RECLAIM the Agenda was back on the march last Saturday in Belfast, marking International Working Women’s Day (IWD).
After a two-year break imposed by Covid, the organisations that support the event were glad to be back on the road.

This year the slogan chosen to rally the communities was Stand Up Fight Back, with a special emphasis on fighting back against violence against women.

Specially invited was the family of 32-year-old Natalie McNally who was stabbed to death in her Lurgan home in December 2022. She was 15 weeks pregnant. McNally’s father, brother and other relatives carried a banner that said simply: “stop killing women.”

As the crowds gathered in Writers Square, a variety of banners began to appear — Ballybeen, Footprints, Shankill, Greenways Women’s Centres; trade unionists under their banners — Unite, Nipsa, CWU, Unison, many of them having been on strike recently; they were all there as we marched to the City Hall to hear the speakers.

Young people joined in with Youth Action which is a regular participant, as is the Connolly Youth Movement. Women’s Aid and other women’s organisations joined the march which proceeded to the front of the City Hall.

The Belfast Trades Council banner was back on the march and its members were distributing leaflets advertising the forthcoming meeting, Workers Demand Better at the Duncairn Centre at 7pm, March 9, and at City Church, University Avenue, March 30, from 7pm.

The speakers included women from Disability Action — campaigner Joanne Sansom pointed to the breakdown in the Stormont government resulting in the failure to provide on a whole range of issues including health, education and employment.

Also present were Women’s Aid Federation, Anaka Women’s Collective, representing women with direct experience of the asylum-seeker system. They all addressed the question of violence and oppression again women, some with personal stories.

Emma McCann and Caomhe Kinghan from Unite spoke about the 12-week work-in to protest against the closure of the hostel for homeless women, Regina Coeli House. They said Stormont had utterly failed homeless women.

They acknowledged the community and trade union support that they had received, including the production of the play, Not On Our Watch, which tells the story of how the house was closed down by the management committee.

They told the crowd that they ended the occupation of Regina Coeli House after they met with the then-communities minister Deirdre Hargey.

“She promised us that a like-for-like facility would open in May 2022. She told us that we might be able to apply for jobs in that facility. It is now March 2023 and there is no like-for-like replacement.

“So, this International Women’s Day, we need to challenge those in power. They will make big shows of their backing for women’s equality. But they need to be judged on the basis of what they do.”
The rally and march represent the campaign and struggles that working women and their families are facing.

International Women’s Day was known to be held in Belfast in the late 1940s and ’50s. But it was in 1975, under difficult conditions, when it began to be held every year, led by women’s organisations and trade unions under the umbrella of the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement.

In 2010 Reclaim the Agenda was formed to celebrate and acknowledge the centenary and origins of the first IWD in 1911, following the proposal in 1910 by Clara Zetkin that a special day for working women should be held.