Today, however, the celebration has been recognised by the United Nations who celebrate it "to recognise that peace and social progress requires the active participation and equality of women to international peace and security". Although governments and political parties around the world pay lip service to women's liberation, the liberation of women remains elusive. Barbara Humphries, long-term labour movement activist and Marxist, spoke on Wednesday at the ULU Marxist Society on the origins of Women's Day, the necessity for capitalism to divide society on the basis of sex and how the emergence of class society made women second-class citizens.

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Audio File: Women and the Labour Movement  By Barbara Humphries   Thursday, 31 January 2008

Remembering International Women’s Day 1917 - The gains made for women by the Russian Revolution  By Miriam Martin   Thursday, 08 March 2007

International Working Women's Day - By V.I. Lenin  By V.I. Lenin  Wednesday, 08 March 2006

The Emancipation of Women in Russia before and after the Russian Revolution - Part Two  By Elisabetta Rossi  Tuesday, 30 March 2004

The Emancipation of Women in Russia before and after the Russian Revolution - Part One  By Elisabetta Rossi   Monday, 08 March 2004

Marxism versus feminism - The class struggle and the emancipation of women  By Alan Woods   Thursday, 19 July 2001

Marxism and the emancipation of women  By Ana Muñoz and Alan Woods   Wednesday, 08 March 2000