Women protest in Eastern Europe
2017Mitchell Shore 2017-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 10 →
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(continued from page 12: “Women strike around the world”) lowing year saw a 13-week strike of immigrant women garment workers against Triangle Shirtwaist and other sweatshops. The strike continued through the brutal winter and was known as the “Uprising of the 20,000.”
Inspired by the struggles of the women garment workers in the Unit ed States, German socialist Clara Zet kin (seen in photo above) agitated for a day to mark working women’s Inter national solidarity.
In 1910, women from 17 countries attended the Second International Conference of Working Women, which designated International Working Women’s Day in response to the mass strikes and demonstrations by women workers in the United States.
The following year, one million wom en throughout Europe marched in the streets to demand their rights on International Working Women’s Day, and in following years they protested the imperialist World War.
In 1917, Russian women textile workers went on strike on Inter national Women’s Day, demand ing, “Peace, Land, and Bread.” This sparked the struggle to overthrow the Tsar and the beginning of the Russian On March 8, International Women’s Day, whether you walk off the job for the whole day, leave work early to protest wage inequality, attend a rally, march, picket or boycott, you are part of the actions happening around the globe.
This is an important continuation of the solidarity shown in 1910 when Clara Zetkin in Germany insisted on creating a day inspired by women workers struggling in the United States. n In Poland last October, tens of thou sands of women went on strike and participated in mass demonstrations throughout the country in protest of legislation that would have imposed a blanket ban on abortion, including in instances of rape and incest. As a result, the conservative government complete ly withdrew the legislation.
Marta Lempart, one of the organizers of that strike, was asked for a few words of advice for women in other countries: “Always protest where you live. Stay in your community, focus there, and you will always find people who will support you. There will also be people who hate you, but they will always hate you any way. You do not have to care about that... do your own gathering and collect more people.
“Then you feel the power, even if you have five, or 10 or 50 people—you col lected those people. I would also tell them to join in the International Wom en’s Strike on March 8.”
A major issue the women in Russia are facing is that new laws were passed that diminish domestic violence laws. Do mestic violence will no longer be a crime. Beating up a relative once a year will be a misdemeanor, subject to administra tive law. As Yelena Mizulina, a Russian Parliament member, put it, “We don’t want to put people in jail for two years and call them “criminals” for the rest of their lives for just slapping a woman in the face.” A lot of women in Russia are still unaware of these changes; this will be a major issue for femisnists in Russia this year.
Feminists in China are not actively or ganizing strikes on March 8. Even the mention of the International Strikes got a swift reaction from government cen sors.
The Feminist Voices organization shared an article about the women’s strike in the U.S. from New York Maga zine. The article was entitled, “On March 8, Women Will Go On Strike.” The article was shared on Weibo, a China-based microblogging platform similar to Twit ter. According to The New York Times the notice from Sina.com, the platform’s host, read, “Hello, because content you recently posted violates national laws and regulations, your account will be banned for 30 days.” Feminist Voices circulated this notice on another social media account.
They believe it was the March 8 strike article that prompted the censor since it was the only one of the group’s Weibo posts to be censored recently. An un named Sina.com staffer told the group that the suspension was ordered by the Cyberspace Administration of the State Information Office.
— ANN MONTAGUE
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son, more than 50 people gathered outside of Toronto Mayor John Tory’s luxury condo on Feb. 19. Protesters demanded immediate action to stop the preventable death of homeless people. John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, street nurse Cathy Crowe, and others delivered passionate speeches at the spot hour warming centers in Toronto, only to find that it ferral to another location. Instead, he went to a nearby In a memorial event for the death of a homeless per website: http://socialistaction.ca