International Women's Day
Hitting sweatshops & cop terror
By Sarah
Sloan
New York
International Women's Day, commemorated every year on March
8, has consistently focused on labor issues and on police
repression.
IWD was first designated at a 1910 international socialist
conference in Europe. The holiday honored a March 8, 1908,
protest demanding better working conditions by women workers in
New York City. From the earliest labor battles that women
waged, the police played a key role in attempting to crush
them.
The struggles against sweatshop exploitation and police
brutality were themes of this year's IWD commemorations as
well.
On March 6, over 100 protesters--including human rights
activists, environmentalists, Haitian and Central American
solidarity activists, workfare workers and unionists who
organize immigrant workers--marched along Fifth Avenue.
The demonstration protested sweatshop labor and union
busting, and emphasized the need for workers' solidarity.
This was the second annual "March in Solidarity with Women
Sweatshop Workers," called by the New York-based Global
Sweatshop Coalition. The event was held in conjunction with
Wetlands Preserve Environmental and Social Justice Activism
Center's national campaigns targeting the Gap and Phillips-Van
Heusen.
On March 8, the newly-formed Women for Justice held a
demonstration at City Hall protesting police brutality and
demanding justice for Amadou Diallo.
Over 1,000 protesters, predominantly women of color, heard
mothers of victims of police brutality speak. Included was a
taped message from Kadiadou Diallo, mother of Amadou
Diallo.
On March 13, the Working Group on Puerto Rico, in
conjunction with the Socialist Front of Puerto Rico, held an
International Working Women's Day program entitled
"Commemorating Women on the Front Lines."
The program focused on defense of political prisoners in the
United States and freedom for political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
The featured guest was Ruthie Arroyo of the Socialist Front
in Puerto Rico. She highlighted women's participation in labor
struggles, including the July 1998 general strike protesting
the privatization of the telephone company.
Arroyo also emphasized the importance the movement in Puerto
Rico places on the struggle to free political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal, currently being held on death row in
Pennsylvania.
The Socialist Front is organizing a "Millions for Mumia"
demonstration in San Juan on April 24--the date of an
international mobilization to stop the execution of this
political prisoner and win him a new trial.
Other speakers included Monifa Akinwole from Malcolm X
Grassroots Movement, Iris Baez from The Anthony Baez
Foundation, Olga Mardach San Miguel from Working Group on
Puerto Rico/
FSPR, and Teresa Gutierrez from Workers World Party.
Gutierrez concluded, "We have to work night and day and then
some to harness all the resources in our communities to build
for April 24 in Philadelphia.
"Every mother, every grandmother, every sister, brother,
uncle, cab driver, trade unionist, student, woman, young and
old, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, Black, Latin, North
American, Indian, Pakistani--all of us have to get on the bus
for April 24 in Philadelphia."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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