This day of struggle for women's equality called for women's suffrage, the right to vote, but also for the introduction of the eight-hour working day, adequate protection for mothers and children, the establishment of minimum wages and equal pay for an equal day's work – all of which were groundbreaking achievements for the masses of women. But the struggle could not be separated from the struggle against imperialist warmongering, which would determine the fate of the world only a few years later. 

 

Socialist women took a clear stand against the policies of the imperialist powers that led to the First World War. Rosa Luxemburg summed up the spirit of the times with the slogan “Socialism or Barbarism”. This warning has lost none of its relevance to this day: we are experiencing a new phase of imperialist wars and reactionary preparations for war, of the willful destruction of nature. On the contrary, the rapid developments of our time make the task of saving humankind and the environment from the destructive power of capitalist profit logic even more urgent.

 

The danger of a Third World War is currently greater than ever. The theaters of war in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as war preparations in the South China Sea and South America, are harbingers of that war. With his so-called peace negotiations with Putin and threats of forced deportation of Palestinians from Gaza, US president Trump sharpens his imperialist power plans on the backs of the peoples, as well as the rivalry with other powers. 

 

The aggression against the peoples of the region which are supported by the imperialists and the genocide of Israel's reactionary Zionist government towards the Palestinian people show the unprecedented contempt for humanity and the wanton destruction of the imperialist order. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is also exposed to massive threats from the Turkish state; its revolutionary achievements and advances in the liberation of women must be defended. In the reactionary war in Sudan, which is being waged with the support of various imperialist powers, we experience women committing suicide on a massive scale to escape the sexual aggression of anti-people warmongers.

 

Today, too, it is the meaningful duty of all militant and socialist women worldwide to resist imperialist warmongering and oppose psychological war preparation and warfare which try to portray these wars as liberation, humanism and defense. Let us put a stop to this! We women will take to the streets on 8 March with a determined and militant anti-war stance!

 

The living conditions in today's world are particularly painful for women and children. This begins with the low income, lack of child care or, even more intensified in case of flight, hunger, poverty, hardship, violence, misery, also rape and other forms of sexualized violence.

 

Especially working-class women are suffering from ever-increasing unemployment, inflation and a wave of impoverishment. For example the workers in the gold mines of Mali, agricultural workers in Indonesia, the female industrial workers such as the VW workers in Germany who are confronted with threatening job cuts, and the militant trade-unionists in the Netherlands – they are all doubly exploited. Especially the children of the working  class are confronted with great insecurity and fear of the future.

 

All of this also challenges the fighting spirit of women all over the world. The new US president, too, must and will have to contend with all these women. When the ruling class doubly exploits working women, our conclusion can only be that we must be twice as determined fighting for the socialist revolution. The proletarian women's movement is the backbone of the worldwide militant women's movement. However, with this call, we address all women, all fighters for the liberation of women!

 

The deep crisis of the bourgeois system also means that patriarchal violence has taken on ever greater proportions. In recent years, brutal femicides in Mexico, Bangladesh, Turkey, India, Kenya and many other countries have led to large mass mobilizations. It is our duty to resist the oppression of women!

On 8 March, we also commemorate the Mirabal sisters, who as communist pioneers stood up against the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and became a symbol in the fight against patriarchal violence. Today too, as women, together with our class alliance partners, we must fight in the front lines against the increasingly reactionary forms of imperialist capitalism and rising fascism. Trump, Modi, Milei, Orban, Erdogan, they all declare themselves enemies of women with their fascist ideology and behave as such!

 

All of these are already more than enough reasons to take to the streets on 8 March! We also declare: the oppression of women and their exploitation, in all its facets, are inherent in the capitalist system. In his groundbreaking work, “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”, Frederick Engels already laid the foundation for this conclusion with his historical-materialistic analysis of the gender relations. We can only achieve a solution through social revolution! Therefore, in the socialist tradition of 8 March, let us continue on the path of great pioneers such as Clara Zetkin, Inessa Armand, Rosa Luxemburg, Alexandra Kollontai, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and many others!

 

The revolutionary world organization ICOR is resolutely committed to the liberation of women, to the coordination and strengthening of their struggles, to the networking and exchange of their forces.

 

In close alliance with the worldwide movements for liberation, especially the grassroots women and revolutionary forces, ICOR calls for demonstrations on 8 March and advocates the slogans:

 

 

Status of the signatories 02.03.2025. Further signing possible. Current list of signatories at www.icor.info:

1. ORC   Organisation Révolutionnaire du Congo (Revolutionary Organization of Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo

2. CPK   Communist Party of Kenya

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

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

5. SPB   Socialist Party of Bangladesh

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

7. RUFN   Revolutionary United Front of Nepal

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

9. Krasnyj Klin   Аб'яднання беларускіх камуністаў «Чырвоны Клін» (Association of Belarusian Communists «Red Wedge»), Belarus

10. БКП   Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)

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

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

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

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

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

16. RM   Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

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

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

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

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

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

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

23. UMU   Union of Maoists of the Urals (Union of Maoists of the Urals), Russia

24. PCC-M   Partido Comunista de Colombia – Maoista (Communist Party of Colombia - Maoist)

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

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

27. SUCI (C)   Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist)

28. CPPDM   Chinese People's Party for the Defense of Mao Zedong

29. Chinese Communists (MLM)   Chinese Communists (Marxist Leninist Maoist)