One day after International Women’s Day, on March 9 2021, the World Health Organization released a report based on the largest ever study conducted on violence against women. The report covered the period between 2000 and 2018 and concluded that violence against women remains “devastatingly pervasive” across the globe, with one in every three women in the world facing some form of physical or sexual violence. More specifically, the report found that one out of every four young women (aged between 15-24 years) has experienced violence at the hands of an intimate partner by their mid-twenties. Violence by an intimate partner is the most prevalent form of violence against women by far. According to the study, in 90% of reported cases (641 million out of 736 million) the perpetrator was either the husband or a partner. These are shocking numbers, but the report added that because violence against women is so underreported due to social stigma and various structural reasons, the real number is much higher. While the highest levels of patriarchal violence were found to be in South Asia, WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the point that “violence against women is endemic in every country and culture, causing harm to millions of women and their families”.
While the WHO report, which was made in partnership with the UN, did not include data collected during the COVID pandemic, it emphasized that violence against women has increased since it began. UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka even said that COVID had triggered a “shadow pandemic” of increasing violence against women and girls, the lockdowns and quarantines in particular rendering them more vulnerable to intimate partner violence.
This is the situation that we’re facing today. But women are fighting back. Women across the entire world are fighting back bravely, in the midst of the pandemic, against the patriarchal systems imposed on them and are refusing to be silent: fighting for a world where their rights, their equality, their dignity are non-negotiable.
Last year I talked about the massive demonstrations that took place on International Women’s Day 2020, where two million women marched in downtown Santiago, the capital of Chile, defying the neo-liberal regime of Sebastian Pinera and a police force notorious for its brutal assaults and sexual crimes. All over Latin America and around the world, millions of women marched against growing inequality, the rising rate of femicide and anti-women violence, as well as reactionary laws against abortion.
International Women’s Day 2021 was no different. Despite the pandemic and the lockdowns in addition to police repression, millions of women still came out to march. From Argentina to Mexico, millions of women marched to demand equality in the most unequal region in the world, and to proclaim that they refuse to continue being marginalized, discriminated against, excluded and murdered.
In Brazil, thousands of women took to the streets of major cities to demand the impeachment of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right president who has presided over a horrific escalation in femicides and violence against women and the LGBTQ community. Women’s organizations also condemned the government’s callous mismanagement of the pandemic and its pro-business policies that have resulted in rising hunger, poverty and unemployment, which also disproportionately impact women.
In Chile, at least 500,000 women came out into the streets of Santiago at the iconic Dignity Plaza in opposition to Sebastian Pinera’s right-wing government. These women faced tear gas and water cannon but stood strong and forced the police to retreat. Across the country, millions of Chilean women took part in a national strike calling for gender parity in all realms, non-sexist education, and the right to free, legal and safe abortion.
Thousands of women in the Dominican Republic demanded reproductive rights as well as that femicide and other forms of anti-women violence be included as punishable offenses in the country’s penal code.
In El Salvador, thousands of women gathered in the capital to call for the legalization of abortion. Journalists and reporters also joined this march to demand the right to cover and report on gender-based violence, which is effectively banned under the country’s reactionary laws.
In Honduras, one of three Latin America countries (along with El Salvador and the Dominican Republic) where abortion is banned under all circumstances, women marched against a wave of femicides that has claimed over fifty lives since the beginning of the year. But the legacy of Berta Caceres lives on and Honduran women will not be silent in the face of a capitalist system that is destroying the land as well as their bodies.
In Mexico, a country with one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, tens of thousands of women marched in the capital and turned the metal fence surrounding the National Palace into a “wall of memory”, covering it with the names and faces of thousands of women killed in recent years.
Similar marches were held in Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia.
In Poland in particular, thousands of women demonstrated across the country under the leadership of the National Women’s Strike, protesting against the blatant misogyny of the right-wing government and its recent ban on abortions. This is a country where upwards of 500 women die every year as a result of domestic violence and where 94% of those who suffer rape or molestation do not report it to authorities.
In France, women’s organizations and trade unions organized 150 mobilizations across the country, protesting the rise in violence against women that has spun out of control since the pandemic began. The organization Greve Feministe also pointed out that “Women, increasingly migrant women, make up the majority of those in care, health, education and cleaning jobs…They are underpaid and get little or no recognition…Despite the beautiful promises, no substantive negotiations have taken place in this direction!”
Similar actions took place in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. And it was in the UK on March 13 where London cops would brutally suppress a vigil for Sarah Everard, who herself was abducted and murdered by a police officer, and try to silence those speaking out in her memory. As one of the participants in that rally said, “The irony of it is so explicit – are you going to drag women off the street for protesting about a woman being dragged off the street?” In a follow-up protest at Parliament Square the next day, the names of women killed by their partners, or who have died in UK prisons, were read out.
But I want to return to India, a country that really should be in the news more often given what has been happening over the last few months. I’ve talked before about the farmer’s strike that has been going on there since last December and how millions of Indian workers have struck in solidarity with the farmers, facing the far-right government of Prime Minister Modi with its biggest challenge in years. But attention must be paid to the crucial role that women have played in all of this. Right from the beginning they have played a key organizing role in the farmer’s movement against the government’s neo-liberal agricultural laws and it has been a life-changing experience for many of them.
The many thousands of women who gathered at Tikri and Singhu outside New Delhi on March 8th, in a Women’s Day demonstration that was epic in every way, included everyone from teenagers to 80-year-old elders. They came from all over, even from remote parts of Haryana and Punjab, organized by the All-India Democratic Women Association, the Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and other groups. One of the woman farmers, Sheela Butana, who came to the demonstration alongside fifty other women from her home village, condemned the farm laws that were condemning her family to financial ruin, but also highlighted the empowerment that this movement has given to women: “There is no doubt that the movement provided equal opportunities (to women) but the real battle remains to be fought in families and farms where we are still less valued in comparison with men although our hard labor remains the same.”
Jagmati Sangwan of the All-India Democratic Women Association told the progressive Indian news organization News Click that “The fact of the matter is women have only 13% (land) entitlements whereas they contribute 70% to farming (labor). It has simply deprived us from nearly all welfare schemes, be it compensation for damage of crops or any relief if she dies by suicide due to agrarian distress…women are suffering at every front.”
Sangwan praised the farmer’s movement for recognizing the role of women in the struggle and that the value of their labor and access to land must be made equal to that of men.
In reference to the deep chauvinism and impunity that has characterized India under the current Modi government, one of the women speakers at the rally said, “My dear sisters, the struggle is not just limited to these farm laws alone. Please reject all Manuwadi theories which have so far limited your identity to child-bearing mothers.”
It was noteworthy that the stages at these rallies were guarded by exclusively women guards, highlighting the reality that India is among the most violent places for women in the world and this has required women to band together for self-defence. Many speakers at the rallies announced their resolve to “struggle for the right to equality in society and strive to fight against oppression and discrimination women have been subjected to.”
The self-confidence that the farmer’s movement has given to many Indian rural women was captured in the words of one woman who arrived at the rally by tractor from Haryana: “This is women’s power. It makes me believe that I can do anything…Long Live Women’s Unity!”
These defiant words, this confidence, reminds me of what the women of Petrograd must have felt on March 8 1917 when they walked off the job in the city’s textile mills in the Vyborg District, initially protest against the food shortages and high price of bread, but soon began chanting “down with the war,” and “down with the monarchy”. The strike spread and drew in tens of thousands of workers and soldiers. Eight days later, the Tsar abdicated.
In March 1917, laundry workers led by Bolshevik Sofia Goncharskya, struck for weeks; in April, 100,000 soldiers’ wives demanded better rations and an end to the war; in August, Bolshevik women organized armed defense. “Red Sisters” provided medical assistance and built barricades in Petrograd during General Kornilov’s reactionary coup attempt. Women in the Red Guards laid down their lives in defense of the revolution. Bolsheviks played a role locally and nationally, speaking at public meetings, distributing leaflets, transporting weapons, guaranteeing communications and providing care for the wounded.
In July 1917, women over the age of 20 were formally given the right to vote and hold public office. November 1917, in the wake of the October Revolution of the Bolshevik seizure of power, was the first opportunity for women to exercise this right and they did. In some areas, such as Yaroslavl, women turnout outnumbered that of men.
When socialist revolution comes to India, as it did to Russia, women will most certainly be at the forefront. And the same applies to other countries where patriarchal violence reinforces capitalism and facilitates the double oppression that women face, which is reinforced still further in many parts of the world by structures of racism, empire and colonialism. There can be no revolution without women, and that includes queer women and trans women too.
The following is an excerpt from Alexandra Kollontai’s 1920 article, “International Women’s Day”:
But this is not a special day for women alone. The 8th of March is a historic and memorable day for the workers and peasants, for all the Russian workers and for the workers of the whole world. In 1917, on this day, the great February revolution broke out. It was the working women of Petersburg who began this revolution; it was they who first decided to raise the banner of opposition to the Tsar and his associates. And so, working women’s day is a double celebration for us.
[Women’s Day] turned out above all to be an excellent method of agitation among the less political of our proletarian sisters. They could not help but turn their attention to the meetings, demonstrations, posters, pamphlets and newspapers that were devoted to Women’s Day. Even the politically backward working woman thought to herself: “This is our day, the festival for working women,” and she hurried to the meetings and demonstrations. After each Working Women’s Day, more women joined the socialist parties and the trade unions grew. Organizations improved and political consciousness developed.
These are the results of working women’s day of militancy. The day of working women’s militancy helps increase the consciousness and organization of proletarian women. And this means that its contribution is essential to the success of those fighting for a better future for the working class.
“Working Women’s Day” was first organized ten years ago in the campaign for the political equality of women and the struggle for socialism. This aim has been achieved by the working-class women in Russia. In the Soviet Republic the working women and peasants don’t need to fight for the franchise and for civil rights.
But rights alone are not enough. We have to learn to make use of them. The right to vote is a weapon which we have to learn to master for our own benefit, and for the good of the workers’ republic. In the two years of Soviet power, life itself has not been absolutely changed. We are only in the process of struggling for communism and we are surrounded by the world we have inherited from the dark and repressive past. Working women and peasant women can only rid themselves of this situation and achieve equality in life itself, and not just in law, if they put all their energies into making Russia a truly communist society.
After the experience of the Russian October revolution, it is clear to every working woman in France, in England and in other countries that only the dictatorship of the working class, only the power of the soviets can guarantee complete and absolute equality, the ultimate victory of communism will tear down the century-old chains of repression and lack of rights.
Only the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of Soviet power will save them from the world of suffering, humiliations and inequality that makes the life of the working woman in the capitalist countries so hard. The Working Woman’s Day turns from a day of struggle for the franchise into an international day of struggle for the full and absolute liberation of women, which means a struggle for the victory of the soviets and for communism!
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