On this day, 12 March 1912, employers caved in to most of the demands of the Bread and Roses strike by 20,000 garment workers, mostly women and girls, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The stoppage, after it was started by Polish women, was denounced by the American Federation of Labor as “revolutionary” and “anarchistic”, and so the workers instead turned to the radical Industrial Workers of the World union for support. The name of the strike referred to the workers wanting their basic needs met, “bread”, as well as the beautiful things in life, “roses”.
The workers held meetings which were translated into almost 30 languages, faced down savage police and militarily repression, who killed one woman and beat and jailed many others, and eventually won big concessions across the whole garment industry. In particular, the workers won a 15% pay increase, double pay for overtime and amnesty for most of the strikers. A campaign to free IWW organisers arrested during the strike continued until they were acquitted in November.
Learn more about women in the IWW in our podcast episode 16: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/12/02/e16-women-in-the-early-iww/https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1940369086148232/?type=3
[right winger voice]: wake up sheeple! bill gates is an Illuminati lucierian plotting to give you the mark of the beast 666 as part of his sinister nwo depopulation agenda! BUT. that doesn’t give you the right to steal the land and money he rightfully earned by being a hardworking job creator, you fucking communist,
In a statement attributed to “the LGBTQIA+ employees of Pixar, and their allies” obtained by Variety, employees of the animation studio allege that Disney corporate executives have demanded cuts from “nearly every moment of overtly gay affection… regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar.”
The stunning claim is part of a wider reaction to the company-wide memo sent to Disney employees by CEO Bob Chapek on Monday regarding its response to the recently passed legislation in Florida known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. In the memo, Chapek states that the “biggest impact” the company can make “in creating a more inclusive world is through the inspiring content we produce.”
According to the Pixar letter, that claim is at odds with employees’ experience of trying to create content with same-sex affection approved by Disney executives.
“We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were,” the letter states. “Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it.”
From the letter (emphasis mine):
The second claim stated that “corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds”. However, the very email making this claim opened with a corporate statement regarding the ongoing situation in Ukraine. […]
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