https://socialistaction.org/2020/03/08/international-womens-day/
International Women???s Day
Socialist Action / 22 hours ago
(Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
The worldwide emergence of a fighting women???s movement
By ANN MONTAGUE and LISA LUINENBERG
In Russia in 1913 working class women used International Women???s Day to
demand the right to vote. On March 8th, 1917 women working in the
massive textile factories walked off the job in protest.
On International Women???s Day they struck to demanding bread and to bring
the soldiers home from the battlefields of the First World War. The very
next day 200,000 workers were in the streets with the same demands.
The striking women had inspired broader protests. A general strike of
all workers was organized, again demanding bread and an end to the war.
Two days later the hated Czar Nicolas ll was overthrown with a mutiny of
the Russian military combining with the workers??? and peasants??? mass
mobilizations to constitute the February 1917 revolution that overthrew
the centuries old Russian monarchy. A temporary Constituent Assembly was
established that granted women the right to vote.
Eight months later, in October 1917, a second revolution swept Russia as
millions of workers. peasants, soldiers and sailors stormed the heavens
to establish for the first time in history a socialist government of
based on working class rule through democratically elected councils
(soviets) that were organized across the country.
A socialist revolution that encompassed one-sixth of the land surface of
the world immediately proceeded to abolish the repressive and hated
Tzarist Criminal Code. A new Family Code was adopted by the
soviet/council-based government in early 1918 which freed women from the
repressive institutional structures of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Marriage and divorce became voluntary civil arrangements and anti-sodomy
laws that had been used to oppress gay men were abolished.
The importance of this spark that was ignited by Russian women into a
massive and unprecedented social rebellion that shook the earth on March
8th is often overlooked. International Women???s Day had been first
organized on Feb. 28, 1909 when the Socialist Party of America organized
a march to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the strike of female
garment workers in New York City. Clara Zetkin a German Revolutionary
proposed in 1910 at an International Socialist Women???s Conference that
March 8th be honored annually as International Working Women???s Day.
There were 100 women from 17 countries in attendance.
??In the following year a million women marched worldwide. It was also
the 40th anniversary of the Paris Commune, where a radical socialist
government was established that briefly ruled in France. Women played a
key role in the 1881 Paris Commune and none more than its key leader,
Louise Michel, who became a national heroine in France.
Most countries today, except the United States, officially celebrate
March 8th as International Women???s Day. In the past two decades there
has been a global rising of women that has sparked militant protests in
the tradition of the original International Women???s Day. In some cities
in the U.S. the women???s marches that began in January 2017 to protest
the inauguration of President Trump have been moved to March 8. Their
demands to end violence against women and the right to control our own
bodies have expanded to condemn misogyny, racism, homophobia and
transphobia. In other countries there have been women???s strikes and mass
mobilizations. The experience of women???s empowerment one day a year is
transformative and continues to motivate women throughout the year
towards mass action instead of disempowering electoral activity.
India???s women protest leaders
In articles about the recent fight back against India???s Prime Minister
Narendra Modi???s anti-Muslim Citizen???s Amendment Bill, little has been
written about the role of women. The bill would strip citizen rights
from 200 million Muslim citizens. In January there was a general strike
of over 250 million workers against the right wing Modi government,
likely the largest strike in history. Again, most news reports were
silent about the central role of women. But at the center of the
resistance to government-imposed austerity and in defense of the largely
oppressed Muslim population, were housewives, grandmothers and women
students. Women like Asma Khatun, who leads mass protest chants, has
seen nine decades of oppression and lived through British colonial rule,
the war of independence and the partition of Pakistan. Before last month
she had stayed in her home and had never been in politics. For forty
days she has camped out in the streets day and night with hundreds of
women in some of the coldest weather India has ever experienced. ???I will
not move, I have never been in a protest before, but I will die fighting
for my children and my country,??? she stated.
According to The Guardian, ???The loudest voices of dissent have been from
women both Hindu and Muslim, fighting together across India. They have
been at the forefront of the resistance fighting for the rights of
millions of Muslims being declared illegal aliens in their own country.???
The female driven movement is in response to their oppression and
economic status.?? Women in India tend to have less documentation to
prove citizenship and are more likely to be living in poverty. They do
not have their names on property documents and many have moved from
their place of birth when they were married. They are less likely to
have their births registered.
Karuna Nundy one of the most vocal activists explains, ???Being a woman in
India feeds into the experience of and resistance to oppression. We know
exclusion and we know it viscerally. It is important to see that
Hindutva has been powered by a toxic masculinity. It is very macho,
violent and hostile to women.???
Student activist Shafqat Rahim reports: ???The protests are shaping up
like a revolution where women have taken the leading roles. We the
women, will remove the fascist rulers.???
Women Plan a Month of Demonstrations in Madrid
In Spain, over 7,000 women gathered in Madrid on February 8th to form a
human chain around the city center. The action kicked off a month of
protests leading up to International Women???s Day on March 8th. According
to the organizers, the purpose of the march was ???to denounce the
different types of violence that affect women and to call public
attention to the diverse proposals for change emanating from the
feminist movements.???
The women wore purple to show that the streets of Madrid belong to them.
Their chain, which stretched over seven kilometers, was divided into ten
sections to showcase different demands including the right to housing,
dignified pensions, working rights for women who work in the home,
climate justice, an end to violence against women, and more. LGBTQI
activists and sex workers also had their own sections of the march with
their own demands. The march organizers explained, ???We are betting on a
rebellion for a month, so that they hear all the demands???not only on
March 8. We don???t want to wait anymore; we want to come out in the
streets, we want a permanent mobilization.???
March 8th is not a day that has been left in the dustbin of history. It
is a day that we are inspired by women trailblazers like Clara Zetkin
and Rosa Luxemburg, when we remember our grandmothers, mothers, sisters,
aunts and friends who struggled and continue to struggle to make the
world a better place to live for women around the globe. As Clara said,
???All women, whatever be their position, should demand political equality
as a means of a freer life, and one calculated to yield rich blessings
to society.???
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March 8, 2020 in Uncategorized.
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