Rob, thanks for the history review. I remembered the gist of the history, but
not the particulars. It's easy to forget the explosive nature of these
holidays -- and you know the bourgeoisie doesn't forget, which is why they are
always trying to rewrite them. Cheers to downunder for remembering!! maggie
coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In a message dated 98-05-02 01:25:06 EDT, you write:
<< You probably know this stuff, but I didn't till I read it last year.
Here's a post I sent to M-I on March 8 of last year. It's got a bit to do
with the sort of process by which May 1 got chosen for Loyalty Day, too.
... Temma Kaplan's *Feminist Studies*. Detailed there-in is the story of
the reinvention of International Women's Day. The Net IWD web page will
tell you all about its origins in an 1857 NY textile strike and a repeat
performance in 1908 - both on 8 March, and both primarily by and about
women.
Bollocks.
Neither even happened, it seems. In 1907 Clara Zetkin organised an
International Conference of Socialist Women. The idea being that bourgeois
feminism might well lure women away from the class movement if socialist
parties could not be moved to implement and prioritise (ghastly word)
sexual equality. She was right on all counts - and still is. Anyway, in
1908, the Social Democratic Women's Society adopted Zetkin's policy and
called a mass women's suffrage meeting for 8 March. The following year,
the US Socialist Party instituted a National Women's Day.
To quote Marian Sawer's article, 'In Petrograd (on 8 March 1917 - 23
February on the old Russian calender) an IWD demonstration by women textile
workers turned into bread riots and then into the February revolution.
Zetkin became head of the Communist International's Women's Secretariat.
In 1928, Australia had its first IWD rally. In 1936, the Comintern's new
popular front stance allowed non-left women's groups to participate on IWD.
Then came the Cold War. And then came a brand new history for IWD. One
that takes Zetkin, Russia, Petrograd, socialism and the danger of bourgeois
movements right out of the story.
Good on Kaplan and Sawer for doing their bit to put them back.
Regards,
Rob
