SOF – Siempreviva Feminist Organization

The primary historical reference for the origins of International Women’s Day is the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in 1910, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, when Clara Zetkin proposed a resolution officially establishing an international women’s day. That resolution makes no mention of March 8. Clara only refers to following the example of American socialists. It is true that since then, the celebrations began to take on an international character, spreading throughout Europe, driven by the organization and initiative of socialist women.

This and other historical sources inspired researcher Renée Coté, who published her provocative study in 1984 in Canada, searching for the missing link or links in the history of International Women’s Day.

In the course of her research, Renée came across the story of American socialist feminists who sought to rescue from the whirlwind of workers’ struggles at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the intense participation of working women—to highlight their demonstrations, their strikes, and their capacity for autonomous organization of struggles—with a particular focus on the battle for women’s suffrage, that is, for universal suffrage. Since then, hypotheses have been proposed as to why this historical record was neglected or lost over time.

What is clear to us, based on their research of historical sources, is that references to March 8 or a strike by American women workers, women’s demonstrations, or a Women’s Day do not appear in the various sources examined for the period, primarily in newspapers and the socialist press.

There were strikes and repressions of workers—both men and women—in the period spanning from the late 19th century to 1908, but none of those events up to that point are related to the deaths of women in New York, which would have given rise to the day of their struggle. Such research reveals, for Coté, that there was no heroic strike, whether in 1857 or 1908, but rather a heroic feminism struggling to establish itself among American women workers. The search for March 8th brought to light the struggle of American socialist women for an autonomous existence.

The sources found reveal the following:

On May 3, 1908, in Chicago, the first “Woman’s Day” was held, presided over by Lorine S. Brown, as documented by the monthly newspaper *The Socialist Woman*, at the Garrick Theater, with the participation of 1,500 women who “applauded the demands for women’s economic and political equality; on the day dedicated to the workers’ cause.” Ultimately, it was dedicated to the workers’ cause, denouncing the exploitation and oppression of women, but notably advocating for women’s suffrage. Gender equality and women’s autonomy—and thus women’s suffrage—were championed both within and outside the party.

By 1909, Women’s Day had become an official event of the Socialist Party and was organized by the National Women’s Committee, celebrated on February 28, 1909; publicity from the time called for a “women’s suffrage meeting”—that is, in defense of women’s suffrage—in New York.

Coté notes that American socialist women proposed the last Sunday in February as the day of celebration; thus, Women’s Day initially had various dates but gradually gained the support of working women, including strikers, and saw growing participation.

Newspapers reported on Woman’s Day in New York on February 27, 1910, at Carnegie Hall, attended by 3,000 women, where the main suffrage associations gathered—convened by the socialists but with the participation of non-socialist women.

It is recorded that there was a major strike by New York textile workers (shirtwaist makers) that lasted from November 1909 to February 1910—80% of the strikers were women—and ended 12 days before Women’s Day. That was the first large-scale women’s strike denouncing living and working conditions, and it demonstrated the courage of the women seamstresses, receiving massive support. Many of these workers participated in Woman’s Day and intensified the struggle for women’s suffrage (achieved in 1920 throughout the U.S.).

Clara Zetkin, a German socialist, proposed that Women’s Day be transformed into “a special day, an annual celebration of women, following the example of our American comrades.” She further suggested, in an article in the German newspaper Die Gleichheit on August 28, 1910, that the main theme be the achievement of women’s suffrage.

In 1911, German women celebrated International Women’s Day on March 19, while Swedish women celebrated it on May 1, and so on. In other words, they celebrated it on different dates.

In 1913, in Russia, under the tsarist regime, the First International Women’s Day for Women’s Suffrage was held. Russian female workers participated in International Women’s Day in Petrograd and were repressed. In 1914, all the organizers of International Women’s Day in Russia were imprisoned, a fact that prevented the celebration.

In 1914, International Women’s Day in Germany was dedicated to women’s suffrage. It was celebrated for the first time on March 8, as records show, because it was a more practical date that year.

European socialists coordinated celebrations around the right to vote, linking it to women’s political emancipation, but the date was decided in each country.

During wartime, International Women’s Day took a backseat in Europe.

Another interesting reference regarding the origin of the March 8 date is its connection to the active participation of Russian women workers in the events that sparked the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Thus, a political action by Russian women workers on March 8, according to the Gregorian calendar, or February 23, according to the Russian calendar, precipitated the start of the revolutionary actions that led to the victory of the Russian Revolution.

Alexandra Kollontai, a feminist leader of the socialist revolution, wrote about the event and about March 8, which, curiously, has been omitted from the history of the event. She says: “Women Workers’ Day—March 8, 1917—was a memorable date in history. The February Revolution had begun.” Trotsky, a leader of the revolution, also mentions the event in The History of the Russian Revolution. In these accounts, it is clear that women sparked the general strike and bravely took to the streets of Petrograd on International Women’s Day to protest against hunger, war, and tsarism. Trotsky says: “On February 23 (March 8), International Women’s Day, events, meetings, etc., were scheduled. But we did not imagine that this ‘Women’s Day’ would usher in the revolution. Revolutionary actions had been planned but without a set date. But in the morning, despite the directives, female textile workers walked off the job at several factories and sent delegates to demand that the strike continue… which turned into a mass strike…. everyone took to the streets.”

It is clear that the revolution was initiated by grassroots elements who overcame the opposition of the leaderships, and the initiative came from the most exploited and oppressed workers, the textile workers. The number of strikers was around 90,000, the majority women. It is clear that Women’s Day was a complete victory and there were no casualties.

Renée Coté finally finds documents from the 1921 International Conference of Communist Women where “a Bulgarian comrade proposed March 8 as the official date for International Women’s Day, in agreement with the initiative of the Russian women.”

Starting in 1922, International Women’s Day has been officially celebrated on March 8.

This history was lost in the major historical records of both the socialist movement and the historians of the period. It is part of the historical and political past of women and the feminist movement of socialist origin at the beginning of the century.

Some European feminists in the 1970s, having found no concrete reference to the female textile workers who died in a fire in 1857 in New York, considered it a mythical event. But this hypothesis was dismissed in light of so many facts and events linking the origins of International Women’s Day to left-wing American women.

As for the missing links in the events surrounding March 8, several hypotheses have been proposed, in search of further clarification.

It is true that, in the U.S., in New York, female textile workers were already denouncing their living and working conditions and staging strikes.

And this moment of workers’ organization is part of a broader historical process of social change that empowered women to fight for rights, equality, and autonomy by participating in the social and political context that led to the creation of a day of celebration symbolizing their struggles, achievements, and need for organization. It is therefore necessary to weave together the threads of history from that period.

From this context emerges one of the accounts cited in the documentary sources, summarized by Gládis Gassen (in a text for rural women workers of the FETAG), which tells us that in March 1911, eighteen days after Women’s Day in 1857, “in a poorly ventilated textile factory occupying the top three floors of a ten-story building at the Triangle Schirwaist Company in New York, a fire broke out that engulfed 500 young women—Jewish and Italian immigrants—who worked in precarious conditions, with the floor covered in flammable materials and waste, or trash piled up everywhere, with no exits in case of fire, nor hoses for water… To ‘prevent work from being interrupted,’ the company locked the door leading to the exit. By the time firefighters managed to reach the women, 147 were already dead—charred or trampled in the street, where they had thrown themselves in desperation. Following that tragedy, the New York Factory Investigation Commission was appointed, a body that had been requested 50 years earlier. And so, legislation to protect the health and lives of female workers was introduced. Union leader Rosa Schneiderman organized 120,000 workers at the funeral of the factory workers to mourn their losses and declare solidarity with all working women.

Thus, although it is necessary to continue searching for lost memories, it is true that a whole cycle of struggles in an era of great social change, up until the first decades of the 20th century, turned International Women’s Day into a symbol of women’s active participation in transforming their condition and society.

We are therefore, every year, like our predecessors, celebrating our initiatives and achievements, taking stock of our struggles, and updating our agenda of struggles for equality between men and women and for a world in which everyone can live fully and with dignity.

Bibliographic References:

– Cote, Renée. (1984) International Women’s Day: The True Dates of the Mysterious Origins of March 8—Until Now Confused, Falsified, Forgotten: The Key to the Enigmas. The Historical Truth. Montreal: Les éditions du remue ménage.

– Gassem, Gladis. (2000) Act of Solidarity with Working Women, or Aphrodite Rising from the Seas. March 8, 2000. Organization of Rural Women. FETAG/RS.