African Activist Archive

Leaflet advertising a picket at the South African Consulate in San Francisco on March 8 and a celebration of International Working Women's Day on March 11. At the celebration, speakers will include representatives of Z.A.N.U. recently return from 'Conference on Women's Affairs,' Mozambique, and the Josina Machel Committee. This program is sponsored by the Josina Machel Committee and the Third World Women's Alliance and is endorsed by the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), Concilio Mujeres, El Tecolote, and the Native American Defense Committee. International Working Women's Day (IWWD) has its roots in U.S. labor struggles. Women in the garment industries of New York's Lower East Side struck over sweatshop conditions in March 1908, and 30,000 women from other cities joined the strikers in protest. This commemoration of IWWD is dedicated to the women of southern Africa for their contributions and sacrifices in their peoples' liberation struggle. In South Africa, blacks have no right to vote, no freedom of speech, nor equal wages or equal education. In Namibia (South West Africa), 90% of black people live below basic subsistence level. The peoples of Angola and Mozambique have overthrown colonial rule and are now transforming their societies; in Zimbabwe, the liberation forces control large areas of the countryside and victory is imminent. The U.S. government has consistently supported the minority regimes by maintaining diplomatic ties, allowing the recruitment of U.S. citizens as mercenaries, and opposing economic sanctions. U.S. corporations and banks make investments and loans to help prop up those repressive regimes, while they are not responsive to the needs of Third World communities and working people here in the U.S.

African Activist Archive

International Working Women's Day 1979

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