Our T-Shirt of the Month for March 2023, made of 100% organic cotton by a worker-owned co-operative, and supporting grassroots labour unions in South Asia. It celebrates the victory of the Bread and Roses strike in March 1912. 20,000 garment workers, mostly women and girls, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, had walked out on strike and were denounced by the American Federation of Labor as "revolutionary" and "anarchistic". The workers instead turned to the radical Industrial Workers of the World union for support. The name of the strike referred to the workers wanting their basic needs met, "bread", as well as the beautiful things in life, "roses".
The workers held meetings which were translated into almost 30 languages, faced down brutal police and militarily repression, who killed one woman and beat and jailed many others, and eventually won big concessions across the whole garment industry. In particular, the workers won a 15% pay increase, double pay for overtime and amnesty for most of the strikers.
Design by Berlin based artist and tattooer Nora Lehrmann. Instead of doing another t-shirt with the strike's slogan she decided to create a more subtle design consisting of a beautiful drawing of roses and wheat as a symbol for bread. The beginning and end date of the strike are displayed in a banderole. While 12 of March marks the day of the offer of the employers, it is March 14 that marks the day of the victory celebration and the agreement of the workers to agree to the employers offer. For the design we chose March 14 as the featured date.
- 100% organic cotton, single jersey, 160 g/m², 0% elastane in fabric
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High-quality water-based print: environmentally and skin-friendly ink certified under the Global Organic Textile Standard
Unisex fit sizes: S - M - L - XL - 2XL – 3XL - 4XL - 5XL - Made with dignity by the worker-owned Humana Nova cooperative
- Supports grassroots labour unions in South Asia through ExChains
- Learn more about our 'T-Shirt of the Month' collaboration with dna merch here
- Printed individually just for you, with no overproduction or waste
- Global shipping, from France
Please make sure to carefully choose your size by checking the size chart below.
Width: Measured 2cm (1in) beneath the sleeves across the shirt
Length: Measured from the highest point of the shoulder to the bottom end of the shirt
| S | M | L | XL | 2XL | 3XL | 4XL | 5XL | |
| Width (in) | 19 | 21 | 22 | 24 | 25.5 | 26.5 | 27.5 | 33.0 |
| Length (in) | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 31.5 | 32 | 29.0 | 33.5 |
| Width (cm) | 48 | 53 | 56 | 60.5 | 64.5 | 68 | 70 | 84 |
| Length (cm) | 71 | 74 | 76.5 | 79 | 80.5 | 82 | 74.5 | 85 |
When will I receive my t-shirt?
Printing of each T-Shirt of the Month will take approximately one week after being ordered. The shirts will then be shipped from France, and delivery should take up to one week for Europe, and up to 2 weeks for the rest of the world.
In the unlikely event that shirts from Humana Nova are out of stock, design will instead be printed on an organic t-shirt from fairwear foundation leader Stanley & Stella instead.