EXPLOITATION QUOTES

quotations about exploitation

Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

BIBLE

James 2:6-7


In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.

KARL MARX

The Communist Manifesto


O.K., so I'm not so smart. I'm working class. But it's the working class that keeps the world running, and it's the working class that gets exploited. What the hell kind of revolution have you got just tossing out big words that working-class people can't understand? What the hell kind of social revolution is that? I mean, I'd like to make the world a better place, too. If somebody's really being exploited, we've got to put a stop to it. That's what I believe, and that's why I ask questions. Am I right, or what?

HARUKI MURAKAMI

Norwegian Wood


Carbon copied acquiescence, faceless suit and tie.
Crawl back in your holes, when the work day's through
One cog in the machine, the machine runs you
The soul it burns for fuel.
Mass exploitation and riches for the few.

DEAD WORLD

"Machine"


No one is exploited economically as thoroughly as you and I, because in most countries where people are exploited they know it. You and I are in this country being exploited and sometimes we don't know it.

MALCOLM X

speech at founding rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Jun. 28, 1964


Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.

ERICA JONG

attributed, The Ultimate Book of Quotations


It's a terrible thing to be a worker exploited in the capitalist system. The only worse thing is to be a worker unable to find anyone to exploit you.

JOAN ROBINSON

attributed, Working Hard, Working Poor: A Global Journey


Bitter aftertaste of every exploitation chokes me like a mouthful of spiders

PIG DESTROYER

"Tentacle", Explosions in Ward 6


Empires -- in essence nothing but mechanisms for exploiting cheap coloured labour.

GEORGE ORWELL

Facing Unpleasant Facts: 1937-1939


The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it.

BERTOLT BRECHT

The Threepenny Opera


I love off you
And you live off me
And the whole world lives
Off of everybody
See, we gotta be exploited

X-RAY SPEX

"I Live Off You", Germ Free Adolescents


No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.

KARL MARX

The Manifesto of the Communist Party


It is always useful to think badly about people one has exploited or plans to exploit.

JAMES W. LOEWEN

Lies My Teacher Told Me


The central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don't exploit enough.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF

attributed, Working Hard, Working Poor: A Global Journey


The human race cannot forever exist half-exploiters and half-exploited.

HENRY FORD

My Life and Work


The bourgeoisie, wherever it has gotten the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors," and has left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, that callous "cash payment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedom--Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

KARL MARX

Communist Manifesto


I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage
Called the blood of the exploited working class
But they've overcome their shyness
Now they're calling me "Your Highness"
And the world screams, "Kiss me, son of God"

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

"Kiss Me, Son of God", Lincoln


Innocence is thought charming because it offers delightful possibilities for exploitation.

MASON COOLEY

City Aphorisms


The World War was primarily the jealous and avaricious struggle for the largest share in exploiting darker races.

W.E.B. DU BOIS

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil


Ever since the dissolution of the primaeval communal ownership of land, all history has been a history of class struggles, of struggles between exploited and exploiting, between dominated and dominating classes.

FRIEDRICH ENGELS

introduction, The Manifesto of the Communist Party