–as Guyana joins in celebrating International Women’s Day

Dear Editor
INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. It is a focal point in the movement for women’s rights the world over!

After the Socialist Party of America organised a Women’s Day on February 28, 1909, in New York, the 1910 International Socialist Woman’s Conference suggested a Women’s Day be held annually. After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there.

The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1975 by the United Nations. Today, International Women’s Day is a public holiday in some countries, but largely ignored elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood. The day is not without controversy, with some arguing that some women have adopted it for misandric purposes.
The earliest Women’s Day observance, called “National Woman’s Day”, was held on February 28, 1909 in New York, organised by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of Theresa Malkiel. Though there have been claims that the day was commemorating a protest by women garment workers in New York on March 8, 1857,

some researchers have described this as a myth.
In August 1910, an International Socialist Women’s Conference was organised to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Inspired, in part, by the American socialists, German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual Women’s Day, and was seconded by fellow socialist and later communist leader Clara Zetkin, supported by Käte Duncker. Although no date was specified at that conference, women delegates from 17 countries agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage for women. The following year, on March 19, 1911, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations. In Vienna, women paraded on the Ringstrasse, and carried banners honouring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Women demanded that they be given the right to vote and to hold public office. They also protested against employment sex discrimination.

In 1913, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Saturday in February . In 1914, International Women’s Day was held on March 8 in Germany, possibly because that day was a Sunday, and now it is always held on March 8 in all countries. The 1914 observance of the Day in Germany was dedicated to women’s right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918.

In London, there was a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of women’s suffrage on March 8, 1914. Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.

On March 8, 1917, on the Gregorian calendar, in the capital of the Russian Empire, Petrograd, women textile workers began a demonstration, covering the whole city. This marked the beginning of the February Revolution, which alongside the October Revolution made up the Russian Revolution.Women in Saint Petersburg went on strike that day for “Bread and Peace” – demanding the end of World War I, an end to Russian food shortages, and the end of czarism. Leon Trotsky wrote, “23 February (8th March) was International Woman’s Day and meetings and actions were foreseen. But we did not imagine that this ‘Women’s Day’ would inaugurate the revolution. Revolutionary actions were foreseen but without date. But in the morning, despite the orders to the contrary, textile workers left their work in several factories and sent delegates to ask for support of the strike…which led to mass strike… all went out into the streets.” Seven days later, the Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II abdicated and the provisional government granted women the right to vote.

Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai and Vladimir Lenin made it an official holiday in the Soviet Union, but it was a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women’s Day was declared a non-working day in the USSR “in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, Women’s Day must be celebrated, as are other holidays.”

From its official adoption in Soviet Russia following the Revolution in 1917, the holiday was predominantly celebrated in communist countries and by the communist movement worldwide. It was celebrated by the communists in China from 1922. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 the State Council proclaimed on December 23 that March 8 would be made an official holiday with women in China given a half-day off.

The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day in the International Women’s Year, 1975. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace. In Guyana we trust that all men would continue to give and to share due respect to all women here!
The theme for this year is: Balance
Regards
Rooplall Dudhnath