Women of Many Lands Advance

— Cause OF Progress

by Kayla Culhane

“Anrbody who knows anything of histery knows that great secial changes are
impossisle without the feminine ferment. Secial pregress can be measured exactly by
the sociai position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included).”

5

O wrote Karl Marx in 1868, referring to the great progress made at the National
Labor Congress in Baltimore, where among other things, it treated working women

with complete equality. The struggle for women’s emancipation is therefore an in-
tegral part of the fabric of social development.

In tracing the actual origin
of International Women’s Day,
we find it goes back to 1908 when
demonstrations took place of
working women and mothers in
the Hast side of New York. So
impressive were these demon-
strations that reports about them
created great enthusiasm at the
next International Socialist Gon-
gress in Europe.

A motion made by the late
Clara Zetkin, great German lead-
er, Was carried unanimously, and
the date, March 8, was designat-
ed as International Women’s
Day. It has now won recogni-

tion in every country in the
world.

Soe much for the historical
background.

Two recent congresses testify
more dramatically to the gains

that have been made — gains
which have been recorded in
blood.

The ist International Congress
of the Union of Italian Women
opened its sessions by saying a
mass for its heroine Martyrs, in
Milan last December. Formed
during the resistance against the
Germans, the Union Donne Ital_

iene (UDI)

now embraces a
membership of nearly half a
million.

One such martyr for whom
mass was being said was Gini
Bianchi, who was killed in street
fighting on the same day that
her husband was liberated after
eight years in jail for anti_fas-
cist activity. :

One of the delegates present
—a tiny, gentle-faced woman
Camilla Raverra, was of the
group who founded the Italian
Communist Party. In 1930 she
was arrested and imprisoned un-
til 1948, spending the last five
years in solitary confinement.

The women of Italy spoke most

of reconstruction of their coun-

AON TT

La Passionara

& 1937 Passionara appealed to her Sisters of
North America on behalf of her Nazi-despoiled
Spain;—“Women of America, listen to the heart-

beat of the people, who in Spain

dying for the freedom of all peoples . .
us with your solidarity, lend us your aid, help us to
. - “The victory of

vanquish our Fascist enemies” .
Spain over the forces of slavery

all of us a splendid road leading to the peaks of

justice and freedom”.

In her farewell tosthe Men of
Brigades

our rememberance.

are today fighting and dying”.

SUNT TT

f

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 2

in 19388, Passionaria said;—“You have
shed your blood generously on the soil of Spain,
Spain that is being redeemed for us and for you,
by winning it for freedom and democracy. Many of
your comrades sleep- the eternal sleep beneath the
earth of Spain. Over their graves shall yet wave
the laurels of triumph and the unfading flowers of
And tomorrow .
victorious tomorréw that is already dawning on the
horizon over Spain, we shall be able to repay the
debt of blood we owe you, by helping you to con-
quer for your respective peoples,
wellbeing and the liberty for which so many heroes

try and world peace. It is easy
to see the Italian women are es-
pecially determined not to allow
the forces of Anglo-American
reaction to impede them in their
anti-fascist progress.

Then there was the Interna-
tional Congress of Women, held
in Paris last November, where
women leaders in the social, cul-
tural and political life of 52 na_
tions met. Among their demands
Were “. - total extermination
of all Hitlerian leaders . . . for

Annie S. Buller, business man-
ager of the Canadian Tribune,
and known to thousands of Gan-
adian men and women for her
role in the Estevan strike and
Succeeding labor -struggles, who
will address a public meeting in
the Beacon Theatre, Sunday,
March 10, at 8 pm. Her sub-
ject will be “Monopoly Versus
Labor’s Post-war Aims.”

Organized in the form of a
concert meeting, the evening will
also be featured by orchestral,

vocal and dance numbers.

are fighting and
. Assist

- - - will open to

the International

-.on that

the peace, the

we all know that we shall never
be allowed to live in peace as
long as a trace of Nazism shall
endure.”

Qn this International Wom-
en’s Day—1946—when the score
of still another Fascist tyrant
appears to be ready for final
accounting, that of France, no
more fitting tribute can be made
than that we join with the en-
tire world in demanding the re-
turn to Spain of her political
exiles, to take part in the re-
building of their country.

And none who knows the story
of the heroic battles of 1936-39
can forget the part by Dolores
Ibarruri, Spain’s beloved ‘la
Pasionaria’ who cried aloud “It
is better to be the widow of a
hero than the wife of a coward.
No Pasaran.”

Tomorrow she must be in
Spain, free Spain, to which her
great life has been dedicated.

The names of the women of
many countries -are revered on
this International Women’s Day
for the part they have played in
leading and inspired their people
in the hope of a new and better
world.

Ella Reeve (Mother) Bloor of
America, who braved the Pack-
inghouse Trust half a century
ago, and gave Upton Sinclair the
horrors of immigrant life in Am-
erica’s giant packinghouses,
which is embodied in his great-
est book “The Jungle.”

The women of the USSR; the
unforgettable Krupskaya, wife
of Lenin, and the thousands of
heroines who have followed her,
on the battlefront and in the
building of a great new Social-
ist State.

The women of Canada, symbo-
lized in fighters like Annie Bul_
ler, Beckie Buhay, and scores of
others, who have battled on pic-
ket lines from Cape Breton to

of America’s veteran women fighters

in the history of

struggles.. Their long years of splendid efforts have won fer
the leve and respect of millions of workers.

B.C. for the right of mothers,
sisters and families to a fuller
life. ;
Here in Canada, we have ac-
complished much. But there is
still a long period ahead toe en-
sure women full citizenship in
our country, in industries, in
Trade Unions, in the professions.
And also to ensure to women the
right to be mothers without re-
linguishing all other rights.

Now that victory is wor
exercise of these broad Ek
rights must be next on
agenda. The struggle for fie
homes and security cannot * i
successful one unless it iny” j
every one of us.

So, on with the job. Our | y
ada should be a glorious fal
to live in, as part of the
democratic nations of the 1 pe

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