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Hello Friends & Neighbors,
First and foremost, a happy May Day to all of you! It’s my favorite holiday by far. It’s a day to remember all those who came before us, who fought to loosen the chains of our oppression, and it’s a day to celebrate those who still fight–and will continue to fight.
Years ago, back in Michigan, I would spend this day on the front porch with a guitar in my lap. Most times the sun was shining and I would bask in its warmth and praise all the little glories of my life. Those glories which were won for me by my elders, who fought and then defended those glories with vigor, strength, perseverance, and determination.
With so much sorrow, strife, and hardship in the world today, I think it’s good to have a day like May Day to think about how far we have come. We need to remind ourselves that we are strong. That together we can win, we can have something better. That, despite the pessimistic pragmatism that the world drapes over us, there is true hope in the world. A hope that we will fight, and a hope that we will win.
In 1912, the textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts went on strike. They fought for better pay and a shorter workweek, and for two months or so they were met with the full force of the grinding gears of the capitalist machine. People were beaten and some starved, but they still fought, and in the end the workers won. But what I think makes the story of Lawrence so inspiring is that it was a strike lead by women. Mothers and daughters who worked the textile mills were those on the front line, and they fought unsparingly for a better world.
So, on this May Day, as we come marching through the glory of the day–almost a hundred and one years later–I would like to share my rendition of the song that came out of that strike in Lawrence: Bread & Roses.
Enjoy.
Trust & Solidarity
Dalice Malice
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.