8 MAC: HARI MEMPERINGATI PERJUANGAN WANITA UNTUK HAK YANG SAKSAMA

2013 – sudah masuk tahun yang ke-102 kita meraikan Hari Wanita Sedunia tetapi penindasan terhadap wanita terutamanya daripada kelas pekerja terus berleluasa. Keraian ini adalah satu penghormatan dan dukungan terhadap kaum wanita yang tidak pernah berhenti berjuang untuk persamaan hak, keadilan dan peluang yang lebih baik dalam kehidupan mereka. Tarikh 8 Mac diambil kerana sebetulnya 156 tahun yang lalu pada tanggal ini, satu mogok besar-besaran telah diadakan oleh ratusan wanita yang menjadi buruh di kilang kain dan pakaian di bandar New York. Mereka bermogok untuk menentang kezaliman dan penganiayaan yang dilakukan oleh golongan kapitalis yang mengeksploitasi mereka dengan cara masa kerja yang panjang namun diberi upah yang amat rendah serta terpaksa pula bekerja dalam kondisi yang tidak berperikemanusiaan. 

MARCH 8TH: THE DAY OF INTERNATIONAL WORKING WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY

Beware the anger of women against the bosses’ system!

For over a hundred years, March 8th has been the day on which to commemorate the great struggles of working women for a better deal at work and in society. It is also the day to celebrate the contribution of women – some famous, many unknown - in the fight against oppression and for socialism.

It is traditional on this day to remember the early strikes of textile workers in America, of ’match-girls’ in England and of the working women of St Petersburg whose strike on International Women’s Day, 1917, set off the revolution that overthrew Tsarist dictatorship in Russia. There are also the great socialist fighters to remember – Rosa Luxembourg, murdered on the orders of Social Democrat leaders in Germany, Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontai. There are workers’ leaders like Mother Jones in the US who inspired mineworkers and their wives to fight the bosses without stint. This year is the centenary of the birth of Rosa Parks - the black woman in the racially segregated south of the US, whose courage in refusing to give up her seat in a Montgomery bus to a white person inspired a generation of civil rights activists.

HUGO CHAVEZ DIES...THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Millions of Venezuelan workers, the poor and youth will mourn the death of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez

In an era when the gap between establishment politicians, who defend big business and the super-rich, and the masses seems to widen inexorably Chavez stood out. In fact in the age of austerity the measures he took to alleviate poverty stood out like a beacon. The workers and youth in Venezuela will be joined by many around the globe who have been inspired to support Hugo Chavez’s regime as offering an alternative to imperialism, neoliberalism and capitalism.

Meanwhile the most pernicious right-wing capitalist commentators have wasted neither time nor ink in their outpourings of hatred of his regime.The mourning of his passing and anger at these attacks must be channelled into a new stage of working class struggle for socialism in Venezuela and internationally.