Chicago, IL - To honor International Women’s Day, on March 9, Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosted a film screening of Si Se Puede a documentary on the 1985 Watsonville, California strike, followed by a panel discussion with activists in the Black liberation, immigrant rights and labor movements.

The documentary tells the story of a successful 18-month strike of over 1000 food processing workers by Chicanas and Mexicanas, backed up by the Chicano movement across the country.

The event was well attended by a diverse crowd of over 50 community members and activists from various sections of the people’s movement including Arab, Latino, Black and white workers and students.

The Watsonville strike was sustained for 18 months because of the unity of the workers and the support of the community for their struggle. The company hoped that their coziness with the sellout union officials would make the workers give up, but the unity of the rank-and-file workers and support from the community carried them through to victory.

Two of the panelists picked up on the struggle against sell-out trade union bureaucrats in Watsonville and recognized this obstacle from their own struggles. 

Chanel Crittenden of the Labor Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression put it, “This was a resistance led by the rank-and-file members of the union,” and that we should follow their example of unity when the capitalists attempt to undermine our unity with strategic attacks on older workers, or on healthcare benefits.

Eliza Schultz shared her experience as a UPS worker in the Teamsters in 2018 when the sellout leaders forced them to accept a contract that had been voted down. The union members who fought for a better contract were then joined by more members to defeat the sellout officers a few years later.

Vicky Lugo of El Consejo del Resistencia in defensa del Inmigrante (Resistance Council to Defend Immigrants), when she saw the Watsonville strikers having to stand up to the police, recalled her experiences organizing and winning permits for the street vendors in the Pilsen and Little Village communities in Chicago.

Another point underlined by Schultz was, “Unity is an idea built around an act.” The workers with many years of seniority revolted against the lowering of wages and cutting of benefits; younger workers were drawn in, and following that, the community rallied around them. The unity that resulted was how the strike was sustained for 18 months.

Crittenden compared the ironclad unity demonstrated by the workers in the documentary to the Chicago Teachers Union standing with their students against ICE, rallying the community with them and showing that it takes numbers to force the capitalist class to reckon with our demands.

Vicky Lugo recognized the people are scared, but they are not so scared they won’t fight back. She called for those in attendance to support a week of action beginning on May Day, including marches and boycotts, and led by their coalition of over 50 organizations.

Inspired by the women in the film, Crittenden stated, “Women didn’t fight for their right to work; Black women have always worked and want our work to be recognized. The capitalists will recognize the strength in our numbers and we can make shit happen.”

#ChicagoIL #IWD #UPS #CTU #ICE #CAARPR #Teamsters #SiSePuede #ChicanoLiberation

Colorado Springs, CO – On March 8, International Women's Day, the Colorado Springs People’s Coalition (CSPC) organized a demonstration at the Pioneer's Museum to protest Trump's reactionary agenda that attacks women and LGBTQ people and their rights. About 300 people gathered, many chanted, “Women are unstoppable, a better world is possible!”

By the early afternoon, the front of Pioneers Museum was full of signs supporting women and LGBTQ people. Palestinian flags were flown for the martyrs and survivors in Gaza, where women have had to use tent scraps and other scavenged materials as tampons. The protest emphasized justice for mothers of victims of police crimes.

Rhiannon Moon from Voces Unidas talked about how the mass incarceration system takes money from much-needed social services, stating, “The police budget has doubled over ten years, and what are the results? We wait 17 minutes for emergency vehicles and police kill our neighbors.” The march was led by a banner calling for community control of the police.

The group then marched to Jeff Crank's office. Crank is a Republican senator who has called for attacks on any group thatdoesn’t support Trump's massive ICE raids. A speaker from No Small Act gave a speech on the generational fight for women's liberation, stating, “Our grandmothers fought for our reproductive health as a constitutional right. Roe was overturned in 2022 and since then maternal mortality rates have risen in states that have anti-choice litigation.”

The group marched back to the Pioneers Museum where speeches and chants resumed into the early evening.

#ColoradoSpringsCO #IWD #ICE #Trump #WomensRights #LGBTQ

Chicago, IL – 100 people attended the International Women’s Day celebration sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) in Chicago. The speakers, as well as the people in the room, were from the Black liberation movement – most notably the Chicago Alliance against Racist and Political Repression – labor unions, and anti-imperialist movements like the Filipino, Palestinian and Puerto Rican liberation movements, as well as electoral candidates and elected officials.

Christel Williams-Hayes, recording secretary of the Chicago Teachers Union, spoke on the important roles that women played in the 11-day Chicago Public School’s strike in October, and the struggle for a quality and just education for their working class, Black and Latino students. Williams-Hayes was followed by SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer, leader of the 8000 clerical workers, bus aides and janitors who joined CTU in the strike. Talking about this first ever SEIU strike in the schools, “We told our members that we couldn’t promise victory, but we could promise them the fight of their lives.”

Jazmine Salas of FRSO saluted the women across the world who are on the frontlines of all progressive movements and struggles. According to Sala, “If we want to discuss true women's liberation – not just shattering glass ceilings, but shattering the chains that bind all of us- we need to talk about smashing patriarchy, capitalism and white supremacy, and building a new political and economic system where women can live freely – and I’m talking about socialism.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #InternationalWomensDay #frso #IWD

Los Angeles, CA – On March 7, Centro CSO: Community Service Organization hosted a celebration of el Día Internacional de la Mujer (International Women’s Day), filled with poetry, singing and political discussion at the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library in Boyle Heights. This year’s event, the third that Centro CSO has put on, honored the women of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles who have fought back against the privatization of public education, police terror, sexism and transphobia.

Sol Marquez, a member of Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization, opened the event by explaining how International Women’s Day emerged in the 1900s out of the struggles of working-class women in New York City, Germany and the Soviet Union. She then connected International Women’s Day’s origins to current examples of patriarchy, including the election of Trump, recent laws banning abortion in certain parts of the U.S. and the #MeToo movement. Marquez asked the attendees at the event, “How many of you marched when Trump was inaugurated January 2016? We marched in the rain to protest him as U.S. president! And women again stood up in January of 2019 to participate in the UTLA strike.” She finished the introduction by reading from The Duty of Working Women in War-Time by Clara Zetkin, the German Marxist whose proposal led to the first International Women’s Day.

Chicana artist Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin read poems and excerpts from her memoir Mi Amor, about growing up on the Eastside of Los Angeles in a Mexican and indigenous family. She also spoke about her experiences at the mass protest against the Vietnam War – the Chicano Moratorium on August 29, 1970 – where she was beaten and sexually abused by two white police officers. Aparicio-Chamberlin then led a creative exercise, asking the crowd to reminisce together about the different spices and herbs their mothers and grandmothers used in their cooking. She closed with a poem about the femicides in Juarez made worse by the opening of maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Lupemar Torres, a Centro CSO and United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) member, moderated a panel that included Marquez, Rosario Bonilla (Centro CSO), Garfield High School senior Sam Garcia (East Los Angeles Women’s Center), Josefina Rizo (Centro CSO and Justice for Jose “Peruzzi” Mendez”), and Eloisa Galindo (Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización). Torres asked the panelists a series of questions: “What organization are you from and what do you do?” “Why is it important for you as a woman to fight back?” “What advice do you have for other women?”

Marquez detailed her activism as a member of FRSO in Tampa, Florida, which included campaigns against deportations and around the murder of Trayvon Martin. Since moving to Los Angeles, she’s fought for public education and organized families who’ve lost loved ones at the hands of LAPD and LA County Sheriffs. She also emphasized how FRSO places women in positions of leadership and highlighted the role of socialism in historically improving conditions for women, particularly in Venezuela and Cuba.

Rosario Bonilla, a Centro CSO and Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización member, talked about how she joined the struggle against charters after KIPP Promesa charter school attempted to open a new large school close to her son’s school in Boyle Heights. Centro CSO and other allied organizations fought back and won, as protests and Centro CSO’s lawsuit forced the KIPP corporation to cancel its plans. Bonilla told the crowd, “We are the voices of our children. We have to fight for the rights of our children.”

Sam Garcia described how their work as a youth organizer with ELAWC helped them regain their voice as a survivor of sexual assault. Josefina Rizo, whose 16-year-old son Jose Méndez was killed by LAPD in 2016, discussed how she went from attending Centro CSO meetings because of its support for her family’s case to now enjoying being an active member of the organization. Eloisa Galindo summarized the history of the Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización, explained her own process of learning about the impact of charters, and recognized the many parent activists involved with her group’s work.

Torres closed the event by highlighting the role of primarily women teachers in the UTLA strike on LAUSD in January 2019 and saying that all women, regardless of their personality and capacities, have a role to play in the movement.

#LosAngelesCA #InternationalWomensDay #BoyleHeights #California #LA #IWD

New York, NY – A crowd of over 100 protesters gathered in front of the Philippine General Consulate in New York City on March 8, in honor of International Women’s Day. The action, titled “Women Rise Up, Resist, & Unite!”, put focus on ending violence against women and children in the Philippines. This included opposing President Duterte’s wars on drugs and the poor, as well as his remarks approving of sexual violence against women.

Along with the Philippines, speakers represented other movements that have been led by women, including labor, immigrant rights, and political repression. There were speeches about the New York State Nurses Association strike, against Mayor de Blasio’s jail expansion plan, and about the political repression of women activists both nationally and internationally.

After rallying in front of the consulate, the crowd marched to Trump Tower, another symbol of a president who’s made sexist remarks and enacted harmful policies against women and trans people.

Michela Martinazzi, co-coordinator of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle Northeast, closed out the event by highlighting victories women have played a large role in and how we can move forward in fighting back against women’s oppression and U.S. imperialism.

“Right here in the United States, we saw teachers strike for better working conditions, we saw airport workers stop a government shutdown, and we saw activists right here in Queens kick Amazon out. Abroad, we see fighters who stand up to the onslaught of violence brought on by their own government, but also by the United States. Around the world, we see women and non-binary folks who continue to stand up – from Palestine, to Venezuela, to the Philippines!”

The action was organized by BAYAN USA, International Working Women’s Day Coalition, International Women’s Alliance, and Malaya Movement Northeast.

#NewYorkNY #PeoplesStruggles #IWD #WomensDay

Fight Back News Service is circulating the speech delivered by Rasmea Odeh at the Chicago celebration of International Women’s Day.

It is really powerful to speak with all of you as we celebrate International Women’s Day, originally called International Working Women’s Day, a day historically linked to the year 1908, when 15,000 factory working women organized a march that filled New York City’s streets demanding equality and other social rights such as shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights, and an end to child labor. A few years later, over 140 women died in a NY factory fire caused by horrible working conditions.

These events became symbols of the importance of women in the working class and national liberation movements for equal rights and independence, and the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in 1910 officially established March 8th as International Woman’s Day. Since then the world has witnessed a significant shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and liberation. Women are standing strongly for their rights in spite of the complex system of patriarchy that attempts to keep us down.

As long as we believe in ourselves and have confidence in the justice of our struggles, we will accomplish our hopes and dreams. First and foremost, this includes working hard to win women’s rights and to eliminate the disease of racism and national oppression against Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Black people, Latinos, Asians, and other people of color in this country. We can accomplish this by strongly standing together and dedicating our lives to these ideals, the same way women have dedicated their lives to the liberation of my homeland of Palestine.

Here we are! I have faced adversity, repression, and injustice since my arrest in October 2013. But I continued to stand up to these crimes against me, and I know that we will achieve justice in my case, because of the great legal work of my brilliant lead attorney Michael Deutsch and his team, because of the steadfast organizing of my defense committee, and because of the encouragement of my family and friends and all you supporters. You give me important strength and resilience. It’s not a secret to say that your support shifted the negative discourse in the case, and helped lead to our most recent victory in the decision of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals!

The story of our struggle for women’s rights, equality, and liberation belongs to no single person or any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about justice. We continue to find inspiration and strength from women across the U.S. and the world, and that inspiration and strength will help us achieve all our goals.

Lastly, we often leave our appreciation and gratitude unspoken. But today, on this exceptional occasion, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you. I send my special warm greetings to every one of you, especially the women on this, YOUR DAY. Be proud of yourselves and don’t be ashamed if you sometimes get emotional.

A strong woman is caring and tough, practical and spiritual, revolutionary and flexible. You are all of these, you are all powerful, and you hold up half the sky!

Have a wonderful International Women’s Day! I wish you all the best.

#ChicaoIL #Palestine #WomensMovement #PeoplesStruggles #InternationalWomensDay #PoliticalPrisoners #chicago #PoliticalRepression #RasmeaOdeh #Illinois #IWD