March 8 - International Women's Day

[handmade34]

time to pick up the struggle once again...

http://www.isis.aust.com/iwd/stevens/origins.htm

"In 1908, on the last Sunday in February, socialist women in the United States initiated the first Women's Day when large demonstrations took place calling for the vote and the political and economic rights of women. The following year, 2,000 people attended a Women's Day rally in Manhattan...1909, women garment workers staged a general strike. 20-30,000 shirtwaist makers struck for 13 cold, winter weeks for better pay and working conditions...1910 Women's Day was taken up by socialists and feminists throughout the country. Later that year delegates went to the second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen with the intention of proposing that Women's Day become an international event. The notion of international solidarity between the exploited workers of the world had long been established as a socialist principle..."

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/02/157107.htm

"On Tuesday, March 8, Secretary Clinton will host the 2011 International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony with special guest First Lady Michelle Obama, at the Department of State. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and other U.S. and foreign dignitaries will also participate..."

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

1. K&R

Buddha Bar, Secret Love. Women the World -Mujeres del Mundo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qepG_pb_ZJ4&feature=channel_video_title

[handmade34]

2. they are all so beautiful

[niyad]

3. k and r--interesting--by my count, there are two, yet it only shows one. someone

unrec'd this? an mcp?

thank you for beating me to acknowledging this day

[handmade34]

4. Women who Tell the Truth...

Helen Keller

Helen went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as an advocate for the sensorially handicapped, but also supported progressive causes. She was a suffragist, a pacifist and a birth control supporter. In 1915 she founded Helen Keller International, a non-profit organization for preventing blindness. Helen and Anne Sullivan traveled all over the world to over 39 countries, and made several trips to Japan, becoming a favorite of the Japanese people. Helen Keller met every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson and was friends with many famous figures including Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain.

Helen Keller was a member of the Socialist Party and actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working classes from 1909 to 1921. She supported Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs in each of his campaigns for the presidency. Her political views were reinforced by visiting workers. In her words, "I have visited sweatshops, factories, crowded slums. If I could not see it, I could smell it."

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Heroes/Helen_Keller.html

[handmade34]

5. Women who Tell the Truth...

Rachel Carson



"Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long term effects of misusing pesticides. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.

Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as an alarmist, but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment. Rachel Carson died in 1964 after a long battle against breast cancer. Her witness for the beauty and integrity of life continues to inspire new generations to protect the living world and all its creatures."

[handmade34]

6. ...

"

[niyad]

7. . . .

[handmade34]

8. ...

We believe in loving our brothers regardless of race, color or creed and we believe in showing this love by working for better conditions immediately and the ultimate owning by the workers of their means of production. -Dorthy Day

[handmade34]

9. ....

"I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America. (Clapping.)

I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. (Clapping.)
I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. (Clapping.)

I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests.” (Clapping. cheers).

I stand here now without endorsements from many big name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and glib clichés, which for too long have been an accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America. And my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.

I have always earnestly believed in the great potential of America. Our constitutional democracy will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary, effective testimony, to the longevity to our cherished constitution and its unique bill of rights, which continues to give to the world an inspirational message of freedom and liberty.

We Americans are a dynamic people…" Shirley Chisholm

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/06/09/shirley-chislom-is-not-to-be-forgotten-now-or-ever/



"Most young people are not yet revolutionary, but politicians and police and other persons in power almost seem to be conspiring to turn them into revolutionaries. Like me, I think, most of them are no more revolutionary than the founders of this country. Their goals are the same — to insure liberty and equality of opportunity, and forever to thwart the tyrannous tendencies of government, which inevitably arise from the arrogance and isolation of men who are securely in power. All they want, if it were not too fashionable for them to say so, is for the American dream to come true, at least in its less materialistic aspects. They want to heal the gaping breach between this country’s promises and its performance, a breach that goes back to its founding on a Constitution that denied that black persons and women were full citizens. “Liberty and justice for all” were beautiful words, but the ugly act was that liberty and justice were only for white males. How incredible that it is nearly 200 years since then, and we have still to fight the same old enemies! How is it possible for a man to repeat the pledge of allegiance that contains these words, and then call his fellow citizens “social misfits” when they are simply asking for liberty and justice?"

[handmade34]

10. Emma Goldman

http://jwa.org/historymakers/goldman



Goldman's deep commitment to the ideal of absolute freedom led her to espouse a wide range of controversial causes. A fiery orator and a gifted writer, she became a passionate advocate of freedom of expression, sexual freedom and birth control, equality and independence for women, radical education, union organization and workers' rights.

[PBS Poll-435]

11. My Contribution to This Thread

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/11082010/2/photo/11082010234649.html

[handmade34]

14. thank you

as I get older I understand more and more how all of these women, young and old have shaped me...

[PBS Poll-435]

16. You are welcome

Women Rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_IX

[handmade34]

17. my daughters are my favorite

they agree to hike mountains with me...

[handmade34]

12. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt

http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=33

"Works Progress Administration: Eleanor Roosevelt was a vigorous supporter and then defender of the Works Progress Administration’s Writers’, Arts and Theater Projects, which gave work to the unemployed in those professions. She had been an avid supporter of the initial effort to bring these professions under eligibility of the Works Progress Administration and successfully lobbied the President to this end; he signed the legislation on June 25, 1935. With its emphasis on the “common man,” and efforts to preserve regional and folk American heritage, she genuinely enjoyed reading the written works, and attending many of the exhibits and performances produced by the programs. She publicly opposed a 1939 Congressional funding decrease to the programs, and the closing of the theater program."

[Solly Mack]

13. K&R

[handmade34]

15. ...

Indira Gandhi

"As prime minister, Gandhi tried to improve the lives of Indians. With her neighbors, the Soviet Union and China, she improved relations. She also promoted science and technology. In 1971, India sent its first satellite into space. Economically, Indira Gandhi led India to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world toward the end of her time as prime minister."

[handmade34]

18. ...

Joycelyn Elders




"President Clinton's nomination of Elders for the post of U.S. surgeon general made her the second African American and fifth woman to be chosen for a cabinet position. However, some people were strongly against the president's choice. Elders was criticized for favoring abortion on demand (abortion without restriction). Her critics also did not agree with her support for medicinal use of marijuana, U.S. legalization of the RU-486 pill (which may be taken by a woman to end a pregnancy), and her urging television networks to air condom ads. She was also involved in a scandal regarding the National Bank of Arkansas, for which she had served on the board of directors. Nevertheless, Elders gained the backing of the American Medical Association and former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop (1916–)."

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Elders-Joycelyn.html#ixzz1G1u17RDg