By VIVA FLOOD

N March 8, 1913, all members of a committee of women, in-
: cluding Lenin’s sister, were arrested in St. Petersburg for organ-
izing the first public demonstration in Russia of International Women’s
Day. On March 8, 1917, hundreds of women were shot down by

Zarist cossacks in the same city while they were marching in support

of strikers demanding peace,
land and bread, On, March 8,
1950, Anna Seregina, when she
tises in the Supreme Soviet, will
Speak on behalf, not only ofi her
fellow-workers in a textile mill,
but of all citizens, male and fe-
Male, of the USSR. These three
incidents, spread over 37 years,
are themselves an illustration of
the progress made by the women
Cf Russia from their struggle
against a subordinate position
under capitalism to the status
of full equality they enjoy under
SCcialism today.

International Women’s Day or-
iginated. in New York in 1908.
On March 8 of that year, Needle
Trades workers and other pro-
SY€ssive women, led by Mother
Bloor and Mrs. Hepburn (mother
of Katherine), marched in the
Streets demanding votes for
Women, In 1910 the International
Socialist Congress, acting on
Clara Zetkin’s proposal, . pro-
Claimed March 8 as International
Women's Day. Today it is mark-
2d in almost every country by
demonstrations ranging from
sMall illegal gatherings to vast
Public celebrations.

In 1945, women’s progressive
Movements from some 40 coun-
tries sent over 800 delegates, rep:
resenting 81 million women, to
& conference in Paris, where
they foundea the Women’s Inter-
national Democratic Federation.
It is pledged:

® “To defend the economic,

Political, legal and social rights
of women”;

® “To fight for measures ne-
Sessary to ensure the normal, de-
“elopment of our children and

the destiny of future genera-
tions”; |

ae “To fight relentlessly for
ie Stamping out of fascism in
all its forms, and the establish-

Ment of true democracy through-
out the world”;

‘Bk “To fight relentlessly for

© establishment of a lasting
Peace, which is the paramount
Suarantee of our own and our
children’s happiness.”

ee Canadian Congress of
‘f pte was founded in Toronto
ae 47 to carry on this work,
last November sent Mary
'tdash and Dorise Nielsen to

the WIDF conference in Mos-
cow.
8

The vital struggle for peace is
the keynote of this year’s cele-
bration. In Canada, we are con-
stantly subjected to a hysterical
barrage of warmongering prop-
aganda from government and big
business sources, attempting to
convince us that attack by Rus-
Sia is imminent,

To many people World War II
brought the first relative pros-
perity in years, and they are, in
danger of becoming blinded to
the fact that if World War III
materializes, the battleground
will be Canada. We on this con-
tinent have never experienced
war and can have little concep-
tion of the misery and horror
of .atomic and _ bacteriological
warfare, We have no inkling of
the fervent and militant desire
for peace in the hearts of the
peoples of Europe and Asia.

The task of progressive women
is to rouse in their sisters a real-
ization of the terrible danger if
the government is allowed to con-
tinue its present policies.

Canada is spending close to
one and a half million dollars a
day on war preparation. Our
uranium is shipped to the U.S.
at the give-away price of $3 a
pound. Our economy is being
warped by the Abbott plan. We
trade only on the basis of Amer-
jean dollars, exporting our raw
materials and paying through the
nose to buy them back finished
when they should be processed
here and exported to countries
anxious to take them.

Women workers have been the
first to lose their jobs in the
industries affected, and in the
home the housewives, struggling
to make ends meet at. today’s
high prices, know the hopeless-
ness of trying to stretch unem-
ployment insurance to cover even
minimum needs.

Our country could and should
be thriving, but instead _ we
scrimp and economize, thinking
in terms of the depression we
coming. In Canada the

can see :
fight for peace is the fight for
jobs.

eo

In Britain and Western Eur-

not want

another war

is far worse.
The people whose heroism won
the Battle of Britain work at

ope the situation

substandard wages producing
woollens, biscuits, exquisite china
and pottery, cars—‘“for export
only.”

They continue to live in drab,
cramped quarters, cheerlessly
furnished and often cold, dress

shabbily, and eat monotonous
meals.
Workers in the French and

Italian film industries are idle
because ERP terms insist that
these countries must use a quota
of Hollywood mevies. American
macaroni, Olive oil, tobacco, tex-
tiles, as well as Coca-Cola and
other non-essentials, crowd the
local products off. the shelves,
causing widespread unemploy-
ment and hardship.

While nothing is done to get
production rolling again, the peo-
ple can see the Ruhr war plants
being built up and former Nazis
and. fascists back in influential
positions.

‘But the people of Europe have
been through too much to sit
idly by in the face of depression
and the return to fascism and
war.

In France, one government af-
ter another is defeated in the
attempt to force through policies
dictated by American imperial-
ism, Only by using troops have
they been able to unload any
of the arms from the U.S. be-
cause the people know they are
destined to be used against
themselves or against the fight-

ers for national liberation in

Vietnam.

De Gasperi’s American puppet
government -of Italy has used
soldiers to shoot down the
strikers, the landless peasants of
the south trying to redistribute
the large estates. In the face
of extreme police terror large
numbers of women have joined
and helped organize the land-
seizure movement.

In Greece, virtually under
American occupation, thousands
of women joined the guerillas
to fight side by side with their
men. Many now languish in con-
centration camps. Millions slow-
ly starve and watch their chil-
dren waste away, because Amer-
ican imperialism is determined
at all costs to retain Greece as
a base for war.

Ss

A contrasting picture is the
life of women in the Soviet Un-
ion, the New Democracies, and
People’s China,

In all socialist countries wom-
en’s political and  economio
rights are guaranteed by law.
Thirty-two years has been more
than enough to make emancipa-
tion not just a talking-point but
a fact in the Soviet Union. Wom-
en have been educated and en-
couraged to participate in gov-
ernment and production. Wide-
spread provision of expert child
care has made it possible for
the vast majority of women to
work.

Women are employed in every
field, not just those traditionally
left to women, such as nursing

and teaching, nor yet confined
to unskilled farm and factory
jobs, but serving professionally
as doctors, engineers, scientists,
industrial managers and so on.
They receive equal pay with men‘
and many other benefits.

By 1945 one-third of all dep-
uties in lower government bodies,
and one-sixth in the Supreme So-
viet, were women. (But not one
woman sits in the Canadian
House of Commons.)

The women of Poland, Czecho-
siovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ru-
mania and China are setting
their feet in the same path.
Land distribution and full-scale
production are accompanied by
literacy campaigns, free medical
care, equal pay for equal work,
day nurseries, technical training
for women—all the prerequisites
of true emancipation,

Before -these women stretches
a future of hard work and pri-
vation (made harder by our re-

fusal to trade with them). But
they face it with courage and
confidence because they are

building security for their chil-
dren,

To the peoples of Europe and
Asia, the idea of another war is
simply unthinkable. They rally
to the peace movement in mil-
lions. There can be no weaken-
ing of their determination to im-
pose peace, for they have ex-
perienced war.

Canadian delegates to confer-
ences of WIDF return filled with
enthusiasm and admiration for
the wonderful women they have
met.

The president of the WIDF is
@ French scientist, Eugenie Cot-
ton. Also prominent are Marie-
Claude Vaillant-Couturiers, a
French deputy, and the famous
scientist, Irene Joliot-Curie, They
all served in ‘the underground.
Another is Dolores Ibarruti (La
Passionaria) the Spanish repub-
lican leader who now lives in
exile.

e

Canadian women must know
that when they organize their
Own activities for peace there
are millions of women in other
countries working to the same
end. We do not know the hor-
tors of bombs falling on our
homes—as assuredly we shall
know them if a third world war
doés come. But we do know what
war does to families: We do
know the grief of the casualty
list,

It is for all of us to determine,
as we celebrate this International
Women's Day, that we shall
make our -personal contribution
to their struggle which virtually
affects every one of our lives—
the struggle for a peaceful world
in which to raise our children
and ensure their future. Desire
for peace is not enough. Peace

must be fought for. It can be
won,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 3, 1950 — PAGE 5