The Third World Women’s Alliance and International Women’s Day Celebrations

• In Event: “Dreams of a Common Language”: Revisiting “Third Worldism” as a Language of Solidarity

Abstract

On Sunday, March 10, 1974, six hundred people in the San Francisco Bay Area gathered together at the Oakland Community Learning Center for the Third World Women’s Alliance’s (TWWA) first of many International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations. With roots in the civil rights and Black Power movements, the TWWA was founded by Black women in New York City but soon expanded to the West Coast with chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle. The group’s membership also broadened to include Asian, Latina, Middle Eastern, and Indigenous women, reflecting the group’s new ideological commitment to anti-imperialism. Drawing on performance theory, oral histories, and archival research, this presentation examines how women of color in the US found creative ways to raise awareness of the liberation struggles of women in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Today, IWD is recognized as a global holiday to celebrate women’s social, political, and economic progress in society. However, nearly five decades ago, IWD commemorations had a particular radical and revolutionary political agenda that was widely contested in mainstream feminist circles. By restoring the socialist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist origins of IWD celebrations, this presentation illuminates the ways grassroots organizing, political education, and cultural work can facilitate powerful weapons against the American empire.

Author

• Tiana U Wilson, University of Pittsburgh