This isnt just a trend for us: why New York women went on strike, in their own words

The crowd at the International Women’s Day Rally at Washington Square Park is ready to keep fighting.


NEW YORK, NY — A little more than a century ago, the tragic deaths of 145 garment workers — most of whom were women, many immigrants — became a rallying cause for America’s burgeoning labor movement. The fire at the now infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, became a symbol for the right to safe workplaces, better work conditions for immigrants, and women’s rights more broadly. And on March 8, only blocks from where that factory once stood, women gathered in Washington Square Park to strike on International Women’s Day for equal rights and access in the workplace.

The crowd, awash in red, stood with handmade signs blasting everything from President Donald Trump to monochromatic feminism as it waited for the signal to march down to Zuccotti Park, the site of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street demonstration. Along the way, marchers would pass the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the Stonewall Inn, and the African Burial Ground. Many had taken off work to support the Day Without a Woman strike, some holding signs acknowledging that not all women could afford to join them.

Even though a shoddy sound system threatened to swallow the passionate speeches whole — and several strike organizers had been arrested for blocking traffic hours earlier — the crowd buzzed moments before taking to the streets, trading stories and chants. (“Feminism for the masses, not just for the ruling classes!”)

http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/9/14863948/day-without-a-woman-strike-new-york-city