Today on Sojourner Truth, you will hear Part 1 of our International Womens Day Los Angeles 2020 special.
On Saturday, March 7, hundreds of people gathered in South Los Angeles to participate in the International Womens Strike, marking International Womens Day. The event was held in solidarity with events happening globally for International Womens Day, which is marked annually on March 8. The event included a rally, a feminism for the 99 percent dance party, an interactive performance piece, street art, music, healing and action areas. In honor of International Womens Day, women and girls in dozens of countries around the world participated in the Fourth International Womens Strike. The strike demanded action for our rights, living wages (including for mothers and other caregivers), an end to violence, murder and the forced disappearance of women, an end to war, and respect for the rights of Mother Earth.
It was planned by a cross-movement multiracial team of women representing a range of grassroots organizations and networks. The planning group was convened by Global Womens Strike. The Los Angeles International Womens Day events began in 2000, when the Global Womens Strike organized events following a call from women in Ireland for a one-day strike. Then in 2017, women in Argentina followed by women in Poland and other countries around the world called for an International Womens Strike on March 8. Since then, women in Los Angeles and in at least 50 countries have participated.
On our program today, you will first hear from myself and Nancy Berlin of the International Womens Strike Los Angeles planning group. Then, you will hear from two young women: one Black, Thandiwe Abdullah, the other Latinx, Brittany Hewitt, reading the introduction to the platform of International Womens Strike U.S. Then you will hear from the multiracial group of women reading the platform. Readers include: Gina Belafonte, Guadalupe Chavez, Jacqueline Jay Johnson, Jodi Evans, Kenia Alcocer, Shany Ebadi and Sidney Ross-Risden. In the second half of our show, you will hear spoken word by Students Deserve and a speech by Linda Valdivia of the Mobile Workers Alliance. Linda discusses what its like to be a woman driver and how women drivers are organizing their workplaces. Then, a historic coming together of campaigners as well as family members who have lost loved ones in the serial murders of Black women in South Los Angeles and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. During this ceremony, relatives, loved ones and campaigners for impacted women joined the event to call for justice for the victims and to uplift them and their families.
