Bread and roses (slogan)

Bread and Roses Heritage Festival in Lawrence, MA (2013)

Mimi Fariña (1975)

The slogan bread and roses comes from a speech by the New York trade unionist Rose Schneiderman in 1911: The woman worker needs bread, but she needs roses too . He was in the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim added that in the same year in the American Magazine was published and the women in the West is dedicated. In 1912 Bread and Roses became a strike slogan and was also known as the song with the strike of more than 20,000 garment workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Since then, the song has been part of the international trade union movement and the women's movement (International Women's Day, World Women 's Day ).

Historical background

In the “Bread and Rose Strike”, women with a migration background fought resolutely for their interests. They not only demanded fair wages (bread), but also a humane working and living environment (roses). The strike was organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW ) and resulted in workers receiving a wage increase of up to 25 percent and fairer pay for overtime. It was also promised that strikers would no longer be discriminated against in the future.

song

The poem Bread and Roses by Oppenheim was set to music by Mimi Fariña in 1976 and recorded by various interpreters such as Judy Collins , Ani DiFranco , Utah Phillips and John Denver . An older setting to marching rhythm was composed by Martha Coleman.

The best-known translation into German was created in 1978 by Peter Maiwald and set to music by Renate Fresow . Another translation is by Ruth Manley. The songwriter HüperBel has rewritten the text.

Web links

• Lutz Getzschmann: "Better to fight than to work hunger ..." - The textile workers' strike of Lawrence in 1912. trend , May 2007, incl. Lyrics!
• Song to hear. ( MP3 file; 2.6 MB. 2:48 min.)
• James Oppenheim: Bread and Roses ( As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day, ... ) , text (1911), in The Chawed Rosin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Annelise Orleck: Rose Schneiderman , Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia
2. ^ Gisela Bock : The 'other' labor movement in the USA from 1905 to 1922. The Industrial Workers of the World. Trikont Verlag, Munich 1976, p. 53.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Inge Latz: Women's songs . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-596-22957-X , p. 101 f.
4. ^ Karl Adamek : Songs of the Labor Movement , Gutenberg Book Guild , Frankfurt am Main 1986 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-763225633 , p. 246 f.