This International Working Women’s Day the Communist Party of Ireland stands in solidarity with working women in Ireland and all women across the world suffering super exploitation, gender-based violence, and because of war. We salute the many tens of thousands of working women who are active in their trade union, community groups, social campaigns, as well as bearing an disproportionate responsibility for family and caring duties.
Hundreds of millions of women across the world suffer greatly from the domination and repression orchestrated by the needs and interests of imperialism. Women experience greater personal violence from wars now raging resulting from the predatory nature of capitalism and imperialism.
This year, we particularly salute the women of occupied Palestine suffering the most horrendous and barbaric violence and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of the Zionist occupation army of the apartheid settler colonial state of “Israel”. And those women in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, displaced from their homes and towns or forced into slave labour in the extractive industries, as neocolonialism ravages the African continent. Deliberate famines in these regions have created some of the most brutal conditions for people, but particularly for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. It is a collective failure of humanity and the institutions of the West to prevent the intentional starvation of this vulnerable group.
To the women engaged in the struggle to transform and build socialism in countries like Cuba, Việt Nam, the People’s Republic of China and other progressive states, we express our profound solidarity.
Millions of women experience repression and gender-based violence from living under reactionary social and political structures. The ruling classes across the world and here in Ireland are attempting to co-opt this important day in the lives of working women to neutralise the radical class-based anti-imperialist politics that have underpinned organised events across the world on March 8th for over a century.
While many will go out today in Ireland to vote in the two amendments to the constitution, we need to re-emphasise that the Care amendment is a cynical manoeuvring by a bankrupt establishment, reinforced by the Thatcherite Taoiseach’s statement during the week that he doesn’t believe the state has a responsibility to provide care. We forcefully reject this.
What is needed is a root and branch radical transformation of our country. We need a new constitution that reflects those profoundly needed changes. A new constitution that places at its centre the needs and interests of working people. One that enshrines democratic ownership and control of all wealth and the means of creating wealth. A constitution that is non-sexist, non-sectarian, a constitution that enshrines the democratic rights of all. A constitution that values all our citizens equally.
