The Great Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912: New Scholarship on the Bread & Roses Strike (Work, Health and Environment Series)

Robert Forrant and Jurg Siegenthaler have compiled an exciting collection of new perspectives on the epic Bread and Roses strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Drawing upon their experience as two of the leading organizers of the recent centennial celebrations of the strike, the editors have also composed a thoughtful introduction and included several insightful essays that highlight the importance of historical commemorations for our times. --James Green, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Boston, Author, Death in the Haymarket The Great Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912 is a bold collection of scholarly work that brilliantly explores the events and offers new interpretations of the 1912 strike. In particular, the book enhances our understanding of the strike s history, illustrates the power of collective action, and educates us about the issues that sparked the strike and that resonate in our lives today. The men, women, and children of the Bread and Roses strike are well-served by this work. --Susan Grabski, Executive Director, Lawrence History Center, Coauthor, Lawrence and the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike This new Bread and Roses book offers a welcome opportunity to rethink the history of the Lawrence strike and to remember this important moment in the immigrant worker s struggle for social justice. That history is more relevant today than ever. --Michael Honey, Haley Professor of Humanities, University of Washington Tacoma, Author, Going Down Jericho Road About the Author Robert Forrant is a University of Massachusetts Lowell Professor of History and chaired the Lawrence-based Bread and Roses Centennial Committee. He received his PhD from the university of Massachusetts Amherst in 1994. Before that he worked as a machinist. He co-curated The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912: Two Months in Lawrence, Massachusetts, That Changed Labor History for the Digital Public Library of America. Recent publications include The Big Move: Immigrant Voices From a Mill City, with Christoph Strobel (Loom Press, 2011); and Metal Fatigue: American Bosch and the Demise of Metalworking in the Connecticut River Valley (2009). He serves as historian to numerous Teaching American History grants, is on the board of the Lawrence History Center, and works with the Tsongas Industrial History Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, on its National Endowment for the Humanities summer teachers residency program. Jurg Siegenthaler is emeritus professor of social policy at American University in Washington, DC. He received his PhD from the University of Bern and was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He also was a visiting researcher at the International Social Security Association and the U.S. Social Security Administration. His teaching and research have mainly encompassed the social and economic history of industrialization. He has written on producers cooperatives, long-term changes in workers standard of living, and work and technology, and published a book comparing the environmental and social costs of industrialization in a Swiss textile valley and the coal economy of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Siegenthaler has been a member of the Bread and Roses Heritage Committee in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and a co-coordinator of the Lawrence History Live speakers tent at the Bread and Roses Heritage Festival on Labor Day. 'In Lawrence, Massachusetts, fully one-half of the population 14 years of age or over is employed in the woolen and worsted mills and cotton mills'. Thus begins the federal government's Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. This book follows up, one hundred years later. The story's retelling offers readers an exciting reexamination of just how powerful a united working class can be. The Great Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912 - the Bread and Roses Strike - was a public protest by 20,000 to 25,000 immigrant workers from several countries, prompted by a wage cut. Backed by skillful neighborhood organizing, supported by hundreds of acts of solidarity, and unified by a commitment to respect every striker's nationality and language, the walkout spread across the city's densely packed tenements. Defying the assumptions of mill owners and conservative trade unionists alike that largely female and ethnically diverse workers could not be organized, the women activists, as one mill boss described them, were full of'lots of cunning and also lots of bad temper. They're everywhere, and it's getting worse all the time.'Events in Lawrence between January 11 and March 25, 1912, changed labor history. In this volume the authors tackle the strike story through new lenses and dispel assumptions that the citywide walkout was a spontaneous one led by outside agitators. They also discuss the importance of grasping the significance of events like the 1912 strike and engaging in the process of community remembrance. This book appeals to a wide constituency. Most directly, it is of great relevance to historians of labor, industrialization, immigration, and the development of cities, as well as researchers studying social movements. The story of the Bread and Roses Strike resonates strongly with social justice supporters, the women's movement, advocates for children's well-being, and anti-poverty organizations. Social studies and college-level teachers will find it a rich resource. Graduate-level students will find inspiration for further research. The Bread and Roses strike has excellent name recognition and has always had a considerable international audience. Introduction / Robert Forrant And Jurg Siegenthaler -- Believe Comrades The Day Is Coming When Those At The End Of Their Rope Will Require Struggle--it Will Be, Perhaps, Tomorrow: Franco-belgian Immigrants And The 1912 Strike / Janelle Bourgeois -- The Committee Of Ten: The Local Heroes Who Faced Lawrence's Mill Men And Won In 1912 / Clarisse A. Poirier -- In Harm's Way: The Lawrence Textile Strike Children's Affair / Lawrence Cappello -- Why Labor Won: Tactical Innovation, Failed Repression, And Turning Points In The Bread And Roses Strike / Robert Biggert -- The Parades: Evolving Views Of God And Country And The Iww In Lawrence / Ken Estey -- The 'american Dream' And The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike / Frank Fletcher -- Voices Of Labor Militancy In Lawrence, 1912-1931 / Ethan Snow -- Striking Women: Massachusetts Mill Workers In The Wake Of Bread And Roses, 1912-1913 / Anne Mattina And Domenique Ciavattone -- The Triangle Fire Centennial Commemoration / Adrienne Sosin And Joel Sosinsky -- The Cloth From Which We Are Cut: Using Music, Narration, And Images To Tell The Story Of The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire / Vicki Gabriner And Linda Stern -- Lessons Learned: A Comparison Of The Textile And Apparel Industry Of Early 19th-century Lawrence And Lowell With China Today / Virginia M. Noon -- Bread And Roses: Why The Legend Lives On / Robert Ross. Edited By Robert Forrant, University Of Massachusetts, Lowell, Jurg Siegenthaler, American University. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.