Massachusetts
The Bread and Roses Strike Was an Epic Labor Action for Workers’ Dignity
“Short pay, short pay,” shouted the Polish women weavers on January 11, 1912, as they left their looms and walked out of the factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The state had recently passed a modest labor reform cutting the maximum number of hours women and children could toil from fifty-six to fifty-four, and employers had promptly docked their pay. The day after the walkout, thousands of mill workers in the area joined them. A week later, the Lawrence mill workers’ strike was twenty-five thousand workers strong.
This storied labor action, widely known as the “Bread and Roses” strike, succeeded despite phenomenal ruling-class unity and the workers’ extreme deprivation. It deserves to be remembered every year, for its namesake slogan (“The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too”) and for its stirring example of collective action.
The strike was powered by an extraordinarily diverse group of workers, including teenage girls. About half the workers were young women aged fourteen to eighteen. About two-thirds were recent immigrants, including from France, Italy, Russia, Syria, Armenia, Ireland, Belgium, and Lithuania. Meetings were translated into more than three dozen languages.
The mill workers’ conditions were horrific. Pneumonia and tuberculosis ran rampant in the damp factories, and one-third of workers died before they turned twenty-five. Child workers often perished within the first couple years of employment. Workers lived in extremely cramped conditions, often on the brink of starvation. When the pay cut hit in January 1912, many workers were unable to feed themselves or their children.
The stakes of the conflict were high for the capitalist class, too. Lawrence wool mills were vital to the national and local economy, producing one quarter of all the wool in the United States, and comprising two-thirds of the local manufacturing economy and more than two-thirds of all capital invested in Lawrence.
No wonder, then, that the state and the ruling classes mobilized to suppress the worker pushback. Mill owners turned fire hoses on the picketers. State militias and police were summoned from neighboring towns, even Marines. “A tumult is threatened,” whimpered the mayor, in a letter pleading with a militia captain to send troops “to suppress same.” Police beat up mothers and children as families attempted to put kids on the train to send them out of the dangerous chaos. Harvard allowed students, many of whom were militia members, to pass their classes if they missed exams due to strikebreaking.
Enraged by the police brutality, women strikers fought back. Italian women, confronting a police officer on a bridge, relieved him of his club, gun, badge, and even pants, and terrorized him by dangling him over the icy water. Management and cops alike found they could not control the knife-wielding protesters. One boss called the women “full of cunning and also lots of bad temper,” whining anxiously, “it’s getting worse all the time.”
Like many legendary protests, the Bread and Roses strike has often been misremembered as a spontaneous moment of anger. Much like Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955, the Lawrence strike was the product of extensive organizing. Socialists were crucial to that work. The Italian Socialist Federation led their own members off the shop floor and into the streets, helped organize the entire workforce, and connected the strikers to overseas socialist networks. About twenty chapters of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) — each organizing in a different language — had been active in Lawrence for about five years; they, too, provided critical organizing and solidarity.
The workers also had support from collective institutions in their community, modeled on those in their home countries. For example, Franco-Belgians ran a cooperative with a bakery, grocery store, and meeting hall. The latter was often used as meeting place for worker organizing in the years leading up to the strike. Franco-Belgians also ran a soup kitchen that fed strikers and their families.
The “Bread and Roses” slogan for which the strike is most well known did not originate with the 1912 walkout. Coined earlier by suffragettes — though a similar mantra also existed in radical working-class Italian movements — it became a pithy expression of workers’ desire to have both life’s necessities and pleasures. But it was a speech to the Lawrence strikers by Rose Schneiderman, a formidable organizer and the first American woman elected to a national position in a labor union, that popularized the mantra. As Schneiderman put it,
What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist — the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.
The strikers won big. Though a pay cut had sparked the action, they accomplished far more than simply reversing it. They came away with a 15 percent increase in wages, double pay for overtime, and a pledge of no retaliation against workers who participated in the strike. The big pay hike rippled across the regional labor market as well, boosting wages for many other workers.
Working-class leaders far beyond Lawrence recognized the significance of the mill workers’ victory. Eugene V. Debs called it “one of the most decisive and far-reaching ever won by organized workers.” The IWW’s Big Bill Haywood addressed workers on the town common at the conclusion of the strike, saying,
Single handed you are helpless but united you can win everything. You have won over the opposed power of the city, state, and national administrations, against the opposition of the combined forces of capitalism, in face of the armed forces. You have won by your solidarity and your brains and your muscle.
A former Brigham and Women’s Doctor who was charged with raping two patients last year has been indicted on new charges. Derrick Todd, 52, from Wayland, Massachusetts, was indicted by a grand jury on three charges of rape and 17 counts of indecent assault and battery. He is expected to be arraigned on Wednesday, March 25.
“The allegations outlined in those indictments reflect just an extraordinary exploitation of a patient’s vulnerability and abuse of a position of trust,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told reporters.
The new charges stem from allegations by 11 women from the ages of 20 to 60 years old, Ryan said. The crimes allegedly occurred between 2022 and 2023 while Todd was a practicing rheumatologist and primary care physician at Charles River Medical Associates, a private practice in Framingham.
“Allegations include him making inappropriate sexual comments during exams, conducting exams that were excessively painful, and conducting examinations that lasted an unusual and unnecessary amount of time,” Ryan said.
Todd first faced criminal charges last year when he was indicted on charges of raping a 39-year-old woman and 26-year-old woman, both patients at Charles River.
Dozens more women accuse Todd of abuse, some during his time at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Boston, with more than 270 plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against him.
“He was a master manipulator. And his ability to groom patients, giving them access, seeing them early hours, late in the evening, texting with them by cellphone privately,” said attorney William Thompson who is representing his accusers.
Faulker Hospital conducted its own investigation and fired Todd. He also relinquished his license to practice.
DA Ryan said her office has completed its investigation but that still leaves room for others to come forward and for other counties to bring charges.
“It’s a journey. It’s day by day, and everyone is a survivor, and everyone is healing in their own way,” Thompson said.
A local police officer fatally shot a person who was armed with a knife and “appeared to be in distress” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Norfolk DA’s office.
The officer-involved shooting happened in Weymouth at around 4 p.m. after police responded to a 911 call for service at the Webb Memorial State Park off River Street.
“Police arrived to that location and encountered an individual with a knife who appeared to be in distress,” the Norfolk DA’s office wrote.
“The Officer immediately administered first aid to the victim prior to transporting him to an area hospital in critical condition,” the office added.
The male who was critically injured was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The officer-involved shooting was being investigated by the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Norfolk DA’s office.
The DA’s office added, “There is no ongoing threat to the public.”
Massachusetts
Seven high school sports takeaways, including a national hoop title, Gatorade award, and coaching moves – The Boston Globe
Newman defeated Blair Academy (N.J.), 92-72, to finish the season with a 19-game win streak and 38-3 record.
Costello, a Michigan-committed 6-foot-10-inch forward from Medford who played his freshman season at BC High, led all scorers in the title game with 24 points, thanks to six first-half 3-pointers, adding eight rebounds and four assists.
Senior Chase Geremia, committed to Penn, scored 21 points on seven 3-pointers and was named tournament MVP. Illinois-bound senior Lucas Morillo added 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists in the final, giving him tournament averages of 21.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 6.5 assists.
Newman also captured the NEPSAC Class AAA and NEBL championships this season.
Congratulations to the Newman School on their victory tonight in the 2026 National Prep Championship Game.
After winning the NEPSAC AAA title on Sunday, the Cardinals won 4 games in 3 days, bringing home their first National Prep Championship in school history. pic.twitter.com/W36gVXNtsG
— National Prep Championship Series (@PrepNational) March 13, 2026
Austin Prep senior Fope Ayo has been selected as the Gatorade Massachusetts Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year.
The 6-foot-5-inch Reading resident, who is committed to Michigan, averaged 22.3 points, 17.3 rebounds, and 4.1 blocks per game for the Cougars, who went 8-14.
Ayo became the first player in Austin Prep history to eclipse both 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds and was named a McDonald’s All-American Game nominee. She is ranked as the No. 45 recruit in the Class of 2026 by ESPN.
“Fope is certainly an impact player,” said Proctor Academy coach Gregor Mackechnie. “She’s an intimidating defensive presence on the second line of Austin Prep’s zone defense, and has learned to use her body and length effectively to convert scoring opportunities on the blocks. From all of my interactions with her, I found her to be a high-character young woman.”
Ayo maintains an A average in the classroom, has volunteered locally with the Unitas Leadership Academy, and founded Sweet Desserts, an initiative that bakes birthday cakes for incarcerated juveniles.
3. Best of the South Coast crowned
The Dave Cowens awards, given annually to the top boys’ and girls’ basketball seniors from among the 17 South Coast schools, went to Wareham’s Aaron Cote and Apponequet’s Cece Levrault.
Cote led Wareham to its third state title in four years, and he was a starter on all three. After missing 20 games his junior year with an ankle injury, he returned to average 25.1 points, 4.3 assists, 5.1 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per game while surpassing 1,000 career points. He is the second Wareham player to earn the honor, following Ajay Lopes in 2024.
Levrault became the third Apponequet girl, but first since Jen Smith in 2001, to receive the Cowens award after leading the Lakers to a school-record 21 wins and the Division 3 semifinals. She finished her career with 1,149 points and four South Coast Conference Blue division titles.
Joseph Case’s Emma Plante and Old Rocheter’s Emma Johnson were the girls’ finalists, while New Bedford’s Diego Montanari and Somerset Berkley’s Dom Taylor were boys’ finalists.
4. Top WMass players tabbed
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s 15th anual Western Massachusetts Player of the Year awards went to Sam Brigham of Pope Francis and Emersynn Cage of Longmeadow.
A two-year starter at Pope Francis, Brigham finished as the second all-time leading scorer in Western Mass. history with 2,107 points, including a school-record 48 during his sophomore season for St. Mary’s of Westfield. He led Pope Francis to the state semifnals this year, averaging 24 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals per game.
Cage finished her career with 1,220 points, despite tearing her ACL midway through her sophomore season. A four-time All-Western Mass. first team selection, she averaged 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals per game this season, leading the Lancers to the state tournament.
Brigham and Cage will receive their awards during halftime of their respective games at the Western Mass. All-Star Games on Friday (starting at 5:30 p.m.) at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for students and can be purchased here.
▪ Longtime Brewster Academy boys’ basketball coach Jason Smith is leaving his post after 26 seasons to join the new Masters Academy, where he will serve as head coach of the boys’ basketball program, working under John Carroll. At Brewster, Smith won seven national prep championships between 2010 and 2020, winning more than 700 games and sending 25 players to the NBA. He is a three-time National Prep Coach of the Year, six-time New England Prep Coach of the Year, and five times has been named one of the 100 most influential people in men’s college basketball.
▪ Norwood girls’ basketball coach Kristen McDonnell, who previously won four state titles at Braintree and coached the Norwood boys, stepped down for family reasons, and Trevor Hass had the story.
After eight years coaching Malden Catholic girls’ basketball, Jay Keane announced he is stepping down. Keane coached MC since the inception of its program, leading the Lancers to their first Division 1 playoff win this past season and a 14-8 record. In seven varsity seasons, he led MC to the tournament seven times as they moved up from D4 to D1. He previously coached the Wilmington girls for eight seasons, going 120-60. He won his 200th game in 2025.
▪ After four seasons, Beverly boys’ hockey coach Andy Scott announced he will step down to spend more time with family. Scott led the Panthers to an 11-7-3 record and a playoff berth this winter, finishing his stint with a 32-43-7 mark. Cam Kerry recently wrote about how Scott didn’t let paralysis keep him from coaching.
▪ Lowell wrestling coach Nick Logan announced he is resigning after eight seasons. Logan helped build Lowell into one of the premier girls’ wrestling programs in the state.
▪ Springfield Central junior lineman GaVin English announced he has committed to play football at UMass. The 6-foot-5-inch, 300-pounder with a 6-9 wingspan will team up with former Central teammates Pope Watson and Joe Griffin, who both transfered to UMass.
▪ Former Fairhaven star running back/linebacker Justin Marques, who spent a post-grad year at Portsmouth Abbey after setting the state’s all-time touchdown record and leading the Blue Devils to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances and one title, announced he will play at American International. The 5-10, 200-pounder was named All-NEPSAC after rushing for 805 yard and 10 touchdowns in just six games for Portsmouth Abbey.
▪ Medfield senior Eva Thomson committed to play field hockey at St. Anselm.
▪ Malden Catholic senior captain Abbie Poole signed her commitment to play ice hockey at Endicott.
▪ Somerset Berkley senior Alex Javier will wrestle at Bridgewater State. The 132-pounder won a Division 2 title last month.
▪ Andover junior Gus Concemi, a 6-4, 200-pound tight end and long snapper, will be transferring to Phillips Andover and entering the Class of 2028.
▪ Archbishop Williams sophomore David Santiago announced he will transfer to Lawrence Academy and reclassify as a 2029 prospect. The 6-2, 270-pound defensive tackle is from Pawtucket, R.I.
▪ Lynnfield junior Grant Neal, a 6-4 175-pound guard, will be transferring to St. Mark’s to play basketball and will reclassify as a sophomore. Neal averaged 21.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists this season.
▪ On Friday, Assumption will host the Spring Jam Classic: Friday Night Lights showcasing some of the state’s top high school talent. The night starts with a Top 20 girls’ high school showcase at 5 p.m., followed by a Leadership game, then the Top 20 Central Mass. showcase at 7, and Worcester vs. Boston (Part 2) at 8 p.m. The event also includes a vendor showcase and community resources.
▪ On Saturday, Quincy High will host the BABC vs. MA Select Teams games, with the underclassmen playing at 5:15 p.m. and the seniors at 6:45 p.m. The MA Select senior team features many of the state’s top hoopers: Central Catholic’s Javi Lopez, Wareham’s Cote, Burlington’s Matty Gray, Malden Catholic’s Aboubakar Nimaka, Medfield’s Thomas Behrman, Bridgewater-Raynham’s Cason Faulk and Cam Santos, Xaverian’s Thatcher Purdy, Hanover’s Ryan Mutschler, Attleboro’s Ladanian Rodrigues, Rockland’s Rophil Ngintoundem, Bedford’s Mekhi Volcy, Needham’s Ben Marino, Quincy’s Malcom McMorrow, and Abington’s Kingston Maxwell and Tyler Staiti.
▪ The Catholic Conference Showcase for football will be held from 5-8 p.m. on May 14 at a location to be announced.
▪ Registration is open for the Northeast 7v7 summer tournaments, which will be held from July 18-30 at Fitchburg, Berwick (Maine), Milton, and Peabody. The New England championship will be held July 30 at Peabody.
Brendan Kurie can be reached at brendan.kurie@globe.com. Follow him on X @BrendanKurie.
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