Celebrate International Women's Day

Bread and Roses

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.

The imagery of bread and roses has been a recurring theme in the history of the labor and women's movements. It was the slogan of women garment workers in New York in 1908 when 15,000 women marched after the death of 128 women in a factory fire. After the slogan appeared on the banner of textile workers during their 10 week strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, James Oppenheim, an IWW man, wrote the song Bread and Roses, which has been often sung and recorded, and seems appropriate for today's celebration of International Women's Day.

You can read about the history of International Women's Day in the Wikipedia. Or check out the history of the 1912 Lawrence, MA strike by reading Girl Power: The Story of the Bread and Roses Strike.