Lawrence Bread and Roses Heritage Committee gears up for upcoming festival

Aug. 18—LAWRENCE — More than 100 years ago, mill workers in the city went on strike to demand better conditions. Today, Lawrence is celebrating the strike, while also highlighting the struggles of the working class that persist today.

The Bread and Roses Heritage Festival is a celebration of the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. That year, a new state law reduced the work week for women and children, which led to a cut in pay for workers. After learning of this pay cut, the workers, who were already struggling to feed their families and suffering from poor working and living conditions, walked out of the mills.

More than 20,000 workers — mostly new immigrants — went on strike for nine weeks that winter. The strike was mostly peaceful, though the strikers encountered state militia armed with guns and clubs. The strike became known for its inter-ethnic cooperation, soup kitchens and the important role of women. It later became known as the Bread and Roses Strike, as the workers fought for subsistence and for dignity, which they ultimately won.

The Bread and Roses Heritage Committee was established in 1986 to honor the memory of the strike, and it holds this festival to celebrate Lawrence's many cultures, both past and present, and to remember the labor movement's struggle.

This year, on Monday, Sep. 5, food and a full musical lineup featuring local artists will take to the Campagnone Common to remember the strike as part of a long-standing tradition. The annual Labor Day festival will offer its usual outlet for witnessing the history and culture of the immigrant city.

Historical walking tours and children's activities including pony rides and face painting will also be featured at the event.

"It's not your typical festival, it's an extraordinary one," said member of the Bread and Roses Heritage Committee Linda Siegenthaler. "There is something for everyone."

But this year, there's an added twist: honoring the present-day labor struggles.

President of the Bread and Roses Heritage Committee Elizabeth Pellerito said highlighting the current labor movement, long a sore issue, has always been a central focus of the festival.

However, she added, this time around, worker inequality is growing and mimicking the past movements that prompted the Bread and Roses strike.

Starbucks employees in Boston are more than 30 days into a strike, as they advocate for a fairer workplace and the removal of an interim store manager. According to the Boston Globe, the workers, who voted to unionize in June, have created the longest documented action ever against Starbucks.

The Trader Joe's in Hadley, Massachusetts became the first of the grocery store chain to unionize this past July. Amazon workers in New York also voted this spring to form the first union of the company, run by the second richest person in the world Jeff Bezos.

Despite being on the national scene, these worker struggles are being felt locally, Pellerito said.

"There is a lot about the strike that speaks to the conditions in Lawrence. The workers who were in the original strike were immigrants," Pellerito said. "Right now, we are in this moment ... where we are seeing a resurgence of people being interested in the labor movement."

With the growing visibility of unionizing, Pellerito said the festival will be used as a time to recognize what is happening today to workers.

She added, "every year at the festival, we try to bring in some workers who went on strike in the past year or workers who may be going through challenges."

This year, Lawrence native and community organizer Joshua Alba will be a speaker at the festival, a key feature showcasing current worker struggles. Alba will be speaking about the Fair Share Amendment, a campaign to further tax millionaires.

Pellerito said the festival will be introducing a new workshop session that will guide people on what rights they have as a worker and beyond.

"The idea of (the workshop sessions) is to bring some of the organizing that happened at the strike to the organizing today ... and educate people on what rights they have," she said.

Pellerito said that the approach to bridging the gap between "the past and the present" of the strike and the ongoing labor movement is what makes the festival so unique.

"(This) festival about social and economic justice," she said. "There's no other festival that has this explicit focus, which is one of the things I'm always excited for."

To evoke excitement before the festival begins, the committee will host an event at the El Taller Restaurant in Lawrence on Aug. 26. All are welcome to enjoy food and music from a local Merrimack Valley band.

"This is something we've never done before," Pellerito said. "(It's) great to bring folks to a local business and get some excitement about the festival going."