As in the Bread and Roses march here, then the International women's march, now women in many countries (especially Latin-speaking ones) speaking out against a spectrum of violence, up to and including feminicide, and the social and income inequality that makes it difficult for many to escape.
So Happy International Women's day to all (including male allies) but remember that this is a day of struggle and not merely a celebration and commemoration.
Onwards and upwards!
There are some excellent photos on the Cumberland Museum Facbook page about this story. All struggles come down to, which side are you on. I stand with the women who wrote this piece.
Happy International Women's Day! There are many stories to tell about the history of women in our community but one of our favourites is about women's involvement in the Big Strike of 1912-1914.
Things were heated in Vancouver Island's coal mining communities during this time and women were in the thick of it.
In this photo, we see women following "replacement workers" on their way to Cumberland's mines, banging on pots and pans, a common household item turned into an object of protest.
Chief Constable Stevenson reported from Cumberland that: "While conducting workers (scabs by any other name) to their homes, the usual mob of about 500 men women and children followed, playing discordant music, shouting, yelling and waving umbrellas and otherwise behaving in a very disorderly and disgraceful manner.”
Confusion over women's willingness to take to the streets was felt by many authorities. "Surely you will risk losing the respect of your husbands with such behaviour!" exclaimed one Magistrate to women in Nanaimo.
When you visit the Cumberland Museum and Archives, be sure to listen to the audio installation featuring the story of Mrs. Axleson, another women involved in Ladysmith's Big Strike activities, told by a women who was there to witness what happened!
https://www.facebook.com/cumberlandbc.museum/photos/a.153554344695408/31...
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Lausanne, Switzerland
Thanks Kropotkin! In the Québec labour movement we hear a lot about the Winnipeg general strike but very little about struggles in BC.
Uplifting photos, thanks.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we honour our womxn on the frontlines, our #stolensisters, our matriarchs, our beautiful yintah (which provides for us, as a mother would). We did our best to enjoy the beauty of the territories yesterday... but each time a truck passed, it was impossible not to become tense.
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Almost immediately after stopping to visit some of our family at 27km, work trucks flew by us - far above a safe speed to stop. All of the trucks were filled with men. One moved to intentionally to hit some muddy spots, so it mud came spraying towards us. Both the visiting reporter and member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, were horrified. We shrugged our shoulders... it was expected.
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It was expected, because forms of violence, intimidation, and harassment are sanctioned by the Canadian government. The destruction of our many unceded territories, sanctioned by @justinpjtrudeau and @johnhorgan4bc . The invasion of mass amounts of CGL workers, escorted in by the @rcmpgrcpolice & excessive amount of militarized police, to forcibly remove (primarily) women... doesn’t assure us that we will ever be safe.
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It’s expected though. Not feeling safe, even with the @bcrcmp around. We have had dozens of women go missing on the #HighwayOfTears - and we never once saw this many police officers. Our territories are beautiful, and where we felt safe. Our women have spent a lot of time on the territories for that reason... it was a safe space.
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So, as we celebrate International Womxn’s Day, we remember that what is occurring out here is gender-based violence. That climate change affects womxn at a greater level. That we fight, not just for our yintah, but we fight for equality & the protection of our womxn.
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We say “Masih cyoh” to everyone continuing to stand with us, and fight for the greater good. To fight against corporate greed, the destruction of our world, and ongoing gender based violence throughout the world.
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#InternationalWomensDay #Matriarchs #DefendTheYintah #WaterIsLife #Wedzinkwa #DefendTheYintah #WetsuwetenStrong #RiseUp #ShutDownCanada
A million people in the streets of Santiago, Chile for International Women's Day.
'This is our feminist spring': millions of Mexican women prepare to strike over femicides
quote:
And with the violence still rising, a new generation of Mexican feminists – whose number Dalilah recently joined – are mobilizing with increasingly radical tactics in the hope of forcing their government to act.
“We won’t just sit around quietly waiting for another woman to be murdered or for another girl to be raped,” said Carolina Barrales, one of the founders of Circulo Violeta (Violet Circle), the Tijuana-based feminist collective that helped organize the 14 February protest there.
Barrales said her group wholeheartedly backed direct action as a means of halting gender violence.
In the country’s capital, masked feminists clashed with police and covered the presidential palace with blood-red paint and graffiti denouncing the president’s failure to protect Mexico’s women.
In Tijuana, activists in balaclavas attempted to close the busiest border crossing on earth, between Mexico and the United States.
“In Circulo Violeta, we believe in smashing whatever needs to be smashed, shouting whatever you need to shout, doing whatever you need to do,” said the 33-year-old mother of one.
“We aren’t vandals … but we do support this form of protest. It’s our last resort – and the last resort that they have left us … We shout and shout and nothing happens”.
This weekend activists will launch their latest acts of dissent: a nationwide rally on Sunday and a potentially historic 24-hour women’s strike on Monday in which upwards of 20 million Mexican women are expected to take part by staying at home.....
Marie Edwards' powerful feminist manifesto from 1974.
PREAMBLE:
Whereas the written and spoken word about singles has been and continues to be one of gloom and doom, untruths and misinformation, we the singles of the United States—divorced, separated, widowed, and never-married—in order to bury the myths, establish the truths, uplift our spirits, promote our freedom, become cognizant of our great fortune as singles, do ordain and establish this manifesto for the singles of the United States of America.
ARTICLE I Attitude toward self:
1. As a single, I shall appreciate myself as a unique person with a special combination of traits and talents no one else has.
2. I will develop and maintain a healthy self-respect and a high sense of self-worth, knowing that I cannot respect and like others until I first appreciate myself.
3. I will at all times take responsibility for my own actions, knowing that responsibility begins within my own self.
4. I will strive to put all my talents to work so that I can eliminate any residual, socially induced feelings of inferiority, knowing that when I give of myself to others, my self-esteem will rise accordingly.
5. I will have goals, knowing I will feel a sense of elation and heightened self-esteem once the goal is accomplished.
6. I will give myself rewards when I have accomplished a goal or difficult task, knowing the more I practice the spirit of giving of myself, the more I will be able to give to others—and rewards, like charity, begin at home.
7. I will take an entirely new look at loneliness, knowing there is a vast difference between loneliness and being alone, realizing further that loneliness is a part of the human condition and that facing it when it happens will allow me to appreciate the positive side of being alone.
8. I will, in my deepest feelings, know that it’s okay to be single and, becoming braver, know that it’s even more than okay—it can be a great and untapped opportunity for continuous personal growth.
ARTICLE II Attitude toward others:
1. I will stop searching for the “one-and-only,” knowing that as I become more free to be myself, I will be freer to care about others, so that relationships will come to me as a natural consequence and I will feel free to accept or reject them.
2. Instead of searching for the “one-and-only,” I will realize the tremendous importance of friendships and will develop under- standing, worthwhile friends of both the same and opposite sex. I will realize that platonic friendships are not only possible, but a necessary part of a successfully single life.
3. I will take inventory of my present “friends,” bypassing those who are negative and harmful and cultivating those who are helpful and nourishing.
4. I will, when I attend singles’ affairs, consider the singles I meet there as potential friends, not as “losers,” knowing my attitude will color my perception even before I step in the door.
ARTICLE III Attitude toward society:
1. I will appreciate that all four categories of singlehood—divorced, separated, widowed, and never-married—suffer similar discriminations and that we are much more alike than different, no matter what our age and sex.
2. I will appreciate that the so-called battle of the sexes is a social myth, that men and women are much more alike than different in their reaction to fear, rejection, loneliness, sorrow, joy, caring, sharing, and loving, and that, as singles, we have a unique opportunity to foster understanding and empathy between male and female.
3. I will no longer suffer in silence the injustices to me as a single, but will do everything I can to help eradicate them.
4. I will, by choosing to live a free single life, be helping to raise the status of singlehood. In doing this, I will be strengthening rather than weakening marriage, for when we truly have the option not to marry, marriage will be seen as a free choice rather than one demanded by a pairing society.
5. Finally, I will do my part in every way to promote good will between marrieds and singles, because misunderstandings will be diminished only when each of us, as a unique human being, realizes that being self-aware, autonomous, free, self-fulfilled, and whole has nothing whatsoever to do with being either married or single, but, in the final analysis, comes from being ourselves.
This came into my FB feed a couple of days late but it is worth sharing. Resistance is a family affair.
Happy International Women's Day. In 1941 the government marched 500 heavily armed police through Kirkland Lake with the warning that striking miners that would pay a heavy price if they dared march. The next day the women and children of Kirkland Lake led a mass march through the downtown to show they weren't afraid. This historic strike defined the right to collective bargaining in Canada.
On International Women's Day 2019 let us remember that nobody gave the working-class anything. We fought for every gain that has been made and women played key roles.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156819296556211&set=a.10150394...
