Against this, the resistance of the ruling classes is is also stirring with all its strength, attacking the fought-for rights of women and responding with patriarchal reaction to the legitimate demands for freedom, equality and justice. Thus, the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe, a convention of bourgeois states that establishes legal norms for the protection of women against violence with binding effect, has become an important issue of struggle for women. In July 2020, it was announced that Poland would withdraw from the Istanbul Convention. Turkey, the first signatory to the Istanbul Convention, withdrew from the international agreement overnight on March 20, 2021, by decree of Erdogan.

 

In both countries, women have been mobilizing resolutely for their rights for years, putting up enormous resistance against the patriarchal, reactionary, proto-fascist and fascist attacks and repression of their states. For example, women in Poland are fighting against the anti-women policies of the ruling PiS party, which, in addition to the right to abortion, targets fundamental rights of women to protect the bourgeois family order. Also under Erdogan, the current representative of the fascist state, women in Turkey have been pushed into the traditional role within the family. Violence against women and child abuse is to be promoted through a policy of impunity. LGBTI+ are particularly targeted in a new wave of repression. Undoubtedly, the Istanbul Convention is also a bourgeois democratic achievement of women's tireless struggle for equality and self-determination. The resistance of women in Poland as well as in Turkey is an important signal for all women of the world. For it is only through determined and united struggle that the attacks of the rulers can be beaten back and new rights can be achieved. They make clear that the  women's liberation struggle is an indispensable part and a scale of revolutionary struggles.

 

As ICOR we stand in solidarity with all women who are fighting to remain in the Istanbul Convention and implement its legal standards and call for all forms of action and protest on all continents to express this through actions until July 1st.  We also call on the states that have not yet signed the Istanbul Convention to sign or ratify it (for example, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine). This not as struggles for a piece of paper, but as struggles against violence against women, for a life of self-determination and dignity and a future without exploitation and oppression and to strengthen women's forms of organization. We support the women in Turkey who are calling to bring life to a standstill and to fight for their demands. We salute the women of the world who are resisting and shout: Women who fight are women who live!

 

As women, let us unhinge the system in a revolutionary way, jointly with the workers, the youth, the environmentalists, the fighters for human rights!

 

Initial signatories - women of ICOR parties and mass women's organizations linked to them:

• Australia: Alice M., Vice-chairperson, CPA (M-L) – Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist), Louisa L., Vice-chairperson, CPA (M-L) -Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) 

• Germany: Gabi Fechtner, chairwoman of the MLPD – Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany

• India: comrade Pramila, President of AIRWO – All India Revolutionary Women's Organisation

• Morocco: Meriam Chhaibi and Btissam –  MMLPL – Moroccan Marxist-Leninist – Proletarian Line

• Nepal : comrade Durga Paudel and comrade Mina Pun, President of ANWA, All Nepal Women's Association

• Portugal: Ana Vomhof, militant woman of the UMLP – Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union

• South Africa: Gloria Mgaju and Margaret Tini, Abanqobi Women Together.

• Tunisia:  Women's Committee Latifa Taamalah, PPDS – Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party - Nesrine Gharbi,  member of the Political Bureau and responsible for women and comrade Amira Dallech, in charge of coordination with the world and European coordination of women and in charge of the file of the next World Women's Conference in Tunisia

• Ukraine: Alina and the women of KSRD - Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement 

• Uruguay: Women's Front of PCR-U – Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay

 

Signatories (as of 29 June 2021, further signatories possible):

1. CPK   Communist Party of Kenya

2. MMLPL   Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line

3. CPSA (ML)   Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)

4. PPDS   Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia

5. MLOA   Marxist-Leninist Organization of Afghanistan

6. CPB   Communist Party of Bangladesh

7. CPI (ML) Red Star   Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star

8. Ranjbaran   Hezb-e Ranjbaran-e Iran (Proletarian Party of Iran)

9. NCP (Mashal)   Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)

10. PPRF   Patriotic Peoples Republican Front of Nepal

11. NDMLP   New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party, Sri Lanka

12. CPA/ML   Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

13. PR-ByH   Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)

14. MLPD   Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)

15. UC   Unité Communiste (Communist United ), France

16. UPML   Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France

17. BP (NK-T)   Bolşevik Parti (Kuzey Kürdistan-Türkiye) (Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey))

18. KOL   Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)

19. RM   Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

20. UMLP   União Marxista-Leninista Portuguesa (Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union)

21. RMP   Российская маоистская партия (Rossijskaya maoistskaya partiya) (Russian Maoist Party)

22. MLGS   Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)

23. TKP-ML   Türkiye Komünist Partisi – Marksist-Leninist (Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist-Leninist)

24. MLKP   Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)

25. KSRD   Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine

26. UoC   Union of Cypriots, Cyprus

27. PCP (independiente)   Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan  Communist Party (independent))

28. BDP   Bloque Democratico Popular (Popular Democratic Bloc), Peru

29. PPP   Partido Proletario del Perú (Proletarian Party of Peru)

30. PC (ML)   Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic

31. PCR-U   Partido Comunista Revolucionario del Uruguay (Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay)