Toe, by most reckonings, the 100th was last year - and those who disagree put it a year or two EARLIER:
Wiki article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_DayThe first national Women's Day was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.[2] In August 1910, an International Women's Conference was organized to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen. Inspired in part by the American socialists, German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual 'International Woman's Day' (singular) and was seconded by Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified at that conference.[3] Delegates (100 women from 17 countries) agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage, for women.[4] The following year, on 18 March, 1911, IWD was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations.[3] In Vienna, women paraded on the Ringstrasse and carried banners honouring the martyrs of the Paris Commune.[3] Women demanded that women be given the right to vote and to hold public office. They also protested against employment sex discrimination.[2] Americans continued to celebrate National Women's Day on the last Sunday in February.[3]
Toe, imagine how our friend Amir Khadir (Québec solidaire MP) and his wife Nima, elected herself to a municipal council for leftwing-green Projet Montréal, are feeling. Their parents left Iran after fighting both the Shah and religious reaction, but they are no less sick at heart about their extended families and neighbours being targeted for mass killing.
Despite or perhaps in light of all of this, I'm wishing all here a good and "solidaire" 8th of March. There don't seem to be a lot of central activities here this year: mostly the student strikes and fights against government cuts and user fees. "In my day" we had huge marches here...
