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Deadline for Bread and Roses Song and Spoken Word Award approaches
Songwriting inspiration: Joe Hill [Utah Division of Archives]

“A PAMPHLET, no matter how good, is rarely read more than once. But a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over,” legendary US labour activist Joe Hill once remarked.

He knew what he was talking about — in addition to his political activities, he was a cartoonist and popular songwriter for the cause and his great ballads like There is Power in a Union and Casey Jones are still belted out at rallies and demos a century after his death.

It’s in that spirit that the CWU and Culture Matters launched the highly successful Bread and Roses Song and Spoken Word Award last year and now it’s back, with the Musicians Union (MU) supporting the initiative this time round.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
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