the Left: George Lansbury (1859—1940): A Case Study in Recent Labour Biography', …
“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”.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Answer to a Star reporter who put the question to Lansbury, “What would you do if you were Dictator?” (23 October 1933), during the Fulham East by-election, quoted in Edgar Lansbury, George Lansbury, My Father (1934), p…
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Labour Party Conference of 1935, quoted in Rhiannon Vickers, The Labour Party and the World, Volume 1: The Evolution of Labour's Foreign Policy, 1900–51 (2003), p. 115
“[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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: His impressions of Adolf Hitler after meeting him in April 1937, quoted in Ronald Blythe, The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties (1964), p. 291
“I think history will regard Hitler as one of the great men of our time.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Quest for Peace (1938), p. 141
“I hold fast to the truth that this world is big enough for all, that we are all brethren, children of one Father.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Article in Tribune (25 April 1940), quoted in Raymond Postgate, George Lansbury (1951), p. 324
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Excerpts from a broadcast by Lansbury dated the 19th of October 1933, as quoted in George Lansbury, My Father (1934), p. 172
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (2 May 1935)
“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?'”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted from a pamphlet Lansbury wrote entitled Why socialists must be pacifists (1937), p. 20-21
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted from a pamphlet Lansbury wrote entitled Why socialists must be pacifists (1937), p. 43-44
“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.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons upon the outbreak of the Second World War (3 September 1939)