INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY has a rich and lively tradition in the history of women's struggle for freedom and liberation.
LEONORA LLOYD explains the origins and importance of 8 March for women the world over.
American women socialists organised the first ever 'Women's Day' on 28 February 1907 to demand political rights for working women.
But it was not until the anniversary of an uprising of the Prussian proletariat on 19 March 1911 that the first International Women's Day celebration took place.
It was proposed by Clara Zetkin at the second International Conference of Working Women in 1910, and she suggested that it should be an annual celebration.
Spark
In 1913 the date was changed to 8 March which was the anniversary of an important strike by women textile workers in New York in the 1880's. It has remained on this day ever since.
The spark that ignited the Russian revolution was lit by working women in Petrograd in 1917. They were determined to celebrate as usual on 8 March (23 February under the old Russian calendar). But the social democrats (the revolutionaries) felt that the time was not right for strikes.
At the time the city was in ferment and they knew that a strike would lead to open revolt, which the workers were not well enough prepared for.
Women textile workers, however, went on strike and called on the metal workers for support. This event led to the February revolution and from there to the famous October revolution of 1917.
The communist countries continue to celebrate International Women's Day, but in a style more reminiscent of Mother's Day in the West than of the militant traditions of the early years.
In the early 1970's the women's movement again began to organise around 8 March, celebrating our growing strength and our understanding of the importance of international links.
Today those links have become much stronger through such struggles as the fight for abortion rights and the growth of the peace movement, both led by women.
This year women have leapt into the news as the most committed and militant campaigners against nuclear weapons. The peace camps at Greenham Common and other US military bases have been the focus of a growing movement to stop the missiles in 1983.
1984 will see the first international conference of the International Contraception, Abortion and Sterilisation Campaign (ICASC) in Mexico, just a few months before the population control agencies hold a conference there.
And in 1985 there will be a conference in Nairobi to mark the end of the United Nations Decade of Women, when governments will put on record the advances made in the position of women.
We know that any such gains will have been made despite governments and not because of them. Gains have and will be won by women fighting in their homes, in hospitals, schools, factories, offices and on the streets.
We must continue to fight against attempts to stop us controlling our bodies, to force us back into the home and to turn the clock back — as the present Tory Government would have it — to the days when we started to celebrate International Women's Day.
The need for a strong international movement has never been greater. We have an honourable history to build on. The events planned all over the world around 8 March give us the chance to celebrate and to gain strength together to carry on our struggle.
(Leonora Lloyd is a member of Acton Labour Party Women's Section, the National Abortion Campaign steering committee and ICASC).