workingclasshistory:

On this day, 20 February 1917, a food riot by mostly Jewish women took place in New York’s Lower East Side following an argument between a woman and an onion-seller on Orchard Street.
During World War I, the price of food and staple goods had risen significantly, and working class people found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. After the argument began, the woman overturned the onion-sellers cart and hundreds of women began seizing food, and hurling it at police when they arrived. One of the participants was Maria Ganz, an anarchist factory foreperson.
Scuffles spread to nearby streets and the women marched to city hall where Ganz was arrested for making a speech in Yiddish.
A group of women subsequently established The Mother’s Anti-High Price League, with an office at the headquarters of the Jewish Daily Forward, and organise boycotts of certain goods across the city in order to force sellers to reduce prices.
More info, sources and map in our Stories web app: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9261/women’s-food-riot
Pictured: Ganz addressing a crowd during the riot https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2214661575385647/?type=3