Salford: International Women’s Day meeting full of interesting debate

Young women on the national anti-austerity demo, June 2015, photo Socialist Party

Young women on the national anti-austerity demo, June 2015, photo Socialist Party   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Sally Griffiths, Salford Socialist Party

On International Women’s Day, 8 March, Salford Socialist Party hosted a well-attended public meeting with some interesting debates. We kicked off with the Russian Revolution and how it was women’s action that was the tipping point.

We had a discussion on how women are the section of workers who are more often starkly affected by austerity and in the Russia this included the effects of World War One.

We discussed women today in the workforce and at home and the attacks by the Tories (and the Blairites) which are directly affecting women.

We discussed the lack of positive imagery regarding powerful women. How does that look today? What imagery do we see of working class women and the strength of women’s solidarity?

Once the workers were in power in Russia the Bolsheviks used imagery of strong women and their input to the workers’ struggle with no sexualisation.

We heard about Alexandra Kollontai, a leader within the Bolshevik party who became a secretary of state after the revolution and introduced many changes in society to equalise the position of women, giving them powers and time and space to develop their ideas.

We raised nearly £30 fighting fund.