This year’s International Women’s Day march in London included calls for a women’s strike from groups who want to reclaim the radical history of the March 8th event.
March the 8th 1917 is the date when – in the Gregorian calendar – Russian textile workers in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) came out on strike in a demonstration that marked the beginning of the February Revolution.
Some claim that on the same date in 1857 textile workers in New York also came out on strike, though evidence for this is disputed.
The date however, and the principle of women’s need to strike for their rights, inspires International Women’s Day. In the UK this year’s strike faction included representatives from the My Mum is on Strike movement.
