They were demanding the right to vote and hold public office, to work and have access to vocational training and to end discrimination on the job. Aleksandra Kollontai, who helped organize the U.S. event, described it as "one seething, trembling sea of women."

Exactly one month later, a careless workman tossed a smoldering match, igniting a pile of cloth at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Within 15 minutes, 146 young women died.

Most of the doors were blocked to prevent theft, and firemen found 19 bodies melted against one such door. The fire escapes collapsed. Some jumped out of windows; others threw themselves nine floors down the elevator shaft. There weren't enough coffins in the city to haul them all away.

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.

Appropriately, today's San Antonio Women's Day March, which starts at 10 a.m. at Elmendorf Park, near Our Lady of the Lake University, is organized by a coalition led by Fuerza Unida.

The group formed in 1990 when Levi's suddenly laid off 1,500 seamstresses at its Zarzamora Street plant and moved operations to Costa Rica, where working women earn in a day what the San Antonio workers earned in a half-hour.

On Nov. 25, 2000, fire swept a garment factory in Bangladesh, where women were sewing sweaters for export. Fifty-one workers died, most of them teenage girls. Hundreds were injured.

Just as in the Triangle factory in 1911, the exits were locked. Many women jumped out the windows and were impaled on the spikes surrounding the factory.

As we go marching, marching unnumbered woman 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!

In Costa Rica, where the Levi's jobs went, 72,000 children between the ages of 5 and 16 are part of the work force. Children between the ages of 5 and 11 are paid 11.6 percent of the minimum wage. Of course, it's cheaper to outsource jobs, but at what price?

Of course, it's cheaper to outsource labor to factories where workers get no benefits and can be fired or even tossed into jail for complaining or organizing.

It's time to mobilize that seething, trembling sea of women again.

As we go marching, marching we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race,
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!