The Socialist Roots of International Women’s Day

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5660/the_socialist_roots_of_international_womens_day/

Monday March 8 11:58 am

By Lindsay Beyerstein

Today, as the world marks the 99th annual International Women's Day, it's clear that the occasion enjoys an aura of mainstream respectability. IWD is an official holiday in 15 countries.

But the radical roots of the IWD have been largely forgotten. Nothing sums up the corporate co-option of the day better than this blog post by Kristin Young of the consumer blog Luxist trumpeting various IWD-themed promotions sponsored by Diane von Furstenberg boutiques:

What's better than shopping and doing some good along the way?

International Woman's Day has always had close ties to the fashion industry. Started in 1909, IWD came to commemorate the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 in which 146 garment workers, all women, either died from the fire or jumped to their death...

Close ties to the fashion industry, indeed.


Clara Zetkin, the German socialist who first proposed International Women's Day.


International Women's Day was born during a time of great social upheaval, as women and workers began to organize and assert their rights, often in concert. In 1908, 15,000 women marched in New York to demand shorter hours, better working conditions, and the right to vote.

The famous slogan "Bread and Roses" made its debut at this protest. It was a poetic answer to a basic question: What are we fighting for? Bread represents survial and roses represent quality of life and human dignity. The slogan has been associated with the overlap between women's rights and workers' rights ever since.

In 1909, the Socialist Party of America declared National Woman's Day, to be celebrated on February 28.

FULL story at link.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Women in Russia HATE Int'l Women's Day.

The ratfink in your life presents you with a semi-wilted bunch of flowers and that's supposed to make it even for all the abuse and neglect from the previous year...they loathe it.

[Go2Peace]

2. Huh, I've lived there. You live in an imaginary world. IWD is epic

If you don't offer a pleasantry to your spouse on that day you may be seen later in divorce court, or at least not be getting any sex any time soon ;)

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yes, women hate it. One reason the day is so trumped up in a country that treats women so poorly is

that it comes soon after Feb. 23rd - the Birthday of the Red Army - a day on which you give ALL the men in your life a gift. IWD is used as a balance to that.