The Bread & Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA, started on Jan. 11, 1912, 103 yrs ago tomorrow. It quickly spread, defying the popular assumption that immigrant, largely female, and linguistically and ethnically distinct workers could not or would not organize. First to shut off their machines when they realized that their wages had been cut approximately thirty cents to reflect the shorter workweek were Polish women weavers at the Everett Cotton Mills. The next day 25,000 more workers joined the fray. Blocked by the militia from standing in front of mills and canal bridges, strikers perfected the loud, moving picket line. Upwards of 5,000 singing, chanting strikers regularly marched across the city’s commercial district, challenging the militia and police to stop them. They maintained soup kitchens and nurseries for children. Meetings were simultaneously translated into nearly 30 languages. And, to keep workers unified representatives from every nationality formed a fifty-person strike leadership group. A reporter for The Outlook wrote on February 10: The impression of Lawrence which I gained during my first evening was that of a besieged city. The militia, armed with guns and bayonets, guarded the streets and bridges in the mill district and challenged all comers. The hulking factories, with their massive gates and iron doors, appeared in the semi-darkness like fortresses, and along the face of these mills there played a strange, trembling light from the search lanterns opposite.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 23:07:17 +0000
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