07-09-2009, 04:43 PM
The local history:
"In 1912 Lawrence (MA)(USA) became the focus of international attention as the scene of one of the landmark events in American labor history. When a state law reduced the work week from 56 to 54 hours, the mills cut the workers’ pay. Averaging only $8.76 a week, most of Lawrence’s 30,000 textile workers walked off the job, and stayed out for nine weeks in a harsh winter.
The strike was remarkable for the cooperation among immigrant workers, for the role of women, and for the strikers’ practice of expressing themselves in song. Some women strikers reportedly carried banners proclaiming “We want bread, and roses, too”, symbolizing their fight for both subsistence and dignity. Thus the name, the “Bread and Roses Strike”.
The mill owners and city authorities called out the state militia, jailed many strikers, and even planted dynamite to discredit the strikers and their union. The tide turned when police used force to prevent strikers from sending their children to sympathetic families elsewhere. Public opinion and a Congressional investigation forced the mill owners to give in to most of the strikers’ demands.
The strike highlighted issues of child labor, workplace safety, and subsistence wages. It was an important step in labor’s long struggle for gains which many of us now take for granted."
http://www.breadandroses.net/strike.shtml
"In 1912 Lawrence (MA)(USA) became the focus of international attention as the scene of one of the landmark events in American labor history. When a state law reduced the work week from 56 to 54 hours, the mills cut the workers’ pay. Averaging only $8.76 a week, most of Lawrence’s 30,000 textile workers walked off the job, and stayed out for nine weeks in a harsh winter.
The strike was remarkable for the cooperation among immigrant workers, for the role of women, and for the strikers’ practice of expressing themselves in song. Some women strikers reportedly carried banners proclaiming “We want bread, and roses, too”, symbolizing their fight for both subsistence and dignity. Thus the name, the “Bread and Roses Strike”.
The mill owners and city authorities called out the state militia, jailed many strikers, and even planted dynamite to discredit the strikers and their union. The tide turned when police used force to prevent strikers from sending their children to sympathetic families elsewhere. Public opinion and a Congressional investigation forced the mill owners to give in to most of the strikers’ demands.
The strike highlighted issues of child labor, workplace safety, and subsistence wages. It was an important step in labor’s long struggle for gains which many of us now take for granted."
http://www.breadandroses.net/strike.shtml
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"