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The 8th of March, International Day of Struggle of the laboring women, was celebrated through various actions in tens of cities and districts of Turkey and Northern Kurdistan.
İstanbul, Malatya, Ankara, Nurhak district of Maras , Eskisehir, Adana, Rize, Findikli, İzmir, Antalya, Manisa, Osmaniye as well as the Kurdish cities and districts, among them Amed (Diyabakir) and its districts, Bingol, Siirt, Adiyaman, Malazgirt, Bulanik and Varto districts of Mus, Batman, Antep, Nusaybin, Kurtalan, Hakkari, Silopi were some of the places where demonstrations, seminars, festivals and many other activities were carried out during one week. Totally tens of thousands of women were present at the demonstrations.{divide}
In Corlu, a demonstration was organised on March 8 after many years without celebrating this day, while in Hatay and Mersin, the police tried to hinder the demonstrations and attacked on women participating at the demonstrations. Despite the intervention of the police, the women insisted on and have been successful at carrying out their protest actions.
One of the largest demonstrations was held in Istanbul/Kadikoy on March 11. Thousands of women gathered at Kadikoy Square behind a banner read "Long live our organised struggle against the patriarchal system for our bodies, labour and identity".
Main organisers of the actions were the women from labour unions, of KESK t the first place, of political parties such as BDP and ESP , democratic, revolutionary and some feminist women organisations and the women of HDK .
The women of KESK stopped work on March 8 and took to the streets in many cities. They demanded that the 8th of March should be officially accepted as a paid holiday.
The main demands of the actions were as follows: official paid holiday on March 8, equal pay for equal work, measures for the right to live (measures against the violence on women), end of the violence of men and of the state against women, end of thewar policies and a democratic solution for the Kurdish question, freedom for the imprisoned women, for the imprisoned members of KESK, for the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and for all political prisoners, measures against the discrimination against LGBTT persons.
One more woman, 40 year old Diyar B., has been killed on the day of 8th of March by a relative of her husband.
The women workers of Kampana Leather Company and Hey Tekstil Company, who are in resistance for their rights, were greeted at the actions. The Kurdish women were the largest sector at the actions.Women from SKM carried the photos of our comrade Yasemin Ciftci, who became a martyr last month when the bomb she was carrying exploded on the way for a revolutionary action. The last mass massacre of the Turkish state in Roboski was also condemned during the 8th March actions.
The female political prisoners who were arrested within the so-called KCK operations, among them Prof. Dr. Busra Ersanli, former vice co-president of BDP Fatma Kurtalan, Sakine Guven and Lutfiye Gurbuz from Peace Mothers, interpreter Ayse Berktay, sent messages to the demonstrations.
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