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Dear Friends,

Please join me on Saturday March 8 in a worldwide celebration of International Women's Day with a minute of silence at Noon.

International Women's Day (IWD) is marked on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women and a celebration of the political struggles of women worldwide.

The first IWD was observed in the United States on 28 February 1909, following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. 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. On March 8, 1857 in New York City women from clothing and textile factories staged one such protest. The garment workers were protesting very poor working conditions and low wages. The protesters were attacked and dispersed by police. These women established their first labor union in the same month two years later.

More protests followed on 8 March in subsequent years, most notably in 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen and an 'International Women's Day' was established, submitted by German Socialist Clara Zetkin. The following year, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. However, soon thereafter (New York, 1911), the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed over 140 garment workers. A lack of safety measures was blamed for the high death toll. Furthermore, on the eve of World War I, women across Europe held peace rallies on 8 March 1913. In the West, International Women's Day has been commemorated since the 1910s and particularly during the rise of feminism in the 1970s.

Demonstrations marking International Women's Day in Russia proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik feminist Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday in Russia, and it was established, but was a working day until 1965, when it was declared as a non working day. The 1932 Soviet poster dedicated to the 8th of March holiday reads: "8th of March is the day of the rebellion of the working women against the kitchen slavery" and "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of the household work!". In Italy, to celebrate the day, men give yellow mimosas to women. In 1975, which had been designated as International WomenÕs Year, the United Nations gave official sanction to and began sponsoring International Women's Day. The 2005 Congress of the British Trades Union Congress overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for IWD to be designated a public holiday in the United Kingdom.

Be well,

Monica Gazzo

Brief Bio (for more detailed information, please refer to the Résumé page):
Monica Gazzo is a graduate from the San Francisco Art Institute (MFA). Her films have been shown at the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood, Los Angeles Filmforum, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood), Melnitz Theatre at University of California, Los Angeles, New Festival at NYU, New York City, Cleveland International Film Festival, Cleveland, Ohio, MadCat Women's International Film Festival, Angels Gate Cultural Center, Anais Nin Video & Film Diary Festival, Big Sur, California, 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, New Orleans, LA, State University at Binhampton (SUNY), Film Arts Festival, Roxie Cinema, San Francisco; UC Theater, Berkeley, Beaubourg Pompidou Center, Paris and the London Filmmaker's Coop, amongst other venues. She has received grants from the City of Los Angeles, Cultural Affairs and Youth Services Department, Long Beach Museum of Art / Video Annex, the Ahmanson Foundation, the California Arts Council, the California Community Foundation, the Italian Cultural Institute and others. thers.

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