Catriona Grant Scotland celebrates Women's Day on March 8 alongside all the nations of the world but alike all the other nations International Women's Day is at risk of being an aromatherapy and belly dancing fest.
It's not that I have a problem with either aromatherapy or belly dancing - it just puzzles me that on the day we celebrates women's struggles and contribution to emancipation of working women we need to smell nice and wiggle our tummies.
International Women's Day is the day over the decades when women in the United States took action against scab employers who exploited their immigration status and made them work for no better than slave conditions, when in Europe at the time of the Great War, on International Women's Day more than a million marched against going to war with their neighbours and of the women's strike in February (in the Russian calendar) when women marched for peace, land and bread and sparked what became the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Alongside May Day, International Women's Day needs to be celebrated as a socialist day when we celebrate the struggles before and afore us particularly of women fighting against their oppression and for the emancipation of us all.
The Scottish Socialist Party celebrates International Women's Day every year by holding political events to discuss the role of women in political and industrial struggles. At the same time we offer solidarity to women who cannot participate in political discussion and who are survivors of the innane system that oppresses us.
In Scotland over 200 women are incarcerated in HMP Cortonvale. The courts have deemed that they merited prison however the majority are not violent dangerous offenders but women who have become victims of their own circumstances - poverty, mental health problems, drug and alcohol dependency, men's violence against women and prostitution.
We have had four prison protests over the past four years on International Women's Day and this year we are going back.
In the past the wire around the prison allowed a full view of the prison so those incarcerated inside were able to look out - but now there is a ten foot steel frame around the prison. But when we stand on the grassy knoll outside women on the top floors can see us and with our drums, whistles, singing and megaphone.
We know most of the women can hear us because they have joined in with the singing and cheered the speeches.
In the past year two socialist MSPs have been sentenced to spend time at her majesties pleasure - Carolyn Leckie and Rosie Kane. Carolyn was lucky enough to spend only one day there but Rosie had to spend a week in prison in October 2006.
She was shocked and horrified at the quality of care in the prison, she complained of the lack of warmth, not enough food and after years of vegetarianism found herself eating meat. Rosie found that the women were passive with the authorities and didn't complain.
Rosie's stint in prison was hard for her but she knew that she was coming out, she knew she had made political choices and she knew she was being supported outside - she was returning to her role as an MSP with a voice.
it is important that we keep up our solidarity work with women in prison alongside our work with asylum seekers and other vulnerable women. Rosie Kane, with the full support of the rest of the SSP group, has consistently taken up the position of asylum seekers- indeed she has almost become synonymous with representing and fighting for asylum seekers especially women and their children.
Due to the policy of the government to disperse asylum seekers particularly to Glasgow almost all the nations of the world are represented in
We hope to include them all in our celebration of International Women's Day with our political discussions and forums and our HMP Cortonvale protest. • Catriona Grant is the Women and Equality Policy Coordinator for the Scottish Sociallst Party.
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Fighting back against violence against women: marching to reclaim the night, London November 2006 (right) there are still big gaps in day care and pre-school education- and costs are far too high WE WANT SAFER