More reports from the 8th of March
We publish here further reports of actions for the 8th of March.
In Lyon, France, the People’s Women’s Committee (CFP) mobilized widely under revolutionary slogans. First, on the 7th of March, the CFP organized a meeting at the university, where it presented its work, as well as the work of the People’s Committee for Mutual Aid and Solidarity, and where a speech on the women’s place in the resistance was held by Palestinian women. In this speech it was highlighted that the enemy is imperialism, not men.
On the 8th of March a combative and anti-imperialist contingent took part to the demonstration organized by Fosse aux Lyons and CFP. This contingent expressed their support to the heroic Palestinian national resistance and especially the women of Gaza. The protesters carried a banner with the slogans “Support for our sisters in Gaza who fight against imperialism and patriarchy! Palestine will win!” and shouted slogans in support of armed struggle, against Zionism and imperialism. Several speeches took a stance against US imperialism and Zionism, and also French imperialism and its treatment of the Mahorese women was condemned. Nouvelle Epoque reports that the contingent was well received among the masses.
On the 16th of March peasant women from Zona da Mata Sul in Pernambuco, Brazil held a plenary session celebrating the 8th of March. The panel was attended by women representatives of the League of Poor Peasants of the Northeast (LCP-NE), a representative of the Committee for the Defense of the Agrarian Revolution (CDRA) of the José Ricardo Revolutionary Area and a teacher from the Elizabete Teixeira People’s School. During the event, a daycare service was organized in order to allow peasant mothers to take part. Following the Internationale, the principles of the People’s Women’s Movement were presented and there was reading and discussion about the origin of the 8th of March, a part of the MFP bulletin. At the end, it was discussed and defined how women could increase their participation in the struggle to recover water sources and land from the old Frei Caneca plantation. In this way, the plenary session led the formation of an agitation and propaganda committee to recover water sources and organize a daycare service so that women can actively participate in recovering the land. The session ended with the Anthem of the Revolutionary Fighters and many slogans from the warriors of the southern forest of Pernambuco.
As we reported earlier, a massive and combative demonstration took place on the 8th of March in Medellin, Colombia. The struggle of the women who took part has been criminalized by members of the ruling classes, with posters published accusing some of the women of vandalism, as well as intimidation and detention carried out by the police against women for such reasons as wearing green or purple scarves. Now women’s organizations are denouncing that the old State is quick to repress the protest of women but don’t punish the murderers and rapists of women. Posters have been put up and slogans have been painted by revolutionary women condemning the criminalization of protest.
In Innsbruck, Austria multiple activities were organized by the Innsbruck Women’s Network and Democratic Women’s Organizations. The last of these activities was an event on the 17th of March in Wörgl. The opening speech of the event was held by the Purple-Red Collective, taking an anti-imperialist and class-based stance on the International women’s day. After the speech and discussion cultural program followed. Zen Erbane Group and Umuda Tohum Music Group played Turkish and Kurdish folk songs, and after these DJ Kandesha took the stage with techno music influenced by Middle-Eastern folk culture. The event concluded in internationalist slogans.
