Dorothy Day, born on this day in 1897, was an anarchist activist who founded the Catholic Worker movement. "The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?"

The Catholic Worker movement, founded by Day and her partner Peter Maurin, started with the publication of the first issue of the Catholic Worker on May 1st, 1933.

The paper was priced at one cent, and published continuously since then. It was aimed at those suffering the most in the depths of the Great Depression, "those who think there is no hope for the future", and announced to them that "the Catholic Church has a social program...there are men of God who are working not only for their spiritual but for their material welfare." It accepted no advertising and did not pay its staff.

Like many newspapers of the day, including those for which Day had already been writing, the Catholic Worker was an unapologetic example of advocacy journalism. It provided coverage of strikes, explored working conditions, especially of women and black workers, and explicated papal teaching on social issues.

Its viewpoint was partisan and stories were designed to move its readers to take action locally, for example, by patronizing laundries recommended by the Laundry Workers' Union. Its advocacy of federal child labor laws put it at odds with the American Church hierarchy from its first issue.

Day's activism continued throughout the rest of her life, resulting in multiple arrests. In the summer of 1973, she joined César Chávez in his campaign for farm laborers in the fields of California and was arrested at the age of 75 for defying an injunction against picketing, spending ten days in jail.

"The Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor."

  • Dorothy Day

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  • Sen_Jen [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    This just reminded me of a dream I had the other day. I went into a factory which had a cafe in it and tried to order a hot chocolate from the old lady working there, who was friends with me, but she said "No, we're only doing waffles today". So I sat down on a metal table and ate a chocolate chip waffle and there were a bunch of rugby players around and they were all like "hey don't take the coach's waffle or we'll fuck you up". For some reason I took the coach's waffle and then started running out of the factory with all the rugby guys chasing me. The coach, who was a 90 year old man and looked like the old guy from Squid Games, tried to stop me by swinging a sledgehammer at me, but I dodge rolled past him like he was a dark souls enemy. Then I ran as the rugby guys were chasing me to some weird empty modern city where everything was glass and steel and concrete. I managed to lose them there and met one of my friends, who helped me hide by jumping off a balcony into some weird shopping mall/ apartment building. Then we went into an elevator and came back up to the ground level and one of the rugby guys, who was also someone from my primary school, was there so I snapped his neck and killed him. Then I said "fuck, that's the third person I've killed."

    Interpretation: what the fuck

    DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NEVER KILLED ANYONE NOR DO I EVERY WANT TO KILL ANYONE.

    • Diogenes_Barrel [love/loves]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :comfy-cool: the olde necksnap triple-kill. you really gotta work on not stealing the coaches waffles

      nice dream, very bizarre.

      • Sen_Jen [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        My roommate had in interesting theory that it was about upward economic mobility. I start in a factory, can't get the drink I want so I have to settle for something else and steal someone else's. Then I go to a rich city which is just for me, and kill someone as a representation of my guilt for thriving under capitalism.

        Honestly as an artistic interpretation it's convincing, but I'm not upwardly mobile lol. I was born into a middle class family and have gotten much poorer since I moved out