Women’s March Madness
International Women’s Day showed us what radical women are really about.
March 8th saw many International Women’s Day (IWD) events that showcased elitist women’s anger and victimology. Typical was American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten who spoke at the “Women Workers Rising” rally outside the Department of Labor headquarters in Washington D.C. Among other things, the fired-up union boss told the throng that “The wage gap is real. Wage theft is real.”
Could Weingarten be totally unaware that the “wage gap” – which claims that women make only 79 cents on the dollar compared to men – is nonexistent? The fact is that while men do tend to earn more money than women, when identical jobs are compared, there is virtually no difference in salaries. The disparity comes about because men work more hours than women, take more dangerous jobs than women and typically go into higher paying fields than women. As a matter of fact, according to James Chung of Reach Advisors, a strategy, research and predictive analytics firm, in 147 out of 150 of the biggest cities in the U.S., the median full-time salaries of young women are 8 percent higher than those of men in their peer group.
Weingarten’s “pay theft” crack is especially absurd since that’s exactly what unions do in non-right-to-work states. They force workers to pay them as a condition of employment; the worker gets no choice whatsoever. If that isn’t wage theft, I don’t know what is.
Then there was “A Day Without Women,” which brought out many angry teachers, among others, across the country. In Chapel Hill, NC, Alexandria, VA and other cities, schools were forced to close due to teacher participation in local rallies. The women who took part showed where their priorities lie – not with their students and certainly not with parents, many of whom are single women who had to scramble to find last-minute childcare for the day.
In Philadelphia, hundreds of teachers played hooky, using the day to bring attention to the fact that they have had no salary increase for five years. Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan played the woman angle by saying that the “The overwhelming majority of our members are female.” Okay, but women teachers make the exact same salary as men in Philadelphia…and everywhere else, so the mini-strike has nothing to do with “A Day Without Women” but rather it’s an attempt to get a wage hike for all teachers.
International Women’s Day has some interesting facets that the pink-hat brigade may not be aware of. First, the origins are pure socialist. The original National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States in February, 1909. in accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. The date was changed to March 8th by Russian women just prior to the Communist revolution in 1917.
In fact, the radical nature of IWD hasn’t changed in a 100 years. The latest incarnation still involves leadership far from of mainstream America. One of this years’ organizers is none other than Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a Palestinian who was convicted in Israel in 1970 for her part in two terrorist bombings, one of which killed two students while they were grocery shopping. Having spent 10 years in prison for her crimes, she lied about her past and ultimately managed to move to the U.S., becoming a citizen in 2004. Additionally, avowed Communist Angela Davis, who managed to beat a murder rap in 1970 and then ran off to Cuba, is on the team. Another IWD honcho is Tithi Bhattacharya, an ardent supporter of the late Mao Zedong who, when he wasn’t bedding young women, was busy murdering them. Additionally, according to the Media Research Center, left-wing Sugar Daddy George Soros has donated $246 million to groups behind the protest.
Another point worth noting is that The Action Network, a D.C.-based progressive online organizing platform, is managing the website and email lists of women’s marches all over the country. The organization, which has partnered with major progressive groups including the AFL-CIO and National Education Association, has no women on their “team.”
Based on lies, funded by George Soros, run by far leftists, facilitated by a men’s organization, co-opted by teachers unions for their own purposes, International Women’s Day is at the juncture of elitism and radical politics, the combination of which has sent the country reeling for years now. If anyone is still wondering how in the world we wound up with Donald Trump as president, an examination of IWD’s politics, tactics and elitism is a great place to start. Sixty-two percent of white women without college degrees voted for Trump. Now that’s the kind of radical behavior the American people can relate to.
Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. The views presented here are strictly his own.