On the occasion of International Women’s Working Women’s Day, we salute the women who make factory machines hum, till the fields, keep the home running in order, and do all the other indispensable but belittled “odd” jobs inside and outside to make the world a livable place for everyone.
We salute the revolutionary working women of the world who fought and still fight for liberation and equality of women and oppressed peoples against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism that engender all forms of patriarchal oppression and exploitation. We remember courageous women like the socialist Clara Zetkin and her colleagues who pushed to put March 8, International Women’s Day on the world’s calendar as a reminder of women’s struggle for equal rights and liberation against capitalism and imperialism.
We salute the Filipina who sacrificed life and limb in the revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside and the revolutionary urban underground to advance liberation against national, class and gender oppression in the national democratic movement, and also in the progressive and democratic protest movements nationwide. The tradition of Lorena Barros, Liza Balando, and Lilliosa Hilao continues on to Myrna Sularte, Concha Araneta, Hannah Cesista, and thousands of named and unnamed women fighters all over the country.
As patriarchal and misogynist imperialist rulers continue to plunge the world into chaos today by distorting economies through trade impositions, imposing starvation through sanctions, invading sovereign countries and bombing rivals in their quest for global hegemony, it is the oppressed peoples, many of them women, who bear the brunt of suffering. In Palestine, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and Syria, US imperialists have killed or violated thousands of women and children and destroyed the lives and livelihood of their families. In neocolonies like the Philippines and other countries in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, US imperialism continues to intensify plunder and worsen poverty while supporting puppet governments with funds and weapons to wage war against their own people. Against their own women.
It is the scourge of imperialism that grants license to men in power in dominant nations to viciously torture and massacre women and children abroad in the name of greatness or national security while lasciviously brutalizing and sexually exploiting women and children in pedophiles’ special islands in their own country. It is the same system that grants impunity to local bureaucrat-capitalist despots and militaries in neocolonies such as the Philippines to employ brutal sexual assault as state weapons against women whom they perceive as threats to their positions of power while condoning misogynistic descriptions of women as objects of lust in open and official government discourse.
But because women bear the brunt of imposed suffering, women are also among the most active and steadfast in resisting imperialist aggression and domestic repression. The fight to defend their dignity, their rights, the safety and well-being of their families and the security of livelihood necessarily becomes the fight against class exploiters and oppressors.
The Makabayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ sole all-women member-organization, continues to grow all over the Philippines, spearheading the struggle for women’s liberation within the national democratic movement. And because we uphold women’s liberation, as clearly stated in #11 of our 12-point program, the whole united front likewise continues to arouse, organize and mobilize women in all other organizations among the proletariat, the urban poor, youth, peasants, indigenous peoples, cultural activists and professionals. As more women participate in the revolution, they enrich the perspectives of the revolutionary movement with their own lived experiences as women and start the process of their own liberation from patriarchal strictures and stereotypes.
Today’s intensifying conditions of poverty and repression call on the national democratic movement, the women’s mass movement and all progressive forces to also intensify the struggle against US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Revolutionary mass organizations must expand and consolidate their ranks, drawing in as many women as possible to their organizations. Women must not only continue to form the bulk of the membership but also develop more leaders of the national democratic movement and more commanders of the New People’s Army. They must increase their presence and actively participate in global anti-imperialist solidarity networks. Together with all oppressed peoples, the women’s movement must develop a solid front against US imperialism, the number one enemy of women in our own country and worldwide.
Long live the Filipino people’s struggle against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism!
Long live the Filipino people’s struggle for women’s liberation!
Oppressed women of the world, unite!