IN PICTURES: Powerful posters advancing working women’s rights across the globe depict how “women in the struggle are women unbound,” as Lenin said.
telesur | 07 March, 2017
Cuban poster art marking International Women’s Day Photo:Oakland Museum of California
“Women may be bound twice in a nation struggling for freedom, but women in the struggle are women unbound.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Celebrated across the globe, International Women’s Day is rooted in the working-class struggle for women’s rights.
Year by year, the importance of March 8 grows as a day marking the fight to advance working women’s rights. Across the globe, women continue to face human rights abuses including sexual assault, forced disappearances, human trafficking, modern-day slavery and the denial of reproductive health access. Plus, a culture of machismo and misogyny leads to tragedies such as domestic abuse and femicide that often go uninvestigated or unpunished.
March 8 became synonymous with working women’s struggle in 1917 when Russian women went on strike demanding “Bread and Peace” and an end to Russia’s role in the imperialist First World War – a crucial moment in the timeline of the Russian revolutionary process that ushered in the world’s first socialist state, the Soviet Union.
teleSUR takes a look at the poster art of social movements throughout history, where women have stood at the forefront of the militant fight against the inequality, exploitation and patriarchal oppression that capitalism upholds.
Poster by the Revolutionary Youth Movement in Atlanta, Georgia, produced at Baltimore’s Liberation House Press. Photo:OMCA
Poster for IWD released by Iranian expat student shortly after the toppling of the Shah in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Photo:Iranian Students Association (US)
“A single spark can set the prairie alight,” print by Huang Xinbo, People’s Republic of China, 1972 Photo:Public Domain
“For a Liberatory International Women’s Day! Forward, Gabriela! Forward, women! For militant struggle!” Photo:GABRIELA
“Indigenous Women Defending Land & Life Since the Beginning of Time,” print by Gabriela Cervantes, 2000s Photo:Dignidad Rebelde
Early Soviet revolutionary poster showing worker and peasant women marching against capitalism on International Working Women’s Day Photo:Public Domain
“Alone We Are Powerless, Together We Are Strong,” United Kingdom, 1976 Photo:Red Women’s Workshop
Poster by General Union of Palestinian Women, 1980 Photo:Palestine Poster Project
Poster advancing the Indigenous woman candidate of the National Indigenous Council in Mexico’s 2018 elections, art by GRAN OM (Omar Inzunza). Photo:Enlace Zapatista
French communist poster for International Women’s Day. Photo:Public Domain
“Capitalism Also Depends On Domestic Labour,” United Kingdom, 1975 Photo:Red Women’s Workshop
Spanish Civil War-era poster: “For a Republic That Advances the Liberation of Women!” Photo:Public Domain
Socialist poster for International Women’s Day, Berlin, Germany, 1932 Photo:Public Domain
“The Women of Corriente Revolucionarias Bolívar y Zamora Ready for the Struggle!” Venezuela, 2016 Photo:Via Campesina
A poster highlighting the part played by women in the Republican Movement by Sinn Féin Department of Women’s Affairs Photo:Public Domain
Poster showing women involved in the Black liberation fight by Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, date unknown.Photo:Public Domain
Cuban pop-art style poster for International Women’s Day Photo:OSPAAAL
Poster uplifting the women’s struggle in India, date unknown. Photo:All India Students’ Association
Journal of People 