Put The Worker Back Into International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year. In recent years this has become a mainstream event with “Women’s Day” promotions by retail companies and pubs and events celebrating women in business.

This is a far cry from the radical socialist roots of International Women’s Day, which was first organised in the US in 1908 and in Europe from 1910 as International “Working” Women’s Day. It was organised by the trade union and socialist movements to raise issues for women such as the right to vote, but also to encourage more women to join the socialist cause.

In February 1917, Russian women workers took to the streets on International Working Women’s Day and kicked off the Russian Revolution. It was this event that set the global date for International Women’s Day for 8th of March (it was February in Russia because they used a different calendar).

More than 100 years later, the “Working” part of the celebration has been lost and the event has become an officially sanctioned mainstream affair.

It’s time to change this and go back to its radical roots. Here’s why:

• The 5 richest women in the world have a wealth of almost $300 billion dollars while 247 million women live in poverty.
• The number of female CEO’s of companies is increasing while women workers across the globe suffer low wages and underemployment.

While women have won many formal rights in the last 100 years such as the right to vote, abortion rights and equal pay (at least formally if not in practice), women have also been at the forefront of neoliberal attacks.

Privatisation of public services such as education and health care has seen a majority female workforce suffer sever reductions in pay and conditions.

The fact that a small number of wealthy women have managed to become billionaires while millions starve should not be a cause of celebration.

In 2024 we should put the “Working” back into International Women’s Day. Working women have more in common with working men than we do with billionaire women.

To win real equality and freedom for working women we must unite with working class men in the fight for socialism.