2009 International Women’s Day in Toronto

by Keerthy Narayanan Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

International Women`s Day (IWD), March 8, is an international day to celebrate the economic, social, and political achievements of women around the globe, while demanding that there is still much to be done to achieve women’s liberation and end the oppressions, discriminations and violence that particularly target women. This year, on the weekend of March 8th, IWD was celebrated in Toronto and the theme chosen for the event “Good Jobs and Dignity for All” – a call out to the government to ensure that this becomes a reality here in Canada. This message comes during a crucial time of economic recession, where the most vulnerable in the population happens to be women. According to the Canadian Auto Workers, 70 percent of part-time jobs and two-thirds of the Canadian population earning minimum wage are women. In other words, women are suffering disproportionately due to the economic recession and this harsh reality is even more evident for women of color, migrant women and Native women.

On March 7th, the day of the IWD march, participants gathered at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education to hear powerful speeches delivered by women from various backgrounds addressing issues and voicing their solidarity with other struggles. The rally was followed by a march that attracted over 1500 participants chanting and relaying their message to the public, who stood still to watch the demonstrators make their way through the downtown core to the IWD fair, where various groups had booths to educate people on various women’s issues.

The next day, the Migrant Women’s Organizing Body got together to facilitate workshops and discussions under the theme “Fighting the War on Us”. Women of color are on the forefronts of fighting for decent livelihoods, justice, and the right to self-determination. It is critical for women to converge during times like this when imperialist forces and systemic racist-sexist policies are pressing down on women and exploiting them for their labour and bodies.

The Migrant Women’s Organizing Body is a growing body of different organizations that intends to expand as a network of women standing side-by-side in solidarity to fight against women’s oppression, and is planning to continue organizing IWD and other related events in Toronto.

March 8, 2008: 100 Years of Int'nal Women's Day

by Corrie Sakaluk



IWD Poster from Soviet Union, 1920

This year on International Women’s Day our Iranian sisters made this call: “In 2008, on the 8th of March we intend to exclaim ‘Enough is enough!’ We no longer want to tolerate the hell created by the patriarchal systems stretching from Kosovo to Iraq, Afghanistan to Philippines, the USA to France, Britain to Turkey and Iran to Pakistan.”

The 8th of March is the date of an historic 1857 protest of women workers in the clothing and textile industries in New York, in demand of better working conditions. These women were attacked and dispersed by police but kept organizing, and established their first labour union two months later.

On March 8th 1908, fifteen thousand women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights.

March 8th also commemorates the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York in 1911 where over 140 women who worked inside lost their lives, and the rallies held by women across Europe in 1913 that called for peace in the face of a looming war.

The first stage of the Russian Revolution was kick-started by demonstrations marking International Women’s Day in 1917. IWD was made an official holiday in the former Soviet Union shortly after the revolution, and was declared a non-working state holiday in 1965 to honour “the outstanding merits of the Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War, their heroism and selflessness at the front and in rear, and also marking the big contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples and struggle for the peace.”

In 1975, designated as International Women’s Year, the United Nations gave official sanction to and began sponsoring International Women’s Day.

Across the world on March 8th this year, there were parades, rallies, and marches to commemorate IWD.

Let us hope that the next 100 years results in changes that can change the still horrible situation of most women in the world today. This situation cannot be fixed until global capitalism is replaced with a more just and equitable political and economic system.

As long as the economy and the fat wallets of the rich people who control the state and the economy require workers, women’s rights will be of minimal concern to the ruling global capitalist class.