Vanguard - Communist Party of Australia Marxist Leninist

VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org

International Women’s Day lifts struggle for liberation of women and socialism!

On 8 March, International Working Working Women’s Day, women all around the world demonstrate their determination to struggle for the liberation of women and humankind from the shackles of colonialism, capitalism, imperialism and its wars. Women resolutely oppose fascism in all its disguises.

We fight for our rights as women workers, as carers, cleaners and society’s nurturers, indispensable for the profit making by the capitalist class. We stand as equals in the long struggle for a revolutionary change. We fight against gender exploitation, commercialisation, abuse and violence against women. We lead numerous struggles for our livelihoods, for our kids, for the environment, for peace and a better future for humanity and the earth.

Many struggles for women’s rights and liberation are joining the widening stream of people’s struggles flowing in the direction of socialism. We welcome and celebrate the growing numbers of women joining the revolutionary struggle for socialism and communism.

We are inspired by the resilience and tenacity of generations of working women overcoming extraordinary obstacles and hardships of oppression and subjugation, only to rise stronger, and more determined to pass on the baton of struggle for liberation and revolutionary change to the next generation of women.

We dedicate this International Working Women’s Day to the courageous women of Palestine who, after 76 long years resisting the brutal Zionist colonial occupation and genocide, refuse to give up their struggle for the liberation of their people and country from brutal Zionist colonialism propped up and supported by US imperialism.

76 hard years of brutal occupation, intimidation, genocide, torture and rotting in Israel’s gaols, has not held back the Palestinian women’s lifelong resistance, many joining the armed resistance and charting the Palestinian people's revolutionary road to liberation. Women in the struggles for liberation can break the chains of patriarchy.

Around the world women weep and rage in solidarity with the women of Gaza and occupied territories, for their unbearable grief and loss of children, families, friends, neighbours and entire communities. We are inspired by their courage, resilience and generosity, and draw on their strength for our struggles.

We stand in solidarity with the women of Israel who defy the fascist Israeli state in opposing the Zionist colonial occupation and genocide of Palestine. These courageous women are themselves exploited, attacked and vilified by the fascist Zionist capitalist state. They long for friendship and solidarity with the women of Palestine.

More Palestinian and Jewish voices are calling for one truly democratic, equal and secular state for the people of Palestine, Israel and all peoples, that can guarantee lasting equality, peace and security for all.

We also pay special tribute to revolutionary women of the Philippines and India engaged in their people’s armed struggles against colonialism, fascism and imperialism.

Day in, day out, the great majority of working women are burdened with the rising cost of living, many struggle to make ends meet, in constant fear of losing jobs, unable to pay for roof over their heads, healthcare, education and child care. Rising homelessness is endemic, especially amongst women. Equal pay is still unattainable. Recent figures show the gender pay gap in Australia is on average 29%. Foreign controlled banks and finance sector monopolies have the largest pay gap between women and men workers. Women still overwhelmingly dominate in insecure and part time jobs.

For over a hundred years women in Australia have struggled to alleviate the economic and social burdens on their lives. The few progressive reforms we’ve achieved to alleviate the burdens on women have only been won through women’s long struggles for better pay and working conditions, affordable child care, legal abortion, laws on sex discrimination and violence against women. Many are now being take away or made unenforceable by the capitalist state.

These are permanent problems and burdens of capitalism, and can never be solved within the capitalist system that totally relies for its survival on the exploitation of people and the environment.

As long as the capitalist exploitation and discrimination of women goes on, generations of women inevitably continue this fight.

The First Nations women are leading the militant fight against the settler colonialism and imperialism, demanding land rights and self-determination. They spearhead campaigns to stop the disproportionate incarceration and deaths in custody of young Aboriginal people, against the poverty and dispossession of their people and country.

The First Nations peoples’ long struggles for self-determination is gathering wide support from non-indigenous Australia.

“Socialism will create the necessary conditions for women to achieve their full potential, economic independence, equality and respect in all sectors of society. In a socialist system, working women will be empowered to run the society as equals for the benefit of all working people”. General Programme of the Communist Party of Australia Marxist-Leninist.