March 8th is International Women’s Day, not a holiday, but an important anniversary to honor the social, economic, and political achievements of women and to raise awareness of gender equality.
The date of March 8th was first proposed by Clara Eissner Zetkin (a Polish socialist) during the first International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Copenhagen in 1910. The origin of the date is now lost in the stories, each linked to real events that occurred around 1900: the first strike of women textile workers in New York or the deadly fire in a textile factory in 1929? The true origin doesn’t matter; they were all pieces that led to this fundamental day of struggle.
In Italy, International Women’s Day was celebrated again in 1946, after a hiatus due to the war. It wasn’t a celebration, but a date chosen to raise awareness of women’s wage and social demands. A purely political day, to remember that women’s rights were a timely issue that needed to be continually revisited. Teresa Noce, Rita Montagnana, and Teresa Mattei, women of the Resistance, members of the Italian Communist Party, and signatories of the Constitution, proposed linking the day to a symbol: they thought of a flower, choosing the mimosa. A humble flower, one that everyone could recover, give to their comrades in the struggle, and wear during demonstrations. Not a delicate tribute, but a recognizable symbol, with an overwhelming color and scent.
“The idea came to me because the mimosa was the flower that partisans gave to couriers. It reminded me of the struggle in the mountains. A humble flower, one that grew everywhere in March and could be picked in bunches for free. The mimosa represents tenacity, and even today when I see girls demonstrating with this flower in their hands, I’m moved, because we must never lower our voices.”
Teresa Mattei, partisan, the youngest member of parliament elected to the Constituent Assembly.
On this day, we share a text on transfeminist feminist thought, as a great alternative vision of the world.
Below are excerpts from the speech Elisa Giannini (a.k.a. Teresa 5) gave at the Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan on Sunday, February 1, 2026. The speech was reported in full in the February 1, 2026, episode “Feminism” of Teresa 5’s podcast “Five Minutes of Revolution” (link to the episode: Five Minutes (of Revolution): Feminism).
“If we want to talk about an alternative world, I think feminism is a good starting point, because it is a great and truly alternative worldview. The most radical alternative I can think of, feminism itself, which obviously doesn’t mean something just for women.”
“This system we live in is based on the oppression of one gender… a system that is based on exploiting, crushing, underpaying, silencing women, sometimes beating, maiming, raping, or killing them.”
“Living according to a feminist stance means first of all that half the population is no longer oppressed… but above all, it means the experimental creation of a new way of being in the world.”
“We’re not talking about women in charge, because women in charge, according to the same pattern as men, have very little to do with feminism… we’re talking about a way of being in the world and governing it, which starts from the assumption… that we are on the planet not to compete… but we are here to flourish together, to collaborate, to generate love and art.”
“At this point in human evolution, we should have understood that strength… cannot be identified with violence and oppression, which are, if anything, manifestations of the opposite. Strength, always starting from a feminine perspective, is creative, constructive. That is nonviolent, gentle, yet powerful strength.”
“When I say feminism, I’m referring to intersectional feminism, which also considers other forms of oppression alongside gender—class, sexual orientation, racism—and questions this entire system, which is based precisely on the oppression of a series of categories, because oppression isn’t a side effect; it’s structural to the system.”
“How can you wage war if you put loving kindness at the center? Respect for others, collaboration, understanding, dialogue… That is, we’re stuck in a huge ideology that oppresses us, devastates us, even kills us, but we don’t talk about it. So, ideology by ideology, let’s at least choose a good one, right? Let’s put women’s things at the center. Solidarity, care, true strength, collaboration, socialism, communism, flourishing together, love.”
“Besides, what moves the sun and the other stars? Oil? I don’t think so.”
Elisa Giannini, a.k.a. Teresa 5
Good luck, everyone.
Gruppo DEA@OAB
