International Women’s Day

Jeannie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:33:05 +0000

It started a long time ago. I would bump into Helen marching in the International Women’s Day march. We would start at the Queen E and walk down Georgia with our sisters. In the old days there were hundreds of us. We would sing and link arms with other women and snarl up the traffic. Nowdays it it hard to find the celebrations. The women’s section of the the Vancouver District and Labour Council had a breakfast but we didn’t go. We went to a talk at W2. It featured a Californian artist. We also ate Mexican food. Not much is open on a Sunday downtown.

Helen smokes a lot. Here she is after Mexican.

And here is one of me after eating.

Theresa Marshal introduces Favianna Rodriguez at the W2 Launch Pad

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Helen is Helen Potrebenko and is a wonderful writer. Here is her poem to IWD.

THE LAST FEMINIST

What do you remember most?
Walking down Georgia.
Not betrayal, not defeat;
walking down Georgia.

What do you miss the most?
Walking down Georgia.
The days before
the ruling class could arrange
for us to see our liberation disappear
with the sisters rushing off
to join the middle class.
Walking down Georgia.

What do you hope for?
Not the goddesses they invented
to preach poverty to the poor,
wealth to the rich.
Walking down Georgia.

What do you fear the most?
Poverty and violence
and no more
walking down Georgia.

What did you think you were doing
walking down Georgia?
We were walking
for abortion;
for the right to control our own bodies.
For equal pay -
we thought women’s work should be paid
the same as men’s work.
For paid work -
we thought if a person did a job,
they should be paid for it.
For the right to organize
into groups of our own choice.
For the right to negotiate
about our own working conditions.
For day care
and all the raggle-taggle of children’s rights.
(Children’s rights are not important -
they’re only a women’s issue.)
Against sexism and racism and exploitation;
against poverty and violence and oppression.
For the right to jobs and promotion and pay
and to love whom we choose
and to live and laugh and raise children.
For safe houses and safe jobs
and streets where you don’t die.
Hey, we dreamed of safe houses
and safe jobs and safe streets,
walking down Georgia.
(Dreams drown in blood.)

What do you dream about now?
Women and children
in our hundreds
in our thousands
walking down Georgia;
chanting and singing down Georgia;
yelling on Georgia;
carrying babies and balloons
and banners,
walking down Georgia.

Jeannie Kamins» poetry

International Women’s Day