In the steel mill, the type of work we were involved in was gang-type work. You couldn't do the job yourself. You had to help the guy in the next furnace. He helped you. You didn't have to like him, but you knew that to get the job done and not die, you had to help each other.

So then you start talking. "How's the kids?" "What kind of car do you got?" Everyday stuff. And before you know it, "Come on over and have a beer. We're going to have a party. Why don't you bring your wife?" Before you know it you're friends.

You go to the union meetings and speak your piece. Somebody says, "Hey I don't know him but that's the way I feel." So you go over and say, "Hey, I'm Ed and I work in the Open Hearth." If you're going to be a socialist, you got to be sociable.

[...] in 1857 Frederick Douglass said something that I think you ought to listen to:

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet discourage agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one [and you've heard a lot about that] or it may be a physical one [and you're going to hear about that] but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out what people will submit to and you will find out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. And these will be continued until they are resisted in either words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those they oppress."

It's very unpredictable. If we read our history, we know that back in Debs' time the railroads were one of the biggest industries in the country. They had a lot of shops: people worked as blacksmiths, machinists, whatever. The company cut their pay so much a day. They didn't do anything about it. Six months later the company cut their pay again, quite a bit. Then the company came up with a pay cut that was infinitesimal. That was enough! The whole country went down. It was like a general strike. They burned the railroad yards in Pittsburgh and in many other places. Who knows what is going to make the workers say, This is enough! But the point is, somebody has to be there when they say, This is enough!