By Celeste Murillo (Bread and Roses - Argentina)
An ink stain spreads in because it penetrates deeply fabric fibers. Decisive action to change their stars, because it penetrates, as the ink to the fabric, deep fiber of their lives. That is the story of women in Lawrence (Massachusetts, USA), who staged a strike that would lead to implementation of reduced working hours, higher wages and union recognition. This month marks 92 years of that struggle, known as the strike for "bread and roses."
want bread ...
The decade that opened the twentieth century in the U.S. was plagued by strikes hard, largely staged by textile workers, the booming industry of the moment. The textile industry employed large numbers of immigrant labor-drawn warnings from the impoverished liars Europe, women and children. More than half were women, many of them under 18.
The new year of 1912, Facilities away from bourgeois, the Lawrence workers went on strike. The vast majority were not organized into unions, as the AFL (1) affiliated only skilled workers, ie white males. The organization that spearheaded the strike was the IWW (2), instead, saw the importance of organizing the most exploited among workers: women, blacks and immigrants.
On January 10 the first meeting takes place in the IWW, where a thousand workers, who have just received your check with a lower wage, they decide to call the strike. The first measure taken in addition to the strike fund, is the method of mass picketing around the factories resolved to form an infinite line around the premises, which remained 24 hours and moved constantly, making it impossible to rams and the police enter the factory.
... but roses
The strike spreads, the workers are adamant and employers as well. The strike committee nurseries and community kitchens installed for the children of workers. The measures aim to facilitate the participation of women workers. In addition, meetings are held only women, and it is also necessary to combat sexism that reigned among activists.
The IWW has a special policy to children who face the attacks of teachers, neighbors and friends for the activity of their mothers, children inaugurate union meetings where they discuss why their parents are strike. Finally he decided to send them to other cities, where the host families in solidarity with the struggle. In the first train out 120 kids who will return home when the strike ends. In the time it was ready to leave the second train, police repression unleashed against women and children who accompany them. This episode brings the conflict the pages of national newspapers and Congress.
The widespread, the firm resolve of the workers and the fear of the bourgeoisie to extend the strike, does give employers to accept the reduced working hours and increased wages, fearing that to spread the cry of "we want bread, but roses." These workers turn of the century, took the sky for assault and achieved the first victories of the proletariat in the U.S., and shows the decisive role of women in major workers' struggles.
BREAD AND ROSES
James Oppenheim, 1911
As we go marching, marching through the beautiful day / one million darkened kitchens and thousands of gray mills / are touched by a radiant sun that rises suddenly / and that the people hear us singing: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!
As we go marching, marching, men also fight / because they have mothers, and protect maternally again / Our lives will not be exploited from birth to death, / The hungry hearts, like the bodies / give us bread but give us roses!
As we go marching, marching, lots of women who die / are crying through our singing their ancient claim of bread / their weary spirits did not know the small art and love and beauty / Yes is bread we fight, but fight for roses!
As we go marching, marching, we bring with us for better days. / The uprising of the women means the rising of humanity. / No more of the burden of work and lazy: ten working for a rest / We want to share life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses!
Our lives will not be exploited from birth to death, / hungry hearts, like the body / bread and roses, bread and roses!
This poem was written in December 1911, by James Oppenheim, a poet and member of the union militant IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). According to research by Jim Zwick, both in U.S. history as in the popular consciousness the slogan "Bread and Roses" is associated with the famous strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts 1912. So much so that the strike is called the strike for "bread and roses." There is no direct documentation of the slogan used by the workers, but said James Oppenheim's poem was inspired by a sign that the demonstrators had been on strike that read "We want bread but we want roses too."
1 American Federation of Labor (American Federation of Labor)
2 Industrial Workers of the World (Industrial Workers of the World)
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