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March 8, International Women's Day, is the occasion throughout the world when women take to the streets,
The focus of this activity is to defend and extend their de los Trabajadores,
Fourth Internationl, reports on some of the first important steps being made in the self-organisation of women in these layers.
and organise meetings, debates
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Leslie SERNA
Almost 450 women from the working class and popular neighbourhoods (colon rights as workers and equal citizens, and highlight the specific oppression that they face as women, as well as demonstrating solidarity with their sisters all over the world.
Not surprisingly, the themes that will be taken up this year turn around the effects of the economic crisis on women as workers and in the family, and opposition to the imperialist arms race. movement, for example, will be demonstrating outside an arms conference in London organised by the Technical Marketing Society from the US (entrance to which costs a mere £380) on 'New Trends in Nuclear Weapons'. Other women from Britain will be crossing to Ireland to support their Irish sisters in a picket of Armagh women's gaol in the North where women Republican political prisoners are held.
In many countries in Europe a major focus of women's mobilisations will be opposition to bosses' attempts to force women to accept part-time work or 'flexible' working hours as a first step towards denying them a place in the work force. The Women Against the Crisis co-ordinations that exist in Belgium and Turin in Italy will be taking up this theme. In Italy, as in Switzerland where the question of work time is also a major focus, there will also be opposition to attempts to raise the retirement age for women, in the name of 'equality'.
As well as rights as workers, women are also fighting for the right to control their own bodies, whether against violent assault and rape, a principal theme of the mobilisations in the Spanish state, or for the right to abortion — a major question still in the Spanish state as well as in Ireland where even a limited right to abortion has still not been achieved. France, although abortion is possible in the first ten weeks — and paid for by the state - the government's policy is to encourage a higher birth rate. For example, they have just announced a new allowance for the third child in the family - a not so subtle 'encouragement' that the French women's movement will be opposing on March 8.
Among the women's groups calling for a demonstration on March 8 in Paris is a group of women from the Maghreb, North Africa. This highlights another theme present in many of the activities in Europe, the specific problems and demands for equal rights for immigrant women, and opposition to racism, which often hits hardest at women who are less integrated as workers and citizens into the 'host' society.
Similar themes will be taken up in demonstrations and other activities in the other advanced capitalist countries; the United States where opposition to nuclear weapons, reproductive rights and international solidarity are common themes in the planned activities. Australian women will be demonstrating in Melbourne and Sydney.
The same general themes find their reflection in the activities of women in the semi-colonial and under-developed countries. In India the demands for March 8 elaborated by the Women's Forum in Bombay centre around the particular problems of violence against women - the treatment of women who are victims of rape used as a method of repression by state forces, preventing and punishing 'dowry deaths' and so on.
For the poor peasant and working class women of Mexico the questioning of their traditional role in the family is only beginning, and the struggle against their specific oppression is very much linked to the fight for decent living standards and democratic rights for the whole population. The article below, summarised from Bandera Socialista, paper of the Partido Revolucionario
The British women's peace section of the ias) of Mexico came to the first nationa conference of women of the Urban People's Movement (CONAMUP). This took place on November 25, 26 and 27 in the town of Durango. There were wom present from almost all the neighbour hoods of the capital, Mexico City, mem bers of Conamup, as well as other momen from the capital, and from Sinaloa Nayarit, Tijuana, Torreon, Jalapa, Taxco, Chilpancingo, Morelos, Guadalajara, Mon terrey and Zacetacas, thus representing most regions of the country.
The discussion, organised in workshops, particularly centred on the following themes: women, work and family; women and the present situation in the colonias; forms of organisation and alternative solutions. On the last day the results of these discussions were presented in a general assembly.
This was the first time that a body bringing together several currents of the workers movement had called a special meeting of women to discuss their spe cific role and situation in the class strug. gle. Bandera Socialista, newspaper of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores, Mexican section of the Fourth International, published a dossier on this meeting in its December issues. (See Nos 277, 278 and 279). Here it deas a historic step forward that a co-ordinating body of this size and importance had taken up the specifie question of women.
The resolutions that came out of the meeting clearly established that women are oppressed, explaining the forms in which this is expressed in the particular case of poor urban zones, and its expres sion even in democratic organisations and
The meeting demanded that Conamup take on various tasks, ranging from the education and training of women to aid ing them to take on leadership tasks within popular mass organisations.
The meeting took place at a time when the Mexican workers and democratic movement was preparing a second na tional day of protest (which did not finally take place) following that of Octo ber 19, 1983 (see International Viewpoint, No 40, 1983): In this context the continued on page 27
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