On March 8, women will strike.
Grassroots feminist organizers across the globe have called for Wednesday, March 8, 2017 to be a one-day strike for women around the world.
The event, which coincides with International Women’s Day, has generated significant media attention ― some positive, some not ― with outlets positioning it as a test of the power of the wildly popular Women’s Marches that took place in January around the country and world.
Thinking about joining the strike, and curious about what that actually means?Here are the basics.
Plans for the strike pre-date Trump’s win.
Although the strike only began garnering mainstream media attention in the United States within the last month or so, plans for it actually began to come together last October. Inspired by the recent mass mobilizations in Argentina, (where thousands of women protested against gender violence) and Poland (where women pushed back against a proposed abortion ban ― and won) organizers from Poland reached out to activists in South Korea, Russia, Argentina, Ireland, Israel and Italy, devising plans for the proposed March 8 event, which they called the “International Women’s Strike.” (Women are now participating in 35 countries, the organizers say.)
Buoyed by the massive turnout of the recent Women’s Marches, a group of volunteer activists in the U.S. decided to join the International Women’s Strike, describing their plans in a widely circulated story for The Guardian. There are 19 members on the national planning committee.
Then in February, the organizers of the Women’s March took to social media, announcing their plans for “A Day Without A Woman” general strike, though they did not specify a date. At that point, the activists behind the International Women’s Strike and the Women’s March decided, essentially, to combine efforts.
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