Women Say No to Imperialist War and Aggression! Strengthen the Women’s Movement and Fight for National and Social Liberation!

This International Working Women’s Day, March 8, we women must unite to fight repression, fascism, militarization and wars of aggression.  Just as we are taking part in struggles to defend our lands, our jobs, our livelihood and our rights, we must join the struggle for peace based on justice and equality. This is the legacy of International Working Women’s Day, which was established in 1910.  We should affirm our commitment to build a strong women’s movement towards women’s emancipation.  Women will never be free in a capitalist economy where crisis plagues us all and whereimperialist wars of aggression are inevitable.  We must continue to defend our countries from foreign aggression, defend our sovereignty toward national and social liberation.

There are women all over the world resisting wars of aggression and occupation. Women have joined and organized solidarity and protest actions against US wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Kurdistan, in Syria and against the occupation of Palestine.Women in the global north opposed the increasing fascism and militarization in their respective countries, and denounced their governments role in the aggression and invasion of foreign countries to further imperialist interests and subjugate peoples .

This March 8, the International Women’s Alliance (IWA) and its member organizations will join the call to resist imperialist plunder and war.

Monopoly capitalism is in deep crises.  As the second cold war heats up, imperialist powers led by the US prepare for the eventuality of a world war.  They have intensified their regional wars and occupation across the globe — in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America—to maintain political and economic hegemony.  They have propped uppuppet and client regimes to protect their economic interests all over the world.  They have compelled countries to pass anti-terrorism and counter-insurgency measures targetting leaders, women and men, of  national movements of resistance.Resistance against imperialism has been met with violence and repression. Sexual violence against women is systematically usedas a tool of war and to curtail the fundamental rights of the people.Militarization of communities is used to crush social movements fighting government anti-people policies.

Treaties and agreements have been laid down for rapid forward deployment of US troops for interventionist war in West Asia and the Middle East and to block off Russia, China and North Korea.   With the US Pivot to Asia, the US has laid down the framework for expanding its strike capacity. Through the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement in Australia, Philippines and Singapore, the US has unrestricted basing accessanywhere in these countries. The US has also developed joint military exercise programs that engage the services of each nation. It conducts ballistic missile training using Patriot System at its bases and has confirmed the deployment of the most advanced missile defense systems in the world, the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense or THAAD.  The US has also succeeded in “normalizing US-Vietnam relations”  with the Joint Vision Statement signed in May last year.  It has ensured the support of Japan for the wars of aggression with the signing of the Security Laws that allow the militarization of Japan despite itsconstitution prohibiting the maintenance of standing armed forces. Both Thailand and the Philippines signed a Mutual Defense Cooperation with the US.

As the imperialists rev up their engines of war, they are igniting the  resistance of women of the world.  And as capitalist exploitation and oppression intensifies, women are rising in struggle and protest. Peasant and indigenous women, the poorest of the poor,  haveseen states broker their lands to transnational corporations  and despotic local landlords connive with foreign interests  to turn lands into corporate farms, mines, eco-tourist playgrounds and military camps that displace peoples and communities. Women workers face the lowest wages and most precarious jobs. They are the first to be fired as capitalists cut their production cost. They bear the brunt of government neglect in providing quality public social services. Millions of women are forced to migrate to foreign lands to survive, and face the same exploitation and oppression abroad.

The past years have seen women at the forefront of the struggle against violence and oppression.  Peasant and indigenous women have organizedto lead campaigns against landlords, land grabbers and transnational corporations. They have mobilized to halt large mining and extractivist projects that jeopardize the environment and the earth. Women workers joined marches to demand jobs, decent wages, better working conditions;they have joined unions and stood onpicketlines to protect worker’s rights and demand higher wages. In industrializedcountries, massive protest actions are being launched against austerity, government cutbacks, systemic racism and discrimination.  In the United States, within the “belly of the beast”, the Black Lives Matter movement with women at the forefront, has rocked the bastions of systemic racism and modern slavery, challenging police brutality, militarization of neighbourhoods, and oppression of people of color.

More and more women are joining the struggle to fight for their rights and many more are joining resistance movements against the wars of aggression for sovereignty and national liberation.  This is our militant tradition and we are upholding it this March 8 International Working Women’s Day!

Women say No to Imperialist Wars of Aggression!

Jobs not Bombs!

Social spending not War spending!

Fight For National and Social Liberation!