Labor Day in the United States of
America is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September.
It honors the American labor movement and the power of collective
action by laborers,[1] who are essential for the workings of society. It
is the Monday of the long weekend known as
Labor Day Weekend. It is
recognized as a federal holiday.
Beginning in the late 19th
century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists
proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. "Labor Day" was
promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which
organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the
first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday.
By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states
in the United States officially celebrated Labor Day.
Sacrifices
in the Ludlow strike and massacre, the valiant participation of iconic
figures like Mother Mary Jones and Louis Tikas, the deaths of some 60
combatants are all worthy of the attention of the Ludlow Centennary
commemoration. It was, however, the courage and persistence of the
average immigrant coal miner in Lafyette at the Columbine Mine north of
Denver, as well as at Ludlow, that wrested murderous power from the
likes of John Rockefeller.
The shirtwaist makers, as young as age
15, worked seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a half-hour
lunch break. During the busy season, the work was nearly non-stop. They
were paid about $6 per week. In some cases, they were required to use
their own needles, thread, irons and occasionally their own sewing
machines. The factories also were unsanitary, or as a young striker
explained, “unsanitary—that’s the word that is generally used, but there
ought to be a worse one used.” At the Triangle factory, women had to
leave the building to use the bathroom, so management began locking the
steel exit doors to prevent the “interruption of work” and only the
foreman had the key.
The “shirtwaist”—a woman’s blouse—was one of
the country’s first fashion statements that crossed class lines. The
booming ready-made clothing industry made the stylish shirtwaist
affordable even for working women. Worn with an ankle-length skirt, the
shirtwaist was appropriate for any occasion—from work to play—and was
more comfortable and practical than fashion that preceded it, like
corsets and hoops.
As we come 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!”
— Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim
Oppenheim’s
1911 poem parallels the radiance of the sun with the voices of the
workers who demand “Bread and Roses.” Like the workers in Oppenheim’s
poem of the same name, the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike or “Bread and
Roses” strike, as it is sometimes called, became a lightning rod for
workers amidst the darkness of intense exploitation. The strike was a
fight for decent wages, dignity and equality. It was a historic strike
as mostly immigrant, mostly women workers overcame numerous obstacles to
wrest a significant victory from the manufacturing industry owners.
The
strike, which lasted nine weeks, began on a wintry day in a textile
mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts. But its roots grew in the inhumane
conditions of the mill factories where workers, the majority immigrant
women and children, labored for 60-plus hours a week in danger and
squalor. Workers entered the mills not knowing whether they would make
it out in one piece, as frequent accidents on the job killed and maimed
many. Hours of mill work meant losing years off your life, as life
expectancy for textile workers was far less than that of the population
as a whole. Workers not killed in accidents were exposed to toxic fibers
and dust that often led to death.
On top of all this, workers
were paid a meager wage, placing mill workers in a never-ending cycle of
poverty. They lived under abominable conditions characterized by
unsanitary drinking water, overcrowded apartments and rampant food
insecurity. Children were robbed of any semblance of a childhood, as
many had to enter the workforce to help their families survive. Amidst
the exploitation and oppression, the workers, mostly women, began to
organize themselves.
On Jan. 11, 1912, Polish women at the
Everett Cotton Mill walked off the job after learning that employer had
cut wages to maneuver their way around the reduced work-hour law. On
Jan. 12, workers at the Washington Mill learned the same and also walked
out. By Jan. 15, 15,000 workers were on strike and out on the picket
line. Eventually, 25,000 people joined the lines and shut down the
mills.
The strike was sparked by a single event that induced an
angry fervor, but it was not spontaneous. Its seed was planted in the
kitchens and hallways of tenement buildings. The bosses believed that
women as ethnically diverse as those working in the mills of Lawrence
were too different to relate to each other. Yet, the women formed close
social bonds as they looked after each other’s kids and tended to each
other’s illnesses. These relationships would carry them through the nine
weeks of strike.
Many women had been exposed to labor organizing
in their home countries, setting the stage for alliances to be formed
with worker unions such as the Italian Socialist Federation and the
Industrial Workers of the World. These alliances allowed for the seeds
of solidarity that were planted among them to grow into fruition.
Women
became the true leaders of this strike. It was women who placed
themselves at the front of the marches in an attempt to curtail the
violence. It was women who led the way throughout the city of Lawrence
as they marched. It was the women who injected their vitality, fight and
passion into this strike as they sang songs that maintained the high
revolutionary spirit.
Additionally, it was women who made
decisions about how to best protect their families during the strike.
The women sent their children to live with relatives in New York City
and other cities, making sure they were well cared for while they
engaged in necessary militant action and withstood the brutality of the
state. The decision to send their children to nearby cities went beyond
necessity—it was very much about strategy and about increasing the
strikers’ visibility. This decision also garnered media attention when
police brutally halted the practice on Feb. 24.
The bosses and
the authorities, in collusion, initially dismissed the strikers, since
they were unskilled immigrant workers. The workers’ effective
organization and militancy proved the bosses wrong. Instead of
diminishing, the strike’s power grew as time progressed.
The
bosses and the state collaborated and violently attacked the strikers.
There were mass beatings of women and children —mothers were savagely
grabbed by their hair and dragged in front of their children. Yet, the
workers remained steadfast. Day after day, they took their place on the
picket line. They continued to chant for dignified wages and living
conditions. On the picket lines, unity and optimism empowered the
striking workers to overcome the bitter hunger, cold and police bullets.
The
public’s eye settled on the women and children; their stories of
exploitation in juxtaposition to their resistance swayed public opinion
in their favor.
The strikers went from being a force to be
reckoned with in Lawrence to being a threatening body to the capitalist
forces in the region. The strike became the largest manufacturing strike
at that time. After nine difficult weeks of striking, the workers won
their demands. They received a 15-percent wage hike and an increase in
overtime compensation.
The victory was not handed to them; it was
hard-earned. The women, men and children who stood on the picket lines
fought for the entire working class. They showed that only through unity
in struggle can workers win important reforms.
As women, as
workers, it is our duty to advance the cause for the revolution by
actively fighting for it. Women workers are part of a long tradition of
labor struggle that has fought for workers’ rights. We stand up for what
we believe. We mobilize against the systems that oppress us. We
strategize to find the most effective tactics in order to win. We must
continue to be at the forefront of all struggles against poverty and for
the economic liberation of all workers. The least we can do is stand on
the shoulders of those giants from the Bread and Roses strike and
continue their fight for the liberation of all workers.
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