Today is International Women's Day, the day many are calling 'A Day Without A Woman.' On this day, women are urged to avoid shopping, abstain from work, take action for women’s equality, and wear red to demonstrate solidarity. A 'Women Workers Rising' rally will be held this afternoon starting at 3:30pm in front of the US Department of Labor at Constitution and Third. Hundreds of workers – women and men -- will join supporters around the world to demand fair and just working conditions, livable wages and better working conditions for everyone. The women’s actions will also demonstrate resistance to the anti-worker Trump agenda and Labor Secretary nominee R. Alexander Acosta.
Complete details and the latest local labor calendar listings, are at dclabor.org; click on Calendar. Here’s today's labor history: On this date in 1908, thousands of predominantly female New York needle trades workers demonstrated for higher wages, a shorter workday, and an end to child labor. The demonstration became the basis for International Women’s Day, which was originally called International Working Women's Day. In 1926, New York members of the Fur and Leather Workers Union, many of them women, struck on this date for better pay and conditions. They persevered despite beatings by police, winning a 10-percent wage increase and five-day work week. Today’s labor quote is by Helen Keller “The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all.... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.” Helen Keller, the deaf-blind American author best-known through depictions of her life in the play and film “The Miracle Worker” was a member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World. She campaigned widely for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, antimilitarism, and other similar causes. Union City Radio is supported by UnionPlus. UnionPlus is committed to improving the quality of life of working families; find out more at unionplus.org.
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