8 March 2010
The Communist Party of Ireland sends greetings of solidarity this year in which we celebrate one hundred years of International Women’s Day.
The call to establish a day of international solidarity with and between women was made at the Second International Women’s Socialist Conference in Copenhagen in 1910, when Clara Zetkin called for a day to be dedicated annually to working women. It was some time later that the 8th of March was established as a fixed date.
Alexandra Kollontai wrote in 1913: “Women’s Day is a link in the long, solid chain of the women’s proletarian movement.” It is a day when we re-pledge ourselves to international solidarity. The CPI is proud to have with us this year Joyce Moloi-Moropa, deputy chairperson of the South African Communist Party and a member of the South African Parliament for the African National Congress.
We express our solidarity with all those struggling for social equality and for national independence. In particular we send greetings to Palestinian women and to the women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. We celebrate the gains that Cuban women have made and the outstanding contribution they have made to winning and sustaining the Cuban Revolution. The example of Cuba is now inspiring millions throughout Latin America to resist imperialism and to build a better future.
On International Women’s Day we call for an end to the wars inflicted upon the peoples of the world by the United States and its allies. For several hundred years our world has not experienced much peace but much war and suffering resulting from colonialist and imperialist domination and exploitation.
We congratulate the Communist Party of Greece for organising the seminar “The Role of Communists in the Struggle for the Parity and Emancipation for Women” to celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day. We send special greetings to our comrades in Britain.
This is a day on which to reflect upon our gains and a day for determining the struggles that lie ahead. In Ireland, north and south, we are facing attacks on our livelihood, which are repeated right across Europe. The European Union is the driving force behind the anti-people and anti-worker policies now being imposed to shore up and secure the interests of monopoly capitalism. We continue our struggle against imperialism, for women’s emancipation, and for socialism.
At home, while a socialist united Ireland remains our long-term goal, we continue to fight for women’s rights with regard to health and social issues, for better pay and working conditions, for immigrants’ rights, and for prisoners’ rights, among others. In particular, in Ireland a woman has not got a “right to choose” regarding unwanted pregnancies.
We will continue to encourage women to take a leading role in the struggle to prevent he further commercialisation of such primary services as water, health, and education.
International Women’s Day is a day for raising the consciousness of women workers in the fight for the unification of the working class and our common class cause. We offer the communist and workers’ movement of the world solidarity and comradeship in the coming class struggles.
Lynda Walker,
National Chairperson, Communist Party of Ireland
