On the 9th March 2019 Khanya College Feminist Network Activists along with Gauteng Community Health Care Forum celebrated International Women’s Day with Simunye Women’s Forum at Casual Workers Advice (CWAO) in Germiston, Johannesburg. More than 54 women had a demonstration outside the House of Movements building holding placards with different messages. One read “No to women abuse, we are also human beings, we demand our voices to be heard!”
Women in leadership were Nosipho Mdletshe from Khanya College (KC), Mandy from the Domestic Workers Alliance, Lilly and Sibongile from Simunye Women’s Forum. Mdletshe said that the idea of having a feminist network started in 2017 during KC Winter School. She continued by saying this came after the discussions they had during the WS that they need to tackle women issues together. She added that “It became clear that women need their own space within the organisation”. Mandy said that they formed the Domestic Workers Alliance in 2017 as a platform to protect women against domestic violence. The IWD was filled with good spirit as women showcase their talents in poems, dances, film and drama.
International Women’s Day is a focal point in the movement for women’s rights. After the Socialist Party of America organised a Women’s Day on February 28, 1909, in New York, the 1910 International Socialist Woman’s Conference suggested a Women’s Day be held annually from Wikipedia.
On the statement from CWAO it says, International Women’s Day is a day where women come together in the fight for women’s liberation. On the 8th March every year, women all around the world stand together in the struggle against oppression and exploitation. Under current global capitalist system it is working class women who are the most oppressed and exploited. This system is known as neoliberalism.
Messages from social media read as follows; “women of Indian Occupied Kashmir on International Womens Day!” “We must resist,. We must refuse to disappear”, Margaret Atwood Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, inventor, teacher and environmental activist. Brand South Africa also celebrated International Women’s Day. “International Women’s Day march in Turkey dispersed by riot police”. “In sudan women marched to honor Sudanese women’s role in leading the uprising against Bashir unfortunately they were arrested and beaten by Bashir’s security services but later he orderd the security to release those women who were arrested”.
Dorothy Mabelebele is a Community Journalist Activist for Karibu Newspaper at Khanya College. She writes articles about the different struggles that the Black Poor Working Class are facing on a daily basis. The struggles that she writes about is to raise awareness to the communities about issues that are happening around them.
