We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Bread & Roses - James Oppenheim & Martha Coleman

from When We Stand Together by Magpie

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

James Oppenheim’s poem was first published in 1911, well before the Lawrence Strike. But before that, the concept phrase, “bread and roses” was coined by socialist, unionist and suffragist Rose Schneiderman in a speech in which she advocated for the right to vote and for every woman’s right to “life, and the sun and music and art.” She said “What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist... The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give
her the ballot to fight with." The phrase became forever associated with workers in the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts who went out on strike in 1912, a strike led by IWW fellow workers, including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Bill Haywood, and Joseph Ettor. The successful strike became known as the “Bread and Roses Strike.” Although there is no photographic record, Upton Sinclair included Oppenheim’s poem in his 1915 anthology, The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest and made the reference that connected the two for all time, "In a parade of strikers of Lawrence, Massachusetts, some young girls carried a banner inscribed, 'We want Bread, and Roses too!'". The setting here is the original and the best-known melody until Mimi Farina composed another tune in 1974.

lyrics

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!

As we come 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 come 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 come 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.

credits

from When We Stand Together, released July 23, 2022
Poem by James Oppenheim, 1911 music by Martha Coleman

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

James Connolly Upstate NY IWW image

James Connolly Upstate NY IWW Albany, New York

The James Connolly Upstate NY IWW branch is a union for all workers based in NY. Musicians and other workers wishing to organize can find us here upstatenyiww.wordpress.com/contact/

Our benefit album is out May 31st. Support our organizing workers! ... more

contact / help

Contact James Connolly Upstate NY IWW

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like James Connolly Upstate NY IWW, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now