ohb

for all those International women out there

Tuesday morning and all I can say is thank God for Klara Tsetkin. For those of you not up to scratch on Communist history (I only found out about her on Sunday) she was one of the instigators of "International Women's Day". Inspired by an American holiday commemorating working women this German socialist initially encouraged people to mark this day in an attempt to push for the end of WW1. Later, (1918) she led a march for women's rights and peace that merged with the riots already taking place in St. Petersburg which eventually led to the abdication of the Czar and the instigation of the first Socialist government in Russia. In other words she became a friend of "Father Lenin" and twisted his arm into making the 8th of March an official holiday in the Communist calendar.
Now, here the coincidences begin. We were talking about "International Women's Day" in work the other day and Serge was singing the praises of this woman called Angela Davies, whom no-one had heard of. Andrew dismissed her as the only American female communist -ever, but Serge was convinced of her value as a 'progressive woman' and reckoned that any 'progressive woman' must know who she is. I accepted my title of 'a non-progressive woman' willingly.
At the party (all in good time) on Sunday, Serge informed us that he was wrong and that the 'progressive woman' responsible for "International Women's Day" was the afore mentioned Klara Tsetkin.
This is the woman whom my street is called after. My house is number 26, (the age I am now) and my apartment is number 10 (I haven't figured out any relevance for that yet, but i'll let you know when I do)

posted by orlagh @ 3:16 am