Kerala : CPIM Campaign against Price rice from today

CPIM cadres and supporters in Kerala will be picketing central government offices at Taluk level from today onwards till 12 th March. Around 2 lakh voulenters will be participating in the struggle in each district. This campaign will give a clarion call against the anti people policies taken by the central government. As part of the campaign various jathas have concluded its journey around the state.

100 Years On and the Struggle Continues

G Mamatha

EVERY day, we hear about the horrors women endure, we shake our heads, forward e-mails, light candles and send solidarity messages. We feel that these are aberrations because most of us feel that 'women never had it so good'. And why not -- it's a feel-good illusion. We cry and laugh; we work and take care of our children; we watch President Pratibha Patil, Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and now Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament Sushma Swaraj proudly and sigh with relief, believing we've come so far.

Not only just in politics, even look at the world of finance. In New York and London, women remain scarce among top bankers despite decades of struggle to climb the corporate ladder. But in India’s relatively young financial industry, women not only are some of the top deal makers, they are often running the show. HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Fidelity International in India are run by women. So is the country’s second-biggest bank, ICICI Bank, and its third-largest, Axis Bank. Women head investment banking operations at Kotak Mahindra and JP Morgan Chase and the equities division of ICICI. Half of the deputy governors at the Reserve Bank of India are women. So women in India are 'shining'!

But is it a reality? Or are we basking in a 'women power' moment that doesn't exist – a mirage of equality that we've been duped into believing is the real thing by the media and the ruling classes in the society.

Because despite the indisputable gains over the years, women are still being discriminated against, harassed, raped, trafficked and violated. And though women's movement continues to fight gender injustices, most people seem to think that outside of a few lingering battles, the work of the women's movement is done. It's time to stop fooling ourselves. For all our 'empowered' rhetoric, women in this country aren't doing nearly as well as we'd like to think.

 STATISTICS ON WOMEN'S CONDITIONS

India is ranked 113 out of the 130 countries on the Gender Gap Index 2008 . Although women represent half or more of the work force in many countries, in the European Union, 9.7 per cent of the board members at the top 300 companies were women in 2008. In the United States, roughly 15 per cent of the board members of the Fortune 500 companies are women, while at the top of Asian companies, women remain scarce: In India, they hold roughly 5 per cent of board seats.

In 2007, the year for which latest data is available from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), seven of the 10 fastest rising crimes in India were those against women. While the incidence of all cognizable crimes under the IPC rose by under 5 per cent over the previous year, dowry deaths registered an increase of 15 per cent, cruelty by husband and relatives by 14 per cent, kidnapping and abduction of females by 13 per cent, importation of girls by 12 per cent and sexual harassment by 11 per cent. Rape and molestation cases grew by a more modest 6-7 per cent, as still many go unreported due to the social stigma, but even that was higher than the average rate.

Despite the increasing cases of crime against women, they would appear to be not in the priority list of the investigating agencies. The NCRB data shows that investigation starts within the same year in only one out of 10 sexual harassment cases and only two out of 10 cases of molestation or cruelty by husbands and relatives. Similarly, only 3 out of 10 rapes and dowry deaths are investigated within the same year. With one in every two brought to trial getting convicted, sexual harassment might have the highest conviction rate among the 22 major crime heads tabulated in NCRBs Crime in India 2007, but this may have something to do with the fact that sexual harassment is the least severe of all crimes committed against women with the maximum punishment being simple imprisonment for one year, or a fine, or both. For the other crimes against women, the conviction rates are lower than the 35.8 per cent average conviction rate for all cognizable crimes under IPC.

Everywhere, women still earn less, are more likely to work part time and less likely to hold top jobs.

For several women, still their grandmothers’ maxim, — children, kitchen, religion — holds true. Those whom we find at the top echelons in the country today are almost all from wealthy backgrounds, went to excellent schools in India and abroad. They constitute the miniscule minority in the country and it is for them that life is beautiful.

For the majority still it is discrimination, naked and often violent. The work participation rate for females in our country is still 25.7 per cent in the country (Census 2001). The number of women in central government employees in just 7.53 per cent. A rural female casual labourer earns Rs 20.38 less than their male counterpart and in urban areas the difference is Rs 31.23 (2004-05). This has in fact increased from the earlier calculations done in 1999-2000. India is ranked 99 among 140 countries in the number of women in parliament, we have only 10.8 per cent women in Lok Sabha and 9 per cent in Rajya Sabha. This is the real 'presence' of women in our country. And even these miniscule are known for their gender than for their capabilities, irrespective of how best to their abilities they perform. Even the 'strong lady' in our Indian history, Indira Gandhi was always forced to state “I am not a woman prime minister, I am a prime minister”. Remember that even some of the predominantly Islamic countries in our continent, Bangladesh,Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, too had women as heads of the government and that had not changed their status much.

This is a far cry from progress; it's an epidemic of gender discrimination. So where's the outrage? The common refrain is that women here have it too good to complain, which is termed by some as 'enlightened sexism'. Between politics and pop culture, women are being taught that everything is fine and dandy – and a lot of us are buying it. We act as if the hatred directed at women is something of an aberration or as that can be dealt with by a stern talking to – as if the misogyny embedded in our culture is an unruly child rather than systematic oppression.

Yes, women today fare better than our foremothers. But the benchmarks so often cited, the right to vote, working outside the home, laws that make domestic violence illegal, laws that guarantee gender justice, don't change the reality of women's lives. There are 4 laws relating to protect property rights for women and similarly 15 to protect the rights of working women, 8 to protect from abuse in marriage and prevent dowry related harassment ; 14 laws to prevent crimes and assaults on women. Alas, if enacting laws is enough,India would have been long a 'socialist' country as stated in the preamble of our constitution. They don't prevent women from being assaulted, abused and raped.

We do not allow women to take part in large numbers in politics and public life, in spite of many studies pointing that doing so is actually beneficial to the society. The annual Global Corruption Barometer produced by Transparency International, the nongovernmental group based in Berlin that monitors international corruption, has shown for the past several years that women are less prone to taking bribes than men. A 1999 study published by the World Bank claimed that women were more trustworthy and public-spirited than men and concluded that greater representation of women in parliament in a sample of 150 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia led to lower levels of corruption.  Like wise bringing more women into work force, into decision making bodies, both inside homes and outside, are also a no-no for us. (Oh, I just forgot, yes we do bring women to work, to pay them less and fleece them more).

There is so much more work to be done. The truth is, most women don't have the privilege of being able to look at gender justice from a distance; they have no choice but to live it every day. Those of us who are lucky enough not to have to think about gender discrimination, racism, poverty and homophobia on a daily basis, those of us who have the privilege of 'living life', have a responsibility to open our eyes to the misogyny right in front of us. And then to stop it.

Women's day is not a day on the calendar, or even a special day to exchange pleasantries, greetings and gifts or make wishes. It is a day to strengthen our resolve. A resolve to struggle for equality. 100 years have gone, but the struggle continues. Rest, we shall not!

(Peoples Democracy)

Onwards to the 13th CITU Conference : M K Pandhe

A TOTAL of 2,500 delegates are coming from all over India to attend the 13th conference of the CITU, to be held in Chandigarh from March 17 to 21. The conference will review the national and international situation which is affecting the vital interest of the working class and toiling people of India, and chalk out the course of action to be taken in the next three years in defence of the working class interests.

A GAIN OF STRUGGLES

As a result of sustained struggles conducted by CITU unions in all corners of the country, the CITU membership has increased from 40 lakhs to over 50 lakhs. Thus the CITU unions have more than fulfilled the call given by the 12th conference, at the initiative of the then general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar. The membership would have gone still higher but for the failure of several unions to submit the record and affiliation fee in time. The result is that their membership could not be included for the purpose of calculating their delegate quotas to the CITU conference.

The 12th conference of the CITU was held when the Left parties were supporting the government of India from outside. They could then exert some influence on the policies of the UPA government and prevent to an extent the government of India from taking anti-people measures. Despite this support from the Left parties, the trade union movement under the leadership of the Sponsoring Committee organised several struggles against the anti-working class policies of the UPA government.

In the last parliamentary elections, the UPA government got a majority on its own and could form a government on its own. The weakening of the Left parties in the polls created an unfavourable political situation for the working class since the UPA government is now seeking to implement the neo-liberal policies of globalisation more forcefully. The trade union movement has to strengthen its resistance to the pro-capitalist policies of the UPA government in order to protect the interests of the working class and the toiling people.

POWERFUL UNITED STRUGGLES

The struggle of the unorganised workers was an important development during the last three years, which culminated in a one day all India strike on August 8, 2007. Nearly four crore workers participated in it, showing acute discontent prevailing among them. The 13th conference will have to lay special emphasis on the demands of the unorganised workers so that their struggles become more widespread and pronounced.

The CITU has also made advances in the working women’s movement. The struggles of anganwadi, mid-day meal and ASHA workers are on the rise and some concessions could be obtained through these struggles. The CITU membership among working women has now increased to about 25 per cent, and more and more women are participating in the leading policy making bodies of the CITU. The CITU conference will have to consider how to strengthen this trend so that women may play their due role in the trade union movement.

The one day national general strike at the call of the Sponsoring Committee in 2008 was a milestone in the united movement of the working class of our country. The participation of the workers was the largest ever in the country. Even the workers belonging to the INTUC and BMS participated in the action, indicating the growing desire of the working class for united struggles.

The workers’ struggles in the coal, steel, construction, jute, water transport and other industries have indicated a rising curve of working class struggles all over India.

The deteriorating working and living conditions of the working class has brought together the entire trade union movement in the country, irrespective of their ideological differences. The INTUC and BMS, which were keeping away from the united movement of the working class, and to join the united working class movement due to the new situation created in the country.

The rising prices of essential commodities, collapse of public distribution system and restricting the ration at cheap prices only to the persons who come under the fictitious category of persons below the poverty line have caused strong resentment among large sections of the working class.

Growing unemployment in the country has further aggravated due to the global economic crisis. Thought the government gave over Rs four lakh crore as bailout package for the big business houses, the workers who lost their jobs due to the crisis did not get any relief. The Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is seething with corruption and mismanagement, and people failed to get full benefits of the scheme. Though job was promised for 100 days for every worker, workers hardly got work for 52 days; for the rest of the days they did not get any unemployment allowance that was promised. This added to the gravity of the situation.

COLLAPSE OF LABOUR LAWS

The collapse of labour laws has been universal and employers openly violated the laws with impunity. Minimum wages are not being paid wherever the trade union movement is weak; 12 hours work is being extracted from workers without paying overtime wages. A large number of units stand closed down without any permission from the government. Even the formation of a union invites brutal repression from the musclemen hired by the corporate houses. Multinational companies are blatantly violating all the labour laws of the land but the UPA government goes on ignoring their violation on the plea that it would reduce foreign investment in the country. In the special economic zones (SEZs), with the connivance of the central government, labour laws are not being implemented.

Regarding the unorganised workers, the bill passed by the government did not grant them any monetary benefit. The central trade unions demanded creation of a special fund by taxing the rich and giving social security benefits to the unorganised workers. In the recent budget the government provided only Rs 1000 crore which will not touch the fringe of the unorganised workers’ problems. According to Dr Arjun Sengutpa committee report, about 30 to 40 thousand crore of rupees would be required to give even elementary social security to the workers.

Trade unions have also opposed the disinvestment drive of the UPA government. This year it has decided to raise Rs 25,000 crore by disinvesting public sector shares; ultimately 49 per cent of the shares in the public sector units would be sold in the share market.

Trade unions observed a National Protest Day on October 28, 2009 and staged a dharna before parliament on December 16, 2009. They also staged a Satyagraha and Jail Bharo on March 5 and further programmes of action will be decided later.

The CITU conference has to find out ways of strengthening the united movement of the working class. This unity should go down to the grassroots level so that it gets stabilised. Local level actions must be strengthened so that the united movement may bring sufficient pressure on the government of India. The mass mobilisation in joint movements has to be strengthened many times more, so that its capacity to pressurise the government would be intensified.

The CITU has invited all the central trade unions and major industry-wide federations to participate in the CITU conference. Thus the conference would be a forum to strengthen the nationwide unity of the entire working class so that the workers’ class struggle is enhanced to a higher level. This underlines the significance of the Chandigarh conference.

WORKER-PEASANT

ALLIANCE

The worker-peasant alliance is an important aspect of the struggle against capitalist exploitation. To give concrete shape to this alliance, the CITU, AIKS and AIAWU organised a joint convention in March 2007, which emphasised the need for joint struggles by the three organisations on common issues faced by workers, agricultural workers and peasants in India. A call for observation of a day was observed to popularise the need for countrywide joint struggle. However, the matter could not be pursued further though some solidarity actions were planned in different parts of the country.

The conference will consider the ways to strengthen the worker-peasant alliance in joint struggles so that more powerful resistance to capitalist policies may be organised all over the country. The unity achieved in the joint federation of fishery workers by the CITU and AIKS is a correct step in that direction. The CITU conference will take initiative in strengthening this alliance so that a strategic alliance can be built at the national level. This will have an implication in the struggle for establishment of socialism.

DISCUSSION IN COMMISSIONS

One day of the conference will be devoted to the organisation of six commissions when the delegates will attend a commission of their choice to participate in the discussion. According to the experience in earlier conferences, 500 to 600 delegates participate in the discussion in these commissions. The conclusions of these commissions are reported in the plenary session for adoption.

This time the six commissions finalised by the CITU secretariat are as follows:

1) Revolutionary ideology of the working class and the role of trade unions.

2) Unity of the working class and our approach.

3) The news media and the working class.

4) On safety, health and environment.

5) Challenges in organising the unorganised workers.

6) Organising the working women: our objectives.

Each commission will have a chairman to conduct and a reporter to note down the deliberations.

The organisation of commissions has become an instrument of evolving common understanding in the CITU through the participation of the rank and file members. For each commission a draft note has been prepared for submission and will be made available to the delegates in their own languages. The delegates narrate their experiences in the struggles they have conducted. Their experiences are thus pooled together to evolve a policy of the CITU for implementation.

PREPARATIONS ON IN PUNJAB

One can witness a remarkable enthusiasm among the CITU cadres all over Punjab, and the fund collection drive is going on with great zeal. Several comrades who were inactive due to lack of proper functioning, have become active, and are mobilising workers in the campaign to prepare for the success of the 13th CITU conference. So far the fund collection drive has yielded over Rs 40 lakh and unions are confident about fulfilling the target of Rs one crore as decided by the reception committee.

The CITU’s Punjab state committee president Vijay Mishra, general secretary Raghunath Singh and vice president Charan Singh Virdi are touring all over the state to monitor the preparations campaign for the CITU conference. Former vice chancellor of Punjab University, Dr Joginder Singh Puar, is the chairman of the reception committee. Under him, the latter is actively working for the success of the conference.

One special feature of the campaign is the growth of CITU membership in the state. All the districts have been actively participating in the campaign. Massive rallies of workers are being held all over the state to explain the issues before the CITU conference. Over one lakh leaflets in Punjabi language have already been distributed among the workers to explain the significance of the CITU conference.

The fraternal mass organisations, viz the Kisan Sabha, Agricultural Workers Union, AIDWA, SFI and DYFI, have been actively campaigning for the success of the CITU conference. The Kisan Sabha has already collected over 20 quintals of basmati rice as a solidarity contribution for the conference.

A total of 500 male volunteers and 100 female volunteers have been enrolled by the reception committee to conduct the deliberations of the conference.

Along with the CITU conference, several seminars will be organised in universities in which foreign delegates will also participate and explain the struggles they have been organising against globalisation and for trade union rights. Programmes of visits of foreign delegates to some industrial centres are also being planned in Punjab and the adjoining states.

The preparations for the conference have attracted the attention of media in the state. The CITU campaign is getting adequate publicity both in print and electronic media.

The reception committee has decided to name the venue of the conference as Jyoti Basu Nagar with a view to paying homage to the revered memory of the departed CITU vice president who remained in the post for the entire period of 40 years since the foundation of the CITU. To mark the memory of our departed general secretary, the hall of the conference will be named after Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar while another complex will be named in the memory of former CITU president Comrade E Balanandan.

The preparations for the mass rally on March 21 are going on in full swing and a largest ever gathering of the working class is being planned to culminate the CITU conference. A colourful procession is being planned with uniformed volunteers in the front. It is expected that a large number of women will participate in the procession. The Haryana state committee of CITU is also planning to mobilise workers to participate in the procession and the mass meeting.

The 13th conference of the CITU at Chandigarh will be a landmark in the history of the CITU. The glorious traditions of anti-imperialist struggle in Punjab are being highlighted in the CITU’s propaganda campaign and pledge is being taken in the meetings to carry forward the traditions under the banner of the CITU in strengthening of class struggle of the toiling masses against the capitalist system.

CONFERENCES OF THE CITU Number Venue Date President General Secretary 1st Calcutta 28-31 May 1970 B.T. Ranadive P. Ramamurti 2nd Ernakulam 18-22 April 1973 B.T. Ranadive P. Ramamurti 3rd Mumbai 21-25 May 1975 B.T. Ranadive P. Ramamurti 4th Chennai 11-15 April 1979 B.T. Ranadive P. Ramamurti 5th Kanpur 13-17 April 1983 B.T. Ranadive Samar Mukherjee 6th Mumbai 18-22 April 1987 B.T. Ranadive Samar Mukherjee 7th Calcutta 13-17 February 1991 E. Balanandan M.K. Pandhe 8th Patna 3-7 March 1994 E. Balanandan M.K. Pandhe 9th Kochi 21-26 April 1997 E. Balanandan M.K. Pandhe 10th Hyderabad 27-31 December 2000 E. Balanandan M.K. Pandhe 11th Chennai 9-14 December 2003 M.K. Pandhe Chittabrata Majumdar 12th Bangalore 17-21 January 2007 M K Pandhe Mohammed Amin * * 12th Conference elected Chittabrata Majumdar as CITU's General Secretary. But he died on 20th February 2007. The General Council met on 27th May 2007, where Mohammed Amin was elected CITU's new General Secretary.

100 Years of March 8: Recalling Its Socialist Origins : Brinda Karat

ONE hundred years ago, on August 27 1910, the revolutionary leader Clara Zetkin along with her comrades Alexandra Kollantai and others, moved a resolution at the International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen to observe an “ International Women’s Day.”

THE HISTORIC RESOLUTION

The resolution read “ In agreement with the class conscious, political and trade union organisations of the proletariat of their respective countries, the Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women’s Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women’s suffrage. This demand must be held in conjunction with the entire women’s question according to socialist precepts. The Women’s Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully.” The slogan accepted was ‘The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for Socialism.’ At that time no specific date for the observance was decided.

The hundred women delegates from 17 countries representing trade unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, unanimously adopted the resolution. The following year, 1911, as a result of the Copenhagen initiative a million men and women marched in Germany, Austria,Denmark, Switzerland and some other European countries. The date chosen was March 19 to commemorate the 1848 revolution when there was an armed uprising against the Prussian king. Describing the demonstrations Alexandra Kollantai later elected the first woman member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party wrote “...(the demonstrations) exceeded all expectations. Germany and Austria... was one seething trembling sea of women. Meetings were organised everywhere... In the small towns and even in the villages, halls were packed so full that they had to ask male workers to give up their places for women….During the largest demonstration in which 30,000 were taking part, the police decided to remove the demonstrators banners: the women workers made a stand. In the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help of Socialist deputies...”

In Tsarist Russia, women observed the day on the last Sunday of February (according to the Julian calendar but according to the Gregorian calendar used in the rest of the world the date was March 8. ) In America, Socialist women had already observed a National Women’s Day in 1908, the first of its kind in the world, when large demonstrations took place calling for the vote and for economic rights of women. Women workers in garment factories were staging militant strikes facing police repression and their cause was taken up as part of Women’s day celebrations. The imperialist preparations for war added a new dimension to an international day cutting across national boundaries. Women across countries called for peace against war. It was in 1913 that International Women’s day was transferred to March 8.

But the following year the world war broke out. In 1915 and 1916 although efforts were made to observe the day, the warmongers in all countries hounded those who dared to call for peace and public demonstrations were banned. According to Kollantai, the only open demonstration for March 8 that could be held in that period was in Norway when some women delegates could assemble and courageously adopt a resolution for peace.

WOMEN’S DAY, 1917

Then came the great year of 1917. In Russia, the storm against the hated Tsarist rule started from the workers quarters in Petrograd when women workers started mobilising for March 8. Women workers, wives of soldiers, working class housewives, victims of hunger and the trials of war poured out on to the streets of Petrograd. They denounced the war, they demanded an end to their humiliation, they called for peace and bread. Gathering strength and passion they swept through the streets joined by workers and soldiers. It was those women demonstrations on March 8 that triggered the historic peoples upsurge heralding the beginning of the tumultuous and revolutionary events which led to the establishment of the first Socialist State in the world. The women of Petrograd and elsewhere in Tsarist Russia through their actions substantiated the comments made by Karl Marx in a 12 December 1868 letter to Ludwig Kudelmann “Everyone who knows anything of history also knows that great social revolutions are impossible without the feminine ferment.”

SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS

In 1922, the first Workers State declared a holiday on March 8 to mark Women’s Day. That was also the year when it was first celebrated in China. The observance of the day gained momentum. In India the first time it was observed was in 1931 on the occasion of the Lahore Conference of Asian Women for Equality. A resolution demanding women’s equality and linking women’s equality to the freedom of nations was adopted.

Whereas left wing women’s organisations along with women in Socialist countries continued the tradition of observing women’s day, from the sixties onwards as the “feminist wave” hit the United States and much of Europe, the observance of the day became more widespread and finally led the United Nations to adopt a resolution in 1975, suggested by the President of Women’s International Democratic federation (WIDF), officially declaring March 8 as International Women’s day. Today countries across the world observe March 8. While this is welcome, it also provides the ground for a dilution of the socialist origins of March 8, of its history as the symbol of struggles of women particularly working women in challenging exploitative capitalist structures. It is important to recall the socialist origins of March 8 and to prevent its cooption into a market driven celebration of frivolous femininity.

TWO ASPECTS

There are two aspects to the history of March 8 both relevant for us today. The first and most important is the early understanding of the importance of organising women workers in particular and women belonging to the working classes in general against capitalist exploitation and to fight for the Socialist alternative. The recognition of the key role that proletarian women must play in the development of women’s movements for emancipation was based on the militant actions of working class women across Europe, inRussia and in the United States. Drawn into industry in the worst possible conditions, women and children’s labour was used to make super profits. In the first volume of Capital Marx writes “The labour of women and children was therefore the first thing sought for by capitalists who used machinery. That mighty substitute for labour and labourers was forthwith changed into a means for increasing the number of wage-labourers by enrolling under the direct sway of capital, every member of the workman’s family without distinction of age or sex.” Socialist women activists were closely linked with efforts to build up organised resistance among working women against their exploitation. The first International under the leadership of Marx and Engels gave specific directions to all its branches to fight for workers rights including women workers and issued a detailed questionnaire to gain proper information to formulate the demands. These included an eight hour day for reforms in the slave like working conditions of women and children. Marx’s daughter Eleanor played an active role in building organisations of working women in the factories of East London. In 1888 London match girls who made up the entire workforce in the industry from young teenagers to grandmothers struck work. Trade unions supported them and they won major concessions giving a big boost to women workers organisations and movements. In the United States garment and textile workers similarly were organising themselves with the support of Socialist women winning several struggles. These struggles intensified at the beginning of the century and provided the backdrop to the March 8 observance. The core of the observance was to highlight the fight against capitalism and the crucial role of working women in that fight.

Writings of Socialist women at the time also point to the Herculean efforts that they had to make to convince their male comrades of the importance of a separate observance for women which was often termed as a move which would divide the working class. In the event they succeeded. Later in 1920, Lenin in his famous conversations with Zetkin scathingly criticised those within the socialist organisations and trade unions who did not recognise the importance of approaching women as women within the working classes. Those lessons are equally relevant today.

In the neo-liberal framework we know that women of the working classes and the working poor, including in rural India, are the worst affected. The core ideology of retreat of the State and reliance on the market has led to high inflation rates, unemployment, retrenchments and low wages, all of which have hurt women badly reflected in high levels of malnutrition among women and girl children. Where women are organising themselves, resistance is growing and indeed women make up a substantial number of the mobilisations of the poor for their rights in various struggles. This requires focused and specific efforts.

A second equally significant development was taking place. Under the leadership of liberal bourgeois women’s organisations and groups a militant women’s movement for the political vote for women was sweeping Britain and the United States and some European countries. Known as the suffragette movement, educated women from the bourgeoisie took to the streets in militant actions for the vote. What should be the Socialist women’s approach to the movement? A hundred years later the answer seems obvious. But at that time, Socialist women led by Clara Zetkin had to wage a strong battle within the ranks of the Socialists to have a resolution adopted to support women’s right to vote on equal terms as men. Voices at that time within the second International opposed the demand saying it would lead to a strong backlash from the Church and would unnecessarily hinder the movements of the workers who were also fighting for the right to vote which was granted in most countries only to the propertied classes. Others questioned the timing of the demand saying it would divide the workers who would take time to recognise the legitimacy of the demand. Still others felt it would be diversionary and falling into the trap of the ruling classes who wanted to deflect attention from class struggle. All these differing opinions came out in the open at the time of the first meeting in 1907 of Socialist women inStuttgart preceding the 1910 meeting in Copenhagen where the March 8 resolution was adopted. The 1907 Stuttgart meeting was attended by 58 women. They were expected to adopt a resolution and then place it in the wider meeting of the Second International which was being held at the same time attended by over 900 delegates. It was in this respect that the intervention of women leaders like Clara Zetkin who clearly spelt out the links between class struggle and taking that struggle forward through the exercise of the vote and the direct participation of the masses of women in democratic processes was so significant. Just because women of elite classes raise a demand does not mean that the demand has no relevance to the working classes, on the contrary women with socialist consciousness must intervene in the struggle and make the democratic right to vote an instrument to turn against the ruling classes. This argument won the day and the resolution for socialist support to the universal right to vote without distinction was passed by 47 votes against 11. The main conference also accepted the resolution and henceforth all Socialists were bound to support women’s struggles for the vote. It was in this background that we understand the significance of the slogan given at the time of the adoption of the historic resolution for the observance of March 8 in 1910 “the vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for Socialism.’ Just ten years later, one of the first steps taken by the Constituent Assembly which took power after the overthrow of the tsar was to grant women in Russia the unconditional right to vote, becoming the first country to do so. At the present time when there is much discussion on the Women’s reservation Bill and the increase of reservation from 33 per cent to 50 per cent in panchayats and local bodies, the relevance of being able to use these opportunities to highlight the utter bankruptcy of the capitalist system in so many respects needs to be emphasised.

These two aspects of the March 8 observance, namely the economic and the political intertwined to form a solid platform for action which influenced large masses of women which went beyond the times in which the call was given. The 100 women assembled in Copenhagen could hardly have imagined that their call for an international women’s day would resonate through the world even 100 years later. The relevance of the nature of the initiative remains as significant as it was then.

CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE

The struggle against capitalism and in particular its relentless drive for super profits in the neo-liberal framework is more urgent than ever. The drive for militarisation, the violence of war and aggression of the imperialist powers recall the need for the kind of heroic mobilisations of women across national boundaries against the first world war. Unfortunately and deeply regrettably, the de-ideologisation of contemporary women’s movements led by “feminist” groups in different countries have played into capitalist driven cultures which denigrate organised resistance and women’s collective action as outdated and unnecessary. An earlier initiative taken by some Canadian women’s groups who had organised a platform of over 100 women’s organisations in many countries called the World March of Women focussed against imperialism and the impact of globalisation on the lives of women. But it weakened with the focus shifting to issues connected with female sexuality mainly on the rights of homosexual and lesbian groups. The right of a woman over her own body and expression of her sexual preferences has become the key issue, interpreted in a narrow way for a substantial section of women activists including in India. They do not see these issues as part of a wider social problem. Conversely, they present all other problems as appendages to the issues concerning women’s sexuality which to them is the main social contradiction through which all others are affected. They refuse to see the class forces which subordinate women in new ways. Under imperialist globalisation we are seeing new forms of women’s subordination and sexual oppression and exploitation. The exponential increase in trafficking, in the sale of children for sex, in the increasing number of women being forced into prostitution due to war, displacement, poverty. This requires a concerted and united movement against imperialist aggression, against the international powerful drug and mafia lobbies which operate with political patronage. In India the most medieval forms of honour killings flourish within a continuing caste system. Certainly Indian women’s movements will have to confront the caste system in any strategy for women’s emancipation. In other words if we have to fight against the most blatant and brutal forms of control over a woman’s body as shown in the reactionary fatwas of caste panchayats against women (and men) who dare to challenge caste boundaries in questions of personal relations, we have to take into account the socio-economic conditions, such as the caste system. Unfortunately those who see themselves as champions of women’s autonomy are unable to see these crucial links and in their hostility to organised leftwing women’s mobilisations prove themselves to be on the side of the establishment.

CONCLUSION

International Women’s day is a symbol of the struggle for women’s emancipation against the shackles of capitalism and the patriarchal cultures it strengthens. We know that inIndia at the stage of democratic demands and struggles we need to mobilize the widest sections of women on a platform for equality. At the same time we also know that such mobilizations can be successful only if they have as their core the voices and demands of the oppressed and exploited working women, the dalits, tribals, the crores of women in the rural and urban unorganized sector who make up the mass of the Indian women and who have the highest stakes in changing the present system of inequalities. On this March 8, celebrating 100 years of its observance we must pledge to take that struggle forward.

Long Live March 8 Long Live Clara Zetkin