Vi ee en Pacific Tribune Supplement International Women’s Day MARCH 8 By COSTANZA ALLEVATO n 1910 at the Second Internation:' ' Conference of Socialist Women, Clara Zetkin, a pioneer in the strug- gle for peace and women’s rights, pro- posed to observe an annual women’s day as a uniform international action which would help to incorporate work- ing women in the struggle forfundamen- tal democratic rights, national indepen- dence, social progress and world peace. In 1985 at the 75th anniversary cele- bration of International Women’s Day in Toronto, Angela Davis noted that the universal cry on IWD was for peace, “Women united have a mighty power to stop war. Let the voice of women be heard’’. This year’s celebrations take place during the United Nation’s Year of Peace. The women’s movement for equality is predominantly pro peace. The strug- gle to win equal pay for work of equal value, affirmative action programs, free quality child care services, full employment and affordable housing are all interconnected with the struggle for peace and against the arms race. Federal budget expenditures allo- cated for the arms budget directly com- te with social service funds. Cur- to Canada’s war budget. Studies have — shown that military investments create fewer jobs than civilian investments, thereby creating a net loss in jobs. Poverty and Unemployment A Nov. 1985 study by the National Council of Welfare revealed that one in six Canadians lives in poverty, with 45.8 per cent of single women living below ‘the poverty-line: Most. of this poverty is employment related, accord- ing to Federal Labor Department statis- tics, 200,000 full-time ‘‘female jobs”’ were lost in 1982-83. The jobless rate for young women is 12 per cent and women still only earn 60 per cent of men’s wages. The Conservative government is pursuing a policy of ‘‘free trade’’ with the United States, which according to the labor movement will result in the loss of at least 270,000 additional jobs in Ontario alone. Free trade will inevit- ably jeopardize Canada’s social service system on which many women are forced to depend in order to survive. Mulroney’s policy of economic and military integration with the United States is further seen in the renewal and installation of a North Warning System. Atacost of $1.5-billion, it is an essential component of Star Wars. At last May’s general meeting of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, delegates unanim- ously adopted a resolution condemning U.S. Star Wars plans and welcomed peace initiatives of Soviet leader Mikhail* Gorbachev * announcing a moratorium on deployment of medium range missiles in Europe. In addition, Canadian women and their organi- zations were active participants in the founding conference of the Canadian Peace Alliance. In June 1985, over 350 women from 33 countries met in Halifax to condemn militarism as a source of poverty, rep- _Tession, torture and death, The con-. ference — Women’s Alternatives for Negotiating Peace — endorsed a state- ment demanding that: Canada un- equivocally refuse to participate in Star Wars, annul the Cruise testing agree- ment with the U.S., Canada be de- clared a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone, Canada pressure the U.S. to pledge never to be the first to use nuclear weapons..and that the Canadian -Government cut the military budget by 50 per cent. The results of this con- ference ware taken to the UN End of the Decade Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Nairobi Conference In Nairobi, 14,000 women from WOMEN HOLD BACK THE HANDS OF WAR around the world came together at the Non-Governmental Organizations’ Forum/85 to assess the Decade and the work around its theme — Equality, Development and Peace. A ‘peace tent’ was set up where women from the Soviet Union and the United States dia- logued on the question of world peace. Later at the UN World Conference, or- ganized by governmental bodies, dele- gates adopted a document entitled Fu- ture Strategies. Despite its short falls, the document enunciated the major ob- stacles to the improvement of the status of women as ‘“‘the continuing arms race, which may now spread to outer space”’ and ‘‘imperialism, colonialism, The history of Intemational Women’s Day neo-colonialism, expansionism, apart- heid, exploitation, policies of force and all manifestations of foreign occupa- tion, domination and hegemony’”’. It was also pointed out in Nairobi that the arms race poses a threat to human- kind, but its consequences are worst in the developing world. Monies that could be used to end hunger and disease are instead, used to prop up U.S. mili- tary puppets. But the peoples, and in particular the women, of these countries are fighting back. Their increased militancy and remarkable courage is receiving solidarity from women in Canada who are conscious of the fact that the true emancipation of women depends on the toppling of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the elimination of the U.S. threat against Nicaragua, the right of El Salvador to determine its own so- cial, political and economic destiny and the recognition of the rights of the bly linked with the development of the struggle of women workers against the dual exploitation to which they were T* emergence of International Women’s Day is insepara- subjected as workers and as women, for social justice, against militarism and imperialist war, for peace, democracy and so- cial progress, for women’s equality. International Women’s Day was born on August 26, 1910, out of the experiences of the first big women’s struggles, including: 0 the first women’s demonstration on March 8, 1857, when women of the needle trades in New York demanded better working conditions and the right to vote; 0 the participation of tens of thousands of French women fighting on the barricades during the days of the Paris Commune in 1871; 0 the first International Women’s Conference against war in Den Haag, 1899; 0 the growing number of women in the trade unions in Ger- many (in 1907 there were 120,000 women in the trade unions and 10,000 women were organized in 94 educational societies); O the participation of tens of thousands of Russian women workers in the strikes against Tsarism in 1905 to 1907. The Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen, on a motion from’ Clara Zetkin, resolved to “observe an annual women’s day as a uniform inter- national action” as a new way of struggling to incorporate masses of working women in the international struggle for fundamental democratic rights, peace, national in- dependence and social progress. In the spring of 1921, on a motion from Bulgarian women, the International Women’s Secretariat of the Communist International chaired by Clara Zetkin resolved to celebrate International Women’s Day from then on uniformly on March 8. The goal of Clara Zetkin and the other founders to draw large numbers of women, through intensive day-to-day work, into the struggle for their rights, which is closely linked with the general struggle of their peoples for social progress and world peace, has been achieved. What started as women’s day of struggle in only a few European countries united women from ever more countries of Europe as well as Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America and Australia from year to year. The millions of women and mothers from many countries who had fought against fascism and war, came together in the Women’s International Democratic Federation in Paris on December 1, 1945 to work together in an organized manner for the protection of children, for their rights, in defence of peace, for democracy, national independence and social progress have carried on the tradition of International Women’s Day and spread its ideal around the earth. Palestinian people to their own home- land. Without peace, without people’s right to choose, themselves, their own way to development, the rights of women and children cannot be realized. It is in this spirit of peace and solidarity that the women of Canada will be calling on the Canadian govern- ment to develop an independent foreign policy of peace and detente. International Women’s Day Supplement to the Pacific Tribune 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C., V5K 1Z5 251-1186 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 5, 1986 e 7 ini ili 3 Ff