Purple-Red Collective – Call for the 8th of March
We hereby share a call for the 8th of March, issued by the Purple-Red Collective, shared by Avrupa Haber.
On March 8th, International Women’s Day – we say: Fight against war, exploitation and patriarchy!
This year we commemorate March 8th at a time when the world is shaken by new threats of war, when the struggle for hegemony between imperialist powers is intensifying, and when the economic crisis is deepening. The deeper the imperialist-capitalist system falls into crisis, the more it intensifies militarism, repression, and exploitation to secure its rule.
In such times, the hard-won rights of working women are increasingly attacked; female identity becomes a target of chauvinism and reaction.
With the increase in war and aggression, societal violence also spreads. Violence against women is increasing exponentially. In many parts of the world, the number of femicides is rising. In Turkey, femicides have reached a shocking level. Every month, dozens of women are murdered as a result of male violence – facilitated by a climate of impunity created by state policies. The police, judiciary, and state often cover up this violence.
The ongoing wars in the Middle East, the destruction in Gaza, and the bombings imposed on the region’s population are the result of imperialist interventions legitimized under the banners of “security” and “democracy.” While imperialism speaks of “human rights,” it deprives people of their rights; while it talks of a “global order,” it pursues its own interests.
This aggressive order produces a rotten power culture not only on the battlefields, but in all areas of social life. The Epstein files have exposed how women and girls were used as commodities in circles of capital and politics. The misogynistic and abusive nature of numerous political figures and representatives of big business has been revealed. This is not an isolated incident, but rather an expression of a decay that reaches to the very top of the patriarchal order.
WAR, CRISIS AND WOMEN’S WORK
War and economic crisis are inextricably linked. The deeper the crisis becomes, the more aggressively capital attacks labor to secure its profits. Women are among the first targets of these attacks.
Women’s work is doubly exploited: Working under precarious conditions and for low wages, at home through unpaid care and reproductive labor, which is shifted onto the shoulders of women.
As militarism grows, social rights are curtailed. While military budgets increase, daycare centers close and social benefits are cut. As armament intensifies, women’s poverty deepens. Therefore, the struggle for women’s liberation is simultaneously a class struggle and an anti-imperialist one.
MIGRANT WOMEN IN EUROPE: THE INVISIBLE SIDE OF EXPLOITATION
Today, millions of migrant women in Europe work in cleaning, care, factories, and the service sector under the most precarious conditions. Low wages, informal employment, residency pressure, and dependence on employers condemn migrant women to multifaceted exploitation.
While the economic crisis erodes social rights, the care crisis intensifies. The burden of this crisis is being placed on the shoulders of migrant women.
At the same time, far-right and fascist movements are gaining strength. Migrant women are targeted by both labor exploitation and racist attacks. Fleeing, women face border violence, camps, and precarious employment situations. Residency regulations often make women dependent – either on their employers or on abusive relationships.
When chauvinism and patriarchy combine, migrant women are forced to live under multiple forms of oppression.
THE FIGHT KNOWS NO LIMITS
The history of women is also a history of resistance. In national liberation struggles, workers’ strikes, and anti-fascist resistance, women have always been at the forefront.
Therefore, March 8th is not only a day of remembrance, but a day of organizing and fighting together.
Today we, as migrant and working women in Europe, say:
We will not bear the burden of the crisis.
We will not support your war policy.
We will not bow to racism and fascism.
We will organize against the exploitation of women’s labor.
The true liberation of women is not possible, as long as imperialist hegemony is not pushed back, as long as the system of exploitation is not overcome, as long as patriarchal structures are not broken up.
Our struggle is therefore internationalist, class-oriented, and anti-imperialist.
TO THE STREETS! TOWARDS THE ORGANIZED POWER!
As the PURPLE-RED COLLECTIVE, we call on all migrant and working women in Europe to take to the streets on March 8th, the International Day of Working Women.
To reject the burden of the crisis,
to raise our voices against war policies,
to unite against racism and patriarchy and
to organize ourselves against the exploitation of women’s work (care work):
Let’s come together in the streets on March 8th!
LONG LIVE THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE OF WOMEN!
NO TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!
NO TO IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION AND WAR!
LONG LIVE MARCH 8TH!
