Happy International Women’s Day! Accelerate Action

 

International Women's Day (IWD), celebrated on March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The women's day has been celebrated for well over a century, with the first one in 1911.

The day marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality.

Marked annually on March 8th, women's day is one of the most important days of the year to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about women's equality, lobby for accelerated gender parity and fundraise for female-focused charities.

The day is marked in various ways across different cultures. In some countries, it is a public holiday, while others observe it with demonstrations, panel discussions, and cultural events. In Italy, women receive yellow mimosa flowers as a symbol of solidarity and appreciation. In China, some workplaces grant female employees a half-day off. Countries such as Argentina and Spain hold large-scale rallies advocating for women’s rights.

One of the most recognizable symbols of International Women’s Day is the color purple, representing justice and dignity. Alongside green (hope) and white (purity), these colors were originally chosen by the Women’s Social and Political Union in the United Kingdom in 1908.

Let's not forget  either the radical history of the day itself. Ever since women fought for the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the essence of their fight has been political. They have put forward their claims on society as a matter of right, facing all kinds of state-inspired discrimination and violence against them and state-sanctioned attempts to relegate them to second, third and fourth grade citizenship based on brutal identity politics and exploitation. 

Women, however, speak in their own name and refuse to accept any limitations on their right to decide all matters which affect their lives. Their courage and determination in the front ranks of the struggle for a society which recognizes everyone as equal members of the body politic with equal rights and duties inspires everyone to also fight for the rights of all.  

In 1909 the Socialist Party of America organized a New York City march commemorating a garment workers’ strike the previous year when hundreds of women workers in the New York needle trades demonstrated in Rutgers Square in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to form their own union and to demand the right to vote. This historic demonstration took place on March 8th. It led, in the following year to the ‘uprising’ of 30,000 women shirtwaist makers which resulted in the first permanent trade unions for women workers in the USA. The famous slogan bread and roses made its debut at this protest The Socialist Party of America declared National Woman's Day, to be celebrated on February calling for better pay and working conditions as well as the right to vote. It was at the second annual meeting of the International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910, that Clara Zetkin, a prominent Marxist activist from Germany’s Social Democratic Party, proposed the following motion at the Copenhagen Conference of the Second International: “The Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women’s Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women’s suffrage. This demand must be handled in conjunction with the entire women’s question according to Socialist precepts. The Women’s Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully.” 

The conference agreed. During the First World War, she along with Karl Liebnecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and other International SPD politicians, had rejected the party's policy of Burgfrieden , which was a call to refrain from strikes during the war. Among other anti-war activities she also organised an international socialist womens anti-war conference in Berlin, 1915. She however was not just an organiser, but also a great writer and thinker. That still remains an inspiration today.  Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times, during the war and in 1916 was taken into 'protective custody'.She also held the view that still holds much resonance today, that the source of women's oppression was in capitalism, and that any form of liberation, could only be served with the self-emancipation of the working class. 

IWD, consequently, was celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. Women in these countries demanded the right to vote, to hold public office and the right to work. Russian women began celebrating IWD in 1913,  and on IWD 1914, across Europe there were marches against the impeding imperialist war and for a women's right to vote.  In 1917 in Russia, International Women’s Day acquired great significance , it was the flashpoint for the Russian Revolution. 

On March 8th  women workers in Petrograd held a mass strike and demonstration demanding Peace and Bread in protest at the deaths of more than 2 million Russian soldiers in the war. The strike movement spread from factory to factory and effectively became an insurrection. After the Russian Revolution, in 1922, in honour of the women’s role  in 1917, Lenin declared that March 8th should be designated officially as women’s day in the Soviet Union. From there, it was primarily celebrated in communist countries such as China. But on the heels of the U.S civil rights movement in the 1960s, as women fought sex discrimination in the 1960s and ’70s, the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women’s Year. 

In 1977 the U.N. officially marked IWD by inviting member countries to celebrate women’s rights and world peace on March 8. It has since been celebrated in more than 100 countries, and has been made an official holiday in more than 25. Ever since, International Women’s Day celebrations have been held on March 8 in countries across the globe — serving as an annual reminder of the revolutionary potential of working women., and  in 1996, began to adopt an annual theme for every year. The first theme was "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future."

The International Women’s Day website https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ has announced that this year’s theme is ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality and Empowerment’, calling for  urgent action that can unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a feminist future where no one is left behind. Central to this vision is empowering the next generation, particularly young women and adolescent girls as catalysts for lasting change.  

Aligned with this global movement, the agency theme, ‘Accelerate Action’, is an  important rallying call  that reflects the UN's urgency to drive gender equality forward  and emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality and addressing systemic barriers and biases that women face, both within personnel and professional situations.  

While the progress made in women's rights should be applauded, it  it's a very sad fact that for many women in the present day, little if anything has improved, since all those years ago when women initially marched. Many women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men. 

This day then is an appropriate occasion to remember the too many gaps hindering, sometimes in a brutal and cruel manner, the process towards the full recognition and protection of women’s rights as universal human rights.  change is still happening too slowly for thousands of women and girls around the world. 

At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum. That's why this year International Women's Day aims to highlight the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. 

Statistics show the gaps that still exist, in conflict zones, reports of sexual violence have surged, with a 50% increase in recorded cases in 2023. Women and girls made up 95% of the victims. An estimated 119 million girls worldwide remain out of school. Women continue to have access to only two-thirds of the rights that men enjoy in most countries.

In 2024, nearly half the world’s population participated in elections, but the growth in female political representation was at its lowest rate in 20 years. A we  observe International Womens Day,  lets stand up for all women still trapped by injustices, still suffering from abuse,  acknowledge all those  who have been persecuted, jailed, tortured, simply for being a woman. Especially those who are among the most vulnerable in this present moment of time - the refugees. 

Let us also celebrate the  powerful women who've fought dictatorship, risked their lives to fight climate change and led mass movements for justice across the world, we cannot let their contributions go unnoticed today and every day. As Audre Lorde said "I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own,"

We  must acknowlege  too that freedom from gendered oppression will not be complete without the liberation of all oppressed people, whether here in Britain or across the world.As far back as the period of the British Mandate, Palestinian women were organising together to advance the struggle for liberation, both as women and as proud Palestinians.  

Today, despite the fact that 70% of those killed by Israel in Gaza since 2023 have been women and children; despite the current complete restriction of aid which will push thousands of women further into desperation; despite Israel’s escalating violence against Palestinian women across the West Bank including the recent killing of eight months pregnant Palestinian woman Sondos Jamal Muhammad Shalabi in Nur Shams refugee camp; and despite the gendered and sexual violence that is central to Israel’s settler-colonial project; incredibly, Palestinian women continue to resist.  

In November 2023, Palestinian feminists issued a call  https://bdsmovement.net/Ending-Gaza-Genocide-Feminist-Issue-Call-From-Palestinian-Women to people across the world to escalate campaigns as a form of meaningful solidarity to bring down Israel’s regime of oppression. They called for aid to Gaza, to reject the forcible transfer of Palestinians from their home and for countries across the world to impose a comprehensive military-security embargo on Israel. Shamefully, the British government has utterly failed to answer this call. It is up to us to ensure they are held to account.  

As the statement from Palestinian feminists reads: “This moment is the litmus test for humanity and the very meaning of justice and freedom. If not now, when?” 

Actions will be taking place for International Women’s Day across the country. I encourage you  to stand, today and every day, with all those oppressed by patriarchal and colonial violence, and all those internationally who are still fighting sexism and the inequality, exploitation and hardship and  continue to try and promote gender equality and political justice, that will make this world of ours a better place for everyone. Happy International Women’s Day! Let;s not forget its socialist feminist origins.  and use March 8 to pledge to redouble our efforts  accelerate and protect and extend women’s rights “for the many not the few.”