Women in over 30 countries will strike on International Women’s Day, this Wednesday, as part of “a new international feminist movement,” according to its platform. Students and faculty at The New School will be among those protesting, as the administration has encouraged professors to not mark student participants absent and some professors have cancelled class that day.
The International Women’s Strike platform describes the intentions of the movement as one that “organizes resistance not just against Trump and his misogynist policies, but also against the conditions that produced Trump, namely the decades long economic inequality, racial and sexual violence, and imperial wars abroad.” Their full platform outlines their principles, including an end to gender violence, reproductive rights for all women, and for an antiracist and anti-imperialist feminism.
On Friday, Mar 3, the office of Student Success sent an email out to New School students with guidelines for the strike, instructing students that intend to participate in the strike to make arrangements with their professors. The email stated that university leadership supports participation and will be as flexible as possible.
The International Women’s Strike stands in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman, also taking place on Mar 8. A Day Without A Woman is planned by the organizers of the Women’s March that took place on Saturday, Jan 21. A Day Without A Woman intends to show the economic value of women and their contributions, while the International Women’s Strike aims to start a new feminist movement for the 99 percent, poised against capitalism and neoliberalism. The International Women’s Strike portrays itself as more radical and directed than the Women’s March in January.
“We are not for resistance if resistance means fighting to restore the status quo… As we said in the original manifesto, the issue is not just Trump. Trump is just the tip of the ice in a machine of exploitation, expropriation, and oppression that has had us by the throat for a long long time, ” said Nancy Fraser, a professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research and an organizer of the International Women’s Strike.
Fraser was the opening speaker at an event held on Feb 28 titled, “Building a Feminism for the 99%: Mobilization for International Women’s Strike” at the Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall. The event was organized by Mayra Cotta Cardozo de Souza, a graduate student pursuing a PhD in politics at NSSR and featured professors, students, lawyers, and activists stating the intentions and context of the International Women’s Strike.
The International Women’s Strike’s press statement lists the ways they plan to strike in addition to the work strike, including boycotting local misogynists and striking from gender roles. Cotta de Souza suggested more ways people could contribute. “We’re doing an intense campaign online. [Supporters] can organize locally, go to offices [of representatives] in their neighborhood. Start a conversation in the workplace,” she said. She also suggested wearing the color red on International Women’s Day to support the strike.
“The strike is not the end goal. We consider March 8th to be the beginning,” said organizer Cinzia Arruzza, an Assistant Professor of philosophy at NSSR.
Photo by Julia Himmel.