Although the origin of Take Back The Night (TBTN) is not clear, it has become an internationally recognized event with rich herstory, occurring worldwide since the 1970's. Here in the United States most people acknowledge that San Francisco held the first TBTN is November 1978. At this groundbreaking event over 5,000 people from over 30 states gathered to demonstrate. These early participants later returned to their own communities with plans to organize their own TBTN marches. Every April communities across the United States join together for Take Back The Night marches, rallies and speak-outs in an effort to end sexual assault in their cities and towns and give survivors a place to heal. Beginning March 28, Case Western Reserve University's Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance will present a week-long series of events which raise awareness about sexual assault and violence against women, and also provide a venue to speak out and to be empowered in the face of violence.
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Related: Sexual Assault Awareness Month

March 14th women took the bridge that allows entrance to the Biscuit Fire forests and a beautiful diverse National Forest. Among those women was Joan Norman. Joan is a 72-year-old woman who has been an activist for over 30 years. On March 8th she was arrested for blocking a bridge the leads into one of the most botantically diverse national forests on the North American continent. Z interviewed her on March 13th at the Siskiyou forest defenders camp near Selma, Oregon.

Joan Norman - Tell them to come with fire in their bellies

Joan is a 72-year-old woman who has been an activist for over 30 years. On March 8th she was arrested for blocking a bridge the leads into one of the most botantically diverse national forests on the North American continent. Z interviewed her on March 13th at the Siskiyou forest defenders camp near Selma, Oregon.

Joan: There are only 5% of the old growth trees left in the United States. They are clearcutting paradise; they are doing it in spite of a legal injunction. The courts don’t work against evil anymore. It’s time to stand up. Whatever rules and laws that civil society once had are now gone. This is the time we have been waiting for, we knew it would come, and we are the ones we have been waiting for. Yes, the people to rise up!

Z: You mean we need to get some fire in our bellies?

This day was initiated in 1996 and was co-sponsored by many national organizations and individuals, as a way to help stop the isolation and create a positive climate for abortion providers across the country. Unfortunately, many people don't realize what it's like on a day-to-day basis for those working in abortion clinics. I ask that you pause, just a moment, and consider what some people who work in clinics deal with daily. Abortion clinics have functioned on red alert 24/7 for decades. Read Full Article

Related: Poster Image
Related: Reproductive Rights Conference Announcement
Related: Organizing Information
Related: Stories Shared
Related: Informative Previous Press Release

I set out to write a feature article for the Cleveland Indymedia center column. As I stared at the blank page in front of me and the stack of research and articles beside me I realize I could not write an article presenting all the herstory that has brought this day recognition. I have added below various articles related to this days significance. In no way is this meant to represent the struggles faced by womyn globally, but has been done in hopes to encourage the reader to become further educated on such concerns.

If you have an article or story to share related to womyn feel free to Open Publish to the newswire. Posting to the site can be done anonymously.

Related: Global Womyns Strike

8 articles below

Angela Davis spoke at the First Church in Oberlin last night (March 7, 2005) to a packed crowd of students, faculty and community members to commemorate International Women's Day. Here is an audio recording of Angela Davis' lecture "Resistance and Power: The New Abolitionism?" at Oberlin College. Read More

The University of Akron's Women Studies Program will mark Women's International Day on March 8th at 7 p.m. at the Martin Center with a presentation and panel discussion by four women who have been active in the peace movement. Read More

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:

1909

In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913. Read More

Women's Day or Working Women's Day is a day of international solidarity, and a day for reviewing the strength and organization of proletarian women.

But if this is a general holiday for all the proletariat, why do we call it "Women's Day"? Why then do we hold special celebrations and meetings aimed above all at the women workers and the peasant women? Doesn't this jeopardize the unity and solidarity of the working class? To answer these questions, we have to look back and see how Women's Day came about and for what purpose it was organized.

Thoughts on Transformations, International Women's Day 2005

by Luciente Zamora

Revolutionary Worker #1270, March 13, 2005, posted at rwor.org

Mariela wears a big red flower in her hair.
Her walls, paintings, poems, and culinary delights are bold statements
full of color and unexpected sazón.
She can hike up rocky hills wearing a summer skirt and platform shoes--
she laughs loudly and full of sentimiento. Read More

The International Women's Day, or International Woman's Day, is on 8 March every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. Amongst other relevant historic events, it commemorates the Triangle Factory Fire (New York, 1911), where over 140 women lost their lives. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions. Women from clothing and textile factories staged one such protest on March 8th, 1857 in New York City. The garment workers were protesting what they saw as very poor working conditions and low wages. Read More

By Peter Bell

ATLANTA (March 8, 2005) - Since the first rally for women's rights in Europe in 1911, men and women have marked International Women's Day by insisting that the rights and dignity of women be upheld. This March 8, International Women's Day, we celebrate the progress made by women throughout the world since 1911 in challenging boundaries and claiming their rights. We honor their contributions to building strong families, communities and societies. Read More

Two women from Women for Peace will be appearing at Melbourne magistrates Court on 7th and 8th March to defend their protest at the Shine of Remembrance on 11/11/03, where they were attacked, assaulted and arrested. They welcome supporters and claim that the right of dissent is on trial.

On 11/11/03, with the illegal invasion of Iraq killing 100,000 people, eight women from Women for Peace: No Weapons No Wars, went to the Melbourne Shrine on Remembrance Day to protest against all wars, and to grieve for victims killed and wounded. Caprice was assaulted by an ex-service man, then arrested and charged with trespass, assaulting police, & resisting arrest. Reta was charged with trespass, resisting arrest & offensive behaviour. The man was commended for assisting police, and NOT charged.

In November 2004 Reta Kaur was acquitted of criminal damage after she wrote 'the killing has started' in red paint and placed red handprints on two statues outside the US Consulate in Melbourne in 2003.

[Women for Peace | Vicpeace | Iraq reports]

United Nations Development Fund for Women (New York)
DOCUMENT
March 7, 2005
Posted to the web March 7, 2005

Celebrating Our Gains, Accelerating Change

International Women’s Day 2005 marks a crossroads for women. In the decade since Beijing, the signs of progress are many. There is growing recognition that gender equality is a prerequisite for eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable development, as stated in the Millennium Declaration.

The spread of HIV/AIDS has been recognized as a gender issue, as well as a health issue, and the impact of war on women and women’s role in peace-building is recognized and validated by Security Council resolution 1325. Women’s human rights — monitored and upheld by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and ratified by 179 countries — are now on every major agenda, national, regional and international. Read More

On Thursday December 2, the day the Ohio Marriage Amendment took effect, 75 - 100 people gathered on the corner of W. 25th Street and Lorain. Members of the Greater Cleveland lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community joined with heterosexual allies to speak out against this institutionalized homophobia and discrimination. Folks began to gather in Market Square Park at 4:00 pm. Many had signs, flags, and banners. There were several speakers including, Parents of LGBT Children, LGBT Families, and Children of LGBT Parents. The demonstration for equality ended close to 5:30 pm.
Read the announcement for the rally

Photos from Gay Equality Protest

Further Reading:
Ohio / Cleveland Marriage Ban Effects

Out For Justice / Issue 1 action center

An interview by Christian Parenti 24oct00
Christian Parenti teaches sociology at the New College of California in San Francisco.

What happens to old Black Panthers? Some wind up dead, like Huey P. Newton. Some join the Moonies and the Republican Party, like Eldridge Cleaver. Some, like Mumia Abu Jamal, languish in prison. But a few, like Assata Shakur, have taken the path of the "maroon," the runaway slave of old who slipped off the plantation to the free jungle communities known as "palenques." Two decades ago Shakur was described as "the soul of the Black Liberation Army (BLA)," an underground, paramilitary group that emerged from the rubble of east coast chapters of the Black Panther Party. Among her closest political comrades was Ahfeni Shakur, Tupac Shakur's mother. Forced underground in 1971, by charges that were later proved false, Assata was accused of being the "bandit queen" of the BLA; the "mother hen who kept them together, kept them moving, kept them shooting." The BLA's alleged actions included: assassinating almost ten police officers, kidnapping drug dealers (one of whom turned out to be an FBI agent), and robbing banks from coast to coast.

Throughout 1971 and 1972 "Assata sightings" and wild speculation about her deeds were a headline mainstay for New York tabloids. Then, in 1973, Shakur and two friends were pulled over by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. During the stop, shooting erupted. A trooper and one alleged BLA member were killed, another trooper was slightly hurt and Assata-or Miss Joanne Chesimard, as authorities preferred to call her-was severely wounded by a blast of police gunfire. Left to die in a paddy wagon, she survived only to be charged for the trooper's death and sentenced to life in prison. During the next six years (much of it spent in solitary confinement), Shakur beat a half dozen other indictments. In 1979-after giving birth in prison, only to have her daughter taken away in less than a week-Assata Shakur managed one of the most impressive jailbreaks of the era. After almost a year in a West Virginia federal prison for women, surrounded by white supremacists from the Aryan Sisterhood prison gang, Shakur was transferred to the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Center in New Jersey. There she was one of only eight maximum security prisoners held in a small, well-fenced cellblock of their own. The rest of Clinton-including its visiting area-was medium security and not fenced in. According to news reports at the time, Shakur's November 2 escape proceeded as follows: Three men-two black, one white-using bogus drivers licenses and Social Security cards, requested visits with Assata four weeks in advance, as was prison policy. But prison officials never did the requisite background checks. On the day of the escape, the team of three met in the waiting room at the prison entrance, where they were processed through registration and shuttled in a van to the visiting room in South Hall. One member of the team went ahead of the rest. Although there was a sign stating that all visitors would be searched with a hand held metal detector-he made it through registration without even a pat-down. Meanwhile, the other two men were processed without a search. As these two were being let through the chain-link fences and locked metal doors at the visiting center one of them drew a gun and took the guard hostage. Simultaneously, the man visiting Shakur rushed the control booth, put two pistols to the glass wall, and ordered the officer to open the room's metal door. She obliged. From there Shakur and "the raiders"-as some press reports dubbed them-took a third guard hostage and made it to the parked van. Because only the maximum security section of the prison was fully fenced-in the escape team was able to speed across a grassy meadow to the parking lot of the Hunterdon State School, where they meet two more female accomplices, and split up into a "two-tone blue sedan" and a Ford Maverick. All the guards were released unharmed and the FBI immediately launched a massive hunt. But Shakur disappeared without a trace.

For the next five years authorities hunted in vain. Shakur had vanished. Numerous other alleged BLA cadre were busted during those years, including Tupac's uncle, Mutula Shakur. In 1984 word came from 90 miles off the coast of Florida. The FBI's most wanted female fugitive was living in Cuba, working on a masters degree in political science, writing her autobiography, and raising her daughter.

Cut to 1997. It's a stunningly hot summer afternoon in Havana, Cuba-the ultimate palenque-and I am having strong, black coffee with Assata Shakur who just turned 50, but looks more like 36. She keeps a low profile, security is still a big concern. She's finishing her second book. Given how much the Fed's want this woman locked up, I feel strange being in her house, as if my presence is a breach of security.

PARENTI: How did you arrive in Cuba?
SHAKUR: Well, I couldn't, you know, just write a letter and say "Dear Fidel,I'd like to come to your country." So I had to hoof it-come and wait for the Cubans to respond. Luckily, they had some idea who I was, they'd seen some of the briefs and UN petitions from when I was a political prisoner. So they were somewhat familiar with my case and they gave me the status of being a political refugee. That means I am here in exile as a political person.
PARENTI:How did you feel when you got here?
Read Full Article and Interview

My name is Assata ("she who struggles") Shakur ("the thankful one"), and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government's policy towards people of color.
Link to Assata Shakur Website

CWRU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance

Take Back The Night is an international movement that is organized in communities with the purpose of unifying all people in an awareness of violence against women, children and families. tbtn is a collaboration of community and campus and other interested persons who are ready to take a stand against violence and make the night safe for everyone.

2004 Take Back The Night schedule

International Womyn's Day

Read the Feature Presented by india.indymedia.org

Womyn & girls do 2/3 of the world's work, most of it unwaged

Herstory: March 8 - International Day of the Rebel Woman Today, March 8, 2001, the international day of rebel women, zapatista women, through three of their Comandantas who are members of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee - and who are all part of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation delegation which is reaching the gates of Mexico City today - say their word: (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) l Read More about the Zapatista women

Mujeres Libres The debate on the role of women in Spain, was never a sterile one. It was seen as an ongoing process. Mujeres Libres arose out of the experience of women in struggle, and they emphasised the importance of women learning through work in the factories, the communities and in libertarian movement. Out of these actions, new idea's arose. l read more

Global List of Women's Organizations A Subdivision of Fullmoon's Web

While many people in Northeast Ohio are still celebrating Cleveland Heights' historic domestic partnership registry victory last month, Ohio Governor Bob Taft wasted no time in joining Ohio as the 38th state to ban gay marriage.

While some consider it one of the toughest same-sex "marriage" bans in the United States, others readily compare it to dig[ging] the graves of Auschwitz.

The Lesbian Gay Community Center of Greater Cleveland is calling for immediate action. Feel free to join the debate

Gay Peoples Chronicle

compiled by kris

The Mexican State of Chihuahua is the most dangerous place to be a young woman in the Americas. In the last ten years, in the city of Juarez alone, some 268 women have been murdered and at least 250 more have disappeared. These women have perished in brutal circumstances that include sexual assault, torture, and mutilation. This phenomenon reached Chihuahua City in 1999. This horrifying wave of violence against women is unprecedented in Mexico and Latin America.

The actions of the Mexican authorities in response to these crimes have been ineffectual. Existing laws have not been upheld. Legislation dealing with sexual violence and disappearance is sorely needed. False evidence and false accusations of guilt flaw too many investigations. The murders and disappearances have been carried out by many different perpetrators, but a generalized atmosphere of impunity facilitates all of them. The right to life, to live in safety, to due process and to justice has all been violated time after time.

For several years, the families of the victims have led scores of protests against the violence and against the failures of the authorities to respond adequately and protect the citizenry. JUSTICE FOR OUR DAUGHTERS was formed in 2002 in Chihuahua City. It is a group made up of families of the victims and their legal advocates and supporters. They struggle for justice and human rights in Mexico. They call for attention to the needs of Mexico's growing population of young working women. They demand an end to stigmatizing of women who need to work outside their homes to support themselves and their families. They demand the creation of new laws to promote public safety, proper legal management of missing person cases, and scientifically accurate identification of human remains. They also rightfully demand that any representative of state authority who does not fulfill his or her duty to uphold the law and protect the Mexican citizenry should be held accountable and punished.

If the Mexican authorities fail to uphold internationally recognized standards of human rights, then the Mexican State is also responsible for the perpetuation of these crimes and should be subject to sanction from the international community. The fact that disappearance is not a crime in Mexico cannot serve as rationale for ignoring the escalating violence against women in Chihuahua.

Unfortunately, the families of the victims and their supporters have been subjected to repression carried out by agents of the Mexican State. For demanding justice, for exercising their right to freedom of expression and for seeking support from the international human rights community, they have been harassed, beaten, tortured, publicly defamed, falsely accused of crimes and arrested.

En espanol

Read newswire article. In Memory list of names.