This 8M will be the first after the re-election of far-right, sexist and misogynist Trump to the presidency of the USA, the main imperialist nation. The growth of these far-right currents worldwide is part of the new political phenomena that embodies patriarchal and religious reaction and attack with particular viciousness to the rights that we won in the streets through struggle. The result in the German election and its nuances ratify this scenario.
While in January a ceasefire agreement was signed over Gaza, which means a setback for Israel and a defeat for its genocidal policy that has failed in its attempt to destroy the resistance of the Palestinian people and colonize Gaza, Trump declared that “the Gazans should leave their territory and head towards Egypt and Jordan”, and that “the United States will take control of the Gaza Strip… we will own it”. In other words, he came out to ratify a policy of expulsion and relocation of the original population of Gaza in order to carry out a real estate business at the service of Israel’s racist and ethnic cleansing policy. This March 8th we take to the streets to repudiate Trump’s statements and to say loudly: “To exist is to resist! No to the ethnic cleansing! Long live free Palestine, from the river to the sea! Let the governments break political, diplomatic, economic and military relations with the State of Israel! The cause of the Palestinian people is a feminist cause!”
Another of the points of resistance against the global far-right is Argentina against the government of Javier Milei, which has just been massively condemned in the streets on February 1st in the anti-fascist and anti-racist pride march against the hate speeches against women and dissidents in Davos. More than a million people came out to express their anger against a government that positioned itself against the social recognition of gender violence achieved with the struggles of Ni Una Menos and the cutback of policies to combat sexist violence, and against the attacks on gender identity, the transvestite Trans labor quota, the Comprehensive Sex Education Law and so many other rights. This March 8th we take to the streets to stop the attacks to our conquests: they will not pass over our rights!
In Turkey, the regime declared 2025 as the Family Year, and accelerated family policies that imprison women in homes, control our bodies and aim to usurp our rights. The regime has also increased its policy of attacking LGBTI+ individuals and continues to criminalize LGBTI+ individuals, with even mentioning the term LGBTI+ in protests being grounds for detention. On the other hand, the criminalization of the women’s movement continues.
The adjustment plans that governments apply to the working class in the face of the current capitalist crisis are especially detrimental to women and dissidents of the popular sectors. The combination of patriarchy and capitalism to super-exploit the most oppressed people in society means that women and dissidents are the ones who suffer the most from the precariousness of the labor market, have the worst paid jobs and are the first to be fired. Cutting budgets for social services, health or education is a form of gender violence that increases the burden of unpaid reproductive work. This economic violence is most pronounced against migrant and racialized people who face higher levels of discrimination. Facing these adjustment politics, women fight alongside the working class, through mobilization and organization, like demonstrated with the great rallies in Panama against the theft in more than 8 million dollars of the Caja Social Security reservations, which is intended to give to the banks throughout individual accounts, raising 8 years more for women to retire. In the midst of the national police violence, there is gender violence taking place, with sexual aggression, arrestment and harassment against women.
Trump’s massive deportation policy against immigrants affect strongly women and particularly children and adolescents because of the attacks to their parents. Trump converts Latin American countries into people storages, creating mini Guantanamo bases throughout the region. As the Panama example, where the ultra-right wing government José Mulino, has sent people, including boys and girls, who were deported without any caretaker, to a disguised base in the jungle of Darién. Or, it is forcing countries like Mexico to increase military forces to contain the migratory flow, which has led to the systematic violation of human rights.
The growth of the politics and hate speeches from the ultra-right and the spreading of imperialistic and colonial violence is accompanied to the raising of racism and xenophobia. In all election campaigns and in the political programs – not only by the ultra-right, but also by the social democrats, there is a widening of propositions directed to criminalize, repress and blame immigrant people. It is crucial to report and fight theses politics, as well as the hypocrisy of those who deny our rights with the objective of maintaining the super-exploited workers force under an irregular administrative situation. For this, the 8th of March, will internationally echo our shout against racism and colonialism! No person is illegal! Down with the anti-immigrant laws!
This March 8, we took to the streets to fight for budgets to combat gender-based violence and not for foreign debts.
For their part, the governments that claim to be popular or center-left have also failed to improve living conditions for women and dissidents beyond their double talk. With their policies of adjustment and external indebtedness, they do not respond to the most urgent demands of the feminist movement. In Brazil, under Lula’s government, the feminist movement faces the attempt to roll back the grounds for abortion in cases of rape. This March 8th we say: Not one step back!
In 2017 a group of North American feminists called for the first PIM (international feminist strike) before the inauguration of the first Trump administration, taking up the tradition of the Second Conference of Socialist Women where Clara Zetkin proposed March 8 as a day of struggle for the rights of working women. Today, in the face of the advance of the far right, we have to organize an 8M that becomes a great internationalist day in defense of all our rights and against the adjustments of the capitalist governments.
We commemorate the New York women workers who in the early 20th century fought against twelve-hour workdays and who gave birth to March 8 as an international day for women workers’ rights. And today, we push for all struggles to succeed. But we warn that in this moment of deep capitalist crisis no conquest, no matter how small, can be guaranteed in the long term if we do not put an end to the capitalist system that survives at the cost of the degradation of humanity, and first of all of the majority of the dispossessed, the destruction of the planet and the oppression of women and dissidents. From the International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (UIT-CI) we claim to be socialist feminists and seek to unite the anti-patriarchal struggle with the anti-capitalist struggle for the triumph of socialism throughout the world and thus end all kinds of exploitation and oppression. This task can only be carried out by governments of the working class and popular sectors.
International Working Men’s and Women’s Unity – Fourth International
