No one surrenders here!

by Eduardo Palomares

Granma | March 07, 2019

The dreams of the generation that stormed the Moncada Garrison are today a tangible reality in the Tercer Frente. Photo: Marcelino Vázquez (AIN)

TERCER FRENTE, SANTIAGO DE CUBA.– The U.S. government is so stuck in time that, in its eagerness to suffocate the Cuban economy with Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, it appears not to have noticed that the steep hillsides where Comandante Juan Almeida founded, by order of the Comandante en Jefe, the Mario Muñoz Monroy Third Front, are not the same today, 61 years later.

Surely it still imagines this area filled with humble, sad-faced campesinos, and children with bulging bellies, without doctors or schools, lacking roads, electricity and communications, condemned to the irrational extraction of precious wood and the sacking of aromatic coffee.

D-Day, V-Day, and beyond

by Iroel Sánchez

Granma | March 07, 2019

Photo: Juvenal Balán

This February 23, it was raining false news: trucks crossing the Venezuelan border only on Twitter, and “massive protests” in Havana in which two people yelled and no one chanted along. Several filmed the two, and among those, to be heard was “Viva la Revolución Cubana!”

D-Day for the enemies of Cuba and Venezuela first became D for ‘doubtful’ and then D for ‘defeat.’ For Cuba, as well as Venezuela, V-day began, for ‘victory.’ For both nations, the Cuban people voted overwhelmingly YES in the referendum to approve the new Constitution on the 24th.

An army of women who love and build

by Carolina Aguilar Ayerra

Granma | March 07, 2019

Cuban women have been the protagonists of every challenge and victory. Photo: Jose M. Correa“Federation members! Women of this worthy and invincible land! (…) With the satisfaction of the overwhelming achievements in the battle for the full exercise of women’s equality, and with the resolve to continue forward toward new conquests, today we convoke the 8th Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women.”

Korda’s militia woman

by Alejandra García

Granma | March 06, 2019

La Miliciana. Photo: Korda, Alberto

Among the crowd that May Day, 1962, a young photographer focused on the adolescent face of Idolka Sánchez, as she marched in front of the José Martí Memorial in Havana.

One of the almost 2,000 members of the Lidia Doce women’s militia battalion, Idolka saw him approach, camera in hand. He appeared as if hell bent on photographing her, as if he had seen her from a distance and couldn’t let her escape his lens. He had chosen her.

“Lift up the machine gun!” the man she had barely heard of ordered. This was the same photographer who, in March 1960, had immortalized Che’s face, hair blowing in the wind, during the funeral of the victims of the terrorist attack on the La Coubre steamship. The order was followed by several clicks of his camera and, in a matter of seconds, Korda had disappeared.

International Women’s Day History

The University of Chicago | March 08, 2019

IWD Timeline

• 1907 The Early Beginnings
• 1909 The First National Woman’s Day in the US
• 1910 The Second International Conference of Women
• 1911 International Woman’s Day in the US and Europe
• 1912 Bread and roses!
• 1914-1916 War-Time Campainging

History of International Women’s Day

UN | March 08, 2019

Changing the status quo starts with imagining a radically different future. In Georgia, UNDP and partners develop multiple future scenarios to improve planning — and to shift mindsets. Photo: UNDP Georgia.

Introduction

International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

DECLARATION: International Women’s Day 2019

Socialist International Women | March 08, 2019

International Women’s Day (IWD) is an opportunity to honour and celebrate all women and  girls around the world for their invaluable contribution to their families and communities. The Socialist International Women (SIW) warmly supports this year’s IWD theme “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change” in recognition that fresh perspectives and inventive approaches are needed in our continuing struggle for gender equality. We do not yet know how enriched all of our lives could be with the full participation of women and girls or how much we have already lost through their absence. History has shown that it is often not enough to improve existing social, legal and cultural traditions which have been dominated by the interests and viewpoints of men. A radical shift is urgently needed towards the normalisation of consideration of the specific needs of women and girls and their human rights as equals with men. With this approach – think equal, build smart, innovate for change – our vision of a planet 50-50 by 2030 can be sustainably achieved and transform the daily reality of women and girls in all aspects of their educational, working, community and private lives.

Argentina Doctors Strike, Close 600 State Hospitals

teleSUR | March 07, 2019

Medical workers strike against low wages, layoffs in Argentina, March 7, 2019 | Photo: Fesprosa

Coinciding with teacher strikes, medical professionals are on strike for two days across Argentina, forcing the shut down of 600 state hospitals.

At least 600 hospitals across Argentina have been closed for a second day as the Trade Union Federation of Health Professionals of Argentina (Fesprosa) spearheads a 48-hour work strike “against adjustment and dismissals,” according to the union.

Colombia: Social, Human Rights Groups March Against State Crime

teleSUR | March 07, 2019

Vigil in Colombia commemorating the Day of Dignity for Victims of State Crime. | Photo: @acebnacional

Official figures have reported some 9 million victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, with 7 million displaced and 86,000 disappeared.

Wednesday marked the Day of Dignity for Victims of State Crime with over 100 social organizations and human rights groups marching in Colombia to pay homage for social leaders who have been murdered in the country.