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Monthly Feature - March

March 8 is International Women's Day

• March 8, 1857 - women textile workers in New York were fired on by the army while demonstrating for a shorter work week.
• August 1907 - the idea of an annual demonstration in support of working women and women's rights was first proposed by Clara Zetkin at a caucus of socialist women prior to the Second International annual meeting in Germany.
• March 8, 1908 - women workers in the needle trades marched through New York City's Lower East Side to protest child labor, sweatshop working conditions, and demand votes for women.
• 1910 - proposal by Clara Zetkin, at the International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen, designating March 8 be observed annually as International Women's Day, in recognition of the 1908 demonstration by New York needle trades workers.
• March 19, 1911 - Alexandra Kollontai helps organize the first International Women's Day in Germany. Meetings and demonstrations were also held in several other European countries. The date was chosen to commemorate the 1848 promise (not kept) by the Prussian king to introduce votes for women.
• March 8, 1917 (Feb. 23 on the Julian calendar) - Russian women marched in Petrograd to demand bread and peace. With the half a million Russian workers already on strike, the demonstration by the women forced the resignation of Czar Nicholas II and ignited the February Revolution.
• 1922 - At Clara Zetkin's urging, Lenin established International Women's Day as a holiday.
• March 8, 1968 - Chicago women revived the celebration of International Women's Day in the USA.
• 1975 - March 8 was recognized as International Women's Day by the United Nations.

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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Garment Workers - History

Bernheimer, Charles S. The Shirt Waist Strike. New York: University Settlement, 1910.

Carsel, Wilfred. A History of the Chicago Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Chicago: Normandie House, 1940.

Danish, Max D. The World of David Dubinsky. Cleveland, OH: The World Publishing Co., 1957.

Dewey, John. David Dubinsky: A Pictorial Biography. New York: Inter-Allied Publications, 1951.

Dubinsky, David & A. H. Raskin. David Dubinsky: A Life With Labor. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977.

Dye, Nancy Schrom. As Equals and As Sisters: Feminism, Unionism, and the Women's Trade Union League of New York. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1980.

Laslett, John & Mary Tyler. The ILGWU in Los Angeles, . Inglewood, CA: Ten Star Press, 1989.

Lorwin, Lewis Levitski. The Women's Garment Workers: A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. New York: B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1924.

McClymer, John F. The Triangle Strike and Fire. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.

Stein, Leon, ed. Out of the Sweatshop: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy. New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1977.

Pesotta, Rose. Bread Upon the Waters. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1944.

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Pamphlets by Clara Zetkin

Lenin on the Woman Question. NY: International Publishers, 1934.

Reminiscences of Lenin. NY: International Publishers, 1934.

Toilers Against War. NY: Workers' Library Publishers, 1934.

Books & Pamphlets by Alexandra Kollontai

Communism and the Family. London: Pluto Press, 1971.

International Women's Day. Highland Park, MI: Sun Press, 1974.

Selected Articles and Speeches. NY: International Publishers, 1984.

Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle: Love and the New Morality. London: Falling Wall Press, 1972.

Women Workers Struggle for Their Rights. London: Falling Wall Press, 1971.

Workers Opposition in Russia. NY: The League for a Workers World, 1955.

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WEB SITES

- 1999 obituary of one of the last survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.

- by Clara Zetkin.

- cyber edition of the book by Joyce Stevens.

- by Alexandra Kollontai, written in 1920.

- by V.I. Lenin, originally written as a supplement to Pravda, March 8, 1921.

- by V.I. Lenin, originally appeared in Pravda, March 4, 1920.

- Feb. 2001 obituary of the last survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.

- provides excellent links to photographs, oral histories, list of victims, etc.

- by Alexandra Kollontai, written in 1913

- eyewitness narratives and other historical records.

The Holt Labor Library provides these links for your convenience. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, the Holt Labor Library makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the information on these sites, and is not liable for any inaccuracy, error, or omission, regardless of cause.

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