Women in Ft. Worth, Texas march for peace across an overpass bridge on International Women's Day, March 8, 2010

One hundred years ago, in 1910, at an international conference in Copenhagen of Working Women from seventeen countries, the feisty German politician Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of an International Women’s Day – one day every year for women to celebrate and press for their demands, focusing on the oppression and inequality women faced worldwide, and in the United States, on better pay and voting rights in particular.

In March, 1911, International Women’s Day was inaugurated throughout Europe, and in that same month the tragic ‘Triangle Fire’ took the lives of almost 150 working women in New York City. Later that year the Bread and Roses campaign began, a mobilization of textile workers on strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in which some women were reported to have carried signs that read “We want bread, but we want roses, too!” The struggle for fair wages and dignified conditions was on and would be the focus of the subsequent International Women’s Day events in years to come.

Last Monday, March 8, 2010, women (and our male allies) around the world marked the 100th year since International Women’s Day was conceived. But have the fruits of women’s labor birthed a new global paradigm? This year on March 8 women took action to draw attention to the many ways women continue to be oppressed and unequal, including “discriminatory laws, the high rate of pregnancy-related deaths in many parts of the world, the skewed sex ratio in China and India, the disproportionately high number of women who are killed and victimized by wars, the comparatively heavier burden of poverty on women, and the continuing disparity between men and women in terms of the quality of available employment and wages received.”  Women may be breaking glass ceilings in corporate ranks and military platoons, but are we actually shifting political discourse to end the roots of this oppression?

Incidentally, 2010 also marks thirty years since the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) by the United Nations General Assembly. The seven countries that have not ratified the international treaty are Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Nauru, Palau, Tonga… and the United States. Not only has this treaty not been passed, but the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution is still pending in Congress (it was reintroduced last year by two Congresswomen representing both sides of the political aisle).

The US has not yet been able to affirm that women and men have equal rights under the law, nor has it joined the long list of countries who honor International Women’s Day as an official holiday. Is it any wonder then that in our much-touted democracy few have even heard of International Women’s Day?

For those American activists who do know of this special day, it is a powerful opportunity to be vocal and in the streets that is hardly taken lightly. This year in the US activists joined hands to march across bridges over oceans, rivers, and that stream that’s more prevalent than water in urban areas: highways. Women marched in solidarity with women survivors of war around the world. At over 100 marches in cities around the world – from Rwanda, to the DR Congo, New York City, and London – thousands of women came together to say No! to war and Yes! to peace. The global effort, coordinated by Women for Women International, drew press attention and community awareness to not only the ongoing plight of women living in warzones, but also to their strength, courage, and resilience in the face of violence and destruction.

Zainab Salbi, the Executive Director of Women for Women, said on International Women’s Day, “As I reflect today…on a century of progress, I am given pause when I consider the harsh reality of life for millions of women around the world, women for whom survival remains a supreme challenge and empowerment remains a foreign concept. [The women marching today] protest the fact that women make up 70 percent of the world’s poor, 75 percent of the civilians killed in war (along with their children), and, according to the United Nations, receive only 10 percent of global income for 66 percent of the world’s work. They reject the narrative of violence and poverty they have inherited… Like life, peace begins with women. We are the first to forge lines of alliance and collaboration across conflict divides.”

CODEPINK, the women’s anti-war group best known for creative disruptions in Congressional hearings and “pink slipping” elected officials supporting war, could not agree more with Salbi. The organization’s mission calls on women to rise up and oppose wars of aggression, not because women are better or more pure than men, but because the men have “busied themselves making war” and because a personal love of one’s own family, community, and country leads naturally to “the love of a mother in Iraq for her children, and the driving desire of that child for life.”  CODEPINK joined the call to “Join Me on the Bridge” participating and coordinating marches across the US.

In New York City women clad in pink carried their “Women Say No to War” banner in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge and were joined by several groups of high school and elementary school kids (start ‘em young!). The march was met by the mayor in Manhattan and the park was filled with people, songs, and chanting.

In Redlands, California, a mighty band of four women, and two small children walked to the top of an overpass with signs and peace symbols in hand and stood vigil over the rumbling traffic. Peace signs, honks and waves inspired these gals to keep marching back and forth across the bridge. The group avows to continue the march by vigiling once a month in front of the district office for Congressman Jerry Lewis (R – CA) when the elementary school down the street releases the students. In Los Angeles, CODEPINK hosted a one mile walk over downtown’s Cesar Chavez Bridge and a brunch at Homegirl Café, a restaurant that was specifically created to employ and train women who come from difficult pasts, such as abusive relationships, for future careers in the service industry. They were joined by Women for Women and Office of the Americas, and their goal was to bring attention to local women’s issues while standing in solidarity with women around the world.

San Francisco CODEPINK and Women for Women members marched across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge together with a class of 44 kindergarden students, including one five year old boy who proudly carried a hand-made sign that read, “Treat Women Fairly!”

In Tucson, Arizona, women celebrated International Women’s Day with a march across the Diamondback Bridge and created a video of women’s voices for peace.   And in Washington, DC, women marched across the bridge over Dupont Circle and proceeded to stage a protest outside a beauty store carrying Ahava, beauty products for women made illegally in occupied Palestine.

Activists in Texas converged in San Antonio for a march with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, and in Fort Worth for a march across the pedestrian bridge in front of Arlington Heights High School.  Read a great article about this action here.  Local CODEPINK coordinator Yvette Richardson commented on CBS, “We’re all standing in unity for women’s rights and women’s solidarity. Women across the world from the Congo to Rwanda to Afghanistan to Iraq all over the world all over Europe all over the United States are joining on bridges today… We think that the women’s rights movement is over, but it’s not.”

Perhaps the most moving International Women’s Day report was the one that came in from the country that houses US Central Command: Bahrain. Christine Hasan reported that in Muharraq, Bahrain, Arabian Gulf, “We organized a photo shoot at our premises as we are a nursery and we could not take the children out to a bridge. We had boards in Arabic and English stating ‘We are Women, Mothers and Sisters. We build bridges of peace every day. Join us in peace and understanding.’ Our students decorated large cup cakes with Pink icing (for Code Pink), which teachers, mothers and students representing in all 10 nationalities gave out to ladies in the neighborhood and ladies in passing cars all the while telling them about the event. It was an amazing morning; filled with fun laughter, new friendships and that elusive thing, peace.”

International Women’s Day began as a rallying cry for women to rise up for economic equality and for justice. Today we are conceivably more in need of that cry than ever before. In the aftermath of the economic near-collapse of 2009 unemployment soars while the US pumps more funds and human fuel in to foreign wars. The $3 trillion dollar conquest for oil and power in Iraq and Afghanistan has left many Americans without affordable education or healthcare. Activist and playwrite Eve Ensler sums this up best in one of the teenage monologues in her new book, I am an Emotional Creature:

The Iraq war cost nearly $3 trillion.
I can’t even count that high
but I know
that money could have
would have
ended poverty in general
which would have canceled terrorism.
How come we have money to kill
but no money to feed or heal?
How come we have money to destroy
but no money for art or school?

The fundamentalists now have
billion-dollar private armies.
The Taliban is back
but never went away.
Women are burned, raped, bludgeoned, sold,
starved, and buried alive
and still don’t know they are the majority.

As it becomes legal for corporations to back candidates for federal office without financial restraint, as top-level bankers receive bonuses while the firing squads continue to X out low-level positions, and as private mercenaries continue to make a killing on US overseas occupations, it is time again for women to break our silence, unite in common cause, and invest our own resources and time in a more peaceful tomorrow.

One hundred years ago women marched with signs for “Bread and Roses” linking basic needs and respect. As Women’s History Month continues, this coming weekend, on March 20, Americans will mark seven years since the invasion of Iraq, and will again take to the streets with a similar demand for Jobs and Justice, for the kind of security that maintains livelihoods and the betterment of the next generation of sons and daughters, rather than the cultivation of terrorists and the profiting of the wealthy bank CEOs and Blackwater execs. Will you join in?

Rae Abileah is the Roseroots Coordinator for CODEPINK Women for Peace. She lives in San Francisco, CA, and can be contacted at rae[at]codepinkalert.org.

Here’s an excerpt from March 11:

This is my last day in Gaza before I head back to Cairo and then home to DC. And it’s strange, but I’m feeling “homesick” already. I feel both that I should stay here to show solidarity with the people  – joining the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) to help fishermen and farmers make a living — and to get to know this unique wedge of land and its population a little better. Today was jampacked with activities, starting with a tour of some of the most war-ravaged areas of Gaza (the bitter) and ending with a delightful evening with new friends I’ve made here who I hope will be lifelong acquaintances (the sweet).

Check out this excerpt from March 6:

There are 59 of us on the two buses.

Some you would expect to find in a Codepink delegation with a mission of breaking the siege on Gaza: The mother of a girl who was bulldozed to death by the Israeli army when trying to block a home demolition. A U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. A Pulitzer-prize-winning author and feminist. A producer for Democracy Now and videographer for Big Noise Films. A member of the board of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California.

Others would surprise you – perhaps even if you thought you knew them well. The owner of a small record label that specializes in jazz and blues. The manager of an art gallery and sometime candidate for mayor of Santa Fe. A high school math teacher. A veterinarian.

Most are from the United States, but they also hail from Canada, Australia, France, Turkey, Pakistan, Dubai and Egypt.

But no matter what their background or residence, we share the same mission: To focus the world’s attention on the continuing blockade of Gaza, and — in particular – to show solidarity with the women who must continue to hold their fragile families together despite extreme hardship.

A 60-member aid delegation – including novelist Alice Walker, the parents of Rachel Corrie, Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright – is currently on its way to enter Gaza, the first delegation of its size and kind to attempt to enter Gaza since July 2007. Delegates — which include members of the Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as doctors, businesspeople, lawyers and college students — will meet with Palestinian aid groups, Gazan women, and United Nations officials. They will also bear witness to the aftermath of the three-week Israeli assault earlier this year and deliver 2,000 gift baskets to Gazan women, purchased through an outpouring of donations through the CODEPINK website to honor Gazan women on International Women’s Day, March 8.

It is a photo of a young Palestinian girl who is literally buried alive in the rubble from a bomb blast, with just her head protruding from the ruins. Her eyes are closed, her mouth partially open, as if she were in a deep sleep. Dried blood covers her lips, her cheeks, her hair. Someone with a glove is reaching down to touch her forehead, showing one final gesture of kindness in the midst of such inhumanity.

What was this little girl’s name, I wonder. How old was she? Was she sleeping when the bomb hit her home? Did she die a quick death or a slow, agonizing one? Where are her parents, her siblings? How are they faring?

Of the 1,330 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military during the 22-day invasion of Gaza, 437 were children. Let me repeat that: 437 children—each as beautiful and precious as our own.

As a Jew, an American and a mother, I felt compelled to witness, firsthand, what my people and my tax dollars had done during this invasion. Visiting Gaza filled me with unbearable sadness. Unlike the primitive weapons of Hamas, the Israelis had so many sophisticated ways to murder, maim and destroy—unmanned drones, F-16s dropping “smart bombs” that miss, Apache helicopters launching missiles, tanks firing from the ground, ships shelling Gaza from the sea. So many horrific weapons stamped with Made in the USA. While Hamas’ attacks on Israeli villages are deplorable, Israel’s disproportionate response is unconscionable, with 1,330 Palestinians dead vs. 13 Israelis.

If the invasion was designed to destroy Hamas, it failed miserably. Not only is Hamas still in control, but it retains much popular support. If the invasion was designed as a form of collective punishment, it succeeded, leaving behind a trail of grieving mothers, angry fathers and traumatized children.

To get a sense of the devastation, check out a slide show circulating on the internet called Gaza: Massacre of Children (www.aztlan.net/gaza/gaza_massacre_of_children.php). It should be required viewing for all who supported this invasion of Gaza. Babies charred like shish-kebabs. Limbs chopped off. Features melted from white phosphorus. Faces crying out in pain, gripped by fear, overcome by grief.

Anyone who can view the slides and still repeat the mantra that “Israel has the right to self-defense” or “Hamas brought this upon its own people,” or worse yet, “the Israeli military didn’t go far enough,” does a horrible disservice not only to the Palestinian people, but to humanity.

Compassion, the greatest virtue in all major religions, is the basic human emotion prompted by the suffering of others, and it triggers a desire to alleviate that suffering. True compassion is not circumscribed by one’s faith or the nationality of those suffering. It crosses borders; it speaks a universal language; it shares a common spirituality. Those who have suffered themselves, such as Holocaust victims, are supposed to have the deepest well of compassion.

The Israeli election was in full swing while was I visiting Gaza. As I looked out on the ruins of schools, playgrounds, homes, mosques and clinics, I recalled the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, “No matter how strong the blows that Hamas received from Israel, it’s not enough.” As I talked to distraught mothers whose children were on life support in a bombed hospital, I thought of the “moderate” woman in the race, Tzipi Livni, who vowed that she would not negotiate with Hamas, insisted that “terror must be fought with force and lots of force” and warned that “if by ending the operation we have yet to achieve deterrence, we will continue until they get the message.”

“The message,” I can report, has been received. It is a message that Israel is run by war criminals, that the lives of Palestinians mean nothing to them. Even more chilling is the pro-war message sent by the Israeli people with their votes for Netanyahu, Livni and anti-Arab racist Avigdor Lieberman.

How tragic that nation born out of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust has become a nation that supports the slaughter of Palestinians.

Here in the U.S., Congress ignored the suffering of the Palestinians and pledged its unwavering support for the Israeli state. All but five members out of 535 voted for a resolution justifying the invasion, falsely holding Hamas solely responsible for breaking the ceasefire and praising Israel for facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza at a time when food supplies were rotting at the closed borders.

One glimmer of hope we found among people in Gaza was the Obama administration. Many were upset that Obama did not speak out during the invasion and that peace envoy George Mitchell, on his first trip to the Middle East, did not visit Gaza or even Syria. But they felt that Mitchell was a good choice and Obama, if given the space by the American people, could play a positive role.

Who can provide that space for Obama? Who can respond to the call for justice from the Palestinian people? Who can counter AIPAC, the powerful lobby that supports Israeli aggression?

An organized, mobilized, coordinated grassroots movement is the critical counterforce, and within that movement, those who have a particularly powerful voice are American Jews. We have the beginnings of a such a counterforce within the American Jewish community. Across the United States, Jews joined marches, sit-ins, die-ins, even chained themselves to Israeli consulates in protest. Jewish groups like J Street and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom lobby for a diplomatic solution. Tikkun organizes for a Jewish spiritual renewal grounded in social justice. The Middle East Children’s Alliance and Madre send humanitarian aid to Palestine. Women in Black hold compelling weekly vigils. American Jews for a Just Peace plants olive trees on the West Bank. Jewish Voice for Peace promotes divestment from corporations that profit from occupation. Jews Against the Occupation calls for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

We need greater coordination among these groups and within the broader movement. And we need more people and more sustained involvement, especially Jewish Americans. In loving memory of our ancestors and for the future of our—and Palestinian—children, more American Jews should speak out and reach out. As Sholom Schwartzbard, a member of Jews Against the Occupation, explained at a New York City protest, “We know from our own history what being sealed behind barbed wire and checkpoints is like, and we know that ‘Never Again’ means not anyone, not anywhere – or it means nothing at all.”

On March 7, I will return to Gaza with a large international delegation, bringing aid but more importantly, pressuring the Israeli, U.S. and Egyptian governments to open the borders and lift the siege. Many members of the delegation are Jews. We will travel in the spirit of tikkun olam, repairing the world, but with a heavy sense of responsibility, shame and yes, compassion. We will never be able to bring back to life the little girl buried in the rubble. But we can—and will-—hold her in our hearts as we bring a message from America and a growing number of American Jews: To Gaza, With Love.

Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of CODEPINK (www.codepinkalert.org ) and Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org). For information about joining the trip to Gaza, contact gaza.codepink@gmail.com.)