On March 8, International Women's Day, women in countries around the world are taking action in the second Global Women's Strike. From major trade unions in Spain calling for a two-hour general strike for pay equity and a "social wage" for housework, to domestic workers in Peru demanding a day off from feminist employers, to women in Ghana staging plays on domestic workers’ pay, women are striking for a total change of priorities, and an end to no pay, low pay and too much work. Last year women in 64 countries took time off from waged and unwaged work in the first Global Women’s Strike.

In the US, the Strike takes place in a heated national debate on proposed tax cuts – Bush’s income transfer payments to the rich from the poor – and the pending reauthorization of "welfare reform" which ended payments to millions of women doing the work of caring for children, older people and people with disabilities. The Strike demand of "payment for all caring work" speaks to upcoming battles in Congress for a tax credit or direct payment for caregivers, and for a welfare policy that recognizes caregiving as work.

Strike actions will take place in major US cities including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Seattle, and smaller ones like Somerville, Massachusetts, and in towns and rural areas. Women from all walks of life are in support – from "Raging Grannies" to teenagers, women farmers, welfare mothers, labor union women, lesbian activists, and housewives. Payday, a network of men, is organizing men’s support.

Philadelphia strike activities will kick off with a City Council resolution sponsored by Councilman David Cohen (10a.m.) A "Two-Hour Lunch Break for Women Against No Pay and Low Pay and for Pay Equity" in City Hall follows (12noon –2pm) with a speak-out and entertainment, sponsored by Phila Wages for Housework, Phila Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and Phila and PA NOW, coordinators of the "Pay Equity Now!" petition campaign.

"Lack of recognition for women’s work is a fundamental sexist and racist injustice, forcing women into a double or triple day for no pay or low pay," says Phoebe Schellenberg of the Wages for Housework Campaign, which is coordinating the Strike. Women earn 72% of men’s wages; Black women 65% and Hispanic women 52%, compared with white men. "There is a rising fury among caregivers and low-waged workers who get nothing or next to nothing for the work that keeps all of society functioning".

Women do 2/3 of the world’s work for 5% of the world’s income, and 2/3 of that work is unwaged, according to the UN. Black other women of color work the hardest for the least, in the Global South carrying the burden of "Third World Debt". Meanwhile, $800 billion is spent yearly on military budgets worldwide – with the Bush administration proposing to spend additional billions on Star Wars II – when $80 billion would provide the essentials of life for the whole world. The Strike expresses women’s opposition to a global market that prioritizes the production of things over the care of people.