I have read that IWD is actually a labour memorial day dedicated to the struggles and activities of women workers around the globe. But there is a dispute over where and when it started.

One take is that it started in 1911 to commemorate the deaths of over 200 female workers in a shirt factory in either Massachusetts or Michigan.

Another take is that it started much earlier from the mass strikes by mostly female textile workers in New England in the 1850s.

Still another take is that it originated in Europe proclaimed by the Socialist International in the 1890s to honour similar efforts by female textile workers.

The fire that killed women working in the garment industry in New York City in 1911 was the famous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, and it is worth following the links to that horrifying if historically galvanizing outrage.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
The Triangle Factory Fire

Read and weep.

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Exactly. So tragic that it took these completely avoidable deaths to finally get safer more humane conditions for workers in the garment district and elsewhere. And it made the ILGWU a force from that point on.

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"Around the world, International Women's Day (IWD) marks a celebration of the economic, social, cultural and political achievements for women.

The first IWD was held on 19 March 1911 in Germany, Austria, Denmark and further European countries. German women selected this date because in 1848 the Prussian king had promised the vote for women. Subsequently over one million leaflets calling for action on the right to vote were distributed throughout Germany before IWD in 1911.

Now IWD is always celebrated on 8 March and is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. Women in every country, often divided by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate this important date that represents equality, justice, peace and development."

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"On May 10, 1993, 188 workers died and 500 were injured in the world's worst ever factory fire at Kadar Industrial Toy Company in Thailand. A government inquiry found that faulty building design, lack of fire exits and poor safety exits meant that workers couldn't escape in time. The main exit of the building was locked, and there were no fire alarms or extinguishers. Kadar's principal investor was one of Asia's largest toy contractors, its most famous products being Bart Simpson and Cabbage Patch dolls".

Here are some poems about the Triangle fire
http://poetrysuperhighway.com/ppa6.html
Julia Stein - Triangle Fire

and by the great "sweatshop poet" Morris Rosenfeld (who usually wrote in Yiddish):

All of the groups, movements & dates cited above have validity--close study of the history reveals that usually some tie of ideas & persons influenced the others.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
The Triangle Factory Fire

Read and weep.

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http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5479.html

Poet Morris Rosenfeld, known as the “poet laureate of the slum and the sweatshop,” penned this memorial to the victims four days after the fire. The Jewish Daily Forward printed the poem down the full length of its front page.
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Neither battle nor fiendish pogrom

Fills this great city with sorrow;

Nor does the earth shudder or lightning rend the heavens,

No clouds darken, no cannon’s roar shatters the air.

Only hell’s fire engulfs these slave stalls

And Mammon devours our sons and daughters.

Wrapt in scarlet flames, they drop to death from his maw

And death receives them all.

Sisters mine, oh my sisters; brethren

Hear my sorrow:

See where the dead are hidden in dark corners,

Where life is choked from those who labor.

Oh, woe is me, and woe is to the world

On this Sabbath

When an avalanche of red blood and fire

Pours forth from the god of gold on high

As now my tears stream forth unceasingly.

Damned be the rich!

Damned be the system!

Damned be the world!

Over whom shall we weep first?

Over the burned ones?

Over those beyond recognition?

Over those who have been crippled?

Or driven senseless?

Or smashed?

I weep for them all.

Now let us light the holy candles

And mark the sorrow

Of Jewish masses in darkness and poverty.

This is our funeral,

These our graves,

Our children,

The beautiful, beautiful flowers destroyed,

Our lovely ones burned,

Their ashes buried under a mountain of caskets.

There will come a time

When your time will end, you golden princes. Meanwhile,

Let this haunt your consciences:

Let the burning building, our daughters in flame Be the nightmare that destroys your sleep,

The poison that embitters your lives,

The horror that kills your joy.

And in the midst of celebrations for your children,

May you be struck blind with fear over the Memory of this red avalanche

Until time erases you.

She & women like her constitute the reasons for International Women's Day, Women's History Month & Women's History programs.

Extra credit to the person who can identify her date & place of death.

Edmonds is an important illustration between the links between the Abolitionist movement - in the US, Britain and elsewhere - and the first wave feminist movement (although there is a still earlier wave linked to the French revolution ... and its largely unfulfilled promises for women as citizens).

I didn't know Belva ... Lockwood, was it?, the legal pioneer.

[ 08 March 2005: Message edited by: lagatta ]

I did remember Sarah Edmonds as a woman who had an interesting career as a cross-dresser. But the rest I had to google.

Born December 1841 in York County [?], New Brunswick, she had run away from home and fetched up in Michigan at the time of the U.S. Civil War, whereupon "she enlisted as a private in the Second Michigan Infantry in Detroit on May 25, 1861 as Frank Thompson--in a volunteer infantry company in Flint that became Company F. Her disguise was a complete success for nearly 2 years."

And would this be the Belva?

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In 1879, Belva Lockwood became the first woman to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to become a member of the Supreme Court.

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Sarah Edmonds Seelye died September 5, 1898, in La Porte Texas. She is buried in Washington Cemetery, Houston Texas, in lot G-26. This is a GAR lot that belonged to George B. McClellan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

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Sarah Emma Edmonds was one of many women who served cross-dressed on both sides in the War of Rebellion [oops--are my Yankee roots showing??] and the ONLY woman to belong to the Grand Army of the Republic, the gigantic Union veterans group, after the war.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
belva, I'm 75 per cent cheating.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
There is an old copy of her autobiography http://womenshistory.about.com/library/pic/bl_p_civil_war_nurse_edmonds.htm in the Osler library of the history of medicine at McGill University in Montréal.

Edmonds is an important illustration between the links between the Abolitionist movement - in the US, Britain and elsewhere - and the first wave feminist movement (although there is a still earlier wave linked to the French revolution ... and its largely unfulfilled promises for women as citizens).
[ 08 March 2005: Message edited by: lagatta ]

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The book is a treat--I borrowed a copy years ago through inter-library loan--great reading, 19th century style.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Belva, first a question from up here. Where and what is la maison Parent-Roback and whom is it named for?

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Originally posted by venus_man:
I recall back in the school days, in the USSR, we would bring all kinds of gifts for girls on this day.

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Actually, maybe if folks could remind me as well, there were a couple of well-respected Canadian women from that same era who helped the Quakers run the underground railroad, smuggling slaves out of the US to freedom (relatively that is) in Canada. Anyone remember their names, because I don't.

As to the articles posted by skadadl, yes, very informative, and very tragic. But even more tragic, I think, is that disasters like the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in 1911 still seem to be going today in various parts of the world.

I remember reading I believe about four years ago a fire in a plant in China, were hundreds of men, women and children died because of poor safety practices and because they were locked inside.

As for IWD itself, I remember when I was just a young-un, my grandmother, who was active in the old mineworkers ladies auxiliary, talking about "Il giorno delle donne lavoratrice" (Italian for "Day of the Women Workers"). She always said that day wasn't just for women, but for everybody, since there was no way that male workers organizing without female support could ever establish a truly free society. She had little formal education and could barely speak English, but she had a lot of insight.

Anyone remember this old tune:

As we come marching marching
In the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens
A thousand mill lofts gray

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Belva, first a question from up here. Where and what is la maison Parent-Roback and whom is it named for?

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Thank you for the discovery of Lea Roback--what a story! All the seach materials which I located are in French (with translations which did not seem linguistically accurate, 'tho my French is weak!) Is there a detailed biography of her?

I note that she died in August, 2000. I hope that someone recorded an oral/cinematic history before her passing. Did you know her, lagatta?

Days like today & discussions such as this prompt me to study more. They also remind me of how much we must teach our children & grand-children. Stories of women such as Lea Roback & Belva Lockwood are much more important than those of "captains of industry" [mostly all male] and "brilliant generals" [mostly all male].

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Originally posted by Ethical Redneck:

As we come marching marching
In the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens
A thousand mill lofts gray

Are touched with all the radiance
That a sudden sun discloses
As the people hear us singing
Give us Bread and Give Us Roses.

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Both were/are fluent in both French and English (I believe Léa spoke Yiddish, Polish and perhaps German as well). You may find Léa's first name spelled as Leah - she was from Québec City which is why it is usually transcribed in the French spelling.

There is a National Film Board film about Roback - it is available in both languages. I'll try to find more details. There is also a book of interviews with both women, but I don't think it has been translated into English.
You'll find more info in both languages on the Fondation Léa-Roback website: http://www.fondationlearoback.org/accueil.htm

La Maison Parent-Roback is an old stone building in Old Montréal which houses several women's groups and feminist meetings and activities. I presume that when Judes' book is launched here it will take place there.

[ 08 March 2005: Message edited by: lagatta ]

Some years ago, when I was admitted to the Supreme Court, I went to her grave in Washington & placed flowers there in thanksgiving.

Has anyone else seen Midge MacKenzie's brilliant BBC series of that name and on that struggle (originally made in 1974, I think, rebroadcast on PBS in 1975, and then occasionally since -- I first saw it in the late eighties, I think)?

I have been looking for the lyrics to the song that played over the credits to that series, which I am assuming was a song of the time, "Shoulder to Shoulder." It is gorgeous and stirring, especially once you know exactly how much those women went through in that long and agonized battle simply to get the vote. (Alas, the lyrics just don't seem to be online.)

The series focuses partly on the Pankhursts, of course, mother and daughters, but also brings to life a long line of amazingly brave women who risked their lives for years merely protesting, went to prison, suffered force-feeding (which in those days could easily kill people) during their hunger strikes -- all to win the vote.

I so wish that wonderful series were available on video (can't find that, either). Once seen, never forgotten. Here's to the suffragettes!

[ 08 March 2005: Message edited by: skdadl ]