Bread and Roses

Youtube of Judy Collins singing 'Bread and Roses'. It can be bought from amazon.co.ukhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Bread-And-Roses-LP-
I have blogged about this beautiful song before, albeit under another guise, but we all need reminding of  good things - especially when they are under attack from the evil forces of our coalition government and right wing propaganda from various media sources. Elizannie may have been away from the computer for a few weeks but she is still ranting and raving!
Benefit recipients and Pensioners are and have been getting - as usual - an awful lot of flak for apparently sucking the economy dry. It would apparently please very many of the nation's citizens if those receiving such largesse if it were to be cut down to just sufficient to maintain life [bread]. Luxuries [roses] must not be included. The following song expresses so well why we all need Bread and Roses to survive. [More explanation of phrase below]
Bread and RosesAs we go marching, marchingIn the beauty of the dayA million darkened kitchensA thousand mill lofts greyAre touched with all the radianceThat a sudden sun disclosesFor the people hear us singingBread and roses, bread and roses

As we go marching, marchingWe battle too for menFor they are women's childrenAnd we mother them againOur lives shall not be sweetenedFrom birth until life closesHearts starve as well as bodiesGive us bread, but give us roses

As we go marching, marchingWe bring the greater daysFor the rising of the womenMeans the rising of the raceNo more the drudge and idlerTen that toil where one reposesBut the sharing of life's gloriesBread and roses, bread and roses
Edited from the earlier Clarice post:

The poem Bread and Roses was originally written by James Oppenheim (1882-1932), an American poet and writer, coming to prominience as a motif for the 1912 textile workers' strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts and as such is associated with the womens' movement as those involved with the strike were mainly women. One employer lowered wages when the working week was shortened by law, and the industrial action eventually spread to twenty thousand workers at nearly every mill within a week. The strike, despite predictions of other American trade unions that the workforce of a true downtrodden minority - that of ethnically diverse and mostly women workers - could not be organized, was successful. Sadly over time the union collapsed and workers rights once more were eroded.
The 'Bread and Roses' in the refrain stand for the way that workers lives are made up of more than just the struggle for work and the struggle for beauty has to take place too - other wise work has no inner meaning. To progress is not just for material gain but for emotional and spiritual beauty in our lives!
The term 'Bread and Roses' has since been associated with political strife and was the title of the 2000 Ken Loach film about the right to form a union of Mexican labourers in Los Angeles.

There is another beautiful song with the same title and message, written by Martin Whelan and sung here by my old mate Roy Bailey, who has very slightly altered the lyrics in one place:

Bread and Roses
If we don’t have our dreams
What do we live for?
If we don’t have our dreams
What did James Connolly die for?

Look up the sky is burning
With blood that workers shed
We’ll carry on the battle
For roses and bread.
Bread and roses
Roses and bread
We’ll carry on the battle
For roses and bread.

He was born to organise
That’s what Jack Jones lived for
For being a union man
That’s what Joe Hill was killed for.

Look up the sky is burning
With blood that workers shed
We’ll carry on the battle
For roses and bread.
Bread and roses
Roses and bread
We’ll carry on the battle
For roses and bread.

With dreams in solid steel
That’s what Mandela lived for.
For dreaming of what might be
That’s what Allende died for.

Look up the sky is burning
With blood that workers shed
We’ll carry on the battle
For roses and bread.
Bread and roses
Roses and bread
We’ll carry on the battle
For roses and bread.

Let’s dream that dream of dreams
Of life without sorrow.
And maybe our dreams
Will build a new tomorrow.

Another 'twist' on the phrase Bread and Roses is sometimes said as 'Bread and Circuses' but actually means the opposite! It means that 'Circuses' are being offered as diversions to deflect the masses from the austerity of the times. Sound familiar? Next time the Government is offering something that sounds too good to be true, think of bread and circuses and this definition:

a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary 

PS Elizannie has been away for a few weeks due to a mixture of family worries, family fun and holidays. Thanks as ever to the NHS for sorting out - and continuing to sort out - the family worries and to the family and friends for supplying the family fun and holidays!