Unions: from the people who brought you the weekend
So today's the first day of
celebrate_women's Women's Month of Strength. It's also May Day, the day on which I like to explain to people that "This Land is Your Land" is actually about the evils of capitalism and to tell "in Soviet Russia" jokes.
Today's WMS prompt is role models, and in honor of May Day, I think we should all give a tip of the hat to women in the labor movement. Modern labor has problems--big ones. But back in the day, labor was vital to protecting groups too weak to negotiate for better pay and working conditions--groups like women, immigrants, and children (though sadly, labor was verrrrrrry late to the party with regard to civil rights). The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which killed 148 women, highlighted the terrible working conditions that many young women faced, and helped to strengthen the labor movement. Here's a link to the famous speech that Rose Schneiderman gave in the aftermath of the fire, in which she argued that only a movement controlled by the working class would be able to respond to working class needs. Schneiderman is also famous for the "bread and roses" speech:
What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist - the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.
While we're talking women in the labor movement, there's also the original "most dangerous woman in America," Mother Jones, who led marches against child labor and organized miners--all after age 50. And Karen Silkwood, who died under mysterious circumstances while trying to investigate worker safety at a plant making nuclear materials. And Anasuya Sarabhai, a founder of India's first and largest textile workers' union in the 1920s, and inspiration for the 700,000-strong Self Employed Women's Association (which brings together women who work in home-based or independent businesses).
Edited to add: you should all check out the Women's Month of Strength! It looks like there are going to be lots of awesome posts linked over there this month.
celebrate_women's Women's Month of Strength. It's also May Day, the day on which I like to explain to people that "This Land is Your Land" is actually about the evils of capitalism and to tell "in Soviet Russia" jokes.
Today's WMS prompt is role models, and in honor of May Day, I think we should all give a tip of the hat to women in the labor movement. Modern labor has problems--big ones. But back in the day, labor was vital to protecting groups too weak to negotiate for better pay and working conditions--groups like women, immigrants, and children (though sadly, labor was verrrrrrry late to the party with regard to civil rights). The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which killed 148 women, highlighted the terrible working conditions that many young women faced, and helped to strengthen the labor movement. Here's a link to the famous speech that Rose Schneiderman gave in the aftermath of the fire, in which she argued that only a movement controlled by the working class would be able to respond to working class needs. Schneiderman is also famous for the "bread and roses" speech:
What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist - the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.
While we're talking women in the labor movement, there's also the original "most dangerous woman in America," Mother Jones, who led marches against child labor and organized miners--all after age 50. And Karen Silkwood, who died under mysterious circumstances while trying to investigate worker safety at a plant making nuclear materials. And Anasuya Sarabhai, a founder of India's first and largest textile workers' union in the 1920s, and inspiration for the 700,000-strong Self Employed Women's Association (which brings together women who work in home-based or independent businesses).
Edited to add: you should all check out the Women's Month of Strength! It looks like there are going to be lots of awesome posts linked over there this month.