The founder of the Social Democratic women’s magazine Die Gleichheit (Equality), Clara Zetkin, wrote in 1894: “Bourgeois feminism and the movement of proletarian women, are two fundamentally different social movements.”  She highlighted that feminists who identified their struggle as being between the sexes and against the men of their own class, did not question capitalism nor recognize it as the force behind the oppression of women. In comparison, she asserted that working women saw their circumstances as primarily a class struggle and worked against it along with the working men of their class. Read more about this and the history of International Women's Day here.

A few years later on March 8, 1909, the "International Socialist Woman's Conference" in Germany was held in honor of working women and in support of radical social reforms, against capitalism and in support of a socialist economic structure. Eventually working women began to mobilize around this day and starting in 1911, women workers in the U.S. and many other European countries officially recognized March 8th, as "Women’s Day".  We honor and acknowledge the role of these courageous women in the long history of fighting for equal rights and equity.

Today however, the many notable accomplishments towards securing women's rights in the last 100 years are over shadowed. Besides the many advances that still need to be made for equity and women's right, today, we are living in the midst of a genocide!

As we witness the most widely televised genocide in human history unraveling in Gaza against Palestinian women and their families, we must acknowledge that the class struggle that inspired the women's suffrage movement, still persists today. 

The opinion piece 'What International Women's Day?' Asks Gaza Amid Israeli Genocide, reports on the extent of women's suffering in the brutal Israeli attacks on Gaza and the continuing illegal occupation of Palestine.

"At least 9,000 women have been killed; many more are under the rubble. On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day—37 are mothers who leave their families behind."... Amal Shawareb, UNRWA's deputy protection team leader in Gaza, said in a video posted on social media. "My message for the world on March 8 is to look at the women and girls of Gaza on this day, acknowledge them and be in solidarity with them. They call on the world not to look away."

The Green Party of California
www.cagreens.org