Germany: Call for 8th of March
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of the call of the Red Women’s Committees for the 8th of March, published on demvolkedienen.org.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
8th of March 2024
Women, combat and resist!
The class struggle is raging all over the world. Wherever we look, we see the wars, the genocide, the bloodbaths and massacres that imperialism is unleashing in a desperate attempt to escape its impending doom. Imperialism, which brings wealth and prosperity to the exploiters and poverty and misery to the exploited, is in a deep crisis, fueled by the ongoing struggle of the peoples of the world who are courageously and stubbornly fighting against the yoke of their oppression. The grimace of this dying beast is particularly ugly at present in Palestine, where Yankee imperialism with its Israeli butchers – also supported by German imperialism! – is driving forward the heinous genocide of the Palestinian people, who are holding up the flag of resistance and defending it with their blood. Even though the enemy is armed to the teeth and equipped with the latest technology, the people of Palestine are fighting fearlessly with all the means at their disposal, proving day after day that victory is theirs. The role played by the women of the people – also within the National Resistance Front of the People of Palestine – is by no means passive or limited to mere “support work”, on the contrary, the women of our class and people are fighting at the front line! The participation of women in the decades-long heroic struggle of the people of Palestine has existed as long as this struggle itself and the rest of the world is no different; the best examples of this are the people’s wars in Peru, India, Turkey and the Philippines. Wherever there is struggle, women are also standing up and showing that half the sky is theirs and they will conquer it!
In this country, too, the women of our class are doubly oppressed – by imperialism and patriarchy – and therefore have twice the reason to struggle. Each of us can feel this every day. We are forced to allow ourselves to be exploited at work, often under miserable conditions, and at the same time we are expected to look after the children and the household without pay, not to mention relatives in need of care. Our bosses are lining their pockets, and if we and our class brothers no longer bring them profit, they let us fall into unemployment or short-time work overnight, robbing us of our last wages.
The bourgeois state does everything it can to maintain this state of affairs; after all, its own existence depends on it. It is therefore not surprising that we are the first to be affected by austerity measures, while the big money is invested in arms deliveries and armaments so that the German State can secure its imperialist interests in the world, be it in Ukraine or in the so-called “Middle East”. After the government headed by Olaf Scholz recently shifted money around unconstitutionally in the interests of the bourgeoisie in the usual gangster manner, the billions that are now missing are to be made up by cutting social spending, among other things. As always, the burden is being placed on the shoulders of the working class. The planned cuts, e.g. in citizens’ benefits, will hit us women particularly hard, as we in Germany still earn almost 20% less than men, while we are almost ten times more likely to be single parents and therefore more often dependent on financial support. We have also been waiting for over a year for the promised “basic-security for children” spending, but more than one of five children in Germany still lives in poverty and there is no prospect of improvement anywhere at sight. The situation is no better when it comes to childcare: Although every child from the age of one is entitled by law to a place in a daycare center, there is a shortage of almost 400,000 places throughout Germany, especially in working-class neighborhoods. The few daycare centers that do exist, as well as schools, after-school care centers and other childcare facilities, are systematically understaffed, cut to the bone and allowed to fall into disrepair: Another factor forcing us into unemployment! The rulers are also only too happy to save on our health: on top of the already miserable health care for the entire working class, we women are faced with the immense reduction in delivery rooms and maternity wards, a huge shortage of gynecologists and clinics that perform abortions. And when we feel the effects of patriarchy, for example through domestic violence, in most cases the perpetrator is not prosecuted, but the woman is simply sent to a women’s shelter. And even that’s only if you’re lucky, because women’s shelters are also in short supply, contrary to bourgeois law.
All the State gives us are empty promises. Any apparent improvement is nothing but breadcrumbs thrown to us from time to time to keep our mouths shut. Because there can be no improvement for us within this rotten society. As long as imperialism exists, our exploitation and oppression by the patriarchy will also exist. The one cannot be smashed without the other, because the basis of both is the same: private property. Only the united struggle with our class brothers for a classless society can create the basis for our emancipation. To serve this goal, we need a class-conscious women’s movement that struggles for the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Germany and our actual emancipation!
Red Women’s Committees FRG
(Part of the Red League)
