Portside

1. This Year’s International Women’s Day
2. IWD Call for Myanmar
3. France Enshrines Abortion Rights
4. Against Femicide in Kenya
5. Women in the UK Cleaning Industry
6. Argentina: Women Strike Against Inflation
7. The Movements in Pakistan
8. Ukraine’s Feminist Workshop
9. India: IWD Meets the Farmers’ Protest
10. Women’s Rights and Marx’s International

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This Year’s International Women’s Day

Associated Press (New York)

Women around the globe marked International Women’s Day on Friday, taking part in strikes, marches and demonstrations that underscored efforts to combat discrimination and accelerate the drive for gender parity. The story was summed up by a banner unfurled on the streets of Pamplona, in northern Spain. “So much has been achieved,” it said. “There is so much to achieve.”

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IWD Call for Myanmar

Women's Peace Network / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (Paris)

Over three years since its attempted coup, the Burmese military continues to commit atrocities in an attempt to expand and reinforce its unlawful and illegal control over the country. The military continues to use foreign-funded arms supplies and airstrikes to kill civilians and destroy civilian objects – murdering at least 822 women. 

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France Enshrines Abortion Rights

Editors / Le Monde (Paris)

A few days before International Women’s Rights Day on March 8, women's freedom to control their own bodies should be anchored in French law. It also comes at a time when abortion, once thought to be a widely accepted procedure, is being undermined in a number of democracies, most notably the United States.

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Against Femicide in Kenya

Jacqueline Kubania / Truthdig (Santa Monica)

A grassroots movement for change from organizing across Kenya. The Valentine’s Day vigil followed rallies in 10 provinces overseen by End Femicide Movement Ke [Kenya]. Organizers note that murder is only the most extreme form of gender violence plaguing the country and have called for wide-ranging legal and social reforms to better protect women.

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Women in the UK Cleaning Industry

Ana Aguirre / Red Pepper (London)

The Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union represents workers at the sharp end of oppression and exploitation: our 1,900 members are predominantly migrant workers largely from Latin American backgrounds, and almost entirely employed under various outsourcing arrangements within London’s cleaning industry – composed disproportionately of women.

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Argentina: Women Strike Against Inflation

Angelina de los Santos / openDemocracy (London)

Argentinian women took to the streets nationwide on International Women’s Day, as part of a feminist strike calling for an end to the country’s growing poverty. The protesters’ “most important demand” is a solution to Argentina’s “food emergency”, said an activist from La Poderosa, a group that defends the rights of the five million people living in the country’s 6,500 villas miseria (misery villages).

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The Movements in Pakistan

Asma Aamir / Capire

Young feminists face death, rape and acid throwing threats, while they exercise their constitutional right to assembly and right to freedom of speech. Raising a slogan has troubled and distressed the patriarchal mindset in Pakistan. Women are facing opposition, but we follow our march on the streets, in connection with the International Women’s Struggle Day and other agendas.

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Ukraine’s Feminist Workshop

Municipio Zero (Bologna)

It appears that feminist practices and the feminist movement are gaining momentum in Ukraine, potentially becoming more mainstream. Previously, Ukrainian women tended to look towards the West or Russian feminism. The invasion seems to have shifted the focus back to the local context, with Ukrainian feminists becoming figures of influence, even gaining attention from media and influencers. 

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India: IWD Meets the Farmers’ Protest

Kaisar Andrabi / South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Baljeet Kaur, a farmer from Punjab, led a group of 200 women to join the ongoing farmers’ protest in India on International Women’s Day. “If today, people across the globe are celebrating Women’s Day, I joined our ongoing protest to convey a message that bolsters our legitimate struggle for the welfare of thousands of women farmers who toil on farms, enduring sunburns to sustain their livelihoods.” 

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Women’s Rights and Marx’s International

Laurent Ripart / Verso (London)

The minutes of the conference of the First International, held from 16 to 23 September 1871, record an instructive debate on the possibility of creating women’s sections within the International. Marx invoked the Paris Commune, where women’s organisations had played a fundamental role. These committees defended the Commune while advancing their own social and political demands.