The women working at a garment factory in New York City, USA, decided to go on strike against very heavy working conditions and very low wages in spite of long working days and working conditions becoming increasingly unbearable. Due to inhumane working hours exceeding 16 hours per day, textile workers went on strike on March 8, 1857. This strike became quite effective and sound.
Similarly, on March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, where 140 young female workers, mostly of Italian and Jewish origin, and were burned to death due to neglected security features and locked doors. In the actions organized by the Association of Women's Trade Unions and the International Women's Textile Workers Union, approximately 100 thousand people rallied for the purpose of taking action to improve their working conditions.
Clara Zetkin suggested her idea in 1910 at an International Conference on Working Women. Then, International Women's Day was first commemorated on March 19, 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. As a result of this struggle, 66 years later, the UN on 8 December 1977, officially declared 8 March "International Women's Day" Although there have been 162 years since the strike in 1857, which was the basis of 8 March, today there are still negligence and violation of working conditions in the world. It should also be noted that these working conditions are again based on a sexist basis, and this situation is evident throughout the world. The violations against the right to work and labour exploitation are still common in all areas where women are employed. In particular, the invisible in-house labour stands as a form of labour in today's world. Women try to exist as a woman in a patriarchal order, both in domestic life and in business-labour environment, struggling and resisting on the basis of women's perspective.
Every 8 March, we celebrate the rights and achievements we have gained as women so far and the solidarity we have established among women. Great victories have been won for all women from all over the world, thanks to the solidarity among all women whose language, belief colour, sexual identity are different, and thanks to their unity in the struggle. The winning and celebration of these victories have undoubtedly been an outcome of unity and solidarity of thousands of brave women. There is a great history of women's struggle which consists of activists, suffragettes and trade unionists, who have struggled before us and gained the rights we have now. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who have been struggling for decades and have lost their lives since March.
Currently, we observe that human rights violations, especially against women's rights, have increased day by day in eastern and south-eastern Anatolia. In particular, more and more violations have been mounting up especially in prisons. The isolation applied both inside and outside prisons is aimed to prevent women's solidarity. It is known that more than 300 people, including Ms. Leyla Guven, have been on hunger strike, including many prisoners and convicts and sick prisoners. We would like to call on authorities to meet the rightful demands, which also have a constitutional basis, in order not to experience more deaths. That’s because anywhere without freedom, democracy and equality is in isolation.
We, women, would like a life where there is no violence against women, there are no violations of the right to life, women can live freely, in a fair and equal way, democracy and women's rights are visible, they can make their own decisions about their bodily integrity, their labour is not exploited, they can receive education in their mother tongue and they can speak comfortably and are not discriminated against! And we restate once again that we will fight for this life anytime and anywhere!
JIN, RENGÊ JIYANÊ YE. BIJÎ 8’E ADARE! (in the Kurdish Language)
Women, colour of life! Long live March 8.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS!