Posts tagged International Women's Day

March 8, 2011 marked the centennial celebration of International Women’s Day. Now observed as a public holiday in dozens of countries throughout the world, International Women’s Day was inspired by the struggles of women workers in New York City in the early 20th century. It is a sad irony that International Women’s Day, much like May 1, observed throughout most of the world as International Workers’ Day, was inspired by the struggles of US workers, but is all but ignored today in the American press.
    On February 28, 1908, 15,000 women workers marched on the streets of New York to demand shorter working hours, better pay and working conditions, and the right to vote. The women clashed with the police who attempted to suppress the demonstration, leading to numerous arrests and injuries. The following year, the Socialist Party of America called for a National Women’s Day to be held on the last Sunday in February. Demonstrations were planned across the country demanding justice for working class women.
    The following year, the Second International, at the time still a credible authority among revolutionary socialists, organized an international women’s conference in Copenhagen. Here, German socialist Clara Zetkin (later a cofounder, along with Rosa Luxemburg, of Spartakusbund after the German Social-Democratic Party’s shameful capitulation to imperialism – see Harbinger # 2) moved a motion to establish an International Women’s Day, on which women the world over would build demonstrations to demand their rights. The conference resolved that women in all countries would celebrate a “Women’s Day” on the same day each year, under the slogan, “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism.” The first International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 18, 1911; hundreds of demonstrations occurred across Europe on this day. In the next few years, March 8 was set as the official date for International Women’s Day.
    From its first celebration in 1911, International Women’s Day has reverberated throughout the world as a day of both celebration and militant struggle. On March 8, 1917, women workers of St. Petersburg, Russia took to the streets demanding bread and an end to war – this International Women’s Day celebration marked the beginning of the February Revolution which overthrew the Tsar. Writing in 1920, Russian Marxist, Alexandra Kollontai, declared that “on this day the Russian women raised the torch of proletarian revolution and set the world on fire.”

By: Ted McTaggart