Working Women of the World Unite Against Imperialism on International Women’s Day
March 8, 2021
On International Women’s Day, we, the movements and organizations of the International Week of Anti-Imperialist Struggle, reaffirm our commitment in the revolutionary struggle against patriarchy, colonialism, and imperialism in all corners of the world.
Inspired by the anti-fascist and proletarian struggles of women workers, International Women’s Day has endured as an important marker for our revolutionary organizations and movements around the world to unite in their internationalist fight against patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism.
We women have led the struggles for liberation of the colonies, for abolition of slavery, for overthrow of monarchies, and for the defeat of fascism, yet still continue to face gender oppression, marginalization, and violence at the hands of the state and the capitalist system, as well as in the home, and so International Women’s day remains an urgent call to continue the feminist struggle until all are free from patriarchy imperialism and the reactionary local regimes!
This March 8 2021, we have behind us a year of unprecedented crisis, a deepening of the imperialist aggression on the peoples in struggle across the world, and a sharp rise of the forces of the far right. Women have consistently and overwhelmingly borne the burden of the crisis, and have we suffered a severe escalation of violence at all levels.
With the feminization of poverty worldwide, we are the first to suffer from the economic crises, with great numbers of our sisters pushed out of the workforce, and many more who survived on informal labor, to lose their livelihoods. We face triple exploitation under the capitalist system as we struggle for wages while also, in the majority of cases, provide all of the care work in our homes, care work that has intensified and multiplied in the current conditions of quarantine and lockdown.
As capitalist countries rush to save their economies, they have left the workers who provide the basic necessities of human life to risk their lives on the front lines. Women make up the overwhelming majority of those who work in these industries- nursing, childcare, eldercare, nutrition, education- and we are the first at risk as they continue working in conditions of pandemic to sustain humanity and care for the millions who have fallen ill.
Despite the enormous increase in domestic work and care work, both essential for sustaining life, they remain invisible in the context of patriarchal relations and the capitalist strategy of hiding the economic link between production and reproduction.
Simultaneously, with the conditions of lockdown and economic crisis, violence against women has escalated to new levels- the increased limitations on movement and the shutdown of social institutions in the capitalist countries has provided those of us who face psychological and physical violence and rape in the home with fewer options than before. We continue to fight for sovereignty over our own bodies, in the home, against the state, in the medical system, and in the workplace, especially in this time, as many right-wing forces escalate to further reinforce patriarchal control over women’s bodies during times of crisis and pandemic.
In the midst of global crisis, the logic of Imperialism has shown itself to be unconcerned with the survival of the majority of people around the world, and within their own borders. As hybrid war, sanctions, and militarism escalate, we are the first to be faced with shortages of food, water, and medicine, armed conflict, and displacement. As imperialist encroachment on territory and sovereignty intensifies, our sisters are forced into imperialist jails where they suffer prolonged detention and abuse as political prisoners. As borders close and the pandemic spreads, those of us who are migrants and refugees confront the crisis with uncertainty and danger on the horizon. And as the fascist and right wing forces strengthen, we face the regression of social and political rights hard-won by decades of feminist struggle.
However, it is us women- the poor, Black, Indigenous, migrant, and working women- who also lead and fight in the front lines in the struggle against imperialism! Our forces of resistance continue to grow, and the feminist struggles, the revolutionary and proletariat women building our organizations and our movements, have won many victories despite the darkness of these past months. From the revolutionary women leading the mobilizations against the violence of the far right, to our steadfast sisters fighting for the liberation of Palestine and Western Sahara against the imperialist forces, the courageous in Cuba, Venezuela, and the socialist states providing aid and medical care to the oppressed, and and the militant women leading the anti-racism struggle against police and military violence across the world, we are strengthened by the revolutionary feminist struggles leading the path to the future.
The struggle against imperialism, against racism, colonialism, and capitalism, cannot be fought without the struggle against patriarchy and without the full participation and leadership of women!
Working Women of the World, Unite!