Introductory speech by the Kurdish Women’s Movement


International Theoretical Seminar on Women’s Liberation
2-4 December 2018 – Bangalore

Dear women, dear comrades, dear sisters,
We are honoured to be in the presence of such revolutionary, struggling women. We are especially grateful to our Indian comrades for hosting us and making this historic gathering possible. On behalf of the Kurdish women’s movement, we salute you and your resistance.
We thank the organizers for dedicating the venue hall to our precious comrade Sakine Cansiz. Sakine Cansiz, nom de guerre Sara, born 1958 in Dersim, was one of the co-founders of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party. She was detained in 1980 in the infamous military prison of Diyarbakir, where she was tortured brutally. As a leading figure of the prisoner’s resistance she became a living legend. After her release in 1991, she joined the Kurdish guerrilla. She played a special role in the founding of the Kurdish women’s guerrilla and the autonomous organisation of women within the Kurdish liberation movement. On January 9, 2013 together with two of her comrades, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez, she was assassinated by the Turkish intelligence in Paris/France. , Comrade Sara has been a symbol for women’s resistance during her lifetime and continues to drive our struggle beyond her death.

(more…)

Grüße zum Frauentag 2019 aus Dhaka/Bangladesh vom Socialist Women’s Forum

Brief des SWF Bangladesh 8 March 2019 als PDF Datei

Dear Sisters & Women Activists,

Solidarity greetings to all on International Women’s Day. On 109th International Women’s Day Socialist Women’s Forum organized a rally at 11am 8th March 2019. Also six leftist women’s organizations including Socialist Women’s Forum observed International Women’s Day jointly. Our call was ‘protest rape-sexual harassment-violence and come on the struggle to establish women with human dignity and equal right’. On this occasion we demanded ‘ Equal right on inheritance’; ‘Equal-wage on equal-work’; ‘Establish uniform civil code’; ‘Economic value of household works in GDP’; ‘Stop violence against women’; ‘Stop gender-base violence at work’ etc.

Please keep us informed about your activities, analysis and keep in touch.

Comradely yours
Shampa Basu
General Secretary/Central Committee
Socialist Women’s Forum

 

deepl Übersetzung:

Solidarische Grüße an Alle am Internationalen Frauentag. Am 109. Internationalen Frauentag organisierte das Sozialistische Frauenforum am 8. März 2019 um 11 Uhr eine Demonstration. Auch sechs linke Frauenorganisationen, darunter das Socialist Women’s Forum, haben gemeinsam am Internationalen Frauentag teilgenommen. Unser Aufruf lautete “Protest gegen sexuelle Belästigung – Gewalt und der Kampf um die Verwirklichung von Frauen mit Menschenwürde und Gleichberechtigung”. Bei dieser Gelegenheit forderten wir ‘ Gleiches Recht auf Erbschaft’; ‘Gleiches Entgelt für gleiche Arbeit’; ‘Einheitliches Zivilgesetzbuch’; ‘Wirtschaftlicher Wert von Haushaltsarbeiten im BIP’; ‘Gewalt gegen Frauen beenden’; ‘Geschlechterbezogene Gewalt am Arbeitsplatz beenden’ usw.
Bitte informieren Sie uns über Ihre Aktivitäten, Analysen und bleiben Sie in Kontakt.

Call of the World Women’s Movement for International Women’s Day 2019

European Coordinators of the

World Women‘s Conferences of Grassroot Women

Halinka Augustin/Netherlands and Susanne Bader/Germany

Call of the World Women’s Movement for International Women’s Day 2019

“In the struggle for liberation I felt freedom for the first time, that’s why I organized myself!”

In many countries of the world, women’s consciousness has awakened on a massive scale!
On International Women’s Day, the day of struggle of the world women’s movement, we look with pride at our revolutionary pioneers like Clara Zetkin! She wrote under the impression of the first socialist revolution in Russia in 1917, as a result of which the right to vote for women was won:

“The first dictatorship of the proletariat is a true pioneer of full social equality for women.“

In many countries, on International Women’s Day 2019, the women’s movement chooses the “strike” as a form of protest, following the example of the workers’ movement. The struggle for the liberation of women is on the agenda in the 21st century. Women of all social strata and classes are at odds with the capitalist system, its representatives in the bourgeois parties and governments. But the contradiction is often still limited to individual questions and demands and is non-binding in its form. In order to become a force that can change society, it needs clarity and organization.

The first theoretical seminar of the World Women’s Movement 2018 in India was an important contribution to this. In this strategy debate it became clear:

From Africa to Europe to Asia female workers fight organized for their equal rights and participation in social life. In India, Sri Lanka, female tea plantation workers are on strike for equal wages with their male colleagues. Female textile workers in Bangladesh are fighting union battles for wages they and their families can live on. Women farmers demand a right to land. The approximately 67 million domestic workers worldwide demand employment contracts and social security, protection against sexual violence and an end to lawlessness. Carers and nurses in the Netherlands and Germany fight for recognition of their work and higher wages.

(more…)

Statement on the Theoretical Seminar of the World Women’s Conference of grassroots women from 2-4 December 2018, Bengaluru, India

Statement on Theoretical Seminar_20190119Herunterladen

Suse and Halinka – European coordinators

300 women from 19 countries discussed ways and goals of the liberation of women!

“For our women’s organisation it is a great honour to organize this theoretical seminar with so many participants from all over the world!” Said one of the organisers of AIRWO (All Indian Revolutionary Women’s Organisation).

From December 2-4, 18, in Bengaluru – India – in the state of Karnataka, women from 11 states of India, from Nepal, Bangladesh, Togo, Uganda, South Africa, DR Congo, Netherlands, France, England, Germany, Southern Kurdistan, Turkey, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran and other countries came together to discuss and exchanges views on theories of the liberation of the woman. Representatives of various women’s organisations and individual women had spared neither long distances, high costs nor strenuous journeys to attend this seminar. The seminar was based on a decision of the 2nd World Women’s Conference of grassroots women that took place in 2016 in Kathmandu in Nepal. The seminar was organised by AIRWO (All Indian Revolutionary Women’s Organisation) and coordinators and world women of other continents.

“I want to share with you my dream of the liberation of women in a free society!” said a participant from India. In the three days a mass discussion arose among the grassroots women. A common theme was the special oppression of women, their social inequality towards men and their lower pay. This theme was to be heard in contributions from all countries. The reports impressively showed how women’s consciousness of the various forms of special oppression has grown. “I got a real sense of freedom when I got involved in the fight, that’s why I organised myself!”

The seminar was a great start and an expression that the process of theoretical processing of practical experience has already started. There was unity among the participants that this process must be continued systematically in the countries and movements.

The next highlight of the ideological debate will be the third World Women’s Conference of grassroots women. For this to become reality, the militant world women’s movement needs a good functioning coordination on all continents.