| to Vi Gianotti March 8, 2004 Educational Director, Aeronautical Sector Workers, Rio de Janeiro When first celebrated the International Women's Day? When did women's struggle for liberation? What is the influence the socialist movement in the struggle for women? And how was born on March 8? What is the origin of this date? Where? These and other issues deserved special attention in 2003, when newspapers and the Internet appeared repeatedly different versions. All, however, forgot the key word that explains the struggle of women for liberation: women "socialist." |
In 2003, on the eve of March 8, Ceará newspaper The People published a long article by a professor at the Federal University of Ceará (UFCE) that left many people scared. The same happened to several articles that circulated on the Internet.
To increase the dose of shock, immediately after the commemoration of International Women's Day 2003, the new newspaper that had just left, Brazil in fact, the number 1, also carried an article by the same teacher of * UFCE, Dolores Farias, reaffirming what she had written in the newspaper El Pueblo, days earlier.
There were people who were angry with the finding on the origin of the date of International Women's Day and trying to understand why this confusion.
The truth is that the question of origin March 8 and was discussed 40 years ago. In 1996, the Brazilian newspaper carried an article by Professor at UFRJ, Naumi Vasconcelos, in which he said that such a strike in New York in 1857, when 129 workers were allegedly burned alive, never existed. And she says that the origin of this date is rather another.
There were people who were angry with the finding on the origin of the date of International Women's Day and trying to understand why this confusion.
The truth is that the question of origin March 8 and was discussed 40 years ago. In 1996, the Brazilian newspaper carried an article by Professor at UFRJ, Naumi Vasconcelos, in which he said that such a strike in New York in 1857, when 129 workers were allegedly burned alive, never existed. And she says that the origin of this date is rather another.
In the same year, in March, the Council Class SEPE newspaper, the Union of Professional Education of the public of the State of Rio de Janeiro, carried an article by the same teacher Naumi, with the suggestive title of: Who is afraid of March 8? Naumi this text had been published in the monthly In Time, a little earlier.
A search of 12 years
In this article, the author cited as a major source for discussion, a book by a Canadian research entitled: The International Women's Day - The real facts and dates the mysterious origins of the March 8, so far unclear, maquila and forgotten.
This book, written by Renée Côté Canadian, was released in 1984, but strangely was forgotten for several reasons. This book is totally anti-academic, unconventional. But rather than its formal aspects, This made the book forgotten what she says, that bothers many people. She tries for a + b, over 240 pages, that the certainties created in the 1960s, '70s and '80s by the feminist movement about the emergence of March 8, is pure fiction.
She collapses a myth estimated by feminists to assert that both penaron on this date. Besides that, the book ended up falling into oblivion because it is easier to accept and consolidated versions of stories, which are incorporated into our lives, to challenge established myths. It's like, for many, easier to accept the story of Adam and Eve, created from the clay some six thousand years back to question the origins of man, more complex issue, hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Another factor that made the Canadian author's book fell into limbo: it betrays his vision all the time in favor of the autonomy of social movements against the parties and prevention shows the very idea of political party. The book is inserted into the struggle for autonomy, typical of the leftist movements of the 70. This created animosity in many sectors of the left's most influential, which prevented the dissemination of his work. But sympathy aside or allergies, we to get at the root of this myth.
The explanation of the origin of the myth of the strike in New York, 1857, in the U.S., and the oblivion of another strike real, concrete and judged inappropriate for the Party and the Union in 1917 in Russia, see at the end of this article. The key issue is to see why, in the bipolar world of the Cold War in the 60's of last century, the two blocks in dispute accepted version of a women's strike in 1857 in the U.S., and forgot the other women strike in 1917 in Russia. The reasons are more political than psychological.
There are several studies, each accompanied by a vast literature going in the same sense of Renée Côté searches. Of note were the articles "March 8: Achievements and Controversies of Eve A. Blay, 1999. Another study is in Liliane Kandel, 1982, "The Myth of Origins: the International Women's Day." Another very rich text is from the Organization Sempreviva Feminista (SOF), 2000, "March 8, International Women's Day: in search of lost memories." We will present the synthesis of these historical recoveries.
The global climate where the myth was born in 1857
In the 60 the world was a great political and ideological upheaval. Only in the early 70's game is defined and the American Western block, ie, capitalist, takes the best part at the expense of the Soviet socialist. The man on the moon, by Americans, 69, described the fate of mankind for decades and not centuries. The USSR, thereafter, enter into rapid decline and the American bloc is going towards the global neoliberal empire.
This decade was a whirlwind in the practices and ideologies in the world. Convulsed the political-cultural world. The 60 starting with the victory of the Algerian people against French colonizers was the fuse that ignited the war of liberation in the Congo, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and throughout Africa.
China was the Cultural Revolution, with the famous Red Book of Mao Tse Tung, which influenced millions of young people in the world. Vietnam, having beaten France in 54, was facing defeat and prepared the largest military in the world. Ex-colonial countries had created the movement of the Non-aligned. The Arab world under Nasser's leadership, began to move.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Revolution with the bearded Fidel and Che was a revolutionary model for Latin America and the world.
In the Soviet bloc, increasing the domestic response to the Prague Spring in the Czech Republic, at 68. Meanwhile the Catholic Church lived labor pains of the birth of liberation theology, post-Second Vatican Council, which denied support for browsers, oppressors, colonizers and warlords with his cross, and began to speak of liberation of the oppressed.
In the West, traditional customs were answered by the arrival on the scene of young world: Beatles, Woodstock, Black Power movement hippies and Black Panthers. Latin American dictators guerrillas were representatives of local capital and local servile American imperialism.
and European American women had discovered the pill and those of Third World countries, the machine gun in the guerrilla side by side with men. In the West
students spent Marcuse's books to those of Alexandra Kollontai and Wilhelm Reich with Sexual Revolution and The Function of the Orgasm. American women demonstrated against the Vietnam War and spoke on Women's Lib, women's liberation.
students spent Marcuse's books to those of Alexandra Kollontai and Wilhelm Reich with Sexual Revolution and The Function of the Orgasm. American women demonstrated against the Vietnam War and spoke on Women's Lib, women's liberation.
Students stood barricades in Paris took to the streets in Prague, and Rio de Janeiro Berkley and spoke of revolution and love, social and sexual revolution. And the feminist in its manifestations spoke of "Feminine Mystique" and burned bras in public squares.
cultural cauldron in the world, in Chicago, in 1968 and Berkley, 69, was taken on, through periodic newsletters and feminists, the idea of \u200b\u200bInternational Women's Day. Only he forgets that in the beginning of the century, when he was born on the Day of Women, was added the qualification of socialist. This day had been forgotten, buried by successive historical avalanches.
The two world wars, the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union and the rise of Western capitalism in its classic American version or European Social Democrats increasingly socialist, had no interest in commemorating the March 8.
In communist countries, after the 2nd World War, became the commemoration of March 8th. But these were more to praise the policies of their respective governments to direct the struggle for total liberation of women.
In communist countries, after the 2nd World War, became the commemoration of March 8th. But these were more to praise the policies of their respective governments to direct the struggle for total liberation of women.
is in this political-ideological climate which will revisit the idea of \u200b\u200bcommemorating an international date for the fight of women's liberation.
The origin of the myth of the strike of 1857
What we are accustomed to read the bulletins for the convening of the Women's Day is the story of a strike, which occurred in New York in 1857, in which 129 workers died after the patterns had burned the factory busy.
The first mention of the strike, without any of the details that will be added later, appears in the French Communist Party newspaper, on the eve of March 8, 1955. But where this date is set March 8 connected to the strike, is a publication which appeared in Berlin in the German Democratic Republic, the International Federation of Democratic Women. The newsletter is 1966.
The article speaks quickly, in three lines, the fire would have happened on March 8, 1857 and then says that in 1910, during the 2nd Conference of Socialist Women, the leader of German Social Democratic Party, Clara Zetkin, in memory of the date of the strike of the weavers American, 53 years earlier, had proposed on March 8 as the date of International Women's Day.
The confusion created by the newspaper L'Humanité not speak of the 129 women burnt. We began to talk about these women is burned in the publication of the Federation of German Women, some years later. This fictional story originated, probably in two more strikes occurred in the city of New York, but in another era. The first was a real long strike of dressmakers, which lasted from November 22, 1909 February 15, 1910.
The second was another strike, one of the many struggles of the working class in the early twentieth century, in the U.S.. This occurred in the same city in 1911. In that strike, 29 March, was recorded death during a fire, caused by the lack of security in the appalling facilities in a textile factory of 146 people, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women.
That fire was clearly described by socialist newspapers, many in the U.S. those years as a crime committed by employers, by capitalism.
breathing fire That factory, with dozens of workers trapped on the eighth floor on fire, the track gives birth to the myth of that strike, 1857, in which 129 workers have died in a fire caused intentionally by employers .
How did you create the whole story , 1857? Why this year? Why in the U.S.? The explanation is probably a combination of chance, without any evil intent or preset. This is how myths are born.
The Canadian Renée Côté investigated for ten years in all archives in Europe, USA and Canada and found no clue to the strike of 1857. Or in the newspapers of the great press of the time, or any other source of reports of workers' struggles.
She stated and restated that the strike never happened. It is a myth created to cause confusion with the strikes of 1910, 1911 in the USA, and 1917 in Russia.
This confusion was historical and political reasons, ideological and psychological factors that will become clear at the end of this article.
This confusion was historical and political reasons, ideological and psychological factors that will become clear at the end of this article.
Gradually the myth of the strike of 129 workers was reaffirmed and burned alive faded from historical memory of women and men along with other effective dates of strikes and socialist congress determined the Day Women, date of commemoration and political.
In 1970, the myth of women being burned alive was formed. He was quickly made the synthesis of a strike that never existed, the 1857, with two others, dressmakers, which occurred in 1910 and 1911, in New York.
That year, 1970, with hundreds of thousands of American women participating in mass demonstrations against the war in Vietnam and a strong feminist movement in Baltimore, USA, is published the newsletter "Journal of Women's Liberation. Here and reaffirmed and consolidated version of the myth of 1857.
But in France this confusion was not quietly accepted by everybody. The paper n ° 0, March 8, 1977, Historia d'Them, published in Paris, warns this mixture of dates and said that in long searches, nothing was found on the famous strike of New York in 1857. But this warning was not taken up.
Dolores Farias, in his article in Brasil de Fato, No. 2, reminds us that in 1975 the UN declared the decade from 75 to 85 as the decade of women and acknowledged the March 8 as the day. Immediately afterwards, in 1977, UNESCO officially recognizes this day as the Women's Day in honor of the 129 workers burned alive.
year 1978, the mayor of New York, in resolution No. 14, 24 / 1, reaffirmed on 8 March as International Day of Women, and is celebrated officially in the city of New York.
The resolution specifically mentions the strike of 1857 workers by increasing wages and working 12 hours daily, and mix the strike dummy with a real strike which began on November 20, 1909. The myth was established, signed and consolidated. Now it was only a matter of playing it.
Why purple?
Since 1980 the world will believe that this story is true. Appear until a soft lilac memory, that women would be weaving before the strike. In this strike did not exist. The mythology is born that way. Each narrator adds a little bit. "Whoever yarns increases by one point, "says our proverb.
Why not red? Because red flags were women of the International. Red flags were Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg and Alexandra Kollontai, delegates of their parties to the 1 st Conference of Socialist Women in 1907, and the 2 nd, Denmark, in 1910. The latter decided that the delegates, in their countries, should mark the Socialist Women's Day.
The purple color in the struggle of women has a funny origin. Sylvia Pankrust feminist tells us that this color was adopted by the English suffragettes in 1908, along with other two colors, a symbol of their struggle. These fighters for the right to vote chose the purple, green and white. The purple color was inspired by the English nobility, the white symbolizes the purity of women's wrestling and green hope of victory.
Historically, feminism of the 60 will return to this color. The red was closely linked to the Communist Parties of the Soviet Bloc, in truth and had little of socialism, or communism. Besides that, historically, several of these parties had little data to support specific struggles of women.
The term "Women's Liberation" no was typical of these games. In them, the struggle of women was seen almost exclusively with the aim of integrating it into the class struggle. The feminist struggle for many communists, only hindered the overall struggle of the proletariat. Weakens the main struggle.
was in this climate that in the decades of 60 and 70 of the last century, the feminist struggle was resumed, in a process of self-organization of women. In the women's movement had a strong criticism of the practice of most parties and unions. Many movements were organized independently, fighting to ensure their independence.
Thus, several feminist lilac adopted as a new synthesis between the colors blue and pink. The red flags of the International women was forgotten. In the 70 women home reaffirmed the socialist socialists March 8, at the same time that several of them assumed the color purple as specific feminist struggle.
The liberation of women is rooted in the socialist struggle
The idea of \u200b\u200bthe liberation of women born in the fertile soil of the world socialist movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century .
The roots of this battle can be found in the writings Marx and Engels. The vision of the woman's family proletariat and the bourgeoisie that is apparent in the Origin of the Family, Property and the State, Engels, is the basis of the socialist vision of the need to release The proletarian woman. Marx's phrase, "The oppression of man by man started with the oppression of women by men" bear fruit soon, but gave.
Contemporary Marx, Paul Lafargue and Laura Marx were battlers of equality and liberation of women in their various writings, especially his most famous book, The Right to Laziness.
Clara Zetkin desde 1890, inmediatamente después de la fundación de la Internacional Socialista, comenzó a hablar, escribir y organizar la lucha de las mujeres para integrarlas a la lucha socialista. Proyectaba la visión de que ellas tomaran su lugar en la lucha de clases, su lugar en la revolución socialista que estaba próxima.
Fuera de la 2ª Internacional, la tradición anarquista, de la otra parte del movimiento obrero, también exigía la igualdad de hombres y mujeres. La realidad en aquel comienzo del movimiento de la clase trabajadora aún era dura: partido y sindicato eran cosas de hombres. Pero aún en ese ambiente desfavorable, grandes mujeres pasaron a discutir con los mayores leaders of the time and left their marks in books and articles and the organization of the revolutionary forces.
was in this onslaught of ideas that one of the theoreticians of the International, August Bebel in 1885, wrote her book Women and Socialism. It is in that great river that drains the famous The New Woman and Sexual Morality, Alexandra Kollontai, more than 20 years later.
In this atmosphere of working class struggle and theoretical discussions in the socialist camp, is the birthplace of the struggle for political participation, and little by little, for the liberation of women.
In this atmosphere of working class struggle and theoretical discussions in the socialist camp, is the birthplace of the struggle for political participation, and little by little, for the liberation of women.
From the beginning of the twentieth century the battle of crossed with the socialist movement independent women, mostly belonging to middle and upper classes, who were campaigning for the right to vote. These women, in America and England, to demand the vote for women, were known as the suffragettes and their relations with the Socialists were in conflict because of the views and position of different class.
Socialist women created the Women's Day
Since 1901, in the U.S., immediately after the creation of the Socialist Party, there is the Women's Socialist Union in order to claim the right of women's vote. Between 1900 and 1908, provided the United States, born several women's clubs, some closely connected to the Socialist Party, other more autonomous, anarchist or not. All demanded the right to vote for women.
In 1908, the Federation of Socialist Women's Club of Chicago takes initiative, autonomous, not officially connected to the Socialist Party, to call for a Women's Day in a city theater. It was Sunday, May 3. The day's discussions had two agenda items: 1. The education of the working class. 2. Women and the Socialist Party.
At that conference, the rapporteur Ben Hanford repeated one of the key ideas of Engels in his The Origin of the Family Property and the State. In the words of the speaker, according to Engels, "The most exploited are the mothers of our people. They are the hands and feet tied by economic dependence. Are forced to sell in the market for the wedding, like her sisters prostitutes in the public market. "
But that meeting was not independent, The Garrick Theatre, Chicago, which was recognized by the Socialist Party as beginning of the commemoration of International Women's Day. The initiative was born that day outside the formal structure of the party.
The first Women's Day, national, assumed by the Party, was the following year in New York, on February 28, 1909. In other cities, like Chicago, the day was celebrated on other dates.
The first Women's Day, national, assumed by the Party, was the following year in New York, on February 28, 1909. In other cities, like Chicago, the day was celebrated on other dates.
The aim of the day, convened by the National Women's Committee of the American Socialist Party, "was granted the right to vote and to abolish sexual slavery." The call pamphlet said: "The completion of the revolution women is one of the most effective means for the revolution of the whole society. "
Since the beginning of the century, the U.S. had an important women's suffrage movement outside the orbit of the Socialists. Most viewed Party women that movement as a movement of white women and middle class.
Within the Socialist Party was a constant back and forth on that subject. For their part, women anarchists saw no sense in fighting for the vote, or women and not men. The way to build a new society and equality between men and women in the anarchist view, would certainly not be voting, and other revolutionary direct action. The main spokesman for this view was the anarchist revolutionary Emma Goldman.
The American environment is conducive claim the right to vote. Until 1909 only four states were recognized the right to vote. Extending the vote to all American women would only come in 1920.
In Europe, the socialist women's movement, led by Clara Zetkin, was full of switchbacks.
From the beginning, within the International carried a systematic war against the struggle for female voting rights, seen as a way to divert the revolutionary forces of women and considered a bourgeois demand. So the suffragettes were crossed, both in Europe and America by the socialists.
This European vision be adopted by the American Socialist Party, in the midst of great debate and dissenting voices. The fire of heat and contradictions of this debate, in the 1 st International Conference of Socialist Women in 1907, in Stuttgart, 58 delegates from 14 countries drafted a statement which committed several Socialist parties to join the struggle for the vote female. The resolution was drafted on the eve at the home of Clara Zetkin, by her and two companions, guests: Rosa Luxemburg and the only Russian in the Conference, Alexandra Kollontai.
is in this climate of attacks that in 1910, the American Socialist Party organiza, por segunda vez, el Día de la Mujer en el último domingo de febrero, en Nueva York. El objetivo del día es declarado sin rodeos en la invitación: “Enrolar a las mujeres en el ejército de los camaradas de la revolución social.”
Esta conmemoración, de 1910 estuvo marcada por una gran participación de obreras. Eran las modistas de la ciudad que habían terminado una larga huelga por el derecho a tener su sindicato reconocido. La huelga duró desde el 22 de noviembre de 1909 hasta 15 de febrero de 1910, casi en la víspera del Día de la Mujer. Fue una huelga larga, dura, con fuertes piquetes reprimidos con violencia por la policía, que detuvo a More than 600 people. After the strike, the tailors participated actively in the formulation and implementation of Women's Day organized by the Socialist Party.
Two months later, in May at the party congress, held in Chicago, was discussed that the American party will send delegates to the Congress of the International, held in August with the task, among others, to propose to the plenary the Women's Day was made by the International. That day should be the International Women's Day and be held by the Socialists, on the last Sunday of February each year.
In August of that year, before the International Congress was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, the 2 nd International Conference of Socialist Women. It was then that the American delegates took the proposal adopted at the congress of his party. Thus, accepting the proposal of the delegates from the United States and other comrades Clara Zetkin proposed annual organization of the International Women's Day.
The day was undefined. He was in charge of each country to choose the best date to commemorate this day. The approved resolution will be issued immediately thereafter in the newspaper run by Clara, Equality on 29 August.
"The socialist women of all nations will hold a special Women's Day, whose first objective is to promote voting rights for women. It is necessary to discuss this proposal, connecting to the broader issue of women in a socialist perspective. "The other proposal, to commemorate Women's Day along with the date and classic working-class struggle, on 1 May, defended by Clara and several other delegates, was defeated. Women's Day should be commemorated in one day own specific.
Women's Day is set on March 8
the first in Europe celebration of Women's Socialist occurred on March 19, 1911, by decision of the Socialist Women's Bureau, an organ of the International. Alexandra Kollontai proposed date was said to support a lifting of proletarian women in Prussia, on March 19, 1848. That day, he wrote Kollontai, women gained the king of Prussia the promise, then not fulfilled, obtaining the right to vote.
In the U.S. tradition of holding the Women's Day on the last Sunday in February was repeated in 1911, 1912 and 1913. In 1914, will be celebrated on March 19, following the indication of Kollontai.
in several countries in Europe, after the decision of the 2 nd Conference, where there was a socialist party, began to commemorate Women's Day.
In Sweden, the first celebration was on March 1, 1911. The same happened in Italy.
In France, the beginning of Women's Day was in 1914, on March 9, near the Women's Day in Germany.
In France, the beginning of Women's Day was in 1914, on March 9, near the Women's Day in Germany.
In 1914, for the first time in Germany, Clara Zetkin and the socialist women mark the date of the Women's Day on 8 March. Not explained why that date because it is not needed. It was an uninteresting detail. The date was totally indifferent. It had to be any day. The important thing was to carry the day.
In Russia, under the oppression of the Tsar, the first Women's Day was only celebrated on March 3, 1913. In 1914 all the organizers of the Women's Day fell prey and that there was no celebration.
In the midst of World War I in 1917, in Russia, the socialist women held their Women's Day on 23 February, the Russian calendar. In the western calendar, the date corresponding to March 8. It was the same day in Germany, was chosen in 1914 was the day the strike exploded spontaneously of the weavers and dressmakers in Petrograd.
That day, a large number of women workers, most weavers and dressmakers, going against the Party's decision, which held that this was no time for any strike, took to the streets in protest for bread and peace. They went on strike. This demonstration was the fuse to the start of the first phase of the Russian Revolution, later known as the February Revolution.
In October the Bolshevik party led the great Russian Revolution, in the "Ten Days That Shook the World."
That strike was documented in the writings of Trotsky and Alexandra Kollontai, both members of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and both later banned by the Stalinist winner. Kollontai wrote: "The day of the workers, March 8, was a memorable date in history. That day, Russian women got up the torch of the revolution."
But the text that best tells the facts of the strike by the workers of Petrograd is a long stretch of Leon Trotsky, in the first volume of his book History of the Russian Revolution. Accompany worth:
"February 23 was the International Women's Day. Social elements proposed celebrate in the traditional way: with meetings, speeches, manifestos, etc.. No one went through the minds of the Women's Day could become the first day of the revolution. No organization called a strike for that day. The more militant Bolshevik organization of all the workmen 'Committee of Viborg, advised not to go on strike. The masses, as evidenced Kajurov, one of the militant workers of the neighborhood-were horny, every strike threatened to become open clash. As the Committee understood that it was not yet the time for action, since the party was not yet sufficiently neither strong nor was secured in the proper proportions of workers in contact with the soldiers, decided not to advise the strike, but to prepare for revolutionary action in a vague future. Such was the Committee's position, apparently unanimously accepted, on the eve of February 23. The next day, ignoring his instructions, went on strike the workers in some textile mills and metallurgical sent delegates to request that seconded the motion. The Bolsheviks, "says Kajurov-went on strike reluctantly, supported by the Mensheviks and Socialist workers. Faced with a mass strike had not choice but to kick people the street and take charge of the movement. That was the decision of Kajurov that the Committee had to accept Viborg. "The idea of \u200b\u200bthe action had already matured in the minds of workers for some time, although at that time nobody had assumed the turn taking." Retain this statement by one of the actors in the events, very important to understand the mechanics of development.
dabase for granted, of course, that, if workers' demonstrations, the soldiers would be pulled out of the barracks of the workers. Where he had gone to stop this? We were in time of war and the authorities are not conducive to spending showed jokes. But on the other hand, the "reserve" of wartime was hardly the meek of the regular army soldier. Was it more or less dangerous? Among the revolutionary elements that topic was discussed a lot, but rather in an abstract way, because nobody, absolutely nobody, as we can say categorically, based on all information we have, "he thought at the time that February 23 would mark the beginning declared the offensive against absolutism. Tried-in the minds of the organizers, the simple expressions with vague prospects, but in any case without great significance.
Clearly, then, that the Revolution February started from below, against the resistance of their own revolutionary organizations, with the particularity that this spontaneous initiative was undertaken by the most oppressed and inhibited the proletariat: the workers of the textile industry, among which must be assumed that there would not a few women married to soldiers. Queues stationed at the door of the bakery, increasing, were responsible for giving the last push "
in 1921 was held in Moscow in the USSR, the Communist Women's Conference that adopted on 8 Unified dated March as International Workers Day. From that conference, the 3rd International newly-created, spread the date March 8 as the date of the commemoration of the struggle of women.
A forgotten day and then reinvented
In Communist Russia after the victory of the October Revolution, in the early years of the new regime, on March 8 was commemorated each year as International Women's Day Communist.
this day, gradually lost interest and the word communist was falling as the revolutionary impetus of the Soviet Union began to languish.
In recent years of the 20's and especially the 30's, the International Women's Day, whether communist or socialist, will be lost in the storm that hit the world. The rise of Nazism in Germany, the triumph of Stalinism in the USSR and the decline of social democracy in Europe and the storm of World War 2 bury the manifestations of Women's Day.
Outside the communist countries in the West, humanity will only talk about Women's Day, in the late 60's. In that time frame, the frame of March 8, when the workers strike in Petrograd in 1917, was forgotten.
The date of the victory of the revolutionary Russian rebels won the defeat of absolutism of the Tsar and the Russian Revolution broke out, not relevant to the communist world. These, almost every lived anesthetized by the charms or the Stalinist terror. Make
back the memory of the March 8 of the revolutionary workers of Petrograd not interested in the Social, rejuvenated after the destruction of the Second World War and in open conflict with the communism of the Soviet bloc.
back the memory of the March 8 of the revolutionary workers of Petrograd not interested in the Social, rejuvenated after the destruction of the Second World War and in open conflict with the communism of the Soviet bloc.
March 8: A date to celebrate
Less than most, the date of March 8, 1917 in the fledgling USSR interest to the Western capitalist bloc, mortal enemy of Communist Russia. It is in this climate, conducive to forgetting the true story of Women's Day, and in the decade of 1950, as published in the Communist Party in France, he began to speak of a fierce struggle of American workers in 8 March 1857. Perhaps the most famous strike of May 1st in Chicago in 1886 and numerous strikes in the tecelagens American spurred fantasies and led to emphasize the U.S. involvement in the struggle of women, which favored the confusion of dates. Gradually shifted the date of 1857 for New York. And there, in successive waves of storytellers, is was the complete story.
On March 1, 1964, the newspaper of the French CGT, Antoinette, talks that "the Americans were to start smoking. It was March 8, 1857. To require 10 hours took to the streets of New York. " It is the continuation of what had already appeared in the newspaper of the PCF, in previous years.
On March 1, 1964, the newspaper of the French CGT, Antoinette, talks that "the Americans were to start smoking. It was March 8, 1857. To require 10 hours took to the streets of New York. " It is the continuation of what had already appeared in the newspaper of the PCF, in previous years.
And finally, so, without need of an organized conspiracy for allegedly evil empire in East Germany, in 1966, the Communist Women's Federation reported the story of Woman's Day, enriched with martyrdom of the 129 women burned alive.
All this was done in a confusing, mixing facts with fantasies, with each storyteller writing and inventing dates and details.
And so, without any deliberation conspiracy, that the myth which had just been created in 1966 in Eastern Europe began to be reported and was later enriched in the U.S. in the late 60's and all the Western world.
After that, it was only enrich the myth. This is what was done, until its consolidation in 1975, immediately after the UN and with Unesco in 1977.
rich A date that does not need myths
tear down the myth of the origin of the March 8 date does not mean devaluing the historic significance of this purchase.
the contrary. Means to resume the truth of the facts that are sufficiently rich in meaning and loading all the struggle of women in the way of his release. Means to enrich the commemoration of that day returning to its original meaning.
means back to the origins of the socialist ideal of the majority of women who fought for a new world without exploitation and oppression of man by man, and specifically of women by men.
One day he wants to resume commemoration and the struggle of a March 8 without fear. Forward without fear and shame for the defeats suffered by the revolutions lost the twentieth century, toward the achievement of total liberation of women.
means integrating all the new and important aspects of the struggle of the liberation of women, discovered in the historical evolution of humanity of the twentieth century, with its socialist roots. Integrate
in the classic struggle libertarian socialist and communist early twentieth century, contributions from different lines of thought and countries ranging from Wilhelm Reich to Simone de Beauvoir, Herbert Marcuse to Samora Machel, Friedann Betty Rose Marie Muraro. Integrate all the feminist struggle to build a society where women are recognized as people.
integrate these theoretical elaborations to the struggles and life experiences of thousands of activists, militants and organizers of the struggle of women in the world: from Latin American guerrillas, the Vietnamese women, for women workers factory to the plantation of rice from India, the Argentine Mothers of the disappeared to the fighters for the MST agrarian reform.
A long fight without fear of happiness, without fear of pleasure. Not afraid to fight for a revolution, to be social, sexual, and deeply cultural. Not afraid to raise red flags in the struggle for the liberation of humanity. The liberation of men and women.
Annex
basic dates the origin of the March 8
1900-1907. - suffragette movement for women's suffrage in the U.S. and England.
1907.
- In Stuttgart, is performed at 1 st Conference of the Socialist International in the presence of Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg and Alexandra Kollontai. One of the main resolutions: "All the socialist parties the world must fight for women's suffrage. "
1908.
- In Chicago (USA) on 3 May, is celebrated for the first time, the Woman's Day. The call is made by Autonomous Federation of Women.
1909.
- Back in Chicago, but with new date, last Sunday in February, made the Woman's Day. The American Socialist Party takes the front.
1910.
- The third edition of Woman's Day is done in Chicago and New York, organized by the Socialist Party on the last Sunday in February.
- In New York, a large share of workers due to a strike that paralyzed the weaving mills of the city. Thirty thousand strikers, 80% were women. That strike lasted three months and finished the day 15/02, Woman's Day Eve.
- In May, the American Socialist Party Congress deliberates that delegates to the Congress of the International, which would be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August, defending that take the International Women's Day.
"And this should be commemorated worldwide on the last Sunday in February, following the example of that already happening in the U.S.."
- In August, the 2nd International Conference of Socialist Women, held two days before the Congress, decides that "The socialist women of all nationalities (...) organized a day of specific women, whose main aim is the promotion voting rights for women. " Not define a specific date.
1911.
- During a new weavers' strike in New York, 134 strikers die because of a fire due to poor conditions of security.
- In Germany, Clara Zetkin leads the commemoration of International Women's Day on 19 March. (* Alexandra Kollontai says it was to commemorate an uprising, in Prussia, in 1848, when the king promised women the right to vote.)
- In the U.S., the Women's Day is commemorated on 26/02 and in Sweden on May 1.
1912.
- In the U.S., the Women's Day is commemorated on 25/02.
1912 and 1913.
- In Germany, the Women's Day is commemorated on 19 / 3.
1913.
- is celebrated in Russia for the first time, the Women's Day on 3 / 3.
1914.
- For the first time, the Secretariat Socialist International Women, led by Clara Zetkin, indicating a single date for the commemoration of International Women's Day: March 8. No explanation on why the date.
- The orientation was followed in Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
- In the U.S., the Women's Day was commemorated in 19/03.
1917.
- On March 8, 1917 (February 27 in the Russian calendar) broke a strike of the weavers of St. Petersburg. The strike creates a great event and kicks off the Russian Revolution.
1918.
- Alexandra Kollontai leads in 8 / 3, the celebrations for the International Women's Day in Moscow, and establishes the 8 / 3 in memory of the strike last year in St. Petersburg.
1921.
- The Conference of Communist Women adopted at the 3rd International, the Communist International Day of Women and decreed that from 1922, will be officially celebrated on 8 March.
1955.
- Day 5 / 3, L'Humanité, PCF newspaper speaks for the first time of the strike of 1857, in New York. Not talking about the death of 129 burned alive.
1966.
- The Federation of East German Communist Women takes up the International Women's Day and for the first time, note the version of the 129 women burned alive.
1969.
- In the U.S., the feminist movement gains strength. In Berkley, is taken up the commemoration of International Women's Day.
1970.
- The Journal of the feminist newspaper Liberation in Baltimore, in the U.S. consolidated version of the myth of 1857.
1975.
- UN decreed 75-85, the Decade of Women.
1977.
- Unesco declared the date 8 / 3 as Women's Day, and repeat the version of the 129 women burned alive.
1978.
- The mayor of New York decreed holiday, the m
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