Women, Continue the Historic Fight Against Fascism!
Fascism and its Impacts on Women, LGBTQ+, and families Trump and his loyalists are unleashing a fascist campaign of terror. They are relentlessly carrying out the mass expulsion of migrants and demonizing trans people as predators to justify their conservative promise to “protect American women and children,” creating a false sense of “family restoration” and “nationalism” that is emboldening vigilantes and discontented masses to take part in his terror campaign. What will actually transpire is that women and LGBTQ people will be forced to live in more precarious and dangerous conditions, with rampant violence at individual and systemic levels committed by perpetrators, negligent state leaders, and various state agencies.
Hate crimes across the US are on the rise with the normalization of xenophobia, patriarchy, and sexual violence from the cabinet and office of the President himself. This last February, Sam Nordquist, a trans man from NY was tortured and murdered after months of physical and psychological abuse and in Texas, 11-year old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza committed suicide after being bullied about her family’s immigration status.
In reality, Trump has no plan to genuinely protect women and families, here or abroad. He is advancing economic policies that pave the way for more private-corporate investment and control over public services and government contracts that enrich his billionaire clique. Working class women and families, trans people, and migrant workers in the U.S. will bear the brunt of the worsening economic crisis - tariffs and rising inflation will increase the costs of basic goods, cuts to social welfare programs will impact as many as 72 million people in the US, and breadwinners being detained and deported en masse will impact the livelihood of millions dependent on migrant remittances while also heightening the impacts of family separation.
Proposed cuts to social welfare programs, including Medicaid, will disproportionately impact women and families as 69% of workers earning minimum wage or below are women. 40% of US households rely on the income of sole earner moms to put food on the table, with 35% of single moms raising families in poverty. On top of this, LGBTQ+ workers, especially Latine and Black transgender adults, experience higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, lower paid positions, positions with limited or no benefits, and higher rates of discrimination in the workplace.
Women keep the economy afloat, taking up multiple jobs in the lowest paid sectors - from health care, hospitality, education, domestic work, and agriculture. Poor and working class families rely on food assistance programs to feed families, rely on public schools to educate children, and rely on Medicaid for preventative and health emergencies.
Temporary relief from budget cuts promised by the Trump administration are a bandage that won’t resolve the elimination and privatization of fundamental services that keep families afloat. What Trump’s administration is prioritizing is endless war and militarization, from proclamations to turn Gaza into a “Riviera” owned by the US, to extending US AID budget cut exemptions and US military aid to the Philippines, to sending Sect of Defense Pete Hegseth to Ukraine to invoke NATO-friendly countries to ramp up defense spending to accelerate war in Ukraine.
The Blitz of Executive Orders
Trump wasted no time to use the full power of his office to issue a blitz of transphobic, homophobic, and anti-women executive orders starting on day one of his administration. His Executive Orders include: “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism,” which removes access to government identification documents and exacerbates violence, discrimination and criminalization of trans communities, and “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which mandates that that hospitals receiving federal funds to end gender affirming surgeries. These attacks on women and LGBT people are a sign Trump is testing the limits of the current legal framework to lay the basis to intensify the fascist offensive on the people.
A woman's place is in the struggle! Women resisting fascist attacks!
Trump’s fascist attacks aim to strike fear into the majority in order to desensitize and immobilize any opposition or resistance. Now, more than ever, it is clear who buckles under pressure and who stands to fight and defend.
The campaigns led by US-based member organizations of the International Women’s Alliance show that women across the country are fighting back against these fascist attacks! From African National Women’s Organization’s (ANWO) Arrest CPS Campaign, which fights against the systemic and state-sponsored separation of black families, to Women Against Military Madness’s (WAMM) work organizing against rising militarism, to GABRIELA USA’s Defend Migrants Campaign, and relatedly the Free Ligaya Campaign and Justice for Alma Bowman Campaign. Women's organizations across the country are taking up the gut issues of the people!
There is a need for women all over the world to plant seeds at the grassroots and unite to create a new world now! We must form new organizations, organize women in their numbers, enjoin our international solidarity, and support national and social liberation movements that are developing alternative and community based programs that serve the genuine interests of our communities and people’s struggles. Women and queer people are a key part of creating a new world when linked with people’s movements for genuine social change.
On the History of International Working Women’s Day (IWWD)
During this time of rising fascism and militarism, the International Women’s Alliance calls upon the history of International Working Women’s Day, which commemorates mass protests held on March 8, 1917 led by revolutionary working class women in Russia who campaigned for "Bread and Peace" and an end to their country’s involvement in World War I. As their political leaders ignored their demands, women continued to strike, and four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate, later leading to the Russian Revolution - where women once again played a significant role in the establishment of the USSR and its ambitious industrial projects and technological advancements that benefited peoples around the world.
We invoke this history and call upon all working women and peoples across the world to turn fear into fight and grow the militant women’s movement!