On 8 March 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay, voting rights and an end to child labour. International Women's Day has a long and proud history of working class struggle. It was, for example, on 8 March that the revolution began in Russia in 1917.
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.
To listen click here .
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See also:
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
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