This document is the proclamation of the striking textile workers of Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 – known as the Bread and Roses Strike. The workers went on strike due to the low wages and long hours. This proclamation elaborates on the reasons for their strike and the challenges they have faced at the hands of people in power.

“We, the 20,000 textile workers of Lawrence, are out on strike for the right to live free from slavery and starvation; free from overwork and underpay; free from a state of affairs that had become so unbearable and beyond our control, that we were compelled to march out of the slave pens of Lawrence in united resistance against the wrongs and injustice of years and years of wage slavery.”