'Capitalism & Patriarchy are inseperable!': Young Communists speak on IWD

Rebel Youth presents a translation of a speech by Marianne Breton Fontaine on behalf of Young Communist League of Quebec (LJC-Q) on March 8th, International Women's Day, at a march in Montreal organized by Women of Diverse Origins.

Hello everyone,

As a comrade told me, there is not a single struggle, not a single social advance that has been won without the sacrifice and work of women. Yet they are constantly trying to erase us from history, to erase and ignore our demands, and to tell us to be patient.

International Women’s Day: Reinvigorating Marxist-Feminist Struggles in Canada

 Jenna Amirault

This March, the Young Communist League and the Communist Party of Canada will celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) by expressing solidarity with the ongoing and past struggles of women. While IWD is widely celebrated in civil society today, often little is known about the holiday’s socialist roots. IWD would not have been possible without the struggles of socialist women. The political activism of Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) and Luise Zietz (1865-1922) was particularly influential. Zetkin and Zietz were committed communists dedicated to organizing working class women and educating their male comrades on the importance of women’s struggles. They understood that the success of socialism depended on proletariat women and men “fight[ing] hand in hand…against capitalist society.”1   In August 1910 at a general meeting of the Second International, Zietz suggested holding an International Women’s Day to bring attention to equal rights, the suffrage and the struggles of working class women. Zetkin seconded the motion and over a hundred women from seventeen different countries voted in support of creating IWD. The next year on March 18 (chosen to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Paris Commune) the first IWD demonstrations were held in Europe. It was a tremendous success with an estimated 300 demonstrations being held across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1922, with the help of Zetkin, Lenin would name International Women’s Day an official communist holiday.

Equality for Women is Progress for All

IWD 2014 greetings from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League of Canada

For over a century, March 8 has been the international day to honour the women in all countries who strive to achieve full equality. On IWD 2014, the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League of Canada send our warmest greetings to all women in the fight against poverty, austerity, violence, misogyny and war. As the United Nations has declared for this year's IWD, "equality for women is progress for all."

Here, the ruling class claims that Canada is a country of equality, fairness and social justice. Yet recent years have seen huge struggles around issues such as access to education, pay equity, union rights, jobs, devastation of the environment, deportations of migrants. Women have played a leading role in the Quebec student strike, the Idle No More movement, grassroots environmental struggles, and defence of labour and social rights.

The reality of sexism -- a few examples

It is International Women's Day this week. All over the world. this event is marked by women in various ways as they celebrate victories and mark the struggles ahead. Progressive-minded women and men in the youth and student movement across Canada are also finding ways to raise the important issues marked on this day in our communities, work-places and campuses. But, we all know the story. Sooner or later some guy blurts out -- women are equal today and sexism is over. Well, here are just a few anecdotes that friends and readers of Rebel Youth have brought to our attention over the past days. 

Documentary: Status Quo, The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada

This is part of our IWD 2014 series.

Feminism has shaped the society we live in. But just how far has it brought us, and how relevant is it today?

The National Film Board presentation Status Quo? (Karen Cho, 2012, 87 min) zeroes in on key concerns such as violence against women, access to abortion, and universal childcare, asking how much progress we have truly made on these issues.

It uncovers answers that are provocative and at times shocking. Rich with archival material and startling contemporary stories, Status Quo? is crucial viewing for every Canadian. View the trailer below or visit the film's official site here.

Barriers, shortages: looking at reproductive rights and access across Canada

Women face many barriers to access to abortion, women's reproductive rights advocacy group Canadians For Choice (CFC) says.

The group has created a leaflet providing an overview of abortion services throughout Canada that can used as a quick reference tool.

(Download the PDF document from there site by clicking here)

The leaflet highlights the numerous barriers to abortion services and provincial/territorial differences in the delivery of services, and provides information that is not readily available from one source, CFC says. They have compiled this province- and territory-specific information `to educate and empower people to exercise their reproductive rights` CFC says on there website.

The leaflet follows-up from a 2010 Toronto Star investigation which revealed a shortage of abortion providers in Canada, where fears of violence, lack of training and other obstacles prevent physicians from providing the procedure. The CFC website also reprints the following facts which come from the Daily Women's Health Policy Report (2010).

IWD 2012

Message from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League
March 8 is a day to honour women's struggles, take stock of hard‑won gains, and to demand full equality.

This year, International Women's Day comes amidst inspiring new struggles. The global Occupy Movement has exposed the growing income gap and political power disparity between the wealthiest 1% and the other 99%. Working people in Europe are conducting huge struggles against austerity measures.

Across the capitalist world, women are disproportionately paying the price for bailouts of the banks and major corporations, neo‑liberal cuts to social programs, public service layoffs and massive tuition increases.

In Canada, IWD 2012 comes amidst intense attacks by corporations upon the hard won pensions of workers, and by governments upon public pension plans. These attacks have the sharpest impact on women, given their lower average incomes, and higher rates of poverty.