The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years
General
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years
Social justice; Social problems
Yetta stood there alone, the blood mounting to her cheeks,
looking more and more like an orchid, and waited for the storm
to pass.
"I'm not going to talk about this strike," she said when she
could make herself heard. "It's over. I want to tell you about
the next one--and the next. I wish very much I could make you
understand about the strikes that are coming....
"Perhaps there's some of you never thought much about strikes
till now. Well. There's been strikes all the time. I don't
believe there's ever been a year when there wasn't dozens here
in New York. When we began, the skirt-finishers was out. They
lost their strike. They went hungry just the way we did, but
nobody helped them. And they're worse now than ever. There
ain't no difference between one strike and another. Perhaps
they are striking for more pay or recognition or closed shops.
But the next strike'll be just like ours. It'll be people
fighting so they won't be so much slaves like they was before.
"The Chairman said perhaps I'd tell you about my experience.
There ain't nothing to tell except everybody has been awful
kind to me. It's fine to have people so kind to me. But I'd
rather if they'd try to understand what this strike business
means to all of us workers--this strike we've won and the ones
that are coming....
"I come out of the workhouse today, and they tell me a lady
wants to give me money to study, she wants to have me go to
college like I was a rich girl. It's very kind. I want to
study. I ain't been to school none since I was fifteen. I
guess I can't even talk English very good. I'd like to go to
college. And I used to see pictures in the papers of beautiful
rich women, and of course it would be fine to have clothes like
that. But being in a strike, seeing all the people suffer,
seeing all the cruelty--it makes things look different.
"The Chairman told you something out of the Christian Bible.
Well, we Jews have got a story too--perhaps it's in your
Bible--about Moses and his people in Egypt. He'd been brought
up by a rich Egyptian lady--a princess--just like he was her
son. But as long as he tried to be an Egyptian he wasn't no
good. And God spoke to him one day out of a bush on fire. I
don't remember just the words of the story, but God said:
'Moses, you're a Jew. You ain't got no business with the
Egyptians. Take off those fine clothes and go back to your own
people and help them escape from bondage.' Well. Of course, I
ain't like Moses, and God has never talked to me. But it seems
to me sort of as if--during this strike--I'd seen a BLAZING
BUSH. Anyhow I've seen my people in bondage. And I don't want
to go to college and be a lady. I guess the kind princess
couldn't understand why Moses wanted to be a poor Jew instead
of a rich Egyptian. But if you can understand, if you can
understand why I'm going to stay with my own people, you'll
understand all I've been trying to say.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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