33rd Anniversary of Tragedy at École Polytechnique
Ending Violence Against Women RequiresConcrete Measures to Improve Conditions
December 6 marks the anniversary of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, when an individual opened fire on twenty-eight people, killing fourteen women and injuring ten more as well as four men. This year, this tragic event is being commemorated in Quebec with 12 Days of Action that began on November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women proclaimed by the United Nations in 1999. The November 25 date commemorates the assassination of the Mirabal sisters, three political activists in the Dominican Republic who were brutally executed in 1960 for their work to oppose the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.
November
25 also marked the beginning of the internationally recognized 16 Days
of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign, which ends on December
10, International Human Rights Day.
The Quebec 12 Days of Action Collective writes: "In 2022, we live in a society where violence affects many communities. Sexism, sexual violence, racism, and homophobia affect the world's women at the very root of their existence. Indeed, this year we wish to uproot it at its origin, where violence becomes systemic and imbues society's vices."
The collective states that by addressing the root causes of violence against women, it seeks to heal the many mental, moral and physical wounds this violence leaves in its wake.
The neo-liberal anti-social offensive has deteriorated the conditions which breed violence against women. Governments at both the federal and provincial levels have ministries said to address society's obligations to women and to oppose gender violence but they are neo-liberal governments which do not even recognize that there is a society with social responsibilities. The party system of government is designed to keep people out of power and disseminate an outlook which disinforms the peoples' struggle for the affirmation of their rights. It also adopts budgets which hand out monies piecemeal, many times through the constituency offices of MPs as a method of buying votes and currying favour with people who become tied to them in a begging relationship. What these governments do not do is provide affordable housing or access to social programs, including childcare, that assist women to participate fully in work and guarantee that their children can be raised worry-free.
Women
are forced to form organizations to lobby governments for funds,
provide shelter for women and children suffering abuse and this in turn
is fostered by governments which force everyone to fend for themselves.
It is a cruel world for those in need who are ruled by those who are
not peers who share their conditions but instead behave like
condescending saviours on matters that belong to people by virtue of
being human.
The Trudeau government has appointed many women ministers and praises itself for championing the rights of women but these women read from a government script to promote warmongering and anti-social pay-the-rich schemes while they advocate the restructuring of the state to concentrate decision-making power in narrow private interests. The recent statement on the part of the Minister of Finance, who uses every opportunity to say she understands the problems women face because she is a woman, shows callous contempt for the plight of the people. She reduced coping with the rising cost of living and economic crisis to a matter of personal choices. Her family has also had to make sacrifices in this difficult period of rising cost of living, she said. To cope, the family made the personal choice to give up its subscription to the Disney TV channel.
Subscriptions to Disney Plus in Canada cost $11.99 a month or $119.99 for a year. The media dubbed this an unfortunate statement but acknowledged nonetheless, as if it is a minor matter, that the finance minister does not share the same problems as those faced by the people she claims to represent.
What is most significant, however, is that governments do not accept that providing rights with a guarantee is a responsibility, not a choice. They sing the tune that violence in inherent in everyone and everyone should undergo sensitivity training and educate themselves so that they understand how to behave better. Meanwhile, they abscond with the social wealth to pay the rich and step up war production at the expense of social programs.
Today,
more than ever, working people are aware of the attacks on public
health care, education and housing, which are being systematically
defunded, privatized or outrightly dismantled. Ending violence against
women can only happen in the context of opposing the anti-social
offensive and ending
the political marginalization of women and all working people. The
people cannot rely on governments to do this but are fighting to do it
themselves.
The 12 Days of Action Collective has issued the following demands:
- To recognize universal accessibility as a vested right and not an accommodation;
- To fund organizations in light of their mission and enable them to provide services that are adequate and long-term, with the commitment to reach the groups that they serve;
- To recognize the competence of and the need for organizations dedicated to marginalized women by adequately funding them;
- To recognize the existence of systemic violence and its impact on women.
"Violence against women is everyone's business!" the Collective points out.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) strongly supports these demands and calls on its members and sympathizers to give them their full support. CPC(M-L) calls on its members and supporters to join the vigils and activities bring held, to emphasize the importance of supporting the movement for the elimination of all forms of violence committed against women and gender violence.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 55 - December 6, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520551.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca