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USA:
International Women's Day 2010 |
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Solidarity Greetings from Danish Activist
Nina Agerskov
Comrades,
2010 is the centenary of the founding of International Women's Day
(IWD), but the history of female organization goes back a lot further.
Not only is it an exciting tale; the story also reminds us of how
important it is to keep on struggling for socialist feminism.
Tracing the roots
When the French Revolution took place in 1789, critical voices were
heard from women who saw that this revolution did not do much to give
men and women equal rights. Beyond this, numerous female labor
organizations started to grow following the industrialization of the
Western countries in the 19th Century. However, it was not until the
women's rights movement had developed into a socialist women's movement
in the early 20th Century, that IWD as a concept and as a specific day
for struggle was created. The resolution for establishing a special day
for the international women's movement was passed in Copenhagen,
Denmark, at the request of German socialist Clara Zetkin. This happened
during the first international women's conference, which was part of
the Congress of the Second International in 1910.
This women's conference took place in Folkets Hus (The House of the
People) in Copenhagen, a house that has come to have a remarkable
history. For more than 60 years the house was owned by the workers'
movement in Denmark. In 1982, when the house had been empty and under
municipal ownership for a couple of years, the City Council of
Copenhagen gave in to demands by young squatters for a house they could
use as community center, and handed over the key of the former Folkets
Hus to the activists. Ungdomshuset (The Youth House), as the house was
now called, fostered a lot of ideas, events and activism.
In spite, or because, of this activity, Ungdomshuset was sold by the
City Council to the Christian sect Faderhuset (The Father House) in
2007. After a period of intense protest actions by both youth and
community allies, the sect tore the house down. Afterwards, many people
were angry with the members of the City Council, partly because they
already had given the house to the youth of Copenhagen, partly because
many people considered the house an important historical artifact.
Almost three years later, the site of the historic Folkets Hus and the
vibrant Ungdomshuset remains an empty lot. The destruction of this
building is a great loss to Copenhagen both because so many of the
ideas, networks, and initiatives in today’s anticapitalist movement in
Denmark were connected to this house, and because the act of selling it
reflects the increasingly reactionary tendencies of Danish society
Shaping the movement
After WW1, and the following split between social democrats and
socialists/communists, the women's movement, along with other social
movements, had to decide which way to go. Clara Zetkin was now head of
the women's secretariat under the Comintern – The Third International –
and it was during the second international women's conference, which
took place in Moscow in 1922, that March 8 was specified as the date
for IWD, due to the revolutionary actions of Russian women workers in
overthrowing the Czar on that date in 1917.
The growth of fascism and nazism in Europe and the worldwide economic
depression during the period between the two world wars caused
International Women’s Day to recede into the background. It was not
until the 1960's that it really came back in force. The student revolt
and the general breakdown of norms at the end of that decade created
the basis for a new and powerful women's movement, often referred to as
second wave feminism.
At this point not only economic and political equality, but also
abortion, sexual oppression, the concept of the nuclear family and the
commodification of the woman's body were topics for IWD events. Thus
the day of struggle was revitalized with a more anti-authoritarian
perspective, and with more focus on women emancipation than ever
before. That is to say, a notable difference between the women's
movement before WW2 and after 1960 was that the second wave of feminism
was more thoroughly an independent, radical, social movement, rather
than functioning as a marginalized sector of a political party or
organization.
Today, International Women’s Day is celebrated very differently in
different parts of the world. In some countries the day is an official
holiday for men and women, or for women alone, and in some places IWD
has almost become a combination of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.
The consequence is that men in those places give their mothers, sisters
and girlfriends gifts, but this practice has been heavily critizised by
many feminists. They claim that this act is celebrating a femininity
more binding than liberating, and that it makes a mockery of the
women's struggle, instead of using the day to focus on the urgency of
this struggle and on women's ability to speak for themselves and to
make their influence felt on their own terms.
The struggle
continues
In Denmark, our tradition of strong workers' and women's movements goes
a long way back, and we always celebrate International Women's Day with
large demonstrations and with meetings and events where women's issues
are debated. It is of course not our right wing government that
supports this tradition, but instead a myriad of grassroot
organizations and left wing parties. Thus it is common to see many
different demonstrations and happenings, but usually there is at least
one joint initiative on subjects like criminalization of sex buyers or
violence against women.
2010, as the 100th anniverary of International Women’s Day,
offers a much needed and welcomed opportunity for us as socialist
feminists to stress the importance of combining socialism and feminism.
We need to show people the difference between individual bourgeois
feminism and our much more collectively minded socialist feminism, thus
emphasizing why the latter is the way to go.
As Danish socialist feminists, we join you in honoring
International Women's Day. Keep on Struggling!
Nina Agerskov is a
member of Socialistisk Ungdomsfront (Socialist Youth Front), a Danish
youth organization connected to Endhedslisten (The Red-Green
Alliance)
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