International Women’s Day 2018—
Women Stand Up Across the Globe!
March 12, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Women carried a huge banner for legalizing abortion in front of the National Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (AP Photo/Tomas F. Cuesta)
In Bangladesh... Argentina... South Korea... Pakistan... Afghanistan... Guatemala... United States... Mexico... the Philippines... and across the world, women and men marked International Women’s Day by chanting, protesting, raising banners, and dancing—calling out and standing up against the violence, sexual abuse, degradation, inequality, discrimination, and lack of reproductive rights women confront wherever they turn, wherever they are.
Signs of #MeToo appeared in marches as women around the world took inspiration from the righteous outpouring of rage against sexual abuse. Women called for overall equality, and in some cases an end to patriarchy. In the Philippines, women denounced President Duterte’s fascist campaign of mass murder and his threats against women. In Argentina, they condemned femicide and demanded abortion rights. In Turkey, thousands of women marched against “honor killings” and the Erdoğan regime’s fascistic attacks on basic rights. Thousands in Spain took part in a “feminist strike.” Women in Mexico and India protested rampant domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Roughly 30 years ago, Bob Avakian summed up:
The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances... It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms... The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement?*
Today this assessment is even more descriptive of the extreme polarization taking place around the question of women’s status in society—all around the world. Revolutionaries all over the world have a tremendous responsibility to jump into the midst of the burgeoning upheavals, protests, and debates around women’s oppression, and struggle to lead them in the direction of revolution and communism. Two invaluable resources in doing so are: Break ALL the Chains! Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution and A Declaration: For Women’s Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity. And to connect with the Revolution Club to take out revolution and communism, click HERE.
Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women As a Mighty Force for Revolution!
* Cited in A Declaration: For Women’s Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity (Revolution Special Issue, 2009). [back]
Above left: In Mexico City, marchers demanded justice for the many missing and murdered women and an end to rampant sexual abuse. (Photo: AP) Above center and right: New York City, several hundred women marched and rallied in NYC. (Special to revcom.us/Revolution newspaper)
[Click photos to enlarge.]
Above left: In Seoul, South Korea, female workers supported the #MeToo movement, wearing black to an IWD rally. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) Above center: Hundreds of women marched in the Afghan capital of Kabul (Photo: RAWA.org). Above right: Thousands of demonstrators in Spain protested male violence against women and demanded full equality. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
Above left: In Islamabad, Pakistan, women marched, some holding signs that said “Stop Killing Women.” (Photo:AP) Above center: Women in Turkey held letters forming the word “NO” in Turkish, played drums and chanted slogans during the IWD protest, and condemned the Erdoğan regime, filling the streets in the main shopping road of Istanbul. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) Above right: As part of an IWD event in Guatemala, people lay on the ground to remember 41 girls who died in a fire a year ago at a youth shelter. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
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