Bread and Roses
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The slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in American Magazine in December 1911, which attributed it to "the women in the West". It is commonly associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January-March 1912, now often known as the "Bread and Roses strike".
The slogan appeals for both fair wages and dignified conditions.
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[edit] History
The Lawrence strike, which united dozens of immigrant communities under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, was led to a large extent by women. Many claim that during the strike some of the women carried a sign that said, "We want bread, but we want roses, too!" No reliable evidence has yet been found to verify this,[citation needed] and the claim has been rejected by some veterans of the Lawrence strike.[citation needed]
A 1916 labor anthology, The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest by Upton Sinclair, is the first known source to attribute the phrase to the Lawrence strikers. A republication of Oppenheim's poem in 1912, following the strike, attributed it to "Chicago Women Trade Unionists".
The strike was settled on March 14, 1912, on terms generally favorable to the workers. The workers won pay increases, time-and-a-quarter pay for overtime, and a promise of no discrimination against strikers. The strikers are credited with inventing the moving picket line (so that they would not be arrested for loitering).
[edit] Legacy
The strike and slogan have been the inspiration for the names of a diverse collection of organisations and publications.
- The usage of the rose by the Irish Labour Party -- and its sister parties around the world -- owes it its origins to the slogan.
- Oppenheim's poem was set to music in 1976 by Mimi Fariña and has been recorded by various artists, including Judy Collins, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, and John Denver.
- New Zealand Labour Party Member of Parliament, Union leader, and women's rights campaigner Sonja Davies called her autobiography Bread and Roses, after the poem. This autobiography was the basis of a successful New Zealand mini-series directed by Gaylene Preston, which concentrates upon Davies's early life as a single mother organiser of protest action to keep her local railway line open.
- A subsidized housing project in Kitchener, Ontario that specializes in providing affordable housing for people living with HIV and/or AIDS.
- In 2000 British director Ken Loach titled a movie Bread and Roses. The movie is about the struggle of two Mexican labourers in Los Angeles, performed by Pilar Padilla and Elpidia Carrillo, for the right to form a union. It depicts an episode in the ongoing Justice for Janitors campaign, which is run by the Service Employees International Union.
- Eben Moglen uses this image when talking about culture in the ditigal age: In the digital age, when all culture can be given to everyone at the same price as it's given to one person, we have enough bread and roses. So it's strange that Rupert Murdoch and Michael Eisner have most of the bread, and all of the roses.
- A quarterly journal produced by the UK section of the Industrial Workers of the World ('Wobblies') [1]
- A Labor Day celebration, Bread and Roses Heritage Festival, in Lawrence, Massachusetts
- A pub in London, run by the Workers Beer Company
- A charitable foundation in Philadelphia.
- A non-profit organization founded by Mimi Farina that brings entertainment to shut-ins in prisons, hospitals and convalescent homes.
- Mount Holyoke College seniors sing a song entitled "Bread and Roses" during their Laural Parade at graduation. [2]
- Bryn Mawr College students sing the same song after three of their annual traditions nights. [3]
[edit] Song lyrics
- As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
- A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
- Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
- For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
- As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
- For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
- Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
- Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
- As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
- Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
- Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
- Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
- As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
- The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
- No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
- But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
- Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
- Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.
[edit] Reference
- Bruce Watson, Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream (New York: Viking, 2005), ISBN 0-670-03397-9.
[edit] See also
- Anna LoPizzo, woman striker killed during the Lawrence textile strike
