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International Women's Day commemorates the first ever strike by women textile workers in the USA on March 8, 1908. It began when women garment workers in New York organised a demonstration for better pay and working conditions. At an International Congress of Socialist Women in Copenhagen their struggle was recognised, and March 8 proclaimed as IWD.
In Paris, women lobbied to have IWD recognised as a holiday for women workers throughout France. In China it has been celebrated by giving women a special holiday. I've heard tell that in Poland there's been a tradition that young boys take sweets to school for girls, and men take flowers for women at work. But I don't know if such holidays/traditions are still maintained.
Here in Oz street marches in the capital cities have been held at least since the early seventies. Many women also meet friends for a celebratory breakfast or for other small group gatherings, or attend special women's functions. They wear green, purple and white - or more commonly, simply purple - the colours chosen by the early suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization in Britain in the early 1900s.
That said, IWD is not as big - support is not as enthusiastic - as it was a decade or so ago. Is it dying? What's happening in your neck of the woods this year for IWD? |
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