Million Worker March Movement holds IWD event

A March 8 meeting celebrating International Working Women’s Day, sponsor ed by the Million Worker March Movement, showed the strength of diverse women fighting oppression of all kinds.

Panelists on March 8. PVN photos

Chryse Glackin of the MWMM chaired the meeting. She explained the need to celebrate IWD: “The MWM knows that working people are on the run, and we want to turn that around, and build a movement.”

The all-woman panel included a member of the youth group FIST - Fight Imper ialism, Stand Together; a member of the Transit Workers Union who works for the Metropolitan Transit Authority; members of the New York Solidarity Coalition for Gulf Coast Survivors, including a Katrina evacuee from New Orleans; unionists with the Industrial Workers of the World who have been trying to organize Starbucks Cof fee; and a performance by a youth group.

Brenda Stokely

The event, held at a Teamsters hall in Long Island City, began with a screening of “Harlan County USA,” a documentary by Barbara Kopple on the 1973 coal miners’ strike. The film highlights women’s extraordinary participation in the struggle against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Ky.

The audience celebrated the victory of the two IWW organizers in a labor struggle against Starbucks. One of the speakers had been fired from her job for union activity, along with another employee. The National Labor Relations Board ruled against Starbucks, however, and the workers’ jobs were reinstated the day before the IWD event. The Labor Board also ruled that Starbucks cannot deny workers the right to wear union buttons while at work.

Brenda Stokely from the New York Solidarity Coalition for Gulf Coast Survivors encouraged the audience, saying: “An upsurge is developing in this country. There is a coalescing of all brothers and sisters [of] whatever nationality. This is what imperialism has always feared the most—us coming together and putting aside our differences, whether we speak a different language or were born someplace else—and this is what’s developing. It’s in its embryonic form, but you can feel the rush and development of it and everyone who’s been doing that work should be honored and applauded.”

The writer was one of the speakers representing FIST.