> Two quotes from Rudolf Rocker are, I think, germane to the comments by
> Glasser and Lieberman:
>
> "Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are rather forced
> upon them from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long
> time been no guarantee of their security. They do not exist because they
> have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have
> become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them
> will meet with the violent resistance of the populace."
>
> &
>
> "All the political rights and liberties which people enjoy today, they do
> not owe to the good-will of their governments, but to their own
> strength.... Great mass movements and whole revolutions have been
> necessary to wrest these liberties from the ruling classes, who would
> never have consented to them voluntarily. What is important is not that
> have government have decided to concede these rights, but why they had to
> do so."
>
> Brian
>
> CB: As some former slave said , based on personal experience ," power
> concedes nothing without a demand; never has ; never will. ( and "no
> progress without struggle")"
Until the abolition of classes, once conceded, the ruling classes will
forever
> conspire (theoretically and practically) to take rights back. As some ole
> white guy said, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
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