International Women’s Day, a Brief History…
https://socialistaction.org/2021/03/23/international-womens-day-a-brief-history/
March 23, 2021
By Ann Montague
International Women’s Day has its roots in the Feb. 28th 1909 march to
commemorate the 1908 strike of female immigrant garment workers in New
York City. The march was organized by the Socialist Party of America and
they proclaimed National Women’s Day.
A year after the New York City garment workers strike was memorialized,
Clara Zetkin a revolutionary socialist in Germany called for an
International Socialist Women’s Conference and proposed that March 8th
be honored every year as International Working Women’s Day. It was
approved by over 100 women from 17 countries. The following year a
million women marched world wide celebrating the leadership of socialist
women on the 40th anniversary of the Paris Commune.
On March 8th, 1913 working class women in Russia marched to demand the
right to vote and on International Women’s Day, 1917 Russian women
working in the massive Petrograd textile factories walked off the job to
demand bread and demand Russian soldiers be brought home from the
battlefields of the First World War.
The importance of the leadership and action of Russian women is often
overlooked in the history of the Russian Revolution. The day after the
women’s strike a general strike of all workers was declared. In two
days the hated Czar Nicolas ll was overthrown. By March 10th there was a
mutiny of the Russian military, workers and peasants which resulted in
the February Revolution which ended the Romanov Dynasty. The temporary
Constituent Assembly granted women the right to vote.
In October, the second stage of the revolution, millions of workers and
peasants and soldiers and sailors stormed the Winter Palace and
instituted a revolution that encompassed one sixth of the world.
The Tzarist Criminal Code was eliminated and a new Family Code in 1918
freed women from the repressive institutional structures of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Marriage and divorce became voluntary civil
arrangements. Today International Women’s Day is celebrated around the
world in the spirit of solidarity and struggle.
Today, more than a century later, the fight for women’s equality remains
among the central issues of our time. The COVID-19 pandemic has
tragically revealed that women, and especially women of oppressed
nationalities, suffer the worst consequences, including the highest
infection and death rates, the highest rates of unemployment and the
lowest wages. Join us in organizing today’s fightback. Join Socialist
Action!
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--
Charles Bukowski “For those who believe in God, most of the big
questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the
God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to
new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a
command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the
teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here
to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds
and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” ―
Charles Bukowski
