On this International Working Women’s Day, the American Communist Party would like to honor the revolutionary spirit of women workers, activists, and leaders who have fought vigorously against capitalist exploitation, oppression, and inequality.

International Working Women’s Day is rooted in the legacy of working-class women’s struggles for higher wages, better working conditions, and the right to organize. It was to honor the memory of the courageous 1909 strike of women garment workers in New York that led the German communist, Clara Zetkin, to propose an International Working Women’s Day.

It would first be celebrated as a national holiday by American socialists and communists in 1910 before becoming an international holiday in 1911. Contrary to the capitalists’ attempt to sanitize its significance, the origins of this holiday are rooted in women’s struggles against the parasitic capitalist system that continues to exploit and indebt men and women around the world.

As Alexandra Kollontai put it, the “struggle for the full and absolute liberation of women means the struggle for the victory of communism.” This is a struggle that both men and women embark on together, shoulder to shoulder, as revolutionary workers.

Women, as Mao said, “hold up half the sky.” In the history of revolutions women have always played a fundamental role as workers, revolutionaries, and mothers.

The American Communist Party will continue the revolutionary fight which gave rise to International Working Women’s Day. Together we can rid this world of those who exploit, oppress, and drown working-class people in debt.

The Future Belongs to the Working Class.