Organizers in the U.S. encouraged women to refrain from working, spending money (or, alternatively, electing to shop only at "small, women- and minority-owned businesses"), and to wear red as a sign of solidarity.
Platform
The strike was organized by international coalitions of activists with a range of articulated demands.
Platforms of US-based organizers
The American strike platform demanded "open borders", freedom from "immigration raids", and "the decolonization of Palestine" as ancillary goals to "emancipation of women".[1][2]
The group of 8 well-known activists who issued the first call for a March 8, 2017 strike in the United States described it as "anti-capitalist", "anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist", "anti-neoliberal", and opposed to "the violence of the market, of debt, of capitalist property relations, and of the state; the violence of discriminatory policies against lesbian, trans and queer women; the violence of state criminalization of migratory movements."[3]
Journalists noted how women's marches and multi-issue general strikes had effected changes outside the United States.[11][12] Most notably, the International Women's Strike encouraged women around the world to go on strike on the same day as the Women's March strike.[4]
The Women's March organizers, which included political activists Angela Davis and Linda Sarsour,[13] encouraged all participating women, regardless of whether they were striking, to take similar actions as those taken during the "Bodega Strike" and the Day Without Immigrants—not shopping, except at small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities;[14][15] and wearing red in solidarity,[16][14] since red has traditionally been the color of labor movements around the world.[15] The organizers also asked participants to not work on that day, either in paid or unpaid labor.[14][17][15] Men participating in the strike could show support by performing that day's housework and childcare duties.[15] A week after the original announcement, the event's organizers announced the strike's date as March 8, 2017, which was when that year's International Women's Day occurred.[17][18]
An International Women's Day strike took place in over 50 different countries and in 400 cities across the world.[21] There were tens of thousands of women in Poland demonstrating for women's rights.[19]
Some criticism of the strike was aimed at the sense of white privilege critics felt was present.[33] These critics felt that the idea was a good one, but felt that only women in good economic situations, mostly consisting of white women, would be able to take part, as women of color (who disproportionately make up minimum-wage jobs) would not have the freedom to take time off work without the fear of losing their jobs.[33][34]
In response to this criticism, strike organizers pointed out that other strikers in different eras were not considered "privileged". Sarsour said, "We honor the women who striked in the Montgomery bus boycott...Are those privileged women? What about the farmworkers that said 'we will not pick this produce without worker's protections?' Were those people privileged?"[21]
In video gaming circles, some of the debate shifted toward journalist Colin Moriarty when he left Kinda Funny over a poorly received joke about the protest.[35][36]
See also
Fearless Girl, temporary sculpture installed in New York City on March 8, 2017
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