Joe Higgins TD speaking at pro-choice Rally at Dail

For more than a century, 8 March has been the day to commemorate and celebrate the fight of working class and revolutionary women for a better deal and a socialist society. Its origins are in the struggles for equal pay and decent conditions amongst women in the USA in the 19th century.

In April of this year, the government parties, including the Labour Party that claims to have a pro-choice position, shamefully rejected a bill to legislate for the X Case, introduced by Socialist Party TD, Clare Daly. The persistent conservatism of the political establishment was exposed and women in Ireland (like the estimated 150,000 women who have travelled abroad to access a termination since 1980 before them), continue to suffer the consequences.

On Sunday the 14th of August thousands of people marched in Dublin in opposition of the continued denial of marriage rights for same-sex couples in Ireland.