International Women's Day
Workers from many countries hit sweatshops
By Anne
Pruden
New York
A march against low pay and oppressive working conditions
for women wound through lower Manhattan on March 3, ending at
the site of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. In
that terrible fire, 146 women garment workers died because
exit doors had been locked by the sweatshop owners.
Just three years earlier, a demonstration of tens of
thousands of garment and textile workers in New York had
inspired the Socialist International to declare March 8 as
International Women's Day.
Then, as now, immigrant women workers were leading
protests in the United States against the intolerable
conditions in garment and other sweatshop industries.
This year's International Women's Day march drew around
200 women, men and children. They included women from Haiti,
Central America, Mexico, the Phil ip pines and Palestine as
well as African Americans and whites.
Highlights of the spirited march were rallies in front of
several stores that use sweatshop labor or sell products made
in sweatshops, such as the Gap and Footlocker. In the spirit
of today's growing awareness of corporate greed and
globalization, speakers exposed big business while supporting
workers' right to organize.
After gathering at Union Square, the IWD marchers eagerly
joined pickets at the East Natural delicatessen on Fifth
Avenue and 13th Street where UNITE Local 169 has a boycott.
Joining in the cry for these immigrant workers to be able to
join the union, which deli bosses won't recognize, they
listened to speeches by Local 169 picketing workers.
Sandra Rosero told of getting fired for fighting
discrimination and demanding benefits. Other Local 169
members also explained their struggle against such retail
sweatshops, and received strong support from the IWD
marchers.
At the site where the Triangle Shirtwaist factory had once
stood, speakers made connections between the struggle today
and 90 years ago. A New York University worker related how
the workers at that school, who were mostly low-paid women,
won a union after a militant organizing drive. A Palestinian
woman spoke of the racism of the bosses here. Other speakers
included women from a NIKE shoe factory in Indonesia and a
sugar cane plant in the Dominican Republic.
It was easy to see the connections between the racism,
sexism and exploitation that 90 years of capitalist "reform"
have spread all over the globe. As the colorful banner held
by a group of young people at the rally said, "An injury to
one is an injury to all."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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