DSA IC celebrates International Women’s Day, recommits to internationalist, socialist feminism

With its roots planted deeply in the socialist tradition, International Women’s Day is celebrated as a day of remembrance and action by socialists and communists throughout the world.

As we reflect upon the past year, we are reminded of the many victories in the struggle for gender equality and also the many barriers we have yet to overcome. From the pro-choice movements in Argentina and Ireland resulting in the expanded access to safe and legal abortions, to the continued struggle for legal abortion in Poland, popular movements are emerging on every continent that demand an end to the inequities of gender that continue to plague society. In many cases, it is working class women who lead the charge.

We recognize the many intersections of sexist oppression rooted in race and class. We recognize that working class women are most vulnerable to the ugliest and most vicious  manifestations of sexism, with women continuing to earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by men. We recognize the pandemic has also forced women to shoulder a disproportionately larger amount of unpaid care work as schools and daycares were shut down abruptly, provoking an unprecedented mental health crisis among working mothers and forcing many to choose between taking care of their families and their paid employment. We recognize both the protests of Gambian women against the high rates of maternal mortality and the struggle of trans women, who are subject to higher rates of violence in countries like Brazil. 

Through collective struggle advances have been made since the first International Women’s Day, though capitalist society shall always be inadequate in terms of providing women with dignity, representation, and autonomy because patriarchy, as with racism, is inextricable from capitalism.

DSA IC celebrates International Women’s Day, and recommits to the cause of gender equality. We salute feminist movements across the globe and organizers whose dedication to gender equality has promoted the rights of women everywhere. 

The fight for women’s rights is an international cause, a socialist cause. To advance an internationalist, socialist feminism must be a clear and intentional objective of our organizing. On this day and every day, we demand nothing less than total and complete liberation for the women of the world.