bread and roses

Read an interesting op-ed in this month's edition of Jacobin today about what feminism is and how to orient ourselves towards struggles in that direction, such as the Wages for Housework Campaign and the more recent Domestic Workers United movement in New York, both of which tie into the "invisibility of female labor" and the broader fight for radical compensatory mechanisms like a universal basic income—a demand that's "intrinsically feminist because it recognizes the domestic work vital to the reproduction of labor power."

I think it's especially relevant since today is also International Women's Day, which originated in the US as a massive demonstration in 1909 by tens of thousands women and socialists commemorating the 1857 garment workers' strike in New York — where women protested against poor pay and working conditions — and demanding shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights, and an end to child labour. The slogan 'Bread and Roses' is as relevant now as it was on March 8, 1908. As the old song inspired by the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike goes:

As we go marching, marching, we're standing proud and tall. The rising of the women means the rising of us all. 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.