WFTU Statement on Working Women’s Day

8 March 1857 – 8 March 2022: 165 years later

World Federation of Trade Unions | March 04, 2022

165 years ago, when the women workers in the New York textile mills, on March 8, 1857, went on strike and demonstrated for “ten-hour work, bright and sanitary workrooms, wages equal to those of male textile workers and tailors”, they certainly did not imagine that in 2022 all these demands would still be demanded.

165 years ago, they certainly did not imagine that in 2022, with such advances in science and technology, in the conditions of the so-called 4th Industrial Revolution, women’s work would lead to flexible work hours, with split schedule and irregular working hours, underemployment, employment even during maternity leave thanks to teleworking and the development of computing.

165 years ago, striking workers could not have imagined that underage girls and boys would still be victims of sexual harassment, with decision-makers and politicians “shuddering” in horror at the revelations of the “me too” movement, while often being themselves involved in such scandals.

She, we… on the road to equality

In Cuba, we are fortunate to be part of a social project in which women have been protagonists and beneficiaries of the transformations achieved

Yeilén Delgado Calvo

Granma | March 08, 2022

There is no single type of woman or Cuban woman. We are millions of dissimilar beings, each one deserving of all rights. Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus

The challenge anyone can try on social media seems simple: Put your name in the Google search engine, or that of your sister, your mother or your daughter and, next to it, the word “found.” The result is in no way simple, but rather terrifying. It is enough to press a key to come across a list of horrors, the result of male violence.
The search leaves no room for doubt: being born female involves many dangers, greater or lesser ones depending on the region or country where you were born, and also many challenges to overcome in the pursuit of equality.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Ana Santoyo

 New York City protest. Liberation photo: Joyce Chediac.

Originally published in Breaking the Chains magazine.
For over a hundred years, women and progressive people have celebrated working women’s right to rebel and the many wins our rebellion has secured. International Women’s Day, March 8, is a day to celebrate the powerful force of our participation and gains won by our movements, the movements of the multinational, multi-gender working class. IWD has and is organized to highlight the struggle for women’s economic, social, and political achievements and to continue the struggle for full equality. 

Indian farmers’ struggle: International Women’s Day celebrated with huge mobilizations

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY IN INDIA 

Peoples Dispatch | March 11, 2021

On March 8, tens of thousands of women gathered at the borders of Indian capital New Delhi where the current farmers’ agitation is going on to celebrate International Women’s Day. They demanded rights and recognition as farmers, and continued the struggle against the three farm laws passed by the far-right Narendra Modi government.

Remembering Clara Zetkin on March 8

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents | March 08, 2019

Clara Zetkin, one of the daughters of the working classes, is as bright as ever in the annals of working people’s struggles for rights – rights to life and dignity. Clara, an epitome of proletarian struggle, steadfastness and courage, always stood for the proletarian people, and never confused the women question with a bourgeois worldview.

Clara (July 5, 1857-June 20, 1933), one of the close comrades of Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg, organized the first international women’s conference against World War I. The Marxist politician was always staunch on the issues concerning women’s rights. Clara represented the Communist Party of Germany in the Weimer Republic Reichstag from 1920 to 1933.

Millions mobilize across Latin America for International Working Women’s Day

Peoples Dispatch | March 09, 2020

Over a million gathered in the Dignity Plaza, Santiago, Chile on International Working Women’s Day. Photo: Coordinadora 8M

This March 8, on the International Working Women’s Day, millions of women across Latin America took to the streets to protest against patriarchy in all its forms and manifestations. From Argentina to Mexico, women demonstrated against the growing gender inequality, gender based violence, femicides, and demanding abortion rights.

In Argentina, the central focus of feminist movements and women’s organizations was the legalization of abortion in the country. The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free, organized a cultural and political day to promote the approval of Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy (IVE) bill and demand the implementation of the Law on Comprehensive Sexual Education (ESI). Under the slogan of “the bill is on the streets,” various cultural, informative and recreational activities were carried out during the day, in preparation for the fight that would begin in the Congress when the head of the state would present the bill.

International Women’s Day: Where are the men of integrity?

by Francis Mupazviriho

Pambazuka News | March 08, 2019

Design source: Eastside Baptist Church – Greeneville TN

Reflecting on vital roles that women play in society, the author argues that our communities need men of integrity for the full realisation of gender equity and mutual respect. 

At the occasion of the International Women’s Day last year, I wrote about sexual harassment at the workplace, in a piece which drew much inspiration from Reason Wafawarova’s legendary piece entitled “Discrediting women oppression fallacious”, which appeared in The Herald some eight years ago.

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