International Women's Day (2001) The 8th of March is celebrated worldwide as International Women's Day. That day is quite well known by people in the developed countries although its origins are not so famous. If we are not careful we could end up thinking that it was established about twenty years ago by the United Nations who have adopted it as one of its many "humanitarian activities" and now present it as a day for celebration, without any political or militant content, the main idea being that "things were terrible but now we are more or less OK".
Workers' Health - a burden on the shoulders of the textile-garment industry The following article has been specially translated for In Defence of Marxism from the Vietnamese newspaper Lao Dong ("Labour") . It gives a remarkable picture of conditions in the Vietnamese textile industry.
Interview with an Internationalist Communist from Turkey: the experience of a communist woman organising political work among working class women in Turkey What are your experiences with political work among women in Turkey?A: In 1973 the leadership of the TKP decided to organise the party underground. This was combined with the attempt to build legal mass movements, the trade unions, a youth organisation and also the working women's movement. In 1975 we built the Women's Association. Starting as a very small force we began to work in the suburbs and working-class districts. Soon we came into contact with women workers from different factories.
