March 8, 2015
Happy International Women’s Day! This is a day of action with a long history – it began as International Working Women’s Day, and remains a day to honour and fight for all of the work that women do. It’s a day to be active in your communities – to shout and sing – but also to listen, and to think about which voices are not being heard. There are many excellent resources circulating online today to start your thinking, here are a few of them:
- “Patriarchy is not secondary to capitalism and imperialism; the very foundations of capitalism, colonialism and state violence are structured in conjunction with and through patriarchy.” Harsha Walia wrote the best piece for IWD this year, make sure to read every word of it.
- From Verso, a radical reading list for IWD, along with a free ebook download, featuring work from Melissa Gira Grant, Jacqueline Rose, Judith Butler, and many more.
- “I came from a good family.
I came from a good family.
I came from a good family.”Fariha Rosin writes beautifully about her abortion at 18 at The Hairpin.
- “In our opinion you have failed miserably. Canada must address the shame they have created by systematically taking the Indian from the Indian. This policy has put blood on your hands, the blood of innocent women and children who have suffered the greatest insults, the price of their lives.” Powerful words and ceaseless disappointment in our government at the roundtable on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
- Fewer women are CEOs of major companies than men named John, or David. This is funny until it’s really not.
-
“Basically, M.I.A. is like the best of Tumblr, the global left, and pop-art all wrapped up in one bad-ass Brown Sri Lankan woman.” Badass women of colour in music: Las Cafeteras, Beyonce, MIA and Ana Tijoux. “Bad Girlz bring the Noize” from Red Wedge’s IWD edition.
-
Women’s work after the recession
-
“Find your women”: an interview with Durga Chew-Bose
-
“Mainstream feminism means becoming Oprah, Beyoncé, or Sheryl Sandberg — the accumulation of wealth is how you demonstrate your equality.” Great discussion of class and feminism
- Women in Canada by the numbers from StatsCan: there are many more dispiriting figures, but did you know that there are 9.8 million mothers in Canada? We’re gearing up for our issue on MOMS, and can’t wait to talk about some of them!
- “We, like many Canadians, were taken aback by your recent comments about a woman’s right to choose what to wear for two reasons: one, you are stigmatizing the minority of women who wear niqab, and even hijab; and two, because you are politicizing a fundamental constitutional right….Perhaps deep down, your opposition to a woman covering her face simply reflects a paternalistic desire to rescue “Muslim women from their backward beliefs and from attire presumably forced on them by misogynistic Muslim men.” An open letter to Chris Alexander on his ignorant comments regarding the niqab and hijab bans in citizenship ceremonies. Once again, the government is couching its overt racism in the guise of ‘women’s rights’. On this and so many issues, we need to make sure the government that speaks in our names hears us loud and clear.
See you in the streets!
