On the 24th of october in 1975, approximately 90% of Icelandic women struck for equality, not attending jobs or doing any domestic work. Iceland passed an equal pay law the following year, but the strike has been repeated on its anniversary several times since, such as in the years 2005, 2010, and 2016.

The strike was planned by “The Women’s Congress”, which had met on June 20th and 21st earlier that year. Among the reasons given for going on strike were pay inequality, lack of women in union leadership, and a general lack of recognition for the value and skill of domestic labor.

During the work stoppage, also known as “Women’s Day Off”, 25,000 people gathered in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city, for a rally. There, women listened to speakers, sang, and talked to each other about what could be done to achieve gender equality in Iceland.

Women from many different backgrounds spoke, including a housewife, two members of parliament, and a worker. The last speech of the day was by Aðalheiður Bjarnfreðsdóttir, who “represented Sókn, the trade union for the lowest paid women in Iceland”, according to The Guardian.

In 1976, the Icelandic government passed an equal pay law, and the country elected its first female President, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, five years later in 1980.

The 1975 Women’s Strike also helped inspire the 2016 “Black Monday” anti-abortion ban protests in Poland, as well as the “International Women’s Strike”, single day work stoppages on March 8th, 2017 and 2018.

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  • 2812481591 [any, it/its]@hexbear.net
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    16 days ago

    How is there this huge disconnect between the soc dems who see Biden and Kamala as immensely successful leaders making slow but meaningful if not measurable progress even with the deck stacked against them, to socialists who see they’re tirelessly strangling out any hope for the future? maybe it’s less a difference in perception, but the libs actually identify as beneficiaries of class structure and hegemony, therefore the brutality the democrats enable is welcomed by them? I wouldn’t even say it’s a subconcious appreciation for it, I would say it’s it’s charitableness on our part that we don’t perceive their statements of support as the violent declarations they are. It can’t be unusual therefore that “libs get scratched” (i.e. , they read something that annoys them) and the resulting off the cuff tirade is that it needs to be solved by a militia mowing down protestors.

    • Coolkidbozzy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      16 days ago

      I think you’re right. Democrats, especially Harris, only talk about helping the ‘middle class’. She has NEVER spoken about a working class, or people in poverty (beyond helping them become ‘middle class’), because you need to be at least ‘middle class’ to benefit from the various oppressive hierarchies