It seems appropriate on International Women’s Day and the day of the Wyoming caucus to begin by honoring the Equality State for electing the United States’ very first female governor, Nellie Ross.

Unfortunately, around the world and even within the USA, there is still a long way to go in the struggle for equality and human rights. From domestic violence to genital mutilation to child slavery, many women’s daily reality is one of constant suffering.

Today, March 8, is International Women's Day.  We are steeped in politics here, but I didn't want to let the day go by without some mention of the occasion.

Before 9/11/01, the media relegated stories about women in Islamic societies to page B27, below the fold. Ever since 9/12/01, those same stories have screamed from the front pages in 100-point type. The shift in discourse coincided with the launch of Bush's global "War on Terror," when various hawks began using the plight of women in Islam to illustrate the supposed perfidy of our "enemies," and to justify a series of military "interventions" -- invasions -- by Western powers.

Today, March 8, is the 99th annual International Women's Day.  

International Women's Day has been observed since 1909, and was created amidst a global hotbed of activity by and for women. We celebrate by getting to know our first female Heads of State. This list is not exhaustive, and does not account for many female firsts that were appointed but never elected, and others may have been overlooked. Feel free to educate me in the comments, as that what this month-long celebration of women is all about!

Please don't forget to hit the rec button if you like this diary. Thanks.

Cross posted at MyDD

By Lenora Lapidus, director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project.

On the eve of the celebration of the 98th Annual International Women’s Day, the international human rights community is sending a clear message to the United States government that it needs to step up and put an end to violence against and exploitation of immigrant women, Native American women, and women of color.  

With the approach of International Women's Day, Winter Soldier II and the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, cointelpro types and nutjobs from the right have targeted CodePink and the Raging Grannies more intensively than before. There was some fallout from yesterday's bombing of the recruiting station in Times Square, with wingnut after wingnut attempting to blame these two groups which are well known for counter-recruiting protests.

Despite this we carried on and had a successful and peaceful day at Hunter College, with more to come tomorrow at Columbia University and on Sunday in Huntington, Long Island. If you're in either area and want to learn who we REALLY are and what we REALLY do, come check us out!

More beneath the fold...

Much of the world will be celebrating on March 8th because it is International Women's Day.  When lecturing in Italy some years ago my wife was given a small sprig of yellow mimosas to wear.  We were to dine with colleagues that night in a favorite place of theirs, but had a hard time getting a place because the women were having a blast and had taken over the place.  They set up a small table for us and we got to watch the celebration.  It was something!  In France women get a small bunch of lillies of the valley to wear.  Of course everyone in the US is not as apt to go all out, if they are aware of the day at all.  So why the big fuss on March 8?  Look below the fold and I'll tell you more.

CodePink's web site is under a distributed denial-of-service attack. Their service provider is working on the problem but their award-winning web page is down for the duration. As a system administrator myself, I'm actually rather surprised it took this long for the freeptards to do this to CodePink.

I am not exactly sure what the timing of this attack is supposed to signify, or whether it is in retaliation for something in particular.

However, there is some nice New York and Long Island CodePink news that ordinarily would be available on the CodePink web site that I will now provide here. In the finest tradition of internet sustainability, I shall view freeptardism as damage (brain damage, mostly) and route around it. :)

UPDATE: the site is now back up.

More below the fold if you're interested...

                                   

Here's the story of how the Danish government and police, acting on behalf of an extreme right-wing fundamentalist cult group with mucho kroner, tore down the building at Jagtvej 69, Copenhagen, where International Women's Day was first organized in 1910 by such legendary feminist fighters as Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg:

                     

and the determined resistance of the young people, artists, hippies and anarchists that tried to save the "Ungdomshuset", or Youth House:

I'm frankly surprised the DailyKos has nothing on International Women's Day on its website. For a Progressive Publication to miss any mention of that holiday is I think a little bit surprising.

Today, March 8, is the 150th anniversary of a protest by garment and textile workers in New York City. Those workers, as you might guess from their jobs, were women. Bad working conditions, a euphemism for the reality of their Dickensian factories - and appallingly low wages - pushed these previously powerless women into the streets.

The cops acted for the plutocrats and their legislative puppets, attacking the protesters and forcing them off the public thoroughfare in a fine example of the bloody reality which so often has accompanied the ideals enshrined in our nation‘s great documents, but has been frequently ignored by state authority right up to the present day.

The protesters responded by forming a union before the end of May.

Today, March 8, is International Women's Day.  With just minutes left of it (in my time zone), I didn't want to let it get away without some mention of this occasion.

International Women's Day is promoted by the United Nations as a celebration of empowerment of women. The holiday has roots in Women's Day, started in the USA in 1909 and in other countries a few years later. It was to encourage equality and the extension of voting rights to women.

When I look at my calendar (Quo Vadis) I love to note all the different holidays around the world. For example 6 February is Waitangi Day in New Zealand and I imagine myself popping into the  ANZAC club for a celebratory beer.

Boys' Day, and more recently, Girls' Day are celebrated by hanging a kite in the shape of a fish outside the front door in Hawaii. What did I miss today?

Should I call my Mom?

Today, March 8th, is International Women's Day.

On March 8th, International Women's Day and March 20th, the three-year anniversary of the Iraq war, Global Exchange and CODEPINK plan to highlight the issue of women and war: