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Celebrate Women's Day

By VVAW

On March 8th, people around the world will be celebrating International Women's Day -- a holiday for honoring working women everywhere. IWD originated in memory of two all-women strikes which took place in New York City. In 1857 and 1908, women garment workers marched to demand better working conditions, equal rights, and an end to sweatshops and child labor. At both times when these thousands of women came together to raise their voices for a decent living standard, police used violence to break their ranks. In 1910, March 8th was proclaimed International Women's Day and has since been set aside for celebrations honoring women the world over.

Women have a proud and heroic history of fighting against oppression, both in this country and around the world. Women from Vietnam to Guinea-Bissau have played major roles in the liberation struggles of their countries against colonial rule and foreign aggression. Here in the US, the struggles of women go all the way back to the slave rebellions of the 1800s, and have continued through the thousands of strikes and mass struggles that the American people have since been waging.

Today, in these times of growing economic crisis, the role of women in the struggle against oppression continues to become ever more proud and courageous. At Farah plants in the Southwest, and at Oneita plants in South Carolina, women went out on strike -- and they stayed there until they won the right to unionize. Women, such as the wives of the miners in the coal fields of Kentucky, stayed long hours on picket lines, demanding better working conditions and safety regulations, while having to physically battle scabs. With unemployment soaring, women (and particularly minority women) are in the forefront of the fight against a crumbling economy.

By looking at some of the reasons behind the high rate of unemployment for women, we can see where the oppression of women is really coming from. Women are oppressed by the system of imperialism -- a system wherein the owners of the corporations steal their profits from the work and sweat of the people. This means that it is the workers who produce all the wealth, yet it is the owners of the factories ad mines who own and control everything. In order to continue their rule, these owners and bosses must foster disunity among people, figuring that by doing so, men and women will not be able to identify their real enemy and unite to defeat it. So, just as the imperialists put whites against Black and other minority people, they also try to divide men and women, this is done by encouraging chauvinist ideas such as "women's place is in the home" and "women are dependent." With these ideas, people are supposed to believe that all women can do is keep house and raise children, and heaven help the women who just might decide that the struggles being waged by working men also belong to women and vice versa!

Workers are paid wages based on what amount of money is "necessary" to keep that worker and his family alive so that the worker can continue producing wealth for the corporate owners. But in the vast majority of cases, the worker's wages fall far short of what is actually needed to stay alive. It is for this reason that many women entered the labor force. Today, over 45% of all women hold jobs -- mainly because it became clear that there was no other way to survive -- the income of the family had to be increased if food was to be kept on the table. Approximately 43% of working women are the sole means of support of their families. Yet, in many cases, corporations are able to hire women and pay considerably less than men would receive for the same work. In other cases, women are forced into some of the most menial and least fulfilling jobs. This is done wit the rationale that since women aren't "responsible" for supporting a family and are only working because they "want" to, women don't need more money. Try telling that to the working women in the US! By paying minimal wages to women, the bosses are using a cheap source of labor, and at the same time, they are able to threaten men workers (hoping to keep them submissive) by claiming that if they don't want to work for a certain wage, they can always find a woman to do the job; thus, the price of all workers wages are driven down.

During times of economic crisis (which are becoming increasingly frequent and severe) the imperialist decide that some women should return to the home. This is because the profits of the corporations are falling, and if profits are to rise again, layoffs are a "necessity," i.e. companies can no longer afford to pay all of their workers. Since business operates on the theory that workers only need enough money to be able to stay alive, cut-backs will first be made against people who they claim don't really have to work. (This whole idea ignores the fact that people are underpaid in the first place and in most cases, more than one person in a family needs employment for survival). Because of this, women are among the first to be laid off and they are then forced into the ranks of the unemployed. If the corporate owners later decide to build up their work force, they have ready-made labor pool from which workers can be drawn.

Women are not accepting this severe form of oppression but are organizing and fighting back against it. During the strike wave which recently hit the US, women played leading roles in the struggles to unionize and improve their living and working conditions. On other fronts, women are deeply involved in the struggle against US aggression abroad. Women played key roles in forcing the US to sign the Paris Peace Agreement and are continuing to oppose US involvement in Indochina. Women are involved in the struggles going on in our communities against police attacks and repression. Women are in the front lines of fighting the oppression of third world people in the US, as well as organizing to fight the rising rate of inflation, rampant unemployment, and the general attacks on the living standards of all people.

International Women's Day is a tribute to working and struggling women everywhere. It is a holiday which signals the rising of the women and the world who are uniting with other women and with men for the purpose of achieving liberation for themselves and for society as a whole. As people around the world come together to celebrate International Women's Day, let us here in the US also continue to build unity between men and women by celebrating the role of women have played in the struggle to defeat imperialism the world over.