STATEMENT ON INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY

WOMEN RISE AND STRIKE AGAINST IMPERIALISM,

MILITARISM AND FOR WOMENS EMANCIPATION

Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle
March 8, 2017

We, from the International League of Peoples Struggle, rise in solidarity with women all over the world and
join them in commemoration of March 8, International Womens Day.

In 1911, women of the Socialist International declared the First International Toiling Womens Day to
champion womens democratic rights and fight for reforms against the dire conditions, especially of working
women and children. More than a hundred years later, their calls still ring true for the majority of the worlds
working class women who must further confront the fiercest imperialist attacks yet on the lives, rights and
welfare of the majority of the worlds people.

This year, we commemorate March 8 amidst an important nodal point in the history of the international
womens movement - the dynamic reinvigoration of womens movements in the West, particularly in the US,
as evidenced by the recent Womens March and in the strong participation of women of color in various
protest movements, ranging from issues of womens rights, gender-based violence, racism, civil rights,
defense of ancestral or native lands, anti-fracking and other forms of environmental destruction, austerity,
privatization, precarity, militarism and war.

Such reinvigoration no doubt has been driven by the crisis of capitalism that has reached new heights since the
financial crisis of 2008, and which has had profound adverse consequences, even for the working classes of
the imperialist countries. The crisis is now turning for the worse with the rise of neo-fascism, the
unprecedented repression of migrant and other democratic rights, the spreading of xenophobic, hate
propaganda and white supremacy under the Trump presidency.

Equally important, we celebrate the continued vibrancy of the movements of oppressed women in neocolonial
countries who have unyieldingly struggled and opposed imperialism, militarism and political repression. Their
long histories of militant struggle have now become beacons in the global struggle of women for
emancipation against all forms of exploitation and oppression. By refusing to accept the token reforms that
imperialist countries and their client states have peddled with the intention of luring women away from the
path of militant struggle, the womens movements have gained wisdom and strength from upholding the rights
and interests of majority of the worlds women - the working class women who have been the most affected
by the anti-democratic, anti-national and anti-women policies of the imperialists and their client states.

Imperialism has caused the immeasurable suffering of women. The ever increasing concentration of wealth in
the hands of a few present no possibilities for womens emancipation under this system. Gains made by the
womens liberation movements of the 70s and 80s have been so easily eroded by the reign of neoliberal
policies. Instead of improving their social and economic conditions, women, like their male counterparts, are
more than ever confronted with joblessness, homelessness, cutbacks in social welfare measures and other such
manifestations of the global social and economic crisis.

The situation is much worse for millions of women in neo-colonies as excruciating poverty and deprivations
mark their lives as consequences of economic policies oriented to benefit big foreign and local exploiters.

While they suffer along with their male counterparts, working class women have had to bear the brunt of
economic dislocation due to their traditional role in caring for their families and community resources. Big
mining companies, agribusiness corporations and land conversions for foreign industrial and commercial use
have caused the massive displacement of rural communities and have disrupted or destroyed local agro-
ecological systems that ensure food security. Driven away from their traditional communities and resources,
women peasants have to find work, entailing both money and time for travel and unregulated work hours to
earn for their familys basic needs. Worse, many more women are driven to work in cities or in foreign
countries, subjected to low-paying, unregulated work that leaves them vulnerable to abuse, discrimination,
violence, prostitution and/or human trafficking.

At the core of the neoliberal attack on the working class is the ruthless drive to push down wages. With the
introduction of so-called flexible pay schemes in many countries, neoliberalism has, in fact, stripped workers,
especially new entrants to the labor force, a significant percent of whom are women, of their fundamental
right to a living wage. Neoliberalism, instead of spreading prosperity with the so-called mobility of capital,
has in fact degraded workers conditions, reducing them to modern-day slaves.

Militarism is on the rise as inter-imperialist conflicts intensify fueled by the global capitalist crisis and as the
imperialists jockey for resources and nations to exploit and plunder. US imperialism today stands as the
principal purveyor of war and militarism, spending ever increasing amounts to feed its military industrial
complex, in a futile effort to wriggle out of interminable crisis. It has unleashed wars of aggression and
military and political intervention under the slogan of the global war on terror; trained and armed surrogate
armies and paramilitary groups to foment destabilization in countries where it has vast economic interests or
resist US domination. Elites both in capitalist home grounds and in client states resort to violence, coercion,
suppression and deception in order to crush political dissent and resistance.

Along with the rise of militarism is increased violence against women and children as they become victims of
human rights violations, including sexual abuse by military and paramilitary groups. States do not only
sanction profiteers to exploit women as objects for the entertainment and sexual pleasure of military troops
but also use rape as a means of subjugation and conquest. Militarism foments misogyny, male chauvinism and
the subjugation and gross sexual objectification of women.

The magnitude of the peoples sufferings had generated a spate of protests and resistance, both armed and
unarmed, to imperialist policies in many parts of the globe. Women play an important role in this resistance,
with many taking to the forefront of local and national struggles against anti-democratic and pro-imperialist
policies and programs. They expose and oppose the deceptive schemes that depict women as being passive,
and token reforms meant to veer womens movements away from militant and committed resistance to
imperialist rule. Women are organizing everywhere, and the clarion call for womens emancipation has never
been stronger.

Struggle for womens emancipation from patriarchy and all forms of oppression
and exploitation!

Down with imperialism, militarism and fascism!

Uphold people's rights and women's rights!

Long live international solidarity!