November 25 is the international day for the elimination of violence against women. The UN established it in 1999, since on that date in 1960 the Dominican dictatorship of Trujillo murdered three opposition sisters: “the butterflies” Minerva, Patria and María Teresa Mirabal.
In much of the world on 25N there will be marches and other unitary initiatives to fight against sexist violence -abuse, rape, femicides- and to demand concrete measures from governments to combat them. The ISL’s sections will participate in these actions in dozens of countries.
At the same time, as socialists, we reaffirm that patriarchal oppression is inherent to the capitalist-imperialist system. The bourgeoisie, which exploits the working class, imposes more precarious labor conditions on workers and widens the gender wage gap, also benefits from unpaid domestic work. Most of these care tasks are assigned to women and girls. Its economic value is around 20% of global GDP, and it is higher the less developed the country is.
This is why we understand the struggle against sexist violence as part of the underlying political struggle to defeat the capitalist and patriarchal system, which violates our bodies and territories. This struggle requires the unity of the entire working class and the people. Only if we eradicate the material basis of gender oppression, which is this class society, can we begin to build a different, socialist and truly egalitarian society.
In its crisis and decline, capitalism attacks all rights. This is what governments do, with their anti-rights political and religious accomplices. Hunger, misery and inequality, wars and forced migrations, climate and environmental disasters are growing in the world, which always affect women, girls and LGBT+ people the hardest. In this global context, this 25N, we want to express special solidarity with two regions subjected to higher levels of violence:
- In the context of our support for the just Palestinian cause, we express our most heartfelt and militant solidarity with the women and children of Gaza, who have been suffering the genocidal attack of the Zionist and racist State of Israel with the complicity of the United States. In just a few days, Palestinian fatalities have already reached several thousand, more than 60% of whom are women, girls and boys.
- We highlight our deep support for the women and girls of Africa, who, as do LGBT+ people, suffer from deep-rooted sexist oppression, including scourges such as forces child marriage, genital mutilation, persecution of sexual diversity and strong obstacles to access education, health, land and employment.
We invite you to participate in the unitary actions of 25N, in which we will highlight these situations. Our struggle and our solidarity have no borders. Likewise, we maintain that the only way to eradicate systemic violence against women and girls is the victory of an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and socialist revolution in each country and araound the world. Our International Socialist League and all its sections work towards that objective, and invite you to join us to advance on that path.
ISL Gender and Diversity Commission