Bread and Roses
The slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in The 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.
History
The 1912 Lawrence Textile 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. The popular mythology of the strike includes signs being carried by women reading "We want bread, but we want roses, too!", though the image is probably ahistorical.[1][2] 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". To circumvent an injunction against loitering in front of the mills, the strikers formed the first moving picket line in the US.[3][4]
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.
Legacy
The strike and slogan have been the inspiration for the names of a diverse collection of organisations and publications.
- The use of the rose by the Irish Labour Party -- and its sister parties around the world—owes it its origins to the slogan.
- The poem was partially reproduced and its title borrowed in an early second-wave feminist article on women's liberation by Kathy McAfee and Myrna Wood published in the American New Left magazine Leviathan in June 1969.
- 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, John Denver, and Josh Lucker.
- An earlier musical setting of the poem by Caroline Kohlsaat appears in the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition.
- 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 housing cooperative 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 film 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 digital 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') [5]
- 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 titled "Bread and Roses" during their Laural Parade at graduation. [6]
- Bryn Mawr College seniors sing the same song at the conclusion of their three annual traditions' nights. [7]
- On April 14, 2007, the song marked the final notes performed at New York City's experimental music venue, Tonic, as part of a protest against gentrification pushing out such venues in the Lower East Side before police arrested performers, Rebecca Moore and Marc Ribot.
- A fair trade, organic café in the Skydragon Centre downtown Hamilton, Ontario.
- A bakery in the Bloor West Village shopping district of Toronto, Ontario.
- A café run by St. Joseph Center that serves free hot meals to homeless individuals and families in Venice, Los Angeles, California.
- A bed & breakfast in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. [1]
- A memorial to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in Havana, Cuba reads: "For Peace Bread And Roses We Will Face The Executioner. Ethel And Julius Rosenberg. Murdered June 19, 1953."
- A feminist radio show on KBOO in Portland, Oregon. [8]
- A Catholic Worker advocacy center in Olympia, Washington. [2]
- A feminist group from Argentina (Pan y Rosas) associated with a political party called "Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas" (PTS, Socialist Workers Party) webpage: www.pyr.org.ar
- A community fund [3] in Philadelphia.
- A cafe in Paris
- A bakery in Ogunquit, Maine [4]
- A bakery on Beechwood Ave in Ottawa, Ontario
- A food cooperative in Tallahassee, Florida
- A Non-Profit Organization Bread and Flowers created inheriting the spirit of the Bread and Roses strike.
- As a pun in the name of the villain in Ian Fleming's novel From Russia with Love, Rosa Klebb.
- 'Bread + Roses' is the title of song 7 on Mr Hudson & The Library's album 'A Tale of Two Cities'.
- A restaurant in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam.
- A feminist magazine from Zagreb, Croatia. Original title "Kruh & Ruže". Published by Ženska infoteka between Autumn 1993 and March 2009.
Poem and song lyrics
Poem
- As we come 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 come 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 come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
- Go crying through our singing their ancient cry 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 come 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!
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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.
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See also
References
- Bruce Watson, Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream (New York: Viking, 2005), ISBN 0-670-03397-9.
External links