Building "Feminism for the 99 Percent," Women's Strike Will Take Many Forms

Whether by walking off the job or boycotting “unseen” labor, women and allies around the world next week will stand up and speak out to say: Women’s rights are human rights.

Click Here: los jaguares argentina

Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the March 8 day of action is being promoted in solidarity by those who organized January’s Women’s March as well as a grassroots movement known as the International Women’s Strike (IWS). While both groups acknowledge that the election of President Donald Trump makes their call more urgent, their overlapping visions look beyond one administration—and reach further back into the past.

“March 8th will be the beginning of a new international feminist movement that organizes resistance not just against Trump and his misogynist policies, but also against the conditions that produced Trump, namely the decades long economic inequality, racial, and sexual violence, and imperial wars abroad,” IWS writes.

Participation will take many forms. In addition to rallies, teach-ins, and protests happening nationwide (a list of international events can be found here), there are many ways to mobilize—including for those people whose positions at home or the workplace are too precarious to allow for striking, or who can’t afford to do so.

Women’s March organizers wrote on their website Thursday that “[a]nyone, anywhere, can join by making March 8th A Day Without a Woman, in one or all of the following ways”:

1. Women take the day off, from paid and unpaid labor;
2. Avoid shopping for one day (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses);
3. Wear RED in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman.

Furthermore, the group adds: “We ask that our male allies lean into care-giving on March 8th, and use the day to call out decision-makers at the workplace and in the government to extend equal pay and adequate paid family leave for women.”

[block:block=30]

Groups have provided letters that can be given to employers as well as domestic partners, family members, or spouses to explain a woman’s chosen absence.

“I hope you will stand in support of me, and any of my women colleagues who choose to participate, in observance of this day,” the letter to work supervisors reads. “Places of employment can participate by closing for the day or giving women workers the day off, whether paid or unpaid. Even more important than the symbolism of standing with women on March 8, the Women’s March is asking all employers to perform an audit of their policies impacting women and families. By ensuring that women have pay equity, a livable wage, and paid leave, businesses can demonstrate that their long-term actions align with the values we are standing up for on this day.”