International Working Women’s Day: Stand Up and Speak Out

To observe the International Working Women’s Day, an international gathering of low-wage workers, students, immigrants, union and community activists joined women, youth, parents and grandparents whose loved ones were killed by the police.

This March 8, 2015 marked the 104th anniversary of the first IWD when one million women marched for jobs and rights. Organized by International Working Women’s Day Coalition (IWWD), across the country, youth, unorganized, organized and immigrant workers, people with disabilities; Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, Muslim, Asian and LGBTQ communities took a stand against police and state terror.

A recent study, “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpriced and Under Protected”, released by the African American Policy Forum and Columbia’s Law School’s Center for Intersectionality & Social Policy, sheds light on the crisis facing Black girls who are pushed out school, onto a path of low income jobs or criminalization. As compared to white girls in New York City, 90 percent of the girls expelled were Black. This report calls for the inclusion of girls of color in the discourse around racial justice.

To bring this and other issues to focus, there was a Speak Out and a March by Herald Square, demonstrating outrage.

Following are photographs of the March, by Saswat Pattanayak for WomensRightsNY.com –