Central Executive Committee, March 8th 2020

On International Women’s Day, the YCL-LJC salutes all women who resist patriarchy in all its forms on a daily basis. Since the communist Clara Zetkin proposed to the Socialist International Women to celebrate a day in praise of their struggles more than a century ago, the conditions which pushed her to establish such a day have not changed overall.

In a capitalist regime, being a woman means being condemned to suffer a double burden: that of capitalist exploitation, and that of patriarchal oppression which is mainly attested by the overwork that women are asked to do for the household. As a result, women, even in Canada where the Prime Minister calls himself a “feminist”, have an income equivalent to an average of 69% of that of men. Equally worryingly, it is estimated that 140 years would be required to catch up. Across the world, due to the wage gap, women work on average the equivalent of 39 days more than men, which means that on November 22, women worked as much as their male counterparts on December 31. 

In addition, since the majority of university students are women, they are the first victims of the increase in tuition fees. Moreover, young women tend to follow courses for which the certification of studies involves an unpaid or poorly paid internship, not to mention that they are overrepresented in precarious jobs or jobs for which they are overqualified. 

Racialized and Indigenous women, bear the brunt of both patriarchy and racist violence. The thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women whose murderers in many cases are still on the streets are an extreme example. Many, without being murdered, face harassment, insults, racism on the streets, in their work and study places, as well as being faced with a disproportionate wage gap with inadequate recourse most of the time.

In this regard, we denounce the scandalous theories which imply that patriarchy is the result of so called ‘non-Canadian values’, Muslim in particular. On the contrary, the oppression suffered by racialized women stems in large part from the obstacles that capitalist society poses for them, from the rise and trivialization of far-right racist, xenophobic ideas and the hate speech that results of it.

Women around the world are also among the first victims of imperialist wars of aggression, rape being used in many cases as a weapon of war. In addition, women and children represent 80% of refugees, either for economic, warmongering and, increasingly, climatic reasons.

We are celebrating March 8 this year in a global framework marked by the growing aggressiveness of imperialism, the climate crisis and the rise of right-wing populism before a putrid capitalist system. In this context, women have an important role to play in the resistance of peoples against their exploiters and oppressors. We see it everywhere: Wet’suwet’en women who, in Canada, defend their sovereign territory, Lebanese women who fight against more than thirty years of austerity and anti-popular measures, French women who fight for the right to a dignified retirement (women are among the main losers in the new point retirement system). In Argentina, feminist mobilizations, linked to those of the various social and popular movements, put an end to the Macri government while Brazilian women were among the first to fight against the openly homophobic government of Bolsonaro. Similarly, Chilean women’s mobilisation against the Piñera government drew the attention of many leftists across the world. 

 Several other current examples would be worth mentioning in order to convince the importance that the feminist movement plays in different social movements. There can be no movement that aims for revolutionary and social transformation without it giving its due place to the struggle of women. It is no coincidence that it is on the initiative of the communist Clara Zetkin that this day is still celebrated today …