Women's resistance celebrated
By Page Getz
Los Angeles
On March 12, almost a century after 30,000
striking sweatshop workers stormed the streets of New York in
what became the inspiration for International Women's Day, the
International Action Center here celebrated a history of
women's resistance through art, poetry, music, photography and
the voices of today's struggles for social justice.
The event featured LeiLani Dowell, congressional candidate
for the Peace and Freedom Party and a member of Workers World
Party.
Stefanie Beacham opened with a brief history on the origins
of IWD. Special recognition was made of the recent struggle of
the grocery workers in Southern California to defend health
care. Of the 59,000 striking and locked-out union members, 60
percent were women.
Jean Chung, president of Historical Justice Now, talked
about the ongoing campaign for justice and reparations for the
brutal enslavement of Korean women during World War II. Chung
brought to the event evocative paintings by women who were
victims of this sexual slavery.
Dowell addressed the struggles of women in the U.S., from
the fight to defend women's reproductive rights to the latest
campaign for equal marital rights for same-gender couples and
against the prevalence of sexual abuse in the military.
Muna Coobtee of the Free Palestine Alliance spoke about the
empowerment of women through the national liberation struggle
and the massive contributions Palestinian women make to the
Intifada.
Ana Duarte of the International Action Center addressed the
significance of women in the Cuban Revolution and women's
steady advancement in the workforce there, in contrast to the
U.S.
Images from a year of unprecedented resistance here,
captured in the photography of Julia La Riva, formed a backdrop
to the event.
The program also included Noraegeezi, a Korean women's vocal
group that seek to express the experience of immigrants through
music. Mika moved the audience with poems by and about Japanese
women who had come to the U.S. early in the 20th century as
"picture brides."
Reprinted from the March 25, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page