March 8, 1857, one of the important turning points in the women’s liberation struggle, has inscribed itself in the annals of the oppressed as an important piece of history in terms of the militancy of women workers in the line of resistance and the political necessities of revolutionary subversion that emerges from this militancy
Since 1910, Clara Zetkin’s proposal for a ‘day for women’ in memory of the murdered women workers, which was accepted by women with great enthusiasm, has since then been accepted as a day when women all over the world flowed into the fields as subjects and transformed their slogans, demands and struggle practices into political objections against the male-dominated system and male domination. As a matter of fact, today, the political-practical guidance of March 8 is commemorated with the same importance and belonging for all oppressed and working women and LGBTI+’s of the world; thanks to the place where it stands and the experiences it has developed, a broader line of struggle can be established.
However, the formation and continuity of this line and the political gains it has achieved in terms of rights are subjected to more organized and planned attacks compared to yesterday, and the system is trying to retreat as much as possible.
Essentially, the main explanation for the more organized attempts to prevent the emancipation steps of women and LGBTI + and the increase in attacks on gains; it is directly linked to the gradual strengthening of fascist and reactionary powers on a world scale. The political motivation that such powers, which constitute the sharpest end of male domination, feed on is aimed at the total attack and destruction of the oppressed, and one of the ends of this destruction and attacks is women and LGBTI + persons.
Today, almost all over the world, they try to imprison women at home, sanctify them with the slogan of motherhood, derive prohibitions from the same sanctity and try to take away women’s right of imagination over their own bodies, oblige women to the family, which is the place of slavery and unpaid labor, force them to this place materially and morally, and again use the most primitive and widespread form of exploitation for their own interests; turn women’s bodies and labor into a cheap commodity and put them on the market, force them to work in cheap and flexible jobs; it is the same states and governments that attack the acquired rights of LGBTI+s and all of these peoples, criminalize homosexuality with the definition of “non-traditional sexual intercourse”, prohibit adaptation surgeries, do not allow pride marches, exonerate murderers of women, encourage hate murders, turn body exploitation into an international market commodity and exhibit male-dominated policies that go beyond the ones we have mentioned.
Moreover, it is not possible to separate these examples from other developments in Turkey-Northern Kurdistan. In fact, one of the places where the picture is exhibited most severely is here, and day by day this picture is getting more and more severe on behalf of the oppressed genders.
The fascist state power’s development of anti-women and LGBTI+ policies by taking its small partners behind it is not an issue we are unfamiliar with.
They define women as a necessary tool for the reproduction of the human race, and see LGBTI+’s as the malignant virus of the current lineage production. Therefore, they develop all their policies, promises and practices under these two basic headings.
They direct one to recognize and ignore the other to be tied materially and morally to the home and family and to produce future generations of workers for capital. They dictate that one can live on the condition that he/she hides himself/herself, while the other is advised not to be touched as long as he/she is a piece that completes the ‘family’ puzzle. When one goes outside the paradigm, they try to ensure a return to the paradigm by resorting to all means. Because the pillars of the system are based on these facts. What is happening is not a simple or individual objection. It is political behavior that weakens the system. Because of this, for example; it approves the murder of women who do not want to be confined at home, the perpetrator is left unpunished, or it opens the door to hate murders by directing social lynching against LGBTI+ individuals who openly defend their sexual identity.
Through the media, it divides women into cultural and ideological categories such as religion and tradition. It makes provisions in its laws and codes in line with this line.
It whitewashes child abuse in the name of religion. And this is not enough. It provides financial support by funding the institutions and organizations where abuse is most common.
And what is even more serious, this picture goes on and on.
As long as it is the system that makes them do it, the state that protects them, and men with a male-dominated ideology who cling to their privileges who do it, resistance from the oppressed genders is an inevitable result, a compulsory movement to change the course of history.
In spite of this dark picture, we must say that our resistance is great and our hope is stronger than ever. We set out not to transform a flaw, but to destroy the male-dominated capitalist system. We have adopted not to adapt to the system, but to resist it as a duty of where we stand. We aimed to be the founding subject of the action, not to remain on the sidelines – to be the other.
While shouldering the strategic task of breaking down the walls of the system, we endeavored to turn every platform into a political arena for women’s liberation, knowing that we are in a more painful and difficult war than yesterday.
We have accepted the burden of millions of women who are struggling to face all the problems that affect them from a wider spectrum and struggle as our own burden.
We have learned a lot and gained political experiences from the resistance of Palestinian women who refuse to live in an occupied country, the rebellion of Iranian and Afghan women who resist being killed and oppressed under the guise of religion, the demand for liberation of Middle Eastern women who refuse to be oppressed and imprisoned under male domination, and LGBTI+s from various countries/nations who refuse to tolerate humiliation based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Moreover, as a compulsory requirement of being against this reactionary system and male domination, we saw our roadmap in solidarity with the political sections of the women’s liberation struggle.
As a result, it is the duty of each and every one of us to bring the green of life together with the knowledge that there is no alternative but to struggle until women’s liberation, by adding all these reasons for our existence and the accounting of what we have or have not been able to do to our saddlebags. We know that in order to violate the limits of the male-dominated capitalist system, to move beyond the limits it sets and to create practical possibilities for this, we have to consolidate the existing positions of the women’s liberation struggle and build new ones.
It is on the shoulders of oppressed working women to develop the war of labor against capital, and in particular to undertake the overthrow of this system by targeting the male-dominated system and all forms and affiliations of male domination.
As we have always stated, the realization of the social revolution, the waving of the flag of socialism in the territory of Turkey-Northern Kurdistan, as well as the victory of labor over capital, will be realized through the total struggle of women and LGBTI+s against the male-dominated capitalist system and male domination and the political leadership of revolutionary women.
For this reason, as on every March 8, our main slogan this year should be to raise our objection against the current system and all the privileges it creates in all areas of struggle, to organize resistance street by street, position by position, and to march on the male-dominated system with the strength we draw from our political and historical experiences.
On the occasion of March 8, we respectfully commemorate Clara Zetkin and all women comrades who were immortalized for the sake of the women’s liberation struggle, especially the 129 women weaving workers from New York who were burned to death, and we salute our women comrades resisting in prisons.
* Long live March 8, International Working Women’s Day!
* Jin, Jiyan, Azadi!
* Fight Fascism, Revolt against Male Sovereignty, Grow the Organized Struggle for Revolution!
Maoist Communist Party / Central Committee March 2024
source: hbdh-info.com