08/03/2026
Opening Remarks by the grassroots feminist organizer and Convenor Maryanne Kasina of Women In Justice Centers- The SJCWG Women League on International Working Women’s Day 2026.
Theme: Organize to Win – Women Give Struggle, We Gain Liberation
Comrades, sisters, young mothers, and fellow organizers,
Today we gather not simply to celebrate women, but to honor a long tradition of resistance by working-class women who dared to challenge systems of oppression.
International Working Women’s Day was not born in boardrooms, NGO conferences, or corporate campaigns. It was born in struggle — in the factories, in the streets, and in the revolutionary movements of working women.
In 1917, during the hardships of war and economic crisis in Russia, women workers — many of them textile workers and mothers — took to the streets demanding bread, peace, and dignity just like the bold ordinary Kenyan women who marched to the streets in the June 25th youth uprising. On that day, women workers launched strikes that sparked the uprising that later became known as the February Revolution. These women defied the state, the factory bosses, and even skepticism from some comrades who believed the moment was not yet ripe for struggle.
But history proved them right.
Their courage shook the foundations of the old order and helped ignite the revolutionary wave that transformed society through the Russian Revolution. It is from this legacy that International Working Women’s Day was born — a day rooted in the socialist and working-class struggle for liberation.
Comrades,
That history reminds us of a simple truth; when women organize, history moves. Lazima tushinde!✊🏾
Women have always given so much to society. We give our labor in the home, caring for families and communities. We give our energy in markets, farms, and informal work to sustain life under harsh economic conditions. We give our courage in struggles against injustice, bila kuchoka.
Yet the systems that dominate our world — patriarchy, capitalism, and neo-colonialism — continue to exploit women's labor while denying women power, dignity, and security.
Here in our communities in Kayole and across Kenya, women carry the weight of economic hardship, police violence, land dispossession, and the rising cost of living. Young mothers struggle to survive in informal settlements where basic services are denied. Women workers face exploitation in markets, factories, and domestic labor.
But as history teaches us, women are not just victims of these systems.
Women are organizers.
Women are builders of movements.
Women are makers of history.
That is why our theme today is so powerful and so important:
“Organize to Win: Women Give Struggle, We Gain Liberation.”
Liberation will not come through charity.
It will not come through empty promises from politicians.
It will not come through donor projects that treat women’s struggles as statistics.
Liberation will come through collective organizing from below.
When women organize in our neighborhoods, when young mothers build solidarity networks, when women stand against police brutality, when women defend land and the environment — we begin to transform the conditions of our lives.
And when women organize, the entire working class becomes stronger.
Our struggle for women’s liberation is therefore inseparable from the struggle for land, food, freedom, and dignity. It is part of the broader struggle to build a society where the wealth created by workers benefits the people and not a few elites.
Comrades,
The history of International Working Women’s Day reminds us that change begins when ordinary women refuse to accept injustice as normal.
The women who marched in Russia in 1917 did not know that their actions would change the course of history. They simply knew that they could no longer endure hunger, war, and exploitation.
In the same spirit, we must organize today — in our communities, in our movements, and in our daily lives — to build the power necessary to transform society.
Let this day strengthen our commitment to organizing women in every Social Justice Centre, in every settlement, and in every struggle.
Let us continue building solidarity between young mothers, workers, students, and community organizers.
Because when women organize, we do not only fight for ourselves — we fight for the liberation of all people.
So today we reaffirm our message:
Organize to Win.
Women Give Struggle.
We Gain Liberation.
Amandla! ✊🏾
