Debs on the "One Great Heart of the Human Race"
Eugene Debs, in a short article from 1913, on the power of solidarity.
At the dawn of every day my hearty hail goes out to all the workers of the world. They are my comrades, and I covet no higher [honor] than to share their lot and no greater wealth than to have their respect and love.
And I include them all on equal terms, regardless of race or creed or sex; and my loving greeting goes out to them all as it follows the sunrise around the world.
For centuries and centuries these workers, these doers and makers of all things, these living and breathing foundation-stones of the social fabric, have been loaded with fetters and bowed to the earth; but at last — at last! — touched by the magic of their common misery and inspired by the genius of solidarity, their latent power is beginning to pulse in their veins, they are learning to stand erect, and as they lift their eyes they behold that a new sun has risen in their somber skies.
In their long travail their unpolluted hearts kept time, and now they beat in unison as the one great heart of the human race. With the love-light in their eyes and their hands outstretched they greet each other as "comrade " while in their united heart throbs may be heard the drum-beats of the proletarian revolution.
All hail the sons and daughters of this glorified international host, with whom I proudly march to victory or death!