International Women's Day

1 International Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties

Women’s Day 2011

Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties in Britain

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International Women’s Day

Liz Payne, Women’s Organiser CP Britain

Charter for Women Campaign to reduce the gender pay gap and highlight its causes.

End job segregation by improving training and opportunities for women.

Ensure that unions fight more equal value claims.

Campaign to change equal pay law to permit “class action” (group claims) and remove employer “get out” clauses Campaign to raise the level of National Minimum wage to at least half, and rising to at least two thirds of male median earnings Demand statutory pay audits Equalise opportunities and improve conditions for women workers Demand full-time right for part time workers Root out bullying and sexual harassment End casualisation and especially zero hours contracts Reduce job segregation by providing training opportunities for women in non -traditional areas Campaign for affordable child care including pre, after school and holiday provision Campaign to end institutional and other forms of racism and ensure that status and pay of Black women workers is a bargaining priority Campaign for a shorter working week for all Improve maternity leave and pay, including paid paternity leave.

Highlight the feminisation of poverty and campaign to reverse cuts in welfare state and public services.

Expose the ideologies which are used to perpetuate women’s inequality (for example, the notion of “family values” and the “family wage”).

Campaign for greater support for lone mothers, carers and women fleeing domestic violence.

Improve access and rights to abortion.

Tackle the under-representation of women in the labour and trade union movement structures by proportionality and other measures.

Ensure the accountability of women’s structures to women (e.g, women’s seats on TUC General Council).

Maintain and extend women’s committees, women’s courses and other measures to ensure that women’s issues and concerns are collectively articulated and actioned.

Campaign to raise the profile of the TUC, STUC and Welsh TUC’s women’s conferences as the “parliaments of working women”.

That the struggle for women’s equality and freedom from oppression is a thing of the past, a battle won, something ours mothers and their mothers fought for, is one of the most cruel untruths of our time.

Two recent reports, the United Nation’s The World’s Women, published in (October 2010) and UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report, Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity (February 2011), make very sobering reading.

They show that women’s lives are still alarmingly bleak. We are,

in general, poor and vulnerable and, in many places, isolated, overburdened and frequently unable to access the most basic of services. We are also without voice. Less than 20% of parliamentary seats worldwide are held by women. Only 11 of the 192 heads of state and 13 chief executives of the 500 largest corporations are female. Many major professions are still dominated by men. 18 of the FTSE 100 companies and almost half of the FTSE 250 have no woman on the board, according to the report, Women in Britain’s

Boardrooms, (Davies, 25 February 2011). Less than one in five MPs in Westminster and only four of the 23 Cabinet ministers are women.

And things are changing so slowly, says the Fawcett Society, that a baby girl born in this country today will be drawing her pension before she has an equal voice in politics. Women’s under-representation in public life is not just in the upper echelons but is reflected at every level of government, business and organisation across the world.

But this low visibility of women in public life

The Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties in Britain, brings together representatives of the British CP and overseas CPs that have members living and working here. It includes the CP Bangladesh, CP Chile, AKEL (Cyprus), CP Greece, CP Iraq, Tudeh Party of Iran, Association of Indian Communists and CP Sudan. This booklet brings together speeches given at the 2011 International Women’s Day seminar celebrating one hundred years of a day dedicated to the struggles of women across the globe.

Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties should hardly surprise us, given the barriers we face.

Violence against women – physical, sexual, psychological and economic – is, according to The World’s Women, ‘a universal phenomenon’. The abuse includes child marriage, sexual violence and domestic servitude. For women in the 15 to 44 age group worldwide, more death and disability are caused by individual acts of violence than by war, cancer, malaria and road accidents combined. More than 70 million women and girls worldwide have been subjected to genital mutilation.

Many years ago, when explaining our position in the world, we feminists used to say that women made up half the world’s population, doing two thirds of its work, for one tenth of its wages and owning a hundredth of its property. That this has not significantly changed is a tragedy that makes the whole world, not just women, poorer. We still do twice as much work as men, much of it domestic and unpaid, much of it indescribable drudgery, in what is often ‘a pre-dawn to post-dusk work day’. The gender pay gap is almost universal.

We suffer poor health and are more vulnerable.

Almost 80% of the world’s 27 million refugees are women and children. They are also the majority of victims when natural disasters strike. Most people with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Middle East are women. In some parts of the developing world, pregnancy and childbirth still carry a

high risk of death or permanent injury. In a number of countries adolescent girls suffer from ill health in alarming numbers. For example, in nine countries in west and central Africa, 50% of 15 to 19 year old girls are anaemic and in India 47% of adolescent girls are underweight.

The majority of the 72 million children in the world who do not attend primary school are girls and two thirds of the 774 million who cannot read or write are girls and women. The UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report 2011 particularly highlights the plight of girls aged 10 to 19 years: ‘Intergenerational transmission of poverty is most apparent among adolescent girls.

Educational disadvantage and gender discrimination are potent factors that force them into lives of exclusion, penury, child marriage and domestic violence. Around one third of girls in the developing world excluding China, are married before the age of 18; in a few countries, almost 30% of girls under 15 are married.

‘The poorest adolescent girls are also those most likely to be married early, with rates of child marriage roughly three times higher than among their peers from the richest quintile of households. Girls who marry early are also more at risk of being caught up in the negative cycle of premature child-bearing, high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity.’

In Iran girls can be married lawfully from their ninth birthday. For boys,

the age is 15. Latin America has a high percentage of teenage brides and in parts of Ecuador, recent research has shown, almost 40% of girls aged between 15 and 19 were or have been pregnant.

Left and progressive people everywhere know that all of the above is both inexcusable and unnecessary.

We have the knowledge, science, technology, medicine and all the resources we need to provide health care, food, clean water, education and a decent standard of living for everyone, everywhere. We know that what stands in the way of addressing the position of women (and all other inequalities) is the profit-seeking greed of capitalists and their corrupt system. We know too that women almost everywhere have been hit very hard indeed by the economic crisis and its aftermath, which threatens to reverse the

3 many gains hard-won in years of struggle. We know that they are being made to pay, though they played no part in causing it. In Britain, the Fawcett Society calculated that 72% of central governments cuts will come from women’s pockets. But, crisis or no crisis, it isn’t in the interests of the super rich to meet the just demands of women.

They cannot reproduce their corporate and individual wealth in a fair, just and peaceful society and inequalities serve their interests well by dividing us when we could be speaking out and striving together for a very different world. It is our duty to articulate these things and to explain that the

4 alternative for which we can both fight and win.

International Women’s Day (IWD) has always provided an opportunity for us to think about these things and, this year, as we both celebrate and commemorate more than a century of women’s heroic struggle, we renew the demands our sisters first made and have made down the years. At this time we remember the continuing heroism of our sisters across the world, facing violence, arrest, imprisonment, torture and execution for speaking up. Already this year there are so many examples of this– too many!

In the past few weeks, we have seen women in Sudan physically attacked for peacefully protesting at segregation in professional life and female journalists arrested and imprisoned for no more than covering their story. We have seen the women of Iran again come to the streets in thousands to claim a free and democratic future. And we have seen the masses of Egyptian and Tunisian women, young and old, veiled and unveiled, standing firm and persistent, day after day for a future without poverty, without corruption and without dictatorship. They are an inspiration. They show that we can together challenge our oppression, change every dismal statistic and build a just, democratic and peaceful future for us all. We must learn from their example, tell their stories in our movement and support their struggles in every way we can.

International Women’s Day Here in Britain, more and more women too are being drawn into the struggle. We are realising what is happening to us.

We see it very clearly. We have and will continue disproportionately to bear the brunt of cuts. Our jobs are being stolen, our benefits reduced and the vital services on which we so much rely are being taken away with cruel cynicism.

The advances we made during past decades, our hard-won gains, are being snatched from us. We are being pushed back into our homes, overburdened with caring responsibilities and isolated physically, socially and mentally. We are increasingly vulnerable but our refuges and support projects are closing. Many of us cannot access help.

In response to what is happening many women are being brought into struggle for the first time ever. They are joining their trade unions, local women’s organisations and anti-cuts campaigns. Others, more experienced as activists, are finding new energy, new focus and direction. New voices are emerging. There is growing support for women’s campaigns. Each year more and more women come to London for the Million Women Rise demonstration against all violence to women, which last Saturday saw thousands on the streets.

Women’s History Month is being celebrated for the first time this March in Britain.

International Women’s Day is receiving wider and wider recognition and women trade unionists are campaigning for it to be

celebrated as a national holiday.

As communists, we have a hugely significant role to play. We have to be there with the women in struggle.

We need to help them to develop an understanding of the current situation, what has caused the crisis, who is to blame and why the cuts are unnecessary. We need to expose the media lies and ensure that women do not believe that they are in any way to blame for the current situation. We need to support the development of women to ensure that they are confident, able to express themselves and not excluded from participation in the left and progressive movements. We need to listen to women’s voices.

We need to support and encourage women so that they are not disillusioned when they face short term defeat, when despite every effort the cuts are seen to go ahead and the jobs and services are sacrificed. We need to ensure that women and men together can move from focus on the economic, shorter term objectives to the longer term political struggle. We need to campaign for an alternative to what we have at present.

We, as communists, need to stand with women tirelessly and vigorously in our party organisations, in our unions, in our campaign groups and in our neighbourhoods. We need to see women, hear women and support women in their struggle, so that we can together work for a fairer future in which violence and oppression have no place.

International Women’s day greetings to all!

Azar Sephyr, Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women It gives me great pleasure to be here on behalf of the Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women to celebrate with you the 100th Anniversary of the International Women’s day.

These have been a hundred years of arduous and momentous struggle by women for the recognition of their rights and for progress and social justice.

Women’s struggle for their rights has been closely linked to the class struggles and to the socio-economic developments of the era.

Where the capitalist system had the most urgent need for women’s labour acquired at low cost, women succeeded in gaining concessions through organised protests.

In relative terms these concessions are remarkably recent. It was only in 1928 that in Britain women succeeded in gaining the right to vote on the same terms as men. In the United States, it was in 1918 when the Congress passed what became the

Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties 19th Amendment, when ratified by sufficient states in 1920, and prohibited state and federal agencies from gender-based restrictions on voting.

The history of the Iranian women’s struggle for progress is a long and impressive one. The first celebration of the 8th of March, in Iran, was held in 1903, by progressive women in the northern city of Rasht. In a country at the feudal stage of socioeconomic development, women fought profoundly backward social relations regarding the status of women in order to gain basic human rights, including the right to vote.

The rise of women’s struggle in Iran is closely linked to the working class struggle. In 1941 the Tudeh Party of Iran was established, by political prisoners released from Reza Shah’s prisons and it was soon afterwards that progressive women joined the movement and played a significant role in the anticolonial and anti-dictatorial movement in Iran. 8th February, this year marked the 68th anniversary of the foundation of the DOIW (in 1943).

Overall, in the ten years of its open and semi-legal activity, up to the CIA coup of 1953, the DOIW succeeded in raising awareness and organizing local meetings (especially in the run-up to the review of the law of elections), organizing weekly conferences and running literacy classes, as well as skills classes teaching sewing, giving lessons on health and giving aid to deprived areas, setting up and remaining

active in the organisations such as the Union of Working Mothers, the Council of Mothers, the Society of Supporters of Peace, and the Society for the Protection of Children, among others. In that period, hundreds of women joined the organisation.

Iranian women played a significant role in the Iranian Revolution, from the street demonstrations against the Shah’s army to armed struggle as well as the industrial workers’ strikes that finally brought the Shah’s regime to its knees.

With the victory of the 1979 revolution a new chapter started in the struggle of women.

The DOIW commenced its open activity and started reviving its organisations. Its first programme of action after the Revolution stated: ‘women, too, have a share in the determination of the country’s future and must be actively involved in politics, which determines the future of women and their families’.

The Programme demanded women’s social rights, their rights within the family, in factories and workplaces, women workers and farmers, particular laws regarding carpet weavers, women in teaching professions, health, fight against corruption and drug addiction.

In the thirty-three years that have passed since the 1979 Revolution, the women’s movement has

faced enormous challenges.

The Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women resumed its open activities in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution.

Once the Islamic Republic was established, one of the main issues before progressive women was whether and to what extent, to make a stand against the regime’s moves to impose Islamic dress codes in the country. The new dress code was introduced brutally and was established relatively quickly, as progressive forces and women who supported the Revolution, took the view that it was more important to press for fundamental rights.

The imperialist-imposed Iran-Iraq war started by the dictatorship in Iraq had a devastating effect on the revolutionary movement.

The 8 year long war of attrition became a new front in the battle of the people to protect their freedom and independence and grew into one of the most determining factors in allowing the entrenchment of reaction in the country. Women’s struggle at this time included

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their work in defending the sovereignty of the country as well as being active in the peace movement. At a time when the regime’s slogan was War, War, till Victory, this was in itself a brave act of resistance, as was the founding of the organisation: Mothers for Peace.

The onslaught on the Tudeh Party of Iran as well as all other progressive organisations in the early 1980s meant that much of the democratic activities of women were also curtailed.

Following the 1980s’ onslaught, all political organisations including the Tudeh Party of Iran, trade unions and youth and student organisations as well as women’s organisations including the DOIW were banned and their leaders and cadres imprisoned. In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were executed.

Among these were many women who have become legendary for their heroic resistance, such as Simin Fardin, a leading member of the Party and the Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women, who was killed under torture.

6 The mass executions of political prisoners that followed the end of the war were meant as a signal that the regime would go to any length to silence dissent. The search for the bodies of the loved ones became another scene of struggle. The mothers of missing political prisoners would face the regime’s brutality with patience and courage, to let them know that they were answerable for their crimes.

Despite the regime’s attempt to destroy the people’s movement against dictatorship, the people’s struggle soon was on the rise again and women in Iran played a significant role in this resurgence.

The presidential elections of 1997, once again became the scene of massive presence of Iranian women in the political arena. They ensured the election of Khatami to the post of president, based on a reformist agenda. It is no exaggeration to say that women and students played the most important role in bringing victory to Mr. Khatami and the defeat of the regime’s favoured candidate.

Despite their promise of reform and modernisation, the Khatami government, in its 8 years in government, delivered very little in terms of women’s rights.

Nevertheless it provided an environment in which women’s independent movement and social activity flourished. Women set up their local groups and cultural and sports activities and became a significant social force for change against religious dictatorship. It was during this time that the work of

International Women’s Day the human rights lawyer and women’s rights activist, Shirin Ebadi was acknowledged by a Nobel peace prize.

The reactionary forces in Iran representing large mercantile and bureaucratic bourgeoisie viewed the reformist movement and the developing social forces as a major threat and were determined to reverse the gains made during those eight years, and reestablished the police state with the 2005 election of Ahmadinejad with heavy military interference.

One of the most potent and successful actions organised and conducted mainly by women was the One Million Signatures Campaign. This campaign aimed to bring attention to and protest against the antiwomen laws of the country and demanded an end to discrimination against women. It had a galvanising effect on women and helped broaden and deepen the movement for equal rights.

Many women were arrested and imprisoned because of their activities in the campaign.

The presidential elections of June 2009 were the latest major event in which women took their rightful part in bringing about change.

Many women were killed, beaten up, arrested and tortured in the crackdown after the rigged elections.

In June 2010 on the 1st anniversary of the elections, at least 30 women activists lawyers, journalists and human rights activists were in prison. Among these is the lawyer, Nasrin Sotoodeh, who was the first to campaign against the

execution of children and under 18s, she is on the board of directors of the Society for the Defence of Children’s Rights and one of the first members of the One Million Signatures Campaign.

The treatment of women in Iran is deplorable.

Discrimination against them has been enshrined in the law. Ahmadi-Nejad’s government is taking measures to withdraw even the most modest concessions women’s movement has achieved in its long years of struggle. The new missnamed Family Protections Law is a case in point. The notorious article 23 changes the marriage contract further against the interests of women.

The regime’s economic policy is a rabid form of capitalism. Workers’ wages are extremely low, there is no job security, poverty is rife, and deplorable trends such as the sale of body organs as a way of alleviating poverty are on the rise. Drug addiction is high. The Islamic Republic of Iran uses international policy posturing as a tool for diverting attention from the unsustainable economic, social and political crisis in the country.

As the battle rages between the people as women, students, workers, trade unionists and political activists, there are conflicts emerging between different forces within the regime.

These are: the traditional mercantile bourgeoisie of the Bazaar, the new bureaucratic bourgeoisie of the Revolutionary Guards (the power base of AhmadiNejad) and the traditional

Clerics (the Office of the Imam, religious charity organizations etc.).

As the different forces and figures manoeuvre, it is important for them to ensure the opposition does not take advantage of the situation.

The torture of prisoners, preemptive arrests before significant social and political dates in the calendar, the arrest of journalists, women activists, students and trade unionists and the recent arrest of de facto leaders of the reformist movement, Mousavi and Karoubi, are part of the terror campaign to prevent the repeat of the mass demonstrations of last summer in Tehran and other cities in the country.

The Middles East has been going through momentous changes in which women are playing a significant role. This is also true in Iran today where the progressive forces are fighting a despotic and medieval regime. Despite thousands of political prisoners and a semi state of martial law imposed in many major cities over the recent weeks, nevertheless women celebrated the 8th March in protest against the continued savage suppression of their rights.

We are confident that our peoples struggle for freedom, independence and social justice will triumph sooner or later and in this struggle we are sure we can rely on the support of our sisters and comrades all over the world especially our sisters and comrades here in Britain.

Long Live 8th March International Women’s Day! Long Live International Solidarity!

Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties

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Syeda Monira Akter Khatun, Communist Party Bangladesh On behalf of the Bangladeshi delegation please accept the greetings on this great event of celebration for hundred years of International Women Day. We are all aware of the heroic struggle of women workers in 1911 which is still continuing.

Women of Bangladesh are also an integrated part of this process of struggle for emancipation from all forms of exploitation. As a South Asian country we have been enriched with diverse culture and heritage, both secular and religious. In general people are peace loving, tolerant, love to enjoy the beauty of nature in quite village community, which is well known through the literary and artistic works.

Bangladeshi women are very much caring and sensitive towards the needs of their near and dear one, their struggle also persistence towards progress. In this long journey Khona, Begum Rokeya, Sufia Kamal, Monuroma basu, Ila Mitra, Hena Das is our path finders International Women’s Day has been observed in Bangledsh since the independence of the country in 1971, observed with great enthusiasm. During the liberation war 1971, we received strength and support from the international women’s movement and fraternity of international progressive movement especially the under the leadership from the then U.S.S.R along with other socialist countries and their allies. We saw the women’s committees raise their voice in international forum against the mass

killing and violence against women by the occupying Pakistani forces. During the war huge number of people fled to the neighbouring country India to save their live. India is facilitating all the opportunities, to ensure our safety and dignity.

Because of all these support, we have achieved victory with only nine months long heroic arm struggle. We never forget i.

The culmination of all these efforts resulted in socialism; secularism, equality of women etc are enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh after independence. But we are still fighting to protect the constitutional pledges.

Religious fundamentalism; neo liberal paradigm in political, economic and social field are creating enormous barrier on our way to implant those.

Although Govt of Bangladesh recognise the greater and effective participation of women in politics and governance challenging the age old prohibitions of patriarchal ideology through appointing women Ministers in important ministry ( Foreign, Agriculture, Home affairs, Women) along with legislative enactments , policies, rules regulation and operational procedure to enhance women friendly environment . Still the majority of women in Bangladesh suffering from vices of patriarchy.

Statistics revealed about 70% of adult women are the victim of violence in some form at their life time, at the decision making level women

engaged only less than 10%.

Negative impact of neoliberal development paradigm and economic strategies, increase the insecurity, gender based violence and lack of protection which is directly linked to empowerment of women. The current global crisis of climate change is also contributing towards vulnerability of our deprived community at local level.

The network of evil forces is taking this entire crisis situation which is arising due to early flooding, draught and cyclone. Women of Bangladesh are engaged in these continuous struggles in the field man made and natural, they always take stand in favour of humanity to ease the sufferings at local, regional and international level.

In the rapidly changing world Bangladeshi women are also increasingly participating towards mainstream political, economic and social life.

Both of our prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition are women since 1991.

Women are increasingly contributing towards administrative, judicial and cultural reform. But Bangladeshi women’s contribution is not limited to national boundary. Here in the U.K, we are witnessing a growing number of Bangladeshi women in the public offices, elected bodies, and professional arena as well the working community maintaining the essential services of this country.

However being a part of the most deprived communities in the U.K, Bangladeshi

women experience exclusion and racialism on the one hand and victim of violence in the name of family honour and religion on the other.

This scenario is not an exception in U.K. The experience of Bangladeshi women is even worse in those countries, where U.N Convention for Eliminations of Discriminations of All forms Equality Against Women (CEDAW) or ILO convention were not signed, even they are the members of the united Nations. So struggle of Bangledeshi women has got its national, regional and international face also.

We are aware that old slogans are not sufficient for organisation and mobilisation. We need to call for all exlcuded women along with ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities to unite to struggle against injustice and expolitation from their respective position.

The fight for entitlements such as employment, food, education, health. housing, human security, social security, dignity and the like needs to be carried out through the force of the exploited masses as well as the excluded social groups.

We need to alert governments on their responsibilities and to bring a collective sense of social responsibility within the country as well as region and across the world. So let us unite all the progressive forces and enhance our effort to have our human dignity.

We are not alone.

Thanks for your patience hearings.

We shall overcome.

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International Women’s Day

The Association of Indian Communists First of all I bring greetings to you all from AIC and congratulate CPB for organising this wonderful event to celebrate 100th anniversary of international women’s day. It is my pleasure to be with you and I am grateful to Liz Payne and Navid Shomali who have given me an opportunity to share some information regarding Indian women’s struggle for emancipation.

Celebration of International Women’s day is an excellent way to analyse women’s achievements and to plan for the future to work on the areas where progress is yet to be made. Bourgeois communities also celebrate International Women’s Day. However for them it is a day to have fun and display their wealth while we the working class proletariats celebrate women’s achievements and take an opportunity to draw up future action plans.

Comrades, we are aware that world over subjugation of

women and the discrimination they face in every sphere of life has its roots in the emergence of class exploitation and the institution of private property. We also know that while the emergence of the capitalist system of exploitation intensified the burden on women, the modern socialised production characteristic of capitalism also provides the conditions for masses of women to come out of their homes to organise together with the fellow workers both men and women against exploitation.

Women all over the world took advantage of these conditions. Hence the struggle for emancipation grew stronger and more widespread in the 19th century. Indian women did not stay behind; they also were taken to streets to fight injustices.

Indian women played an active role in the anticolonial struggle in 19th and 20th centuries. Millions

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and millions of women were influence by the struggle and they organised themselves against all forms of enslavement. Many identified the movement of the working class for socialism as a path to achieve emancipation for which they joined the left forces in defence of the theory and programme of communism. They challenged the patriarchal values and rejected their place in the home. They formed workers unions and led many textile worker’s strikes, for example in 1917 the Ahmedabad textile workers strike was lead by Anasuya Sarabhai while women played a leading role in Bombay and Calcutta textile mill workers strike in 1928-29.

While the communist women were active in organising and mobilising masses of women, the bourgeois national leaders and organisations were also active in organising women for their own aims. Although Gandhi did not favour women’s participation in the struggle against foreign rule, he agreed only after he was strongly challenged by women activists such as Annie Besant - – a member of Irish suffragette

movement, Sarojini Naidu and many more. However, he as an Indian bourgeois leader continued to promote patriarchal values. He did not favour any form of women’s emancipation.

After India ’s independence he opposed constitutional equalities for women and for other disadvantaged people and constitutional changes – granting equalities to every citizen – were included only after his death.

Indian reformist movement was running side by side to the national movement for independence and movement for women’s emancipation. Its contributions were invaluable in ending anti women traditions and religious laws such as sati, child marriage, allowing widow remarriage, creating provisions for female education and training for economic independence.

Moreover Indian reformist organisations gave Indian women an experience of public activities. However their activities were limited with home being the primary focus. They promoted women’s education and training for them to become better mothers and wife. The Indian bourgeois leaders reinforced these views.

Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties Secondly the reformist movement’s activities were limited to urban, upper casts and middle class women only while the women’s organisations particularly the ones with socialist principles demanded political rights, reformed personal laws and challenged patriarchal values.

After the end of colonial rule, Indian women received certain political and legal rights they did not have before. These included full voting right and right to contest in the local and national elections, Hindu succession Act gave women a right to inherit and own property, Hindu Code Bill, Anti- Dowry Legislation, legislation making domestic violence and rape a criminal offence. Moreover the Indian constitution gives total equality to women in all spheres of life. However, the new bourgeois ruling class deliberately retained the legal inequality of women in many spheres. The terrible oppression of women due to feudal and backward practices as well as cast oppression and discrimination, much of which was preserved by the colonial rulers and the newly born Indian bourgeoisie, added on to the capitalist exploitation of women. Even today nearly 64 years after the formal independence vast masses of Indian women continue to be victims of all these diverse forms of exploitation, defended by the Indian state and its institutions.

The radical laws and constitutional equal rights gave Indian women a sense of security and they felt they had achieved their goals to

emancipation and there was nothing more left to struggle for. However they soon realised that the constitutional franchise and enactment of liberal laws alone was not enough unless there is a will to implementation. Hence their dissatisfaction with the status quo pushed them into struggle against injustices.

Once again they organised themselves and tirelessly struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation, for better wages and working conditions, for equality, dignity and security. In order to ensure legislation are implemented and for women to exercise their rights effectively, they focus on raising awareness of women of their rights.

The contemporary women’s movement in India has seen women come out in a large numbers, often in the forefront of the struggle together with men, against the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, against the loot and plunder of their land and resources by the big monopolies, against the state violence for national rights, for their rights as workers and against all other forms of social oppressions and degradation. For example women are at the forefront of struggle against dowry and for women’s right to inherit and own property, for abolition of personal laws replacing them with a uniformed civil code.

Other movements in which Indian women have been and are involved are:  Struggle for the rural poor and industrial working class such as Tebhaga

movement in Bengal .  Telangana movement in Andhra Pardesh  Tribal landless labourers’ movement against landlords in Maharashtra .  Anti- alcohol agitation.  Anti price rise agitation  Chipko movement – clinging to trees saving them from cutting. This raised awareness of importance of trees.  Anti – dowry. One woman dies a dowry related death in Delhi, the Indian Capital City .  For inheritance rightsdespite the constitutional right Indian women are denied a right to inherit.  Domestic violence.  Anti – rape – an Indian woman is raped every 54 minutes. This is a recorded figure while a vast majority of cases go unreported.  Shah Bano Case - Shah Bano was granted maintenance from her husband under section 125 of criminal procedure act.

This was not acceptable to the Muslim religious fundamentalist leaders.

They accused the Government interfering with Islamic Laws and did not protect the minorities.

The government bowed to the fundamental Muslim leaders and passed a legislation that applies to Muslim women denying them a right to maintenance.This case is a land mark in the Indian women’s struggle against injustice to Muslim women.  Anti – Sati; Sati was outlawed in 1872. However we observed Roop Kanwer forcefully burnt with her

9 husband in 1987. Instead of bringing the perpetrators to justice, the Government applauded the action.  Anti- child marriage.

Children, especially girls, as young as 12 years are married off.

The status of women in modern India is a sort of a paradox. If on one hand she is at the peak of success, on the other hand she is mutely suffering violence afflicted on her by her own family members, in the form of dowry, incest, domestic violence, female foeticide thanks to the modern technology. If a woman tries to exercise her right to inherit she is subject to alienation, brutal violence and even murder.

No doubt women in modern India have achieved a lot and are empowered by educational achievement and economic independency but it is limited to women at the higher spectrum of the society. Women at the lower end of the spectrum do not have the same opportunities to better themselves because they always are struggling against poverty and for the basic needs such as food and water. They suffer poor health, poor diet, lack education, are mistreated.

Unfortunately Indian women’s movement is divided by status, religion, cast, region and party politics; and is lacking one common platform. The bourgeois classes do not wish to see women to be emancipated as they are seen as a challenge to capitalist system. Changing societal attitudes and women’s own

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International Women’s Day

Iraqi Women’s

League Indian women in Britain have been a vital part of working class struggle in Britain over the last century, from Grunwick to Gate Gourmet

to Indian women’s contribution in British Labour movement.

Although domestic violence has been made a criminal offence, women and men arriving from abroad on spousal visa are not given same protection against domestic violence. Comrades it is not a responsibility of foreign spouses, it is our responsibility to ensure that every one in Indian women in Britain Indian women living in Britain Britain are protected from any form of violence. have been part and parcel of Cultural norms and personal working class and have been laws have been brought into actively involved in British Britain that deny women many labour movement. rights, one of then being a right Unfortunately their to inheritance.

Indian women contribution in the movement are discriminated against by has not been adequately their family.

Parents will is recognised. They have been at almost always in favour of sons. the forefront in the struggle for Again comrades it is not the equal wages and better working responsibility of Indian women, conditions, for right to organise, it is our collective responsibility in the struggle against racism and institutional racism in the to fight against all forms of discrimination – culture or not form of racist laws such as culture.

Immigration and Nationality.

Long live International It is high time that the labour Women’s Day! movement pays due attention self perception which are deeply rooted in our psyche and social structure is not easy. For every step forward that the movement takes there are backlash and a possible regression. Struggle for women’s rights is long and hard, it is a struggle that must be waged and won that is only possible through class consciousness.

The Iraqi Women’s League (IWL) is today celebrating with all of you the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Although it has been more than 100 years since women have demanded equality, we still see discrimination and violence against women all over the world. We may need another 100 years to overcome every kind of discrimination everywhere – but we will keep campaigning against it.

Today the IWL stands side by side with women around the world and especially women in Iraq, the Middle East and North Africa who struggle to change brutal dictatorial regimes that work against them.

In Iraq the situation for women is extremely volatile, with many negative changes such as:  The segregation of boys and girls in education from as young as nursery up until university  Hijab imposed on female students at most universities.

 More places and priority given to males to go to university and in the work place.  Polygamy and Sharia law marriages still used in Iraqi society.  No law to protect young women forced into compulsory marriage and no law to protect women from domestic abuse.

We do not know the exact number of the widows in Iraq because it is not a priority for the Iraqi government to find out, despite many studies estimating that there are more than a million.

I will stop with this very small number of examples but I would like to point out that we are very positive that we will not allow another dictatorship to rise in Iraq and we will always fight and stand by all women who are struggling for a better life for themselves and their children.

Thank you

Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Parties Dr. Amal G. Sidahmed, CP Sudan

UK only reflects the Sudanese government policies and opinion.

The major concern in Sudan now is the on going of the war in Darfur which has been neglected by the media here and in other European Countries; we believe this is not an accidental oversight.

It is a deal between the USA and its allies and the a referendum, the South of Greetings on this day to Government of Sudan. It is Sudan voted for full women all over the globe, agreed that the Sudan will go special greetings to women independence from the for separation and they will North of Sudan. This in the Communist Parties keep a blind eye on Darfur and Progressive movements decision of the South to and treat it as an internal who are fighting along with secede came as a result of tribal conflict in spite of devastating policies and the working class for numerous resolutions by the actions by the despotic equality, justice and UN council and the African regime of the Islamic socialism. I would like to Union, of course they are National Salvation junta send a strong message of concerned about their share greetings and cordial salute and its political party The in the Sudanese OIL and National Congress Party, to women striving in the among which, the infamous mineral resources, Middle East countries for investments and other Jihad War and the lack of Democracy, Peace and interests in the Sudan. honest involvement to the Bread. I would like also to The current financial extend my congratulations full implementation of the crisis and the associated on this day to women in the Naifasha Accord and its policies of privatisation resultant Comprehensive Islamic political groups, resulted in the deterioration Peace Agreement. The because if they were fully of state sponsored services separation of South Sudan aware of their rights as was fostered and encouraged including education, health women they would never and environmental services belong to these groups in the by the American which affected the lives and very beginning, of course we Government and it allies well being of millions of including the British should salute and add our Government. Obviously we Sudanese people. strong voices to women in We have 6 million trade unions, women in the support the right of self determination of the people internal displaced people as a for front in the struggle of South Sudan and respect result of war and poverty; against capitalism and imperialism who are stiffing their choice as a democratic most of them are women and children. Women plight in right, yet we hold that it to abate the impact of the Sudan is a daily happening, current crisis on the working should be conducted in a recently women were democratic context and class and on the poor. subjected to brutal democratic environment, We celebrate the IWD harassments and oppression which was lacking in this not only to have fun and due to the implementation of congratulate each other, but case. It will be an organic what is called public order to debate, analyse, criticise and integral part of a laws which are part of the and review our contribution democratic process, given Islamic Laws adopted since to women emancipation and the right circumstances.

Separation will not solve the 1983. Many Women women cause. including activists were problems of the people of In Sudan, our celebration of the IWD this Sudan North or south, what detained, tortured and raped.

Since the advent of the will solve these problems are year is different. As you current regime in 1989, rape know our country was torn Democracy, Peace, equal Citizenship & Development. became a weapon in the apart by a long going war.

Recently, and as a result of Unfortunately the media in hands of security organs and

11 as government sanctioned tool in the current situation.

The reason of escalation of this barbaric practice is because we were not daring enough to stop rape in Nubba Mountains in the 90s and recently in Darfur. It is now in Khartoum, Women and Students of Sudan are in the front line, and therefore they face more oppression and aggressive actions by the government.

The CPOS call on all the Sudanese in the opposition to unite in a wide front for democracy and peace to save the country from the abyss it is staring right in the eye, and to accumulate all its forces to topple and remove this despotic regime and create a change that meets the needs and aspirations of the Sudanese people.

Dear all, We, the Women of the Communist Parties should be up to the challenge we face. The struggle against imperialism is getting tougher and tougher in spite of its current crisis and becoming more complex. We need to be up to our role as it is not enough to repeat that women emancipation is associated with the working class victory. It is not as simple as that. We have to face today’s challenge on the theoretical, organisational and political levels to build women movement not elitist groups. We need to meet more frequently than once a yea to share experiences, develop strategies and organise our selves in order to move forwards from the current quagmire. Let us start today on the memory of Rosa Luxemburg and honour this great women in this great day.

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International Women’s Day

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