Industrial Workers of the World One Big Union

'Bread and Roses' is the name of a song inspired by a landmark strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. This action taken by 35,000 textile workers, won real concessions from exploitative woollen companies; concessions for the strikers themselves, and for the quarter of a million textile workers in New England.

It was led by the IWW and led by women:

One local Wobbly describes how ................

.......... It began on a winter Sunday afternoon on the banks of the Tyne. In a bracing wind, the Secretary of the IWW British Isles Regional Organising Committee, two Wobs (yours truly being one of them) and a potential recruit met in Gateshead to talk about the future. By the end of the meeting, we were three willing members of the embyonic Tyne and Wear General Members Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World.

We working people want to see results. What we need to realise is that we, ourselves, are the only ones who can get the results we want: Improvement. Change. Hope of change.

The IWW is rooted in the lessons of its own experience. With 101 years of it we have a bit to draw on. And we have big goals.