Conference turris::womannotes-v1

749.0. "Int. Women's Day celebrates struggle in the US" by VAXWRK::TCHEN () Tue Mar 08 1988 12:03

    Hi, at a recent meeting of Science for the People, an Italian woman
    mentioned our next meeting was falling on Int. Women's Day, but
    that there probably wouldn't be conflicting events here in the
    US. So I felt my ignorance needed to be corrected. :-)
    
    	-Weimin Tchen

    
March 8 is International Women's Day, a celebration of struggles in the past and
solidarity in the present. Although it is more recognized in Europe, with events
and the giving of flowers (usually from one woman to another), the date was
chosen because of actions in the US.

On this day in 1857, NYC needleworkers marched from their sweatshops to a
middle-class neighborhood, to ask support for better wages and working
conditions from the women who bought the clothes they made. In 1908, NYC
suffragettes chose March 8 as the date for its march for women's rights. At the
Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Helsinki in 1910, Clara
Zetkin proposed that March 8 become International Women's Day. (In the recent
film by Maria von Trottenheim, ROSA LUXEMBURG, Clara and Rosa are shown
struggling to keep the German Socialist Party from supporting World War I.)

The "Bread and Roses" strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Mass. won victory
on March 10, 1912. This struggle against paycuts (that followed a state law
limiting the work week) drew it's energy mainly from the lower-paid immigrant
women (Italian, Jewish, Slavic) reaching-out to each other and breaking with
traditions that confined them to the home. The movement was organized by the
International Workers of the World (Wobblies) with leaders such as Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn.

    
    
    Did they mention the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire..?
    That is an important part of feminist labor 
    history, too.

    The video She's Nobody's Baby shown at the video lunch at
    the Mill today did show scenes from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
    That was when young women burned to death because the doors of
    the factory were locked to keep them from leaving to go to the 
    bathroom.
    
    The video is an excellant one...showing scenes from still photography
    news reels, and tv covering the history of women during the twentieth
    century.
    
    Bonnie Jeanne

    Interestingly, at the showing Bonnie mentioned (.2), our plant
    Personnel Manager asked, "By a show of hands, how many people
    here know the origins of International Women's Day".  Out of the
    entire audience (maybe 75 people) there was only one hand raised
    (*including* the committee that planned the week's events.)
    
    Steve
    
    P.S.  (a blatant plug):  tomorrow's event will be a panel discussion
    by and about entrepreneurial women.
    

   I don't know.  How about entering a bit of history in here for us?
   
   
   							Terza