We publish an English translation of a call of the Red Womens Committees in Austria on occacion of the International Day against violence against women. The German original you can find on demvolkedienen.org.
25th of November 2018: International Day against violence against women:
Down with patriarchy!
Organise in Red Womens Committees!
Women, what did the last year and especially the black/blue government did for us? In the same time as the rulers celebrate complacently the 100th anniversary of the republic and the 100th anniversary of the womens right to vote, in the same time we see not only that we are still oppressed despite the right to vote, but also that the oppression gets more and more openly. The oppression of the woman is no „remnant“ of history, or the product of the „mix of cultures“. The ruling capitalist-imperialist order would not function without the oppression of the women – this is why the women feel every attack of the rulers, every try to keep this system of oppression alive, always very hard.
If we look at the recent past time, we see obviously that attacks like the 12-hours-working-day, the fusion of the health insurances, deletion of child care, bourgeois militarism and armament internally and externally, have the goal to make even more profits with us and to remove long ago won rights. The protests which last nearly one year now (from the 4th of December 2017 started in Upper Austria and Vienna Protests) show, that not „moaning“ is helping, but huge parts of the masses are already willing to defend themselves. Where were the so called „weak“, „unpolitical“ and „restrained“ women in these protests? In the front rows!
In the same time as the racist bourgeois „feminists“ speak about the protection of „our“ women, womens shelters were cut and parts of the institutions for victims of violence deleted – women, which are threatened from physical violence or murder are now „officially“ not even „protected“ by the police. Here we see, that the interests of the clerical-fascists of the „pro-lifers“, which try to criminalize abortions, and those of the rulers go hand in hand with each other: to keep the position of the women as machine of reproduction. This is why violence against women, despite the horrible individual violence which many women experience day by day, is firstly organised by the state, is a whole system of oppression: Imperialism and Patriarchy. In this system women get double oppressed: as cheap labor forces (especially women workers) and threw the exploitation of women as instruments of reproduction (childproduction and -care, household, nursing, …). With that the capitalists gain high profits of the oppressed position of the women!
This system of oppression, patriarchy, can not be destroyed spontaneously or „abolished“ by law. To that we have in this year, in which all combative feminists celebrate and uphold the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of Austria, to learn especially out of the experiences and struggles of the proletarian womens movement. Those women, which decided consciously to stand in the front rows of the womens movement and the revolutionary struggle are teaching us, that the women are not only „secret supporters“ or „silent sufferers“, but go forward to the top of the struggle and are determined to take up the struggle against patriarchy and false lines within the womens movement. They have realized that the women can not fight this struggle „in their heads“ or „with themselves“, but only in the organised rows of the revolutionary and communist forces. With this perception and with the praxis out of it the most advanced women were an important part for the foundation of the Communist Party.
Not only the teachings of the revolutionary womens movement in Austria are showing the necessity of the participation of the women in the revolutionary struggle, but also the most progressive revolutionary struggles worldwide, like the peoples wars which are led in India, Peru, Turkey or on the Philippines. The massively participation of the women not only as „normal combatives“, but also as leaders have to be reason for learning from these struggles and reach conclusions out of it!
Also in Austria currently is developing out of these teachings, again a leadership for the foundation of the Communist Party and with hat also a leadership for the struggle for womens emancipation. The Red Womens Committees in Austria support this struggle actively, to give the womens movement in Austria again a revolutionary leadership. The struggle for the development and the reorganisation of Red Womens Committees in Austria has to be taken up and forward from the most advanced women and proletarian feminists resolutely. For that it is necessary that the struggles are not isolated, that not everybody is pursuing their own agenda in each region. To learn out of the respective experiments and also mistakes, to unite the struggles and to put them on an more solid base, is going to have more impact on the womens movement in the service of the revolution. Only on that way the creation of the Communist Party can be supported.
Women, do it like the most progressive women in the world! Take the 25th of November, the international day against violence against women, this year as occasion to take the next steps in the struggle for the development of a revolutionary womens movement, like the combative and revolutionary women all over the world do it!
Organise in Red Womens Committees!
Red Womens Committees Austria,
November 2018
