Revolutionary Communist Group, Colombia (comrev.co) | @ComRevCo | March 8, 2024

The problems of women have a lot of universality. The single example of violence against women is very telling. One in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten during her lifetime. Think about this horror: A billion women cruelly raped in the world today. And 38% of the murders of women that occur in the world are committed by their male partner.

Yes, the problems of women have a lot of universality. It is a fact that we live (on the planet as a whole) under a system of capitalism-imperialism. Capitalism is an economic and political system based on exploitation and oppression, and imperialism is the global nature of this system. But the world’s countries are divided into two general categories: Imperialist countries, such as the United States, Russia, and China; or dominated and oppressed nations, such as Iran and Afghanistan or Colombia and Morocco. It is the functioning of this capitalist-imperialist system that has engendered two historically outmoded systems: Imperialism, and religious fundamentalism (which, for now, is more visible in some important regions of the world). These two outmoded systems refer to two completely obsolete structures. The fact that they survive and thrive implies the suffering of humanity, especially women.

On the other hand, almost everywhere there is a wide range of reformist ideas that try to get changes within the structure of the system itself by means of various reforms that legitimize the status quo. They never look for the root causes of the oppression of women and always recognize and respect the red lines that the system draws around the question of women. This political outlook, whose operational activity is generally concentrated in the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and in organizations and institutions close to power, not only does not help the liberation of women, but turns the question of the oppression of women mainly into obtaining jobs for women within government and business. They turn a blind eye when it comes to opposing the crimes of governments, whether openly right-wing or “progressive” governments. They remain silent when it comes to opposing the crimes of imperialism.

Getting to the other side of this abyss to a new and radically different state power—by means of a revolution that has defeated and dismantled the old state power—is not simply a utopian dream. Revolutionary thinker and leader Bob Avakian has brought forward the strategy and roadmap for revolution, not just for countries like the United States but more generally, and an important part of his development consists in recognizing not only the role played by the question of women in the deep crisis of capitalism, but the powerful driving force that the fury of women represents for the positive outcome of the possibilities that we have before us.

We need revolution—nothing less than that—and a whole new world!