March 8

Happy women's day!

Google's doodle:

One Day I Will

>1 LolaWalser: That was nice. I liked the different languages. Reminds me of how far we still have to go. "One day we will see every girl in school." I believe this is key.

>2 sturlington:

As long as it's not Sunday school! :)

Verso Books are still today offering a selection of their books at 40% for the Women's Day, for example:

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2036-red-rosa

>3 LolaWalser:

"Sunday school" at most UU churches includes comprehensive, queer-friendly sex ed. That's something I'd like every kid of any gender to have.

> 5

Yep. There are all sorts of Sunday schools. The one I went to (at a UU church) taught me all about other religions, and not just Western ones, either.

>5 lorax:

Me too, but I'm not waiting for any religion to do that job.

>5 lorax:, >7 LolaWalser:

Yes, parents ought to to that job, but the fact is that many parents are uncomfortable discussing any kind of sexuality with their children. If kids can get "comprehensive, queer-friendly sex ed" in school (Sunday or otherwise), I'm fine with that.

>8 lilithcat:

And kids are often uncomfortable discussing it with their parents, too.

Happy Women's Day. Lots of women striking across the globe.

Verso's Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo is free today (you may have to register, not sure as I'm always logged in):

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2773-where-freedom-starts-sex-power-violence-me...

Happy Women's Day! One of these centuries we'll get to a few more... ;)

First instance of March 8 as a public holiday in the West:

Berlin Marks International Women's Day As A Public Holiday For The First Time

Happy women's day!



Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin in 1910, the year Zetkin proposed, at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, a Women's Day to be celebrated annually. Her male party colleagues were uniformly opposed. Women voted the proposal through and the first Women's Day was commemorated next year on March 19.

To mark the day Verso is offering a 50% discount on some books

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4587-10-books-to-read-on-international-women-s-...

including Judith Butler's The force of non-violence.

I can recommend The Xenofeminist manifesto too.

Happy International Women's Day!



Four activists and workers were arrested on March 8, 1955 in Bologna for handing out mimosas to the women workers outside a factory.

The activists were accused of inciting female workers to demand equal rights with the men, including equal pay. The women were jailed for a month.

The custom of handing out mimosas on March 8 seems limited to Italy and the territory of ex-Yugoslavia. The choice of the mimosas was made after the war by two Italian women members of the PCI because the flowers were easy to obtain in the countryside (cheap, democratic choice), and strong and durable (symbolism).

There is a slideshow and a three-minute trailer for a film from 2017 about the event, including a few surviving women, at this link (unfortunately, in Italian only): Paura non abbiamo (We are not afraid)

Happy International One Day of the Year for Us!

>13 LolaWalser: Is it weird that I immediately recognised Rosa but not Clara? It is, isn't it.

>15 LolaWalser: The Italian police tried arrest my mum in the 1950s because they wanted to confiscate her camera and the photos of "suspected communist rioters". My mum successfully resisted and retained her film intact, much to her own surprise.

Sretan (vam) Međunarodni dan žena!

Vesel mednarodni dan žena!

Срећан вам Међународни дан жена!

Среќен меѓународен ден на жената!

>16 spiralsheep:

What a story! Do you still have the film? (We--well my brother et al.--are in the process of getting my dad's films from the 1960s in Iraq, Turkey etc. on DVD. It can be done...)

Speaking of Rosa, Versobooks has 40% - 60% off all it's Rosa-related material through March 10:

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4196-a-rosa-luxemburg-bookshelf

>17 LolaWalser: My mum was very proud of her retained film and put several photos of "suspected communist rioters" in the family album, lol.

Rosa Luxemburg's own words are still worth reading imo but for anyone who wants a non-academic autobiography I can recommend the graphic Red Rosa by Kate Evans (which I found better as art than A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman by Sharon Rudahl, but I haven't read The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia yet).

Buona festa della donna!

("We--well my brother et al.--are in the process of getting my dad's films from the 1960s in Iraq, Turkey etc. on DVD"

That sounds both interesting and worthwhile. I think my dad's only international photos from the 1960s are him teaching English folk dancing to the Swiss, haha.)

>18 spiralsheep:

Concurring about Kate Evans' book...

Ah, the films in question are movies, dad was enthusiastic early adopter of tech, but not everything survived well enough to replay and transfer. Iraq is where he fell in love with archaeology so it's a lot of historical places, excavations, rocks...

Happy International Women's Day to women everywhere.

Happy International Women's Day to women everywhere.

Afghan women protest in Kabul:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2023/mar/08/snow-and-international-wome...

Happy International Women's Day to women everywhere!



More about Jayaben Desai and the Grunwick strike:

https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/grunwick-strike-1976/

Thank you everyone! Happy Women's Day to you too!

k4k

*waves*