BREAD and ROSES!

Bread and peace!

For almost more than a century the date March, 8 has been associated with the International woman’s day, and from 1975 – with the International day of struggle for the rights of women and international peace of the UNO. However, history of its origin reaches the times of the Great French revolution during which Parisian women demanded “freedom, equality and possibility to unite”. And on March, 8, 1857 in New York mass action of protest was conducted by the workwomen of textile industry, who strove for reduction of duration of working day and improvement of conditions of work. Two years later Americans created the first “woman’s trade union” in the USA. In 1908 15 thousand New York women came forward with protest against death of 128 people (mainly emigrants from Italy and Israel) at one of factories caused by the terrible conditions of production. Crying out the slogan “Bread and roses!”, strikers demanded the improvement of conditions of work (“bread”), and also “roses” – for more happy life.

Yuliya TSYFRA