Celebrate International Women's Day—March 8, 2016
Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution

February 29, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Across the globe, women face the fear of being raped—walking down the street at night, at the hands of soldiers, law enforcement, fathers and brothers, even from those who are supposed to be their most “intimate lovers.” Women face thousands of years of stigma and shame, preached at them from religious patriarchs who command them to obey their husbands and fathers. Women—and young girls—are kidnapped, drugged, battered, and stripped naked, and sold as sex slaves. Women are demeaned and humiliated, from pornography, to advertisements, to the thong—treated as body parts for men’s pleasure. Women are imprisoned under veils and burqas, denied the right to travel or work or even drive without permission from the men who “own” them. Women are forced to have children against their will—or forced to risk their lives to avoid this fate—47,000 women die yearly around the world from unsafe, illegal abortions. No matter the heights of “success” attained, women can never escape the threat of violence, rape, discrimination, disrespect, and a culture that demeans and devalues them, resents them, and seeks to punish them in countless ways.

What kind of system is this? And why should anyone accept that this is the best way the world could be?! Another world IS possible. There is a basis, more than ever before, to bring forward a tidal wave of powerful revolutionary struggle to put an END to all forms of enslavement, degradation, abuse, and oppression of women. And to do this as a central and driving element of the revolution needed to emancipate all of humanity.

March 8, International Women’s Day, is a day when people all over the world join together to declare our determination to break the thousand-years-old chains of oppression that bind half of humanity. IWD is a day to call forth the fury of women and unleash it as a mighty force for revolution; a day for all who dream of and yearn for a better world to act on the recognition that you cannot break all the chains except one, that if you are serious about emancipating all of humanity you must include the fight for the full liberation of women. A day of struggle against the many different chains of women’s oppression: from the brutality of Dark Ages patriarchal feudalism and Islamic fundamentalism; to the trafficking of women worldwide; to the “modern-day” chains of Internet pornography and denial of reproductive rights.

IWD grew out of struggle—a massive demonstration in 1909 of women garment workers in New York City, who poured out of the dangerous sweatshops into the streets, in inspiring defiance. This outpouring inspired the first International Women’s Day on March 8, 1910, organized by communists and socialists. Since then, IWD has been celebrated around the world as a revolutionary holiday. In 1970, Bob Avakian played a key role in reviving the celebration of International Women’s Day as a revolutionary holiday in the United States.

Today, the oppression of women all over the globe is even more extreme and what position and role women will play in society is being posed very sharply. The question is, will there be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution to this? Will the chains of women’s oppression be further tightened and reinforced? Or will some of the most decisive links in the chain of women’s oppression be shattered as part of getting rid of all forms of oppression?

A radical, revolutionary solution is not only necessary—it IS POSSIBLE. Bob Avakian is the architect of a whole new framework of human emancipation, the new synthesis of communism. Because of this, we have the science, the strategy, and the leadership for a real revolution that will get rid of this monstrosity of a system of capitalism-imperialism and replace it with a radically different economic, political, and social system, a genuine socialist society aiming for a world without social divides and exploitation and oppression, a genuinely communist world. And BA’s new synthesis takes the emancipation of women as a foundational and driving force for winning a real revolution and for continuing to radically transform society after the revolution toward fully emancipating all of humanity.

After reading the compendium Break ALL the Chains! Bob Avakian on Women’s Emancipation and Communist Revolution, a member of the Revolution Club wrote about how BA applies a scientific method and approach to get at reality and how to transform it: “How and why women need to be unleashed in order to make a revolution and struggle over the ‘woman question’ in order to make all the way revolution! He breaks down the origins of women’s oppression. He actually goes there: boldly speaking the truth about the social role of women, and why and how this revolting culture must be resisted, and gotten rid of. His approach gets under the surface and gets at the heart of what it’s actually going to take to fully emancipate women and how, and why. And it is exciting. It is fucking exciting to know there is someone out there who has done this work and that there is in fact a solution to the horrors of this system.”

This year, on International Women’s Day, Tuesday, March 8 (and throughout the week), we call on people to widely distribute copies of the sampler compendium, Break ALL the Chains! Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution and the special issue of Revolution, A Declaration: For Women’s Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity, including on campuses, in communities, and at IWD events. And everywhere people go, they should raise money for the BA Everywhere campaign—so that Bob Avakian’s voice and works can get projected throughout society. (The Declaration and compendium are available at revcom.us.)

Write revolution.reports@yahoo.com about what happens.

 

Women are not bitches, hos, punching bags, sex objects or breeders.

Women are FULL HUMAN BEINGS!

Fight for the Liberation of Women Here and All Over the World!

Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

 

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