You have to consider all workers as your equals and speak matter of factly about things. People do want to understand things and respect you if you know what they do not know. And you have to respect what they… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
Life as we know it is fundamentally unsatisfying. I think most folks feel this to be true. They know that a life of aimless consumption isn't much of a life. And work offers us very little satisfaction. Plus our work and consumption is destroying the environment. And this is in the rich countries. Add starvation, etc. to the mix, and… — Michael Yates Copy Share
If you do keep the faith and continue to be radical, very bad things can and do happen to you. At the very least… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
Many activists don't want to hear about some grand narrative, one that could unify all of our struggles. So the major issue that needs… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
What needs to be grasped is that the system itself is the cause of all of the misery in the world. This is a… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
I still believe that workers must be the basic force which must organize and eventually transform society (along with peasants in poor countries). This… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
We must not forget either that some of the system's resilience is due to its ability to coopt people with money and prestige. It is easy to get sucked right in. Those who grasp the system are also likely to be talented and capable of doing well within the system. Who will turn down a lot of money? Who doesn't… — Michael Yates Copy Share
Capitalism is, in Mao's language, the main contradiction in the world today and so our efforts have to be focused on ending this system… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
I am sure that the experience of growing up in the heart of the working class and learning from my parents, and especially from my grandmother (who also worked on a barge boat as a cook and a servant for rich folks in Manhattan, Newport, Grosse Point, and Sewickley, all havens of the very rich), that life was not especially… — Michael Yates Copy Share
We are all, after all, just human beings, and most of us have a lot in common. — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
Young people are more likely to be idealistic and think that radical change is both necessary and possible. They may not yet be stuck… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
National chauvinism is a very tough nut to crack, since a vast propaganda network is in place to keep the workers whipped up into… — Michael Yates Copy Share Image
The Vietnam War was so obviously evil and bore down most heavily upon working class youth that it made me think about things more deeply than I had before. It disillusioned me completely and forever about the government. And it made me aware that the media and the government lied almost as a matter of course. But it also opened… — Michael Yates Copy Share
