By Maureen Werlin, OPEIU 458

On March 8th, ninety-two years ago, hundreds of women streamed out of the garment factories in New York’s Lower East Side. They probably had no idea of the historical significance of their actions – that it would give birth to International Women’s Day – a day when people around the world rededicate themselves to the struggle waged by women for economic and social equality.

The mixture of militancy and desperation shown by those women was spawned in the hunger, humiliation and squalor of the sweatshops and tenements, which marked their lives. With their feet on the pavement they faced a future piloting in an era where unions would be formed, pay and working conditions improved and political gains won.

The women who marched on this first IWD would have been proud to see what their daughters and granddaughters have achieved. They have taken their banner to a new level, demanding affirmative action, equal pay for work of equal value, free, universal child care and equality in the family and society. Women are formidable voices in the debates to save Medicare, maintain our social safety programs, eradicate poverty and eliminate violence in our society.

True the women of today press for these goals against forces just as reactionary as those who exploited their grandmothers. They are still, for the most part, paid less than men for doing work of equal worth, gains made through hard struggles are under attack, the worries of feeding, clothing and housing their families remain. Women face the constant worry of job loss in an era of technology and little is being done to ensure women are adequately retrained.

But this is not a battle fought in isolation. Women have taken their rightful places in the labour, peace, solidarity, immigrant, senior and youth movements – they have raised the call for a new kind of society – one where full employment, equality and justice prevail. They have joined hands with their sisters around the world in the demand of a world at peace. They have lent their solidarity to women fighting against oppressive regimes and dictatorships.

The women who rallied in 1908 couldn’t have known what was to come for their descendants. But in their unity and strength, they must have felt what will forever remain true – that the rest of the working class was destined to go nowhere without them.