And the Women Rose-Up: The Voices of Protest on International Working Womens Day 2018
The International Womens Strike is a global movement launched last year to draw attention to the exploitation and mistreatment of women within capitalist and patriarchal structures and this year its call to strike, in New York brought hundreds of women to the famed protest venue, Washington Square Park, before a scheduled march to document severe mistreatment and economic and social exploitation faced by themselves and by their communities. Speakers expressed solidarity with teachers in West Virginia who recently won a wildcat strike (a strike without the approval of union leadership) as the state legislature voted for pay raises. Teachers are now on the verge of striking in Oklahoma. As noted, the vast majority of teachers, in West Virginia and elsewhere, are women, with women making up 75% of the public school teacher workforce in New York City. Speakers expressed solidarity with their sister workers of the world raising up that strikers in Spain for example shut down the country with a 6 million strong strike group walking out and taking to the streets and noted the stoppage of transportation in Italy, and a large womens march in Kabul, proving Afghan women do not need to be saved. Nga Bui, a member of the Freedom Socialist Party, which was present to campaign for an elected Civilian Complaint Review Board, said that despite the seemingly disparate objectives many speakers voiced, they all had a common thread, on the surface, it may seem like its different ideas, but its ultimately about anti-capitalism and talking about the exploitation of womens labor. So thats where its all tied together and thats where all the different causes come together. And, Building Bridges was there to capture the event and brings you the highlights of the causes represented on stage that were all were threaded together by anti-capitalist sentiment, from abortion rights to Palestinian freedom to criminal justice reform and the rights of New York City street vendors.
produced by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash
please notify us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org