Celebrate and Salute the Women of the World! Defeat Imperialism! Onward with the Struggle towards Liberation, Justice, and Genuine Equality!

MANILA, Philippines – GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women sends its solidarity to all women around the world who are celebrating the International Working Women’s Day! It is indeed a day of celebration as we honor all the women who stood up against exploitation, fascism, colonialism, racism, fundamentalism, and all forms of oppression. March 8th is an ode to their struggles and sacrifices, and a commitment to continue the fight for genuine liberation for women and all toiling masses.

We celebrate and salute women workers who continue to toil in factories and all workplaces—enduring the most vicious conditions, taking on the hardest of work, and paid the lowest salary. The world’s economy rests on their shoulders. We raise our fists in solidarity to these women as they build their unions and organizations, take their voices to picketlines and strike areas, and fight against the exploitation of capitalist billionaires who would bleed workers dry for another cent.

We celebrate and salute the women farmers who work the land that they do not own, who produce the food on our table that they can barely afford. We walk alongside them as they demand for their right to own land; as they push back against land-use conversion to give way to massive infrastructures that only benefit the rich; as they fight back against the agro-chemical industry that poisons and destroys the land; as they resist the militarization of their communities. We honor and salute the indigenous women all over the world who continue to hold and protect mother nature against man-made destruction and who continue to protect and practice local cultures despite the relentless assault of imperialist culture.

We celebrate and salute the migrant workers and the refugees who were forced out of their countries because of poverty and environmental destruction brought about by the imposition of neoliberal economic policies, and the wars that are being instigated and lead by imperialist powers. We especially send our solidarity to the migrants and immigrants in the United States of America whose lives are being put in limbo because of Trump’s racist policies, despite the fact that the imperialist country’s economy is dependent on them. We march with the Filipino migrant workers all over the world as they build unities with other migrants to fight together for the rightful recognition of their contribution to local economies and to end racism and build an inclusive society.

We celebrate and salute all the women in the health and care industry, teachers, rank-and-file government workers, who have long been neglected and are always the victims of budget cuts and austerity measures pushed by big corporations. We are with them as they demand recognition of their work by providing them higher wages, better working conditions, and guaranteed social protection, so they can continue to provide the best service to the people.

Finally, we send our solidarity and raise our fists in salute to the women in Palestine, in Myanmar, in DR Congo, in Ukraine, in Sudan, who are in the middle of conflicts and wars. We learn from the women of Palestine, whose strength and resilience have inspired millions of people around the world to unite against Zionism and US imperialism that fuel genocide. We salute our sisters in Myanmar who have taken arms and resolutely pushed back against the fascist military junta to reclaim civil and political rights.

While we celebrate women’s strength and their victories all over the world, we recognize that our struggles are far from isolated and disconnected from each other. The moribund system of capitalism is pushing women and their families into abject poverty and force them into more exploitative conditions, such as trafficking and prostitution, which make them more vulnerable to many forms of gender-based violence. Neoliberal economic policies imposed on colonies and neo-colonies by imperialist countries have taken away lands from farmers, destroyed local and independent economies, and plundered natural resources. Puppet regimes, such as Marcos Jr.’s in the Philippines, have taken away the little protection that the people have against skyrocketing inflation, which has made food, electricity, water, gas and oil, and other basic commodities unaffordable to ordinary citizens.

Like in many other countries, Filipino workers’ wages and salary barely suffice to buy food for daily sustenance and transportation to work, because the government continues to be in cahoots with big corporations—the loudest and most blatant in opposing a national minimum wage of Php1,200 or US$21 per day in the country (the current daily minimum wage in the country ranges from US$3.61 in Mindanao and US$11.25 in Metro Manila). Because of the instability of the economy, many women are forced to take on additional and odd jobs even under precarious conditions to survive. Meanwhile, the richest Filipinos increasingly amass billions daily like the rest of the world’s billionaires.

While many people are struggling to survive, governments choose to spend more money on military industrial complexes. And what better way to earn billions of dollars, but to instigate wars and fuel conflict around the world? The US as the premier imperialist country would rather spend billions upon billions of dollars on wars and conflict than on much needed health aid and pay for the salaries of federal employees. Marcos Jr.’s spending policy mirrors that of Trump: re-align money from social services towards military and confidential and intelligence funds, for red-tagging and political repression of women human rights defenders in the country. During the Duterte administration, the Philippines signed an arms deal with Israel that cost millions of tax payers’ money on the pretext of modernizing the Philippine military against foreign attacks. Ironically, the attacks on the Philippines are brought on by US’ own aggressive stance against China. These high-tech arms are now being used to bomb communities in rural areas, destroying the lives and livelihood of the people.

The women of the world have a common enemy: Imperialism, which is responsible for the destruction of our countries and our people, the seizure of our lands, the exploitation of our people and resources, the depredation of our culture, the obliteration of our forests, the burial of our communities in flood waters, and the assault, rape, and prostitution of our bodies. The fascist and rightist governments across the globe are taking away the rights that we fought for and won with blood, sweat, and tears.

On March 8, women must march together to defeat our principal and common enemy. We must march together to lend our voices to women who are being silenced by this oppressive system, women who were imprisoned, abducted, murdered, victims of enforced disappearance because they chose to stand up for and with the people. We march to take back our initiatives and movements from institutions that isolate and silence our voice, institutions that work to conceal the exploitative and oppressive system with insolent tokenism. We march together to advance the militant international women’s movement. We march together to defeat imperialism, towards liberation and genuine equality!

Long live international solidarity!

Long live the fighting women of the world!