A comment by Prime Minister, the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP about Linda’s passing resonated with me – Linda White believed in Bread & Roses.

As a member of various Trade Union Choirs where the song Bread & Roses was sung on many occasions, the PM is right – Bread & Roses encapsulates Linda’s most basic beliefs and all that she sought to achieve for all unionists. She herself said that “the smaller things mattered just as much – the hard day to day work of unionism binds us together in solidarity”.

In a political speech given by American women’s suffrage activist Helen Todd in 1911 she spoke about “bread for all, and roses too.”  That one phrase has come to represent what we all want – fair wages and dignified conditions. Linda obviously took that to heart and achieved that, and so much more for workers over her many years in Unions, the ALP, the Senate, and many, many Boards including Superannuation. Gratifyingly, Linda was also a member of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Board!

Just one of the many achievements Linda had in her Union career was her campaign for paid family and domestic violence leave – it took many years and is a testament to her hard work and commitment to a cause to see that the most vulnerable were protected and provided with the assistance they so needed.

Various words were proffered by friends and colleagues following Linda’s passing to describe her –- passionate, persistent, relentless, tenacious, skilled, intelligent and empathetic. Linda was also a protector and determined to win. I can only aspire to be half of what Linda was.

We are poorer for Linda’s absence but I feel her legacy, strength and determination will bolster our own commitment to improve the lives of our fellow humans.

Kellie Gale
Executive Secretary
United Services Union

Song words:

Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching
In the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens
A thousand mill lofts gray

Are touched with all the radiance
That a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing
Bread and roses, bread and roses

As we go marching, marching
We battle too for men
For they are women’s 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 go marching, marching
Unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing
Their ancient call 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

As we go marching, marching
We bring the greater days
For the rising of the women
Means the rising of the race

No more the drudge and idler
Tender toil where one reposes
But the sharing of lives glories
Bread and roses, bread and roses
(Bread and roses, bread and roses)

Our lives shall not be sweated
From birth until life closes
Hearts starve as well as bodies
Bread and roses, bread and roses