NoJoMo 23:4 in NoJoMo 2023

If you could go back in time and visit one event in history, where would you go and why?

Hm… I think I’d like to go back and see the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, aka the Bread and Roses strike, in Lawrence, MA. If you’ve ever heard the song, this is what it was written about.

And the reason I want to see the Bread and Roses strike? It was, at the time, one of the largest and most well-organized strikes in labor history. It’s also one of the most successful. Wikipedia’s page dismisses all the gains and basically says “it was about money,” but I think the Zinn Education Project, which I linked to, puts it the best:

To suggest that the 1912 strike started in a flash over a wage cut diminishes the purposeful behavior of hundreds of immigrant laborers who built unity out of diversity. It also diminishes the importance of organized labor today and organized efforts to challenge injustices from climate change to the criminal justice system.

To close this out (and to piss off any anti-union scabs out there), I give you my favorite Pete Seeger song.

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold
Greater than the might of atoms, magnified a thousand fold
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong