On the Question of Women, the Hypocrisy of Liberal Government Knows No Bounds
- Christine Dandenault -
International Women's Day 2019, Montreal
Status of Women Canada announced on February 24
that the theme it has chosen
for International Women's Day 2020 is
#BecauseOfYou. Given that women in every walk of
life across the country are shown disrespect every
day because of the pay-the-rich agenda of
governments at all levels, no matter what the
government says on this occasion, it is
hypocritical and offensive.
Status of Women Canada explains the theme in
these words: "Empowering women and girls to
equally participate in economic, social and
political life benefits people of all genders. It
increases economic prosperity, promotes peace and
security, upholds fairness and justice in our
society, and ultimately creates happier and
healthier communities." Who is Status of Women
talking to? The teachers and education workers who
are fighting, coast to coast? Civil servants who
face cutbacks to services, which affect women the
most? Nurses and health professionals whose
conditions of work make it impossible to deliver
the health services they are pledged to provide?
Is Status of Women Canada speaking to the
Indigenous mothers, sisters, aunts and
grandmothers who face colonial injustice and abuse
every day of their lives? Is it addressing migrant
and national minority women whose rights are
trampled underfoot as a matter of course?
 Women are invited
to listen to the personal experiences of the
women promoted by Status of Women Canada as
examples they should emulate, as if it is the
fault of women if they are not "successful." One
claim, amongst others, is that employing more
women increases Canada's gross domestic product!
It is not just condescending and seeking to
justify the wretched conditions under which women
are employed, but it tries to divert attention
from the main problem facing the entire Canadian
working class, which is that the working people
exercise no control over the direction of the
economy or their conditions of employment.
Through sleight of hand, Status of Women Canada
denies the Canadian government's responsibility to
recognize and guarantee the rights of women,
including that they be paid the same wages as
their male counterparts for the same jobs. It
denies that the conditions of women are worsening
in all aspects of life as a result of the ruling
elite's anti-social offensive, in particular with
the increasing precariousness of working
conditions and poverty, as well as the violence
committed against women, including abuse of the
elderly.
In addition to denying the conditions of women
and the reality of the anti-social offensive,
Status of Women Canada speaks of the "benefit" of
"equal participation in economic, social and
political life." It provides as a reference point
and goal the same current political system and
process which deprives the people of power and
increasingly relies on the police powers of the
state to impose the dictate of the financial
oligarchy and criminalize the people's struggle
for their rights. It is precisely against this
very system and process that women teachers,
education workers, health care workers, public
servants and Indigenous women are courageously
fighting this March 8. They are at the forefront
of the struggle to empower themselves and empower
the people to provide a new direction to the
economy and political affairs.
In the absence of a guarantee of women's rights
and with the political status quo as an objective,
the prosperity, peace and security invoked by
Status of Women Canada cannot be anything other
than the prosperity of the tiny ruling elite that
controls the economy, with their warmongering and
criminalization of the peoples' struggles.
The prosperity of the financial oligarchy
requires that women be employed at low wages, in
precarious conditions, on call, without security;
it requires trafficking in human beings and the
exploitation of migrant women, both as women and
as migrants. In terms of peace and security, the
government is intent on rallying women behind the
warmongering of the U.S., with Canada playing the
role of appeaser, carrying out its own activities
of interference, dirty manoeuvring and aggression
in Venezuela, Haiti, and elsewhere to maintain
U.S. imperialist domination and suppress any
nation-building project that is for the well-being
of the people and controlled by them.
There is no doubt that in its "#BecauseOfYou"
theme, Status of Women Canada has in mind women
such as Chrystia Freeland, who participates very
well as an equal in the political life because she
is a champion in her own right of U.S. imperialist
domination and regime change through the
organization of coups against the peoples of
Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries. As far as
fairness and justice are concerned, it is clear
that those who use such language amongst the
ruling elite have never had to live on $700 a
month, have never experienced hunger or poverty or
had to use food banks.
"#BecauseOfYou" has nothing to do with women. The
struggle of women for their emancipation is a
collective struggle to humanize the natural and
social environment by laying the claims which
belong to everyone by virtue of being human.
Through their actions, women are making themselves
heard, and taking collective decisions that
advance their cause on all matters of concern to
them. This is how they are dealing with the
problems of the present. Their actions in the here
and now inform the future that we want to bequeath
to our children.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 7 - March 7, 2020
Article Link:
On the Question of Women, the Hypocrisy of Liberal Government Knows No Bounds - Christine Dandenault
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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