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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire … the dust of their labors, a poem

Triangle_Shirtwaist_coffinsits red tongue licked and
ate the fabric of their dreams, the
depth of their immigrant hopes,
it burned like greed, like it was
the only thing that counted,
it consumed their very breath
and the dust of their labors
– Jamie Dedes

Yesterday was the 105th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

MARCH 25, 1911: Until the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 (9/11), the worst large-scale disaster in my home town, New York City, was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. It remains the fourth largest industrial accident in the history of the United States. Its victims were mostly immigrant young women with an average age of seventeen years. Many jumped from the building rather than burn to death.

146 girls were killed that day. This was the unmitigated result of corporate greed that kept workers earning their bread in an unsafe building, locked in workrooms from which they couldn’t escape, adding injury to the insult of long hours, abusive supervisors, and poor compensation with no benefits.

The legacy of this disaster was a turning point in the American labor struggle for fair wages and workplace dignity and safety.

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© Jamie Dedes; photographs are in the public domain

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Help for Compromised Citizens of the World

IMG_7406 (2)
I thought it would be nice if we all had this information to easily share on our Facebook Pages and our blogs and so forth. I took some time to collect the information. Nonetheless, I’m sure I’ve left some worthy organizations out. If anyone knows of an organization that should be included, please leave it in the comments section and I’ll keep track for an update sometime in the future. Meanwhile, you can also check on a charity’s track record at: Charity Navigator. So please do download this and feel free to share anywhere you feel it’s warranted or would be welcome, maybe even on employee, union and/or church affiliated sites.  Thank you!

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Pen World:Defiance in the Face of Extreme Repression

DEFIANCE IN THE FACE OF EXPREME REPRESSION: “The PEN World series showcases the important work of the more than 140 centers that form PEN International. Each PEN center sets its own priorities, but they are united by their commitment to advocate for imperiled writers, promote literature from all cultures and in all languages, and advance the right of every individual to speak freely. In this series, PEN America interviews the leaders of different PEN centers from the global network to offer a window into the literary accomplishments and free expression challenges of their respective countries. – See more at: http://pen.org/topic/pen-world”  They’re posting one interview a month. So far they’ve covered Belarus, South Africa and Eritrea.IMG_8595

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Not In My Name

IMG_6245Not in my name,
my woman’s name,
not one drop of blood be shed for oil
that makes some billionaires
and sets the Middle East aflame

But in my name,
in every woman’s name, send home great armies
of the black and dispossessed,
warships and frigates turn around.
Peace in my name!

– Joan Williams

Joan Williams (1916-2008) was an Australian poet (a.k.a. Justina Williams) and communist. I believe her poetry would come under this category:

“Proletarian poetry is a genre of political poetry developed in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s that endeavored to portray class-conscious perspectives of the working-class. Connected through their mutual political message that may be either explicitly Marxist or at least socialist, the poems are often aesthetically disparate. As a literature that emphasized working-class voices, the poetic form of works could range from emulating African-American slave work songs to contemporary modernist poetry. Major poets of the movement include Langston Hughes, Kenneth Fearing, Edwin Rolfe, Horace Gregory, and Mike Gold.” MORE Wikipedia

Thanks to Susanne Harford for reminding of this poem and this poet.

© 2016, photograph, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved