Women as Leaders in the Fight for
the Rights of All
Celebrate International Women's Day
Women throughout the world are organizing
rallies, marches and gatherings of all kinds for
March 8, International Women's Day, to hail and
celebrate their fight to affirm their rights and
for peace, freedom and democracy. On International
Women's Day, women assert their claim to a say and
control over the affairs of society and salute
both those fighting in the present and those who
have blazed a path forward for women and society
throughout history. The struggle to affirm the
collective and individual rights of women is part
and parcel of the fight to uphold the rights of
all and win emancipation for all. It is part and
parcel of the struggle of the working class to
constitute the nation and vest sovereignty in the
people.
 One hundred and ten
years ago, International Women's Day was
established to highlight the fight of women for
their rights as workers, and for their right to
vote and to take their place in the vanguard of
all fields of human endeavour. International
Women's Day also became a day for women to
highlight their opposition to war and aggression.
During those early years many brave women stood in
opposition to the first imperialist world war and
this tradition is alive today in the determined
battle to establish anti-war governments and make
sure peace prevails.
In celebrating International Women's Day, women
speak in their own names and affirm their
particular rights as the reproducers of life and
their demand to bring into being a society where
all human beings can flourish. Such a society can
only exist when the well-being and needs of women,
and the children they bear, are put in first
place.
The Fight to Affirm Rights
Women are in the thick of the battle to affirm
the right to speak, organize and decide; and the
right to participate consciously and actively in
taking and implementing the decisions that affect
their lives. Women have said No means No!
to every form of discrimination and affront to
their dignity as human persons. The stand "Not
without consent!" is to affirm the right to
decide.
 In opposition to
the rights of women, governments and state
institutions are escalating the anti-social
offensive with the wrecking of education, health
and seniors' care, and care for the most
vulnerable. These anti-social assaults target the
mostly women workers who provide the care and
services the people and society need. The
burgeoning movements throughout the country
against the anti-social offensive are led by the
mostly women workers in the public service who
have raised the battle cry to Increase Investments
in Social Programs and Stop Paying the Rich!
to make Canada fit for human beings.
Women throughout history have fought patriarchy in
all its forms, including father right and husband
right. They have even had to struggle to be
legally recognized as persons. A woman's testimony
in a court of law hearing a charge of assault on
herself was not considered valid until the 1980s.
In workplaces, women fight to establish
collectives to defend their rights and beat back
the attacks of the ruling circles and employers on
the right of workers to organize collectives in
defence of their claim on the value they produce
and other terms of employment. As part of fighting
the anti-social offensive in the education, health
care and other public service sectors, women are
affirming their right as workers to decide what
wages and working conditions are acceptable to
them and allow them to do their jobs properly and
with dignity, and not to be dictated to by the
ruling imperialist elite.
Women are in the front ranks in fighting
against wrecking of education and healthcare
and
the attack on the rights of those providing the
services. Photos from Quebec(top),
Ontario and Alberta.
In politics, as the old forms of governing and
institutions prove incapable of solving any
problems, women have taken up the question of "who
decides" and "who controls" and the need for
democratic renewal and people's empowerment. Women
demand the right to lead society, along with all
others, and solve the problems as they present
themselves in ways that favour the majority. Women
refuse to submit to a dysfunctional outdated
system dominated by cartel parties which serve the
private interests of a minority and executive
police powers that can act with impunity to decide
economic, political and social affairs of the
people and society.
Refuse to Allow the Ruling Elite to Seize
Control
of International Women's Day
Women's Memorial March, Vancouver, 2018, holds
government accountable for ending violence against
women.
The representatives of the financial oligarchy
push their own version of the significance of
International Women's Day with the aim to deprive
women of an outlook that serves their interests
and rights. The ruling elite reduce what is
relevant and significant for women to a grocery
list of "what we have accomplished" and "work left
to be done." The suggestion is made that the state
and government institutions are in the forefront
of the battle for women's rights and the executor
in charge of what is left to be done on this
front. In this way, they attempt to force women to
the sidelines in the demeaning role of "holding
the feet of the ruling elite to the fire," where
success is measured by the number of women who
occupy the seats of power and are seen on
television serving the financial oligarchy in
positions of power, until of course they hesitate
and do not. Women saw clearly last year what
happens to women in the cabinets of the cartel
parties who hesitate in their duty to serve the
ruling imperialist elite and "slip up" by taking a
stand against corruption and the dictate of the
oligarchs.
 Governments of the
cartel parties and state institutions claim to
uphold the rights of women and other high ideals
but of course this is contingent on "what is
possible." Handing over billions of dollars to pay
the rich and increase military spending is always
within the realm of "possible" as that serves the
narrow interests of the financial oligarchy. On
the other hand, a national child care program, as
part of education as a right of all and to affirm
the rights of women, falls outside of the realm of
"possible" and remains stuck for decades as a
policy objective. The ruling elite and their
governments refuse to recognize that in the
socialized existence and economy of the modern
world, the care of children and elders is the
social responsibility of society.
The socially irresponsible governments and state
institutions of the financial oligarchy even
refuse to right historical wrongs and build new
nation-to-nation relations with Indigenous peoples
and pay reparations for what the colonialists have
stolen and the crimes they have committed. The
ruling elite still want to drive the Indigenous
peoples from their territories to "open up the
land" for exploitation of its natural resources.
The disgrace of a modern Canada refusing to
resolve the crisis of Indigenous housing, the lack
of safe drinking water, the suppression of a
viable economy creating mass unemployment,
poverty, despair and youth suicides, and the
infamy of missing and murdered Indigenous women
and girls cannot be forgiven.
The violent assault and arrest of Unist'ot'en
Matriarchs on their unceded territory, during a
ceremony to honour missing and murdered Indigenous
women and girls on February 10, further reveals
the reality of the racist Canadian state that
lurks behind the honeyed words and hypocrisy of
its phony reconciliation. The affirmation of the
right to be of the Matriarchs and Indigenous
women, youth and others is an inspiration to all.
Their resolute and courageous stand and refusal to
be intimidated by police and colonial court orders
has been met with support from coast to coast and
internationally.
  
In the spirit of building the New together and to
advance the movement to affirm the rights of
women, let us celebrate International Women's Day
and pledge to build the organizations necessary to
win the battle for peace, freedom and democracy.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 7 - March 7, 2020
Article Link:
Women as Leaders in the Fight for
the Rights of All: Celebrate International Women's Day
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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