Primary Artist: Terry Forman
Created: San Francisco Collective, 1979
Medium: Silkscreen
Dimensions: 18.25″ x 24″
Although International Women’s Day, now celebrated on March 8th, has become a worldwide corporate phenomenon, it was originally a day celebrated by radical women to demand freedom and equality—not only for themselves, but for everyone. The date honors the scores of women who were killed in theNew York Triangle Shirtwaist Factory of 1911. Women marked IWD in street protests and in cultural celebrations.
In 1979, women from various organizations including Prairie Fire Organizing Committee and Women Against Imperialism marked the day in solidarity with women from Latin America. This was a time of both great ferment and great repression all over Latin America. In July, the Sandinistas overthrew the hated dictator, Somoza, but in other countries, military dictatorships were becoming stronger in what would be called the Dirty wars. Women played ever growing roles in these liberation struggles and formed their own organizations throughout the region. Radical women in the US looked to them for inspiration and in solidarity.
Image: Photograph of Central American women.
Words: Celebrate International Women’s Day. WOMEN’S CULTURAL NIGHT. Speakers: Marta Rodriguez, Avotcja, Maria Cora, Disturbing the Peace.
Color: black ink on white paper.
Event: Women’s Cultural Night in San Francisco, CA.
Sponsors: Movimiento de Liberación Nacional MLN, National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War, New Movement in Solidarity with Puerto Rican Independence and Socialism, Women Against Imperialism, Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.
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