100 years of International Women’s Day

Vanguard March 2011 p. 3

March 8, 2011, marks the global Centenary of the International Women’s Day. On this day 100 years ago, progressive and socialist women proclaimed International Women’s Day to celebrate the struggles and achievements of women from around the world for equality, justice, emancipation and a world free of exploitation and oppression.

International Women’s Day grew out of the struggles of working women at the turn of the 20th century.

Many working women fought against the harsh exploitation, low wages and slavery working conditions, impoverishment, inequality and discrimination of women at all levels of society. Many progressive women looked to socialism to overcome the double exploitation of women under capitalism.

On this day the world honours the many generations of women working in their workplaces and communities for a better life, and against neo-colonial and imperialist enslavement, capitalist exploitation and oppression.

Women shoulder the main responsibilities for families, children, the elderly and the sick at home and in their communities. They carry the heaviest share of the burden of the global economic crisis of capitalism, through cuts to community and public services, insecure and precarious work conditions and the high cost of food and housing.

In Australia, we commemorate and celebrate the achievements and victories, small and big, won by countless numbers of women over many generations. Progress made in equal pay, child care, maternity leave, health and education and community services, for equal superannuation entitlements, equal opportunity and anti-discrimination legislation has all been won through persistent struggle by women from different walks of life.

Women in unions have fought long and hard to better conditions of working women and the working class as a whole. We continue the fight for social justice, peace, democratic rights and solidarity with all the oppressed people striving for a better world.

However, very few of Australia’s indigenous women have benefited from the economic improvements won by women over past 100 years. The original colonial dispossession of Australia’s First People in 1789 continues today under the tyranny of the Northern Territory Intervention. We honour and pay tribute to Australia’s Aboriginal women whose strength and resilience has kept their communities together and surviving for more than 230 years of successive governments’ genocidal policies.

There is still some way to go for women to achieve full equality and rights. The long battle for equal pay for work of equal value continues in and beyond the industrial courts today. The strong campaign in 2010 for pay parity for community workers, in an industry that employs mostly women, has forced the Labor government to back down, slightly. It is a significant achievement for women workers in the community sector who will continue to build their campaign on the back of their small victory in forcing the government to retreat.

In spite of huge profits and wealth created by the people, inadequate public funding is preventing the realisation of women’s equality. Equal pay for work of equal value for community sector workers is trampled on by big business demands on the public purse. Insufficient public funds for community services and child care prevent women from participating fully in the workforce. Recent gains in maternity leave arrangements are now under pressure by big business, unwilling to pay for the full leave entitlements.

There is a simple answer to this. The huge profits stolen from the people by the main corporations in the mining sector and the banks are more than enough to fund equal pay for workers in the community sector, to fund community managed child care centres, to ensure fully paid 18 months maternity leave and more.

The main obstacle to achieving full equal rights and opportunities for women is the big monopolies and corporations who control the country’s wealth and dictate to governments of the day. The immense wealth created by working people has to be returned to the people.