Now more than ever International Women’s Day must be a day of protest. Women’s rights, the rights of minorities, of the LGBT+ community are under unabashed, direct attack both from authoritarian governments and populist democracies.
This is the long-threatened backlash, perfectly predictable in the context of multiple crises caused by the devastating effects of austerity policies, the climate crisis, technological upheavals and the rise of militarism. These policy reversals are being steamrollered through; soon the rights and achievements of social struggles will be crushed unless we fight back.
On March 8 we must be more combative than ever and say loud and clear that we will not let this happen. Despite years of equality legislation, gender equality is far from being achieved; it remains a chimera in many countries. All organisations that fight year-round for equality, all people who aspire to live in a democratic society based on social, economic and environmental justice must fight for this. Only these societies can ensure common good, peace, environmental protection, the development and empowerment of all, and sustainable economic and social prosperity.
There is no such thing as a permanent victory, only permanent struggle. Our watchword must be “organize, organize and organize” both in the formal and informal economies. There is an urgent need to intensify trade union and equality education programmes, to enshrine in collective agreements the rights that make it possible to progress towards equality and to fight against all forms of discrimination. We must strengthen and broaden our solidarity networks and to develop others to be active on all fronts of the struggle.
