The Workers
Beer Company raises funds for trades union and campaigning
organisations. The Company runs beer tents at large
outdoor events, and promotes music festivals and other
events to raise money for the labour movement.
Thousands of volunteers from dozens of organisations work in Workers Beer Company
bars, pouring and serving drinks to fund the activities of their groups. This
last year has seen the total amount raised by Beer Company servers reach over £1.5
million, money that goes directly to grassroots organisations - trades union
branches, campaigning groups, solidarity organisations and voluntary groups.
Born in the 1980s, the Company grew up in the harsh years of Thatcher, building
partnerships with organisations of the left, but also with commercial organisations,
in order to generate the funds needed to campaign for a better quality of life
for working people.
The Company's unique blend of commerce, fun and fundraising has captured the
imagination of the many people who have come into contact with it, and WBC banners
are now a common site at some of the largest music events in the UK and beyond.
Glastonbury Festival, Reading Festival and Homelands see WBC beer tents every
year, and the Fleadh, London's premier music festival, is co-promoted by the
Workers Beer Company with the Mean Fiddler organisation.
Apart from the large events, the Company is also involved in smaller trades union
and community events, offering its expertise to unions, local authorities and
voluntary groups to ensure their events go smoothly.
The Bread and Roses in Clapham is the Company's first pub, an award-winning free
house in Clapham, where the ethos of the Company continues throughout the year.
Staff in the pub are not volunteers like those on site, but are covered by a
model union agreement for pubstaff, negotiated with the T&G, offering staff
proper sick pay, holiday pay and perhaps the best wage rate in the country.
If you would like further information about the Workers Beer Company, the services
it offers, or how to fundraise with the Company, call us on 020 7720 0140 or
visit other pages on this website on www.workersbeer.co.uk or e-mail us at info@workersbeer.co.ukor write to:
The Workers Beer Company
68A Clapham Manor Street
Clapham
London SW4 6DZ
Why The Name?
The pub takes its name
from a song written during a strike of women textile
workers in Lawrence Massachusetts,
USA in 1912. Twenty seven thousand women went on
strike and marched for eleven weeks to improve
their working conditions.
Their banners called
for bread and roses and a poet among them, James
Oppenheim, wrote these words, which went on to
become a famous song for women trade unionists
everywhere and is still sung by delegates to the
ICTU Womenís Conference at the conclusion
of the conference.
This pub is named in recognition
of their struggle and the struggle of workers everywhere
for a better quality of life for themselves and
their families.
As we come marching, marching in
the beauty of the day, A million darkened kitchens,
a thousand mill lofts grey, Are touched with all
the radiance that a sudden sun discloses; For the
people hear us singing; ìBread and roses!
Bread and roses!î As we come marching, marching,
we battle too for men,For they are womenís
children and we mother them again, Our lives shall
not be sweated from birth until life closes; Hearts
starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give
us roses! As we come marching, marching,unnumbered
women dead Go crying through our singing their
ancient cry for bread. Small art and love and beauty
their drudging spirits knew. Yes, it is bread we
fight for but we fight for roses too!
