The same message was wanted to be given to women and LGBTI+s within the scope of the gender struggle by fascist parties and religious-salafist reactionary administrations that gained power in world politics. In fact, practical steps were taken and the women’s liberation struggle was subjected to serious attacks.
After Iran and Afghanistan, the religious-reactionary government in Syria also imposed compulsory hijab on women, and women were forbidden to go out in the regions under their rule without a male relative. There have been mass arrests and massacres of transgender people in some Syrian cities.
Women’s and LGBTI+ rights and struggles; In the last year, it was an ordinary target sign where male-dominated structures and administrations in many parts of the world practiced shooting. Electoral investments have taken the form of who is more misogynistic and LGBTI+ haters. Abortion bans and restrictions on access to contraception have come to the fore, especially in the United States and European countries; the existence of LGBTI+ people was denied, saying that sexual orientation and gender identities are diseases; Femicide, sexual violence, hate crimes and labor exploitation have increased more than ever.
Attacks on women’s achievements in Turkey-Northern Kurdistan continued in a similar manner. Now, with the declarations of the “Year of the Family”, plans are being made to confine women to their homes, and as a result of these plans, it is aimed to force women into care work and to expose them to more labor exploitation. Incentives for childbirth, money per child, and long-term planning due to declining birth rates, as well as making it harder for women to access contraception, are only a preliminary stage in turning women into fetal containers.
LGBTI+s, on the other hand, have been the main agenda of “family strengthening” policies for a long time. LGBTI+s, who are seen as the destroyers of the “holy family”, are the direct target of power discourses.
Some of the articles prepared for the laws that have come to the fore in recent days and stipulate prison sentences for the open expression of sexual orientation and gender identities make LGBTI+ people vulnerable to sexist and homophobic attacks, especially their life safety.
These examples, which are an indication that the political process, which is already progressing with difficulties in terms of gender struggle, will become even more difficult; As seen in the increase in male violence, it will evolve into an even more aggressive situation with impunity for the perpetrators of violence, heavy penalties given to women who exercise their right to self-defense, and the encouragement of hate crimes.
The course of male-dominated state policies on this basis is first and foremost aimed at breaking the axis of women’s struggle and resistance and dominating women and LGBTI+s through force.
However, as long as the male-dominated capitalist system exists and violence continues, the legitimacy of resisting oppression will continue; There will be no end to women swimming against the tide, rebelling against the Republic of Obligations.
And moreover, the generations of women whose bodies were pierced with needles by medieval stampers in search of “signs of witchcraft” will amplify the women’s liberation struggle against today’s modern stampers who speak out over their labor and bodies.
Resistance; It is very difficult and will take it from the system. This clear aspect of the struggle will enable many rebellions and oppositions to bud in the branch of action.
It is these exits that are the lamp to the darkness that should be inspired. the courage of the female student who undressed and protested against the compulsory hijab at Tehran’s Azad University; the will of the crowd that brought together hundreds of thousands of Indian women against sexual violence; the anger of Mexican women who set fire to the palaces of “justice” of the bourgeoisie; the upright stance of Gisele, who trampled on social morality rules and said that “shame must change sides”; the resistance of women from Turkey-Northern Kurdistan, who led strikes against labor exploitation; This year is an example of how impenetrable fences, rough roads and jagged slopes can also be overcome thanks to mighty walkers.
Every woman who has been discouraged, whose faith has been broken, whose talents have been usurped should remember and not forget: Thanks to those who chose to fight against blind indifference rather than sit by the window and watch those struggling outside, this sexist darkness was able to be torn away.
Audacious subjects who insist on taking the helm of their own lives; These swamps could be drained because guillotines, execution benches, and death squads were inhabited.
And this world; Women who have turned resistance into a part of life because there are those who prefer to be angry have not come to an end, they have not yet become pitch because they have multiplied.
As every year, this year, the legacy of 129 weaving women from New York, who rebelled against the conditions of exploitation and paid for it with their lives, is the price of freedom; it will be owned and nurtured by its successors. And today, women will raise their common voices and demands from all continents against the system in which labor stolen under capitalist exploitation, hungry stomachs, poverty and being tested by violence, justice that protects men, murderers of women, child abusers and perpetrators of hatred are fed.
Once again, we salute the resistance of the activist culture, the destructive dynamic that created March 8, commemorates with respect and gratitude all women pioneers who have become immortal in the struggle for socialism, especially Comrade Clara Zetkin, who is the inspiration of today; We reiterate our pledge to enlarge the great heritage handed down to us at great cost and to develop the fight for all the positions to be won for the sake of the struggle for freedom.
* Long live our Women’s Freedom Struggle!