Version imprimableIn Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, Rojava, Iran and Chiapas, women are on the front line in defending people’s right to self-determination and fighting imperialist aggression. But they are also the first victims of armed conflicts, and their living conditions can become dramatic.
Women and war
In wars against civilian populations, women “are no longer occasional victims, whose aggression represents a sort of by-product of war, they have become designated adversaries”.
Generally speaking, armed conflicts increase violence against women and LGBTI people. The use of rape as a wat weapon goes hand in hand with an increase in sexual violence and very high exposure of women to the risk of poverty.
This is particularly the case in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the context of a conflict between different military militias. In Ukraine, according to Amnesty International, the war provoked by the Russian invasion is having a harmful effect on women’s mental, physical and reproductive health.
The context of war is leading everywhere to an increase in actions aimed at controlling women’s bodies, either in the sense of an attack on the production of life, or in the sense of an injunction to produce cannon fodder. Macron’s project of “demographic rearmament“ is part of this logic of biopower, that is to say, of a patriarchal and capitalist power that subjects life to the rules of competition, optimization and market rivalry.
Imperialist wars then appear for what they are, the supreme stage of capitalism, the way found by the world powers to try to overcome the crises of supply and accumulation of capital.
In Palestine, women give birth in inhuman conditions and endure countless sufferings because of the lack of anaesthetic and access to healthcare. This attack on life and childbirth is part of a more global drive to destroy the Palestinian people. The demolition of Gaza’s main infrastructure, forced displacement, disease and lack of access to basic necessities of life are leading to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
In the face of brutal attacks by the army, and in preserving their children and social and family ties in a situation of permanent mourning, Palestinian women have distinguished themselves by their courage and determination in resisting more than 75 years of colonial occupation by the State of Israel.
Feminist strike against imperialism and patriarchy
On 8 March, we are calling for an international feminist strike to denounce the barbarity of imperialist wars that exacerbate gender oppression and inequality. We are building actions of unity and solidarity with women and gender minorities facing the deprivations and abuses of war, in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and around the world.
Women refuse to be reduced to the role of collateral victims of war or designated targets. We demand a place for women in decision-making in global conflicts. We reaffirm the importance of an international and autonomous women’s movement that opposes the capitalist, imperialist and patriarchal social order.
8 March 2024
Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.
