3rd Nyéléni Global Forum : Women in struggle for systemic transformation #8M25 : Via Campesina

Article originally published on the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum website

March 8 is not just a date for commemoration, but a day of struggle and demand for the rights of working women worldwide. From feminist economy to food sovereignty, from resistance to capitalist expansion to the defense of bodies and territories, the global organizations and social movements that are part of the Nyéléni process leading to the 3rd Global Forum converge in their demand for justice and equity, denouncing a system that perpetuates the exploitation and violence against women and peoples. Here are various actions led by some of these organizations and movements in their ongoing struggle against patriarchy.

The World March of Women reaffirms its commitment to feminist economy and demilitarization, raising its voice against capitalism and fascism, which threaten the self-determination of peoples and exacerbate inequalities. At the beginning of its 6th International Action, the struggle of the Sahrawi people stands as a symbol of resistance against occupation and the plunder of the commons.

In this global struggle, La Via Campesina promotes Peasant and Popular Feminism, a class-based feminism that confronts the food crisis and structural violence, demanding food sovereignty for the emancipation of rural women. In the face of the advance of fascism, violence, and the food crisis, the peasant movement denounces the rise of poverty, unemployment, rural debt, and migration crises. It also warns about neoliberal policies that facilitate the plundering of natural resources and weaken democracy, impacting primarily women, diversities, and children.

The Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social and Solidarity Economy (RIPESS) reinforces this vision by focusing its struggle on care as the core of an economic model based on cooperation, climate justice, and decent work. In the same vein, the People’s Health Movement denounces how the privatization of healthcare systems, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and the climate crisis deepen gender inequality, particularly affecting women’s health and access to sexual and reproductive rights.

Women have also been on the front lines of environmental defense and the protection of the commons. Friends of the Earth International denounces the link between capitalism, patriarchy, and neocolonialism, emphasizing the need to recognize women as political subjects in order to change the system and build a more just world. From the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), indigenous struggles highlight the intersection of gender violence and the destruction of Mother Earth, demanding the role of women in protecting water, land, and seeds as an act of cultural and political resistance.

Women fishers organized in the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) face a similar struggle, challenging predatory policies and industrial aquaculture that threaten their livelihoods and the sustainability of the seas. In defense of their rights, they demand dignified spaces and respect for artisanal fishing as the foundation of local economies and food sovereignty for their communities. The International Federation of Rural Movements, Adults, and Catholics (FIMARC) emphasizes the need to guarantee gender equality as a fundamental right and a necessary foundation for peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable societies, denouncing the persistence of wage gaps, discrimination in access to education, and the invisibility of women’s work in the global economy.

From the agricultural lands of West Africa, the Network of Peasant Organizations and Producers of West Africa (ROPPA) reaffirms that women are the pillar of food sovereignty. At the heart of agriculture, where they make up 80% of the workforce, they confront food insecurity in their communities with determination. Yet, they face structural barriers that limit their access to land, credit, and training, reinforcing the urgency of equitable agricultural policies and the strengthening of peasant agroecology as a real alternative for systemic transformation. Similarly, the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP), which brings together nomadic communities that preserve biodiversity and defend the sustainable use of the commons, rises strongly in this global struggle. Women, often silenced, are the backbone of these communities, taking care of their families and ensuring collective well-being. Despite attempts to silence them, they rise powerfully to demand their right to exist, to be recognized, and to defend their territories. They face a colonial system that continues to strip them of their lands and ways of life, always with an eye on future generations.

This March 8, women around the world march together. From the Sahrawi camps to rural markets, from hospitals to the seas, from ancestral forests to cities and beyond, in every corner of the countryside. The struggle of women is not an isolated event, but a continuous process of resistance and systemic transformation. The convergence of their organizations in the Nyéléni process demonstrates that only through solidarity, social justice, and the defense of life can a future be built where women and all peoples are truly free.