Quotes about union
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“If the world’s largest economy looked poised to show that kind of visionary leadership, other major emitters — like the European Union, China, and India — would almost certainly find themselves under intense pressure from their own populations to follow suit.”

Naomi Klein (1970) Canadian author and activist

The Game-Changing Promise of a Green New Deal, The Intercept, https://theintercept.com/2018/11/27/green-new-deal-congress-climate-change/ (27 November 2018)

World

“What do Ben and Jerry’s, an 800,000-member South African trade union, countless college professors, a big chunk of Amazon’s Seattle workforce, and more high school students than you can imagine have in common? They’re all joining in a massive climate strike this coming Friday, September 20 — a strike that will likely register as the biggest day of climate action in the planet’s history.”

Bill McKibben (1960) American environmentalist and writer

Other Bill McKibben Quotes, 2019

School, Imagination, History

“Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State?”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee https://books.google.com/books?id=BDkDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (1866) page 30. Responding to Francis Preston Blair relayed an offer to make him major-general to command the defense of Washington D.C. 1860s

Drawing

“Fascism, with its violence, gets rid of everything: it attacks universities, it closes them and crushes them; it attacks intellectuals, represses them and persecutes them; it attacks political parties; it attacks trade union organizations; it attacks all mass and cultural organizations. Therefore, nothing is more violent, more retrograde and more illegal than fascism.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Speech (2 December 1971) http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1971/esp/f021271e.html

Universe

“The House, which was free to have decided otherwise, takes a stand for the defence of freedom and the destruction of Hitlerism and all that it implies. … The interests of South Africa, however, are our primary concern. … It was for the interests of South Africa that Parliament freely decided to sever our relations with Germany. We pledge our moral support for a common cause. … The Union has no quarrel with the German people as such. Its aim is to assist in the destruction of a system which is seeking to impose on the world a domination of violence and force in international affairs – a system which, as the facts of the past two years have proved, knows no respect for good faith between nations, which does not hesitate to dishonour its plighted word, if convenient to do so, and which threatens the liberty of every state throughout the world.”

Jan Smuts (1870–1950) military leader, politician and statesman from South Africa

Smuts expounding the war proclamation of Wednesday, 6 September 1939, as quoted in South Africa at War: How she will help, Staffordshire Sentinel of 7 September 1939, p. 1

People, World, Faith, Support

“In principle, Eurasia and our space, the heartland Russia, remain the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution … The new Eurasian empire will be constructed on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us. This common civilizational impulse will be the basis of a political and strategic union.”

Aleksandr Dugin (1962) Russian political scientist

Aleksandr Dugin — The Basics of Geopolitics (1997)

“In Jerusalem, the United Nations (a truly United Nations) will build a Shrine of the Prophets to serve the federated union of all continents; this will be the seat of the Supreme Court of Mankind, to settle all controversies among the federated continents, as prophesied by Isaiah.”

David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) Israeli politician, Zionist leader, prime minister of Israel

As quoted on Look magazine, and reproduced by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency http://www.jta.org/1962/01/04/archive/ben-gurion-foresees-gradual-democratization-of-the-soviet-union, 4 January 1962.

“The people of Wales voted to leave the European Union and return our United Kingdom to the status of an independent democracy.”

Gerard Batten (1954) British politician

Plaid Cymru's Adam Price says Brexit must be stopped https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-45724287 BBC News (3 October 2018) 2018

People, Democracy

“The issue at hand is whether it was right to use the gross or net level of our contribution to the European Union - that is a matter of free speech and the democratic process.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg (1969) British politician

Brexit: Boris Johnson ordered to appear in court over £350m claim https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48445430 BBC News (29 May 2019) 2019

“Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of the numerous ills to which flesh is heir; had he reached that good old age of which his vigorous constitution and his temperate habits gave promise; had he been permitted to see the end of his great work; had the solemn curtain of death come down but gradually, we should still have been smitten with a heavy grief, and treasured his name lovingly. But dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence, killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate, for no man who knew Abraham Lincoln could hate him, but because of his fidelity to union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious forever.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Fellow citizens, I end, as I began, with congratulations. We have done a good work for our race today. In doing honor to the memory of our friend and liberator, we have been doing highest honors to ourselves and those who come after us. We have been fastening ourselves to a name and fame imperishable and immortal; we have also been defending ourselves from a blighting scandal. When now it shall be said that the colored man is soulless, that he has no appreciation of benefits or benefactors; when the foul reproach of ingratitude is hurled at us, and it is attempted to scourge us beyond the range of human brotherhood, we may calmly point to the monument we have this day erected to the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
1870s, Oratory in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876)

Death, Hate, Age, Memory

“I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things. First, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mister Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. Though Mister Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

The man who could say, 'Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether', gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the south was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go. About Abraham Lincoln https://web.archive.org/web/20150302203311/http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=4071#_ftnref57. 1870s, Oratory in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876)

Hate, People, Color, Feeling

“There can be no frictionless trade outside of the customs union and the single market. Friction is an inevitable side-effect of Brexit by nature.”

Donald Tusk (1957) Polish politician, current President of the European Council

Donald Tusk asks UK for 'better' Northern Ireland idea https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43235794 BBC News (1 March 2018) 2011, 2018

Nature

“Upon their casting vote depends the question whether Britain is to continue its honourable career as a pioneer in the path of human progress which, on the whole, it has pursued so nobly for generations, or whether it is in one leap to spring backward over 80 years and place itself on a level with the protectionist countries of the Continent of Europe, with their low wages, taxed food, fettered industries, and policy of international antagonisms, which interfere with prosperity and imperil the peace of the world. … Free trade is at issue. … I appeal fervently to Liberals not to walk straight into this booby trap set for them by the protectionists merely because it is decorated by the Union Jack.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Election address (25 October 1931), quoted in The Times (26 October 1931), p. 14
Later life

World, Peace, Food, Spring

“We have long argued that a customs union is a viable option for the final deal. So Labour would seek to negotiate a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union to ensure that there are no tariffs with Europe and to help avoid any need for a hard border in Northern Ireland.”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

Jeremy Corbyn backs permanent customs union after Brexit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43189878, BBC News, 26 February 2018 2010s, 2018

Help

“We believe a leave vote will put many of those things seriously and immediately at risk. We also want to extend those rights and we best extend those rights by working with trade unions, labour parties and socialist parties all across Europe in the interest of the working people all across the continent.”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

Labour's Tom Watson: EU free movement rules must change https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36523759 BBC News (14 June 2016) 2010s, 2016

People

“A future prime minister could always choose to alter the relationship between Britain and the European Union. But the Chequers approach is the right one for now because we have got to make sure that we respect that vote and take advantage of the opportunities of being outside the European Union.”

Michael Gove (1967) British politician

Brexit: Future PM 'could change EU relationship' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45541240 BBC News (16 September 2018) 2018

Making love, Future

“I have repeatedly said that I do not want to be prime minister. That has always been my view. But events since last Thursday have weighed heavily with me. I respect and admire all the candidates running for the leadership. In particular, I wanted to help build a team behind Boris Johnson so that a politician who argued for leaving the European Union could lead us to a better future. But I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.”

Michael Gove (1967) British politician

Michael Gove and Theresa May head five-way Conservative race https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36671336, BBC News, 30 June 2016 2016

Future, Help

“I said consistently throughout that we need to get control of our borders and the only way to do that is to leave the European Union… Once we do that we are in a much stronger position to achieve that objective of bringing down migration to tens of thousands within this Parliament - I will stand by that.”

Iain Duncan Smith (1954) British politician

Brexit: New PM 'should come from Leave camp' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36633595 BBC News (26 June 2016) 2016

Way

“Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that we currently enjoy with the EU. That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period. It means we would abide by the common rules of both.”

Keir Starmer (1962) British politician and barrister

Brexit: Keep single market for transition period - Labour https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41064314 BBC News (27 August 2017) 2017

“If, in the worst possible scenario, we leave the European Union without a deal, people must have the opportunity to reject that disastrous outcome, either through a public vote, or through parliamentary democracy.”

Leanne Wood (1971) Welsh Plaid Cymru politician

Plaid Cymru needs to earn trust of voters, Leanne Wood says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-41679247, BBC News, 20 October 2017 2017

People, Democracy

“First minister, last night you participated in the first major public debate on the future for Wales within the European Union. You went head-to-head with the voice of the far right. Do you think your performance helped or hindered the Welsh campaign on the EU?”

Leanne Wood (1971) Welsh Plaid Cymru politician

UKIP condemns Leanne Wood's 'far right' Farage jibe https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35292163 BBC News (12 January 2016) 2016

Thinking, Future, Help, Night