8 MARCH – INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY – WFTU women against imperialist war, war economy and exploitation

8 March is not a celebration, but a day of struggle. The World Federation of Trade Unions stands alongside working women around the world who resist capitalist exploitation, patriarchal oppression and the violence of imperialism.

Today, imperialism shows its most ferocious face through wars, occupations, economic sanctions and the plundering of peoples. The WFTU denounces the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, which brutally affects women and children, and the continuing imperialist aggression against Venezuela, consisting of criminal sanctions, blackmail and attempts at destabilisation. Wars and sanctions are instruments of domination that destroy entire societies and affect working-class women first and foremost.

The numbers expose this system of death and exploitation:

women represent over 70% of the world's poor; they earn on average about 20% less than men and are concentrated in the most precarious and least protected sectors. More than 60% of unpaid work, which is essential for social reproduction, falls on women, guaranteeing huge profits for capital and savings for states.

The war economy enriches the arms industry and large monopolies, while millions of women are pushed into poverty, unemployment and precariousness. Military spending is increasing everywhere, while public health, education, welfare and labour rights are being dismantled.

In contexts of war and occupation, women and children constitute the majority of civilian victims: bombing, forced displacement, hunger and lack of care affect women in particular. In Palestine, thousands of women have been killed, injured or deprived of access to essential care. Economic sanctions, such as those imposed on Venezuela, directly affect working women, reducing access to food, medicine, healthcare and social rights.

Working-class women suffer double and triple exploitation: starvation wages, precarious work, imposed care burdens, systemic discrimination and increasing violence. Capitalism and patriarchy are two sides of the same system.

The WFTU states clearly:

without an end to imperialist wars, without a break with the war economy and without social justice, there can be no real gender equality.

On this 8 March, the World Federation of Trade Unions calls on working-class women and men to:

• strengthen the struggle against imperialism and its wars
• oppose sanctions, occupations and capitalist exploitation
• defend jobs, wages, rights and public services
• build internationalist solidarity among peoples
• fight for a world free from exploitation, oppression and violence

8 March: WFTU women against imperialist war, the war economy and exploitation.

Without peace and social justice, there can be no gender equality.

World Federation of Trade Unions

[Link]