AS A CANDIDATE in the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) for 2nd Vice President and a defender of working class women in Barbados and internationally I would like to use this opportunity to stand in solidarity with the struggles of working class women in Barbados and Internationally.
On Sunday 8th March 2015, Women of the world will celebrate International Women’s Day and will use this opportunity to make demands for the recognition of rights for working women in the world. Women will also highlight the struggles of the working classes and the International Labour movement for its action for the rights of women and against the exploitation of women by wars and the imperialist forces of North American and Europe.
I want to use this opportunity to call on the working class women in the NUPW and Barbados to reflect on the history and struggles of the International Women’s Movement for the recognition of International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day born out of many struggles by women in North America and Europe against the exploitation of working class women who defended them self against wars and the imperialist forces.
International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the Twentieth Century in North America and across Europe. In 1909 the first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on the 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.
In 1910 the Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.
In 1911 as a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.
From 1913 until 1914 International Women’s Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around the 8th March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.
In 1917 against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for ‘Bread and Peace’ on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.
Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations Women’s Conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.
Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.
As a Trade Union Activist and Pan Africanist I will commit myself to defending the rights of working class women and I solute and stand in solidarity with the women in the NUPW, Barbados and the International Workers Struggle for the rights and freedom of working class women.
Long live the International Working Women’s Struggle for independence, rights to work, peace and respect.
*David McD. Denny is a Trade Union Activist and Pan Africanist.
