For International Women's Day each year, women of all ages and cultures and from all walks of life come together around the world to celebrate achievements and demand justice for all women. They are keeping a tradition which dates back to the first decade of this century. IWD was inspired by a strike of women garment workers in New York in 1908 and established by socialist women at an international conference in Copenhagen in 1910.

The first IWD rally in Australia took place in 1928. Since then, the participants, focus, size and type of events have ebbed and flowed, reflecting differences in time, place and participating women. Early events focused on poor working and living conditions. In later periods, issues such as equal opportunity, child-care, housing and education joined work and poverty. Abortion and sexual rights were added in later years. Improved rights for disadvantaged women in both Australia and overseas have been common demands.

Rallies and meetings were a common activity in the 1920s and 1930s, with street marches in a few capital cities. Meetings and concerts were the preferred activity of the 1940s. Peace walks and international delegates were introduced in the 1960s. The seventies saw the first of the very large marches. The tradition of a Saturday march closest to March 8 commenced in 1972, and an IWD broadsheet was introduced. Today there is a mix of political and celebratory events in small and large places around Australia marches, rallies, forums, breakfasts, lunches, dances, festivals, fun activities.

Early organisation was by different radical women's groups. In the 1930s the first committee with representatives from a range of women's groups was formed. Open-member collectives replaced representative committees in the 1970s.

Today IWD events are organised in many and varied ways by one or more women or a community organisation in country towns, by various types of organisations or groups of individual women in cities. In large capital cities, diverse organisations or groups are responsible for the organisation of multiple events. Collectives of interestedwomen have continued to organise the traditional street marches and rallies of speakers and performers in capital cities and some regional centres each year, and to maintain a focus on justice for all women. Thousands of women march behind organisation banners or as individuals in the larger capital cities. A national link is maintained through the IWD broadsheet, which is produced by the IWD Collective Sydney in association with other collectives and distributed to thousands of women around Australia on or before IWD. Whilst organisation of the marches and rallies tends to be by women of the left, participation by all women is encouraged and occurs. Collectives discuss and develop the annual focus of marches but welcome others featuring their own priorities and politics.

IWD is significant for its ability to annually draw diverse women's groups and individual women together in political activities and to have survived this tradition for 70 years in Australia without any sign of decline. Some historical milestones

• 1910: IWD endorsed by representatives from 17 countries at the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen.
• 1928: Sydney Domain: first Australian IWD event a rally about working conditions.
• 1929: Brisbane: social and dance; Sydney Domain and Belmore Park: rallies.
• 1931: Sydney and Melbourne: first IWD marches. Sydney suburbs: meetings in Newtown, Rockdale, Granville, Lidcombe and Pyrmont. NSW regions: meetings in Kurri, Broken Hill, Cessnock and Newcastle.
• 1930s: Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney, Hobart: small IWD meetings or conferences.
• 1932: Hobart: IWD march.
• 1936: Sydney: First IWD Committee embracing a number of women's groups.
• 1938: First major IWD gathering in Perth.
• 1945-50: Small meetings, luncheons and concerts.
• 1951-54: Large and small meetings and concerts.
• 1960: IWD 50th anniversary, 729 delegates from 73 countries, including Australia, adopt a general declaration of support for the political, economic and social rights of women.
• 1960s: International delegations attend Australian IWD events.
• 1962: Sydney and Melbourne: peace walk through the streets which became an annual event.
• 1970s: IWD committees became open ended rather than representative bodies, without office bearers.
• 1972: First of the large IWD marches.
• 1975: Some of the largest marches in Australia. IWD recognised by the United Nations at the beginning of the UN Decade of Women and taken up by many governments
• 1978: Brisbane and Perth: women arrested for ignoring bans on marches.

This article has been drawn from the IWD history by Joyce Stevens,1985

Francis Parker - Sydney