Working Class History is now 5 years old, so we have started a fundraising campaign to try to make our work sustainable beyond the end of 2019. We reach an audience of millions each month, help us reach millions more by supporting our fundraising appeal, and get access to exclusive content. Learn more and sign up here: https://workingclasshistory.com/…/working-class-history-tu…/

On this day, 21 October 1970 the first women's liberation demonstration took place in Japan in Tokyo, kickstarting the feminist movement in the country. The women were demanding legalisation of the contraceptive pill and opposing any prohibition of abortion. After the failure of the mass movement against the Japan-US security treaty, female student activists finally felt able to express their demands as women, which they had kept quiet so as not to be seen to "undermine" the struggle against the treaty. Sexual liberation and free love also exploded following the failure of the student movement, and without contraceptives, millions of women were having to have abortions. The pill was only eventually legalised in 1999.
We have loads of great anniversaries today, for all of them follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wrkclasshistory