will whatever -- that somehow, somewhen, the labor of
humanity will not belong to humanity, to be used for the
purposes of humanity, to be controlled by the will of
humanity? And if this is ever to be, how is it to be --
what power is there that will bring it about? Will it be
the task of your masters, do you think -- will they write
the charter of your liberties? Will they forge you the
sword of your deliverance, will they marshal you the army
and lead it to the fray? Will their wealth be spent for
the purpose -- will they build colleges and churches to
teach you, will they print papers to herald your progress,
and organize political parties to guide and carry on the
struggle? Can you not see that the task is your task --
yours to dream, yours to resolve, yours to execute? That
if ever it is carried out, it will be in the face of every ob~
stacle that wealth and mastership can oppose -- in the face
of ridicule and slander, of hatred and persecution, of the
bludgeon and the jail? That it will be by the power of
your naked bosoms, opposed to the rage of oppression!
By the grim and bitter teaching of blind and merciless
affliction! By the painful gropings of the untutored mind,
by the feeble stammerings of the uncultured voice! By
the sad and lonely hunger of the spirit; by seeking and
striving and yearning, by heartache and despairing, by
agony and sweat of blood! It will be by money paid for
with hunger, by knowledge stolen from sleep, by thoughts
communicated under the shadow of the gallows! It will
be a movement beginning in the far-off past, a thing ob~
scure and unhonored, a thing easy to ridicule, easy to de~
spise; a thing unlovely, wearing the aspect of vengeance
and hate -- but to you, the working-man, the wage-slave,
calling with a voice insistent, imperious -- with a voice
that you cannot escape, wherever upon the earth you may
be! With the voice of all your wrongs, with the voice of
all your desires; with the voice of your duty and your
hope -- of everything in the world that is worthwhile to
you! The voice of the poor, demanding that poverty shall
cease! The voice of the oppressed, pronouncing the doom
of oppression! The voice of power, wrought out of suffer~

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v?