happy? – Feb 5 ('Bread & Roses')

Subject: RE: happy? � Feb 5 ('Bread & Roses')
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 06:43 PM

Link doesn't work any more, but I'd already posted the article elsewhere: Jim Zwick, "Behind the Song: Bread and Roses." Sing Out! 46 (Winter 2003)

Subject: RE: happy? � Feb 5 ('Bread & Roses')
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Feb 06 - 08:19 PM

The song is usually associated with the Lawrence strike. However. through a Mudcat thread I learned that the song was actually published before the strike. See article by Jim Zwick. (I hope the link still works but if not I've copied the article.)

Subject: happy? – Feb 5 ('Bread & Roses')
From: Abby Sale
Date: 05 Feb 06 - 11:00 AM

25,000 textile workers strike against the American Woolen Co. of Lawrence, MA, Jan 11, 1912 (qv.) To get food and housing for the affected children, the IWW sent trainloads of the children to other cities. On Feb 5, 1912, Lawrence police attacked and clubbed the embarking children and their parents in order to reduce public sympathy for the strikers. (!!!) The strike was won on March 12th.

          As we go marching, marching unnumbered women dead
          God 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!
  
                  "Bread & Roses," by James Oppenheim, 1911  
                  (As we now know, before the strike began, actually, not inspired by it.) 

FURTHER:
This strike was one of the few great successes for the IWW. It was a singing strike - men & women. One song they sang was:

          The preachers, cops and money kings were working hand in hand,
          The boys in blue, with stars and stripes, were sent by Uncle Sam;
          Still things were looking blue, 'cause every striker knew
          That weaving cloth with bayonets is hard to do.
  
                  "John Golden and the Lawrence Strike," by Joe Hill
                  The Songs of Joe Hill, Barrie Stavis & Frank Harmon

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
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