March is a time of commemoration, remembrance, and action for many movements locally and globally.

March 1 – Disability Day of Mourning
March 8 – International Women’s Day
March 15 – International Day Against Police Brutality
March 21 – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
March 21 – International Day of Forests
March 22 – World Water Day
March 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 30 – Palestinian Land Day

March 1 is Disability Day of Mourning

We remember the victims of filicide – people with disabilities killed by their family members or household members either by action or inaction. People with disabilities in Canada are twice as likely to be survivors of violence.

Disability justice reminds us that “No body or mind can be left behind – only moving together can we accomplish the revolution we require!

March 8 is International Women’s Day

In the early 1900s, thousands of working women protested for better working conditions. This included a major work stoppage when 20,000 garment workers walked off the job in 1909 and massive protests after 145 immigrant garment workers died in the Triangle Fire of 1911.

IWD may now be co-opted in some places, but it is for working class women, immigrant women, trans women, sex workers, women behind bars & women resisting occupation!

March 15 is International Day Against Police Brutality

The day began in 1997 in Montreal, and is now a global day of action & solidarity against the violence of policing.

In Canada, between Aug & Nov 2024, 10 Indigenous people were killed by police. We remember Jack Piché, Hoss Lightning Saddleback, Tammy Bateman, Jason West, Daniel Knife, Steven Dedam, Ronald Skunk, Jon Wells, Joseph Desjarlais, Elgyn Muskego.

“Policing is the state-sanctioned attempt to steal the future from the oppressed.” – Marisol Lebron

March 21 is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

This day marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting Apartheid’s passbook laws. 67 people were killed and 186 were wounded.

South African apartheid laws were adapted from Canada’s colonial policies, including the reserve system, pass system & Indian Act. South African apartheid became a template for Israel.

March 21 is International Day of Forests

This day recognizes the sacred role of forests.

The Indigenous group Guardiões da Floresta in Brazil protect the Amazon from illegal logging and deforestation. Many Guajajara people have been killed for forest protection.

In the past 10 years, over 2,100 land defenders were killed around the world. Vive Tortuguita, Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, Nawir Brito de Jesus, Samuel Cristiano de Amor Divino, Eduardo Mendúa, and many more!

March 22 is World Water Day

“molecular & spectacular, water will return what we give it, be that
arrogance & poison, reverence & light, ambivalence & respect
let our societies be revived as watersheds” – Rita Wong

This day has been observed since 1993 to focus on freshwater & water ecosystems, as well as the global water crisis with 2.2 billion people without access to safe water.

From struggles to protect rivers and watersheds from destructive industrial activity & capitalist accumulation, to ensuring drinkable water in Indigenous, inner-city, rural, and refugee communities all around the world: Water is Life.

March 25 is International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

This day commemorates the over 15 million victims of the horrific transatlantic slave trade that enslaved Africans to the Americas from the 15th to 19th century.

Canada has its own history of 200 years of Black enslavement. We remember Marie-Joseph Angélique who was tortured and publicly hanged after she was accused of burning down Montreal as she fled enslavement in 1734.

“To be Black in Canada is to live in slavery’s ‘afterlife’” – Robyn Maynard

March 30 is Palestinian Land Day

Yom al Ard يَوْم اَلْأَرْض honours the 6 Palestinians killed and the hundreds injured by the IOF on March 30, 1976 for protesting land theft in the Galilee, where Israel had ordered the confiscation of around 5,000 acres of Palestinian land.

Land Day commemorations continue to mobilize against the Zionist occupation and theft of Palestinian lands.

Resistance until Liberation and Return.

Our struggles are interconnected.

“And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea

we are the ones we have been waiting for”

–       June Jordan

Learn. Agitate. Liberate.