[Tloewald]

There was a wonderful Greenpeace poster from back in the 80s which had these words:

"When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can't eat money."

It wasn't about workers' rights, but something along those lines seems to fit.

[skriticos2]

I always liked that quote, though the Greenpeace association is new to me. It supposedly originated as a native american proverb:

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/20/last-tree-cut/

[makomk]

If you read that link, it's not so much a native american proverb as it is a quote from a specific person who's a native american. I know the fact that actual attribution of this quote, and other things said by Native Americans, gets ignored and their quotes attributed to some kind of vague native wisdom actually seems to piss a lot of people off.

[velis_vel]

The attribution of things to 'ancient Native American proverbs' is reminiscent of the whole 'noble savage' trope.