Feminism

LAST YEAR I celebrated International Women’s Day in Lviv in Western Ukraine. It was the first women’s march since the end of COVID and the beginning of the Russian reinvasion in 2022.

“Without organising women workers in hosieries, in jute mills, among hawkers, fighting for their rights, 8th March loses its significance. Today, when neoliberalism and Hindutva-fascism is sharpening assaults, women’s rights must also be placed within the context of fighting that.”

“At a time when we would like to see “surging” mobilizations in the face of an exponential rise of the far right, we take a closer look at what the feminist mobilizations of the autumn of 1995 can teach us about the possibilities of unity today.”

As the world spearheads 16 Days, an annual awareness campaign to prevent violence against women and girls that covers the period from November 25 to December 10, a new humanitarian analysis conducted by CARE in the Philippines reveals a stark reality. In Northern Cebu province of Philippines, thousands of women, girls, and boys are living and sleeping in the open. They have no walls, no lighting, and no sense of safety they once knew. “Living Without Fear” is CARE’s focus during the 16 Days awareness campaign.

"On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, observed globally from 25 November to 10 December, Free Women will conduct simultaneous national actions in four cities under the theme ’Decent Work and Freedom from Violence Will Not Be Achieved Under an Anti-Democratic Regime’. This is an effort to strengthen the global commitment of the women’s movement to end torture and violence against women."

An interview with Feminist Workshop (Ukraine) by Patrick Le Tréhondat (ENSU, France).

Dramatically falling birthrates and a skyrocketing number of divorces as the number of marriages collapsing increases all point toward the erosion of the capitalist family unit in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Such trends, furthermore, represent an existential crisis for the nation, as the deepening crisis of social reproduction in the post-socialist country also threatens the reproduction of its necessary supply of labor power. But what exactly is this crisis of social reproduction, and what, if anything, is specific about the situation in the PRC? What role does the feminist movement in the PRC play in all of this?

Amandla! interviewed Denia Jansen, Co-ordinator of the gender based violence (GBV) programme for the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA)

Neoliberalism enforces family responsibility with a cruel logic: a couple who can’t afford rent without both their incomes are a couple who stick together. A young adult who can’t afford college without student loans is a child who remains bound to her parent. Lack of public spending on public goods forces poor and working-class people into economic dependence on their relatives. Meanwhile, for the rich, the private family is reinforced as a main conduit for wealth transmission.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, as well as both national and international policies to deal with the impact of the war, have surely influenced the spaces and networks of social reproduction, both in Ukraine and in refuge. The destruction and resulting displacement, neoliberal austerity, unprecedented border regulations, and refugee policies, have all led to a reconfiguration of social reproduction in Ukrainian society.