Women cannot win decent work and freedom from violence under the anti-democratic regime in Indonesia:

Monday 8 December 2025, by Perempuan Mahardhika

Ahead of the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women [1] from 25 November to 10 December, Free Women association [2] held a press conference to announce simultaneous actions in Jakarta, Palu, Samarinda and Manokwari [3] on the opening day of the campaign, 25 November 2025. This year, Free Women adopted the theme "Decent Work and Freedom from Violence Will Not Be Achieved Under an Anti-Democratic Regime."


The Chair of Free Women, Mutiara Ika Pratiwi, opened the press conference by emphasising that this year’s commemoration carries particular urgency amid Indonesia’s democratic decline.

"On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, observed globally from 25 November to 10 December, Free Women will conduct simultaneous national actions in four cities under the theme ’Decent Work and Freedom from Violence Will Not Be Achieved Under an Anti-Democratic Regime’. This is an effort to strengthen the global commitment of the women’s movement to end torture and violence against women," said Mutiara.

She recalled the history of 25 November as the day the Mirabal Sisters were murdered by the dictator Trujillo, as a sign that violence against women has always been a strategy of authoritarian regimes.

Mutiara highlighted that Indonesia’s democratic regression has been confirmed by various global indices, including Freedom House, the Global State of Democracy Indices and the Economist Intelligence Unit. [4]

"We are witnessing the persecution of activists, discrimination against minority groups, and ongoing conflict in Papua [5]. This situation runs parallel to the dismissal of trade union activists in various regions as a form of union-busting," she said firmly.

In such conditions, violence against women continues to rise.

"According to combined data from the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, the National Commission on Violence Against Women and the Federation of Women’s Liberation [6], there were 35,533 cases of violence against women throughout 2024, an increase of 2.4 per cent from the previous year. Femicide cases reached 290 in 2024. Yet government attention remains minimal," Mutiara stated.

She also highlighted the state’s denial of past violence, including Culture Minister Fadli Zon’s statements regarding the mass rapes targeting ethnic Chinese women in May 1998 [7], as well as the stalled investigation into the murder and rape of Marsinah [8], who has now been designated a National Hero.

"The neglect of past violence against women reveals the character of an anti-democratic regime with a vested interest in perpetuating gender inequality," she added.

Sarah, Coordinator of Free Women Jakarta, explained that conditions for young people are becoming increasingly uncertain. Young people are trapped under an authoritarian regime.

"Under this authoritarian and anti-democratic regime, young people live under immense pressure: shrinking employment opportunities, mass layoffs without security, increasingly expensive education, environmental destruction caused by extractive development, and the ongoing criminalisation of thousands of critical young people." [9]

She added:

"We live in vulnerability, uncertainty and crisis. That is why this action is important—to show that women and young people will not remain silent."

From Palu, Stevi, Coordinator of Free Women Palu, highlighted the increase in systematic violence.

"We are seeing a rise in violence against women, sexual violence and femicide in Palu. In Central Sulawesi, there were 2 recorded femicide cases in 2024 and 2 more in 2025. All of this demonstrates the weakness of state protection systems," she said firmly.

Stevi also described the conditions of women workers in nickel industrial zones [10]:

"Women workers frequently experience sexual violence, and five victims of sexual violence were even dismissed in October. Pregnant women workers lack safe facilities. The police have yet to show any solidarity with victims."

Angelina Djopari, Coordinator of Free Women Manokwari, described the situation for women in West Papua, which remains far from safe and decent. [11]

"Female honorary government employees [12] in Manokwari are demanding decent wages and their basic rights. Sexual violence in universities and government institutions is very high, including in secondary schools. We are pushing for a Regional Regulation on the Protection of Women and Children, as well as counselling facilities for victims," she explained.

Meanwhile, Risna highlighted the tense situation in West Papua, particularly in conflict areas such as Bintuni.

"Access is very difficult and dangerous. Government funding has run out, and women and children are the most affected victims. To enter conflict areas, strict permission from authorities is required. This is not a safe situation for civilians," she said. [13]

She added that the cement and mining industries continue to receive accommodation from local government:

"Workers are paid below the provincial minimum wage and work in inhumane conditions."

Naya, Coordinator in Samarinda, explained that the 25 November action in Samarinda would take the form of symbolic actions at various public locations.

"We will unfurl our demands at universities and public spaces," she said.

She also emphasised the impact of extractivism in East Kalimantan [14]:

"Research shows that water from former mining sites consumed by communities is dangerous. Many fish are contaminated with coal waste. In Balikpapan, six children drowned in mining pits, yet women are blamed as if they failed to look after their children. But the question that should be asked is: why are there such enormous pits without barriers near residential areas?"

Furthermore, opportunities for decent work for women remain minimal.

"Promises of job vacancies lead to the exploitation of women workers with long hours and very low wages. Additionally, criminalisation since August has created an unconducive situation—many comrades remain under city arrest or are political prisoners in Samarinda," Naya explained.

She concluded with aspirations for change:

"We want to live safely, free from all forms of violence, to have decent working environments, freedom to organise, and freedom from the threat of criminalisation."

Closing the press conference, Mutiara Ika reiterated the main message of the action:

"Tomorrow’s action is an affirmation that decent work and freedom from violence will not be achieved without democracy. Under this anti-democratic regime, women no longer want to be the pillars propping up crisis—women want systemic change." [15]

She also warned that:

"Environmental destruction, land grabbing and intimidation against women defending their living spaces are worsening. Every anti-democratic regime always uses violence to maintain power." [16]

Mutiara also addressed the international situation, particularly the strengthening of anti-democratic governments in various countries, and the importance of cross-border solidarity. She stressed the need to support the people of Myanmar facing elections under the control of the military junta, as well as the people of Palestine who continue to experience genocide.

"The elections organised by Myanmar’s junta are sham elections. And in Palestine, despite ceasefire commitments, genocide continues," said Mutiara.

24 November 2025

Source: Free Women association. Translated for ESSF by Wendy Lim.

Attached documentswomen-cannot-win-decent-work-and-freedom-from-violence_a9302.pdf (PDF - 933.3 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9302]

Footnotes


[1] The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is observed annually on 25 November. The date was chosen in 1999 by the United Nations General Assembly to honour the Mirabal sisters, three Dominican political activists who were assassinated on that date in 1960 by the Trujillo dictatorship.


[2] On the activities of Free Women, see "Indonesia: Free Women and its activities", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières. Available at: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article42996


[3] Palu is the capital of Central Sulawesi province; Samarinda is the capital of East Kalimantan province; and Manokwari is the capital of West Papua province.


[4] Indonesia’s democratic decline has accelerated under President Prabowo Subianto. See Wendy Lim and Mark Johnson, "Indonesia Left Media Review: Confronting Deepening Authoritarianism", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, November 2025. Available at: https://europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article76766


[5] Papua has experienced decades of armed conflict between Indonesian security forces and independence movements. See "Papua: Government not seen as serious about resolving armed conflict in Papua", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, December 2024. Available at: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article73194


[6] The Federasi Pembebasan Perempuan (FPL) is the Federation of Women’s Liberation, an Indonesian feminist organisation.


[7] During the May 1998 riots that preceded the fall of President Suharto, ethnic Chinese communities were targeted with widespread violence, including at least 85 documented cases of sexual violence, with 52 confirmed rapes. A government Joint Fact-Finding Team established by President B.J. Habibie verified these findings. In June 2025, Culture Minister Fadli Zon dismissed these documented atrocities as "rumours" and questioned whether they had ever occurred, prompting widespread condemnation from human rights organisations and survivors’ groups.


[8] Marsinah (1969–1993) was a trade union activist at a watch factory in East Java who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered after leading a strike demanding minimum wage compliance. Her body showed signs of rape and brutal torture. The military is widely believed to have been responsible, but no one has ever been brought to justice. In November 2025, she was posthumously designated a National Hero, though her murder case remains officially unsolved.


[9] On the criminalisation of activists, see "Indonesia: Stop State Violence! Revoke Parliamentary Facilities and Allowances! End Repression Against the People! Deliver Justice for Victims!", Indonesian Women’s Alliance (API), Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, September 2025. Available at: https://europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article76104


[10] Indonesia is the world’s largest nickel producer. The rapid expansion of nickel processing facilities, particularly in Sulawesi, has attracted significant investment but has also been associated with poor labour conditions, environmental damage and worker rights violations.


[11] On women’s struggles in Papua, see "IWD rally in Jayapura take up theme ’Respect, protect and fulfill women’s rights in Papua’", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières. Available at: https://europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article74453


[12] Pegawai honorer are contract workers employed by the Indonesian government on temporary terms, typically without the benefits, job security or salary levels of permanent civil servants.


[13] See "Manokwari Student Alliance: Oppose Policies That Do Not Side with the Papuan People", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, September 2025. Available at: https://europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article76104


[14] East Kalimantan is a major coal-producing province and has also been designated as the site of Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara. The region has experienced extensive environmental degradation from mining activities.


[15] See also Indonesian Women’s Alliance (API), "Impoverished, Killed, Criminalised! Women Fight Back and Challenge the State!", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, March 2025. Available at: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article74468


[16] See "Indonesia: Prabowo’s golden Indonesia — oligarchy style militarism", Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, January 2025. Available at: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article73996

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Perempuan Mahardhika
The Mahardhika Women’s Organization fights for the freedom of women from all forms of violence and discrimination, from oppressive cultures and poverty.

In the name of the family: Yes, Europe could be headed for a ‘Project 2025’ too


In almost every election in Europe in recent years, a discreet but increasingly powerful force has been at play to help bolster the far right. Much like the architects behind “Project 2025”, a set of ultra-conservative networks are waging a campaign to dismantle progressive European policies and replace them with traditionalist Christian values – leaving little room for feminists, LGBTQ+ activists and other marginalised groups.


Issued on: 21/03/2025 -

FRANCE24
By: Louise NORDSTROM

IWD PROTEST BY FASCISTS IN POLAND
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A bucket with a doll representing a newborn baby covered in red paint is displayed as pro-life activists protest in front of Poland's first activist-run abortion consultation point, on March 8, 2025. © Wojtek Radwanski, AFP


In the summer of 2017, a peculiar document was leaked and published on the whistle-blowing platform WikiLeaks. The secret document, labelled “Restoring the Natural Order: an Agenda for Europe”, outlined a detailed strategy on how to roll back progressive legislation including the right to divorce, women’s access to contraception and abortion, and equal rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Behind the manifesto was a vast transatlantic network of more than 100 hard-line Catholic groups in 30 countries from all over the world called “Agenda Europe”.

Although the network was largely dispersed after a 2018 expose by Franco-German broadcaster Arte, the ideologies and ambitions that had brought them together in such an organised manner have not.

“Agenda Europe was just one of the many platforms on which they cooperate,” said Elzbieta Korolczuk, a Polish sociologist and associated professor at Sodertorn University in Sweden whose research interests involve gender, social movements and civil society and are funded by the European Commission.


Although some of the organisations, like the Brazil-based but European franchised Tradition, Family, Property (TFP), have been around for decades, others, like Ordo Iuris in Poland – which in large part engineered the country’s strict 2021 ban on abortion – have popped up in the last 10 years or so in the form of NGOs, think tanks and lobby groups.

And they are getting increasingly organised, convening conferences and meetings, and in some cases, even setting up universities to train a future ultraconservative elite of lawyers, journalists, teachers, and business- and political leaders.

Many of the groups, like European Dignity Watch (EDW), One of Us, and the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECIJ), are Brussels- or Strasbourg-based, with access to – and thereby the power to influence – the European Parliament.
Hooking up with the far right

One of the keys to their increased exposure to power, Korolczuk explained, is that these groups are increasingly cooperating with far-right political parties, riding on the wave of populism over issues, for example, like migration and economic hardship.

“It’s sort of an opportunistic synergy,” she said, noting that while far-right parties may be able to reach the upper echelons of power through their often vague ideological projects that are mainly aimed at “bringing down the elite”, the ultraconservatives can help them stay there, by lending them their rhetoric of protecting traditional family values.

“By adopting this ultra-conservative language they [the far right] can position themselves as protectors of the family and protectors of children, creating moral panics around issues such as transgender rights which people might not know much about and can be made to worry about,” she said. “Because who doesn’t want to protect children?”

In the meantime, the ultraconservatives are handed key positions in, for example, the government or the judiciary where they can enforce their traditionalist agenda. Like in Poland, where Przemyslaw Czarnek, an Ordo Iuris supporter, acted as the education minister while the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party was still at the helm.

“They are very clear about what they want: They want to promote so-called family values, meaning that they want to reverse progressive, tendencies concerning LGBTQ+ rights, sexual and reproductive rights and minority rights,” Korolczuk said.

Surge in attacks against LGBTQ+ community

Minority groups are indeed already very much being targeted.

In mid-February, ILGA-Europe, the European chapter of the LGBT+ rights group, sounded the alarm by issuing a report warning that the LGBTQ+ community was being “weaponised to erode the foundations of freedom and democracy across Europe”.

In its 162-page annual review, ILGA-Europe warned of a new era where a growing number of European governments were fuelling anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment “to push laws that restrict freedom of expression, association, and fair elections”.

Chaber, ILGA-Europe’s executive director, who only goes by their surname, said that even more frighteningly, the group had seen – only in the past four to six weeks – “very similar proposals being raised by politicians in Albania, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary. And they are around anti-trans, anti-propaganda and foreign agents laws”.

“They are all popping up essentially in the same language, with the same argumentation, obviously in different languages, but the same nomenclature, in different parts of the region where there is a strengthened far right presence.”

The direct consequence of this, they said, is a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ violence – “there has been a significant increase over the past year”, with as many as 17 attacks on Pride parades, including in Germany and France – but in the longer term, a severe weakening of democracy, as seen in Georgia recently.
Project 2025 a blueprint for Europe

Korolczuk is not surprised. “They [the ultraconservatives] are also producing knowledge. They publish papers, they publish amicus briefs for court proceedings and so on. And they share those,” she said.

The reason the LGBTQ+ is being targeted is no coincidence, she said. “Because they are a minority. They are going after the weakest. That's very clear.”

Korolczuk said she had no doubt that many European ultraconservative groups are also cooperating with like-minded peers in the US, like the Heritage foundation that authored “Project 2025”, the conservative governance plan that President Donald Trump appears to base at least some of his decisions on.

And, she said, “I think Project 2025 will be used as a blueprint in some European elections as well”.

She could be right. On March 11, the Heritage Foundation convened a “closed-door workshop” for hardline conservative groups, including Ordo Iuris and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium – the Hungarian conservative university that has received generous funding by Viktor Orban’s right-wing government – in Washington DC to discuss how they could dismantle the European Union.

Kenneth Haar, a researcher and campaigner at the transparency watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory, told DeSmog, an international journalism organisation that focuses on climate change, that it was “quite simply terrifying” to see the Heritage Foundation "moving its attention to Europe”.

“Most of the attacks made by the Trump presidency in recent weeks on civil rights, on migrants, on LGBTQ+ rights and more, can be traced back to Project 2025,” he said. “We should be worried about them building up ambitions and strength in Europe.”

 

IWD

Taliban claim women's rights are protected, UN decries bans

Shubhangi Derhgawen

 AP, DW 

The UN has denounced the Taliban’s repeated attacks on women’s rights, with the special representative saying: "We must stand with Afghan women as if our own lives depend on it — because they do."

For most teenage girls in Afghanistan, it’s been years since they set foot in a classroom.

Image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP/picture alliance

On International Women's Day, the Taliban issued a statement asserting their commitment to safeguarding the rights of Afghan women.

Chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on his official X account, stating that the ''Islamic Emirate assumes full responsibility for the provision and safeguarding of the rights of Afghan women.''

Without directly referencing International Women's Day, Mujahid said that dignity, honor, and legal rights for women remain a priority for the Taliban government.

Afghanistan: Women become 'invisible' under Taliban  02:10

He claimed that Afghan women ''live in security, both physically and psychologically''and that their ''fundamental rights'' — such as autonomy in marital decisions, dowry entitlements, and inheritance — are protected.

Ongoing global criticism

The Taliban's statement comes as the United Nations continues to denounce the severe restrictions on Afghan women.

Since seizing control in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping bans on education and employment for women. Girls were barred from secondary education, and later, from attending and teaching at Kabul University.

In August 2023, the Vice and Virtue Ministry expanded restrictions, prohibiting women's voices in public and mandating full face coverings outside the home.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they have barred education for women and girls beyond the sixth grade

Image: Atif Aryan/AFP/Getty Images

On Saturday, the UN renewed its call for these bans to be lifted. ''The erasure of women and girls from public life cannot be ignored,'' said Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan.

Alison Davidian, special representative for UN Women Afghanistan, added, "We must stand with Afghan women as if our own lives depend on it — because they do."

Mujahid emphasized distinctions in Afghan and Western notions of women's rights. He said ''Afghan women's rights are situated within the specific context of an Islamic and Afghan society, which exhibits distinct divergences from Western societies and their cultural paradigms.''

EYELESS IN KABUL

In August 2023, the Vice and Virtue Ministry prohibit women’s voices in public and mandating full face coverings outside the home.

Image: Sanaullah Seiam/AFP via Getty Images

International pressure and Taliban's isolation

The Taliban remain globally isolated, with no official recognition as running Afghanistan's government due to their policies on women. In January, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for two senior Taliban officials for their role in repressing Afghan women.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that has restrictions on female education

Image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture alliane

Last Friday, UNESCO hosted a high-level conference on women and girls in Afghanistan, featuring activists, parliamentarians, and rights experts. They included Hamida Aman, founder of the women-only station Radio Begum, former Afghan lawmaker Fawzia Koofi and human rights expert Richard Bennett, who has been barred from entering Afghanistan.

In response, Saif ul-Islam Khyber, a spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry, dismissed such gatherings, calling them an ''exposure of the hypocrisy of certain organizations and European Union foundations.''

Edited by: Kieran Burke

International Women’s Day: We need ‘active’ listening


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL

March 7, 2025


Zanele Sokatsha, centre, lead research for the GRIT project. — © AFP

Saturday, March 8 2025, sees the global celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD). This event acts as a timely reminder that many issues still impact women’s equality and progress, not least representation and wage equality.

Organizers say it is important to take action and acknowledge the incredible contributions of women across industries while pushing for real change. This year’s theme is “Accelerate Action for Women’s Equality” and this emphasizes the need to do more than just include women’s voices.

Instead, it is about making sure they’re heard loud and clear, especially in tech and AI, where equal representation still has a long way to go.

Phyllis Rhodes, Director of Sales and Business Development at Parallel Works, has advanced her career in the financial services and technology sectors, both still primarily male-dominated.

Rhodes has shared her thoughts about this very timely and important topic with Digital Journal: “International Women’s Day is more than just a celebration—it’s a call to action and a day to recognize the achievements of women across industries while also addressing the systemic barriers that still stand in the way of true equality.”

She adds, looking at he 2025 event: “This year’s theme, Accelerate Action for Women’s Equality, highlights the urgency of ensuring that women’s voices are not just included but actively amplified in spaces where decisions are made, particularly in technology and artificial intelligence (AI).”

On the topic of artificial intelligence, this technology is shaping the future at an unprecedented pace. Consequently, it is important, as well as beneficial for society, that the voices that train these models are representative of the diverse world we live in.

If AI systems are developed predominantly using content or voices that are homogenous or largely representative of the most dominant figures in a room, they risk reinforcing existing biases rather than breaking them down. Artificial intelligence will mirror the biases that are present in our society and that manifest in AI training data.

Furthermore, without a diversity of perspectives, these biases become amplified within AI models, perpetuating inequality instead of fostering inclusivity. To truly harness the power of AI for good, Rhodes explains that “we must prioritize a broad range of voices, ensuring that women, along with other underrepresented groups, are actively involved in the training and development of these systems.”

To achieve this, Rhodes recommends: “A diversity of perspectives is not just a checkbox—it’s the foundation of innovation. The more viewpoints we bring to the table, the more dynamic and effective our solutions become. A team rich in varied experiences and views can generate more creative ideas, challenge ingrained biases, and ultimately lead to better, more informed, and more equitable technology.”

This means: “When we cultivate an environment that values different lived experiences, we open the door to progress that benefits everyone, not just a select few.”

Beyond AI, accelerating women’s equality means creating space for more women to be heard, valued, and respected in every industry.

By this, Rhodes means: “Lifting up younger women—amplifying their ideas, crediting their contributions, and mentoring them—ensures a stronger, more inclusive future. Too often, valuable insights go unnoticed simply because the voices behind them are quieter or less assertive in male-dominated spaces. Recognizing when someone may feel intimidated and making an effort to draw them into discussions is a simple but powerful way to promote equality.”

In terms of what success looks like, Rhodes defines this as: “True progress requires active listening, intentional amplification, and a commitment to inclusivity at every level. By ensuring that AI, workplaces, and leadership structures reflect the diversity of the world we live in, we take tangible steps toward gender equality. The future of innovation depends on it.”

 

IWD: ‘Politics isn’t focused on women’s needs or voices. We can fix it with more women councillors, MPs and mayors’

Alice Macdonald

Photo: Flickr / Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

I’ve been in a reflective mood as we’ve approached this International Women’s Day. 263 women now serve in Parliament, and I’m proud to be one of them.

We’ve made huge progress in visible representation, at least a national level, but there is still a lot more to do.

Our political discourse is becoming more polarised, more hostile and less tolerant of a plurality of views. The system still doesn’t feel very inclusive of women’s voices or very focused on women’s needs.

But devolution offers a real opportunity to change the game for good.

Historically, women have been underrepresented in local politics. Not long ago, the BBC reported that only about 30% of councillors in the Norfolk area were women, and some councils had as few as 17%.

A study in 2023 by the Fawcett Society revealed that only 18 of the 382 local councils across the UK have equal representation between men and women, fewer than 5% of councils.

The study also showed that the proportion of female elected representatives in 2022 was only 2 percentage points higher than in a snapshot taken in 2018.

So, while things are improving, progress is slow. That’s why we need to be proactive in breaking down barriers and creating real opportunities for women to step up and lead.

‘An opportunity to shape a political culture’

The new devolution deal for Norfolk and Suffolk is a fantastic chance to do just that. By bringing decision-making powers closer to home, we can make local politics more accessible and relevant to the people it serves.

A directly elected leader for our region means a stronger, more accountable voice for our communities – and we must make sure women are a key part of that conversation.

For too long, politics has felt out of reach for many women, whether due to time constraints, caring responsibilities, or simply not seeing people like themselves in leadership roles. But devolution gives us a fresh start. Moving power away from Westminster and closer to communities gives women a greater opportunity to influence and shape decision-making.

READ MORE: Employment rights bill: Full list of New Deal amendments by MPs

It’s also an opportunity to shape a political culture that is more inclusive, where flexible working arrangements, mentorship, and proactive encouragement help more women step forward.

In Norfolk I am now the only female MP and whilst we have many brilliant women council leaders and Mayors across the country, we still don’t have enough of them. And we know it makes a difference. We have already seen a brilliantly effective female Labour Mayor in Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire.

Some of her achievements in four years of office include securing £900m to invest in the region’s transport system, setting up and funding a Screen Diversity Programme to increase the flow of talent into the creative industries, and now delivering the West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan, which aims to add £26 billion to the UK economy and support the creation of an additional 33,000 jobs for local people over the next ten years.

‘Let’s commit to making the most of this moment’

As England’s first woman to be elected as a metro mayor, Brabin has made championing the rights of women and girls a key theme of her leadership with positive knock-on effects throughout the area – supporting diversity-in-construction initiatives, implementing a Safety of Women and Girls Strategy and strengthening support for female entrepreneurs.

I want to see more women like Tracy in our council chambers, on our committees, and standing for election at every level. That means ensuring that the new governance structures work for everyone, not just the same voices we’ve always heard.

It also means actively reaching out, supporting, and championing women who are considering a future in politics.

In my region, Anna Smith is our fantastic Mayoral candidate for Cambridge and Peterborough who brings a huge amount of experience and commitment.

Anna and I were privileged to take part in the first Jo Cox Women in leadership scheme and I know it has had a real impact on both of our political journeys. We need more support mechanisms like that.

This International Women’s Day let’s commit to making the most of this moment. The government’s devolution plan isn’t just about shifting powers; it’s about changing how politics works for people.

With more local control, we can make sure politics is more representative of the communities we serve – and that means more women leading the way. I’ll be doing everything I can to make that happen.

Alice Macdonald

Alice Macdonald is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Norwich North and a member of the International Development Committee.

View all articles by Alice Macdonald

 

Celebrate International Working Women’s Day by Joining the Struggle Against Imperialism!

by Black Alliance for Peace / March 8th, 2025

International Women’s Day (IWD) was founded by working-class women who staunchly opposed war and fought for labor rights, peace, and equality. Rooted in the anti-war and socialist movements of the early 20th century, IWD emerged as a day to challenge oppression and demand justice. However, IWD has been co-opted by intersectional imperialists—women of diverse cultural backgrounds who unite under the banner of the U.S. empire, perpetuating violence and destabilization across the globe. This betrayal of its radical origins demands a reckoning.

The U.S. empire, draped in the language of feminism and empowerment, has weaponized IWD to justify its gangsterism. In Gaza, U.S.-backed Israeli forces have killed and displaced thousands of women and children, destroying homes, hospitals, and schools under the guise of “security.” In Sudan, U.S.-aligned forces and foreign interventions have fueled a devastating civil war, displacing millions and leaving women vulnerable to sexual violence and starvation. In Haiti, U.S. imperialism has propped up corrupt regimes and destabilized the nation, leaving women to bear the brunt of poverty, violence, and systemic collapse. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Black women in cities like Chicago and rural areas like the Mississippi Delta face systemic neglect, police violence, and economic exploitation. These are not isolated incidents but the direct consequences of Western imperialism, which prioritizes profit and power over human lives.

The celebration of IWD by those complicit in these atrocities is a grotesque distortion of its founding principles. True solidarity with women worldwide means opposing the systems that exploit and destroy their lives. It means standing against the U.S. empire’s wars, sanctions, and interventions that disproportionately harm women in the Global South. It means reclaiming IWD as a day of resistance against imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy.

For the Black Alliance for Peace, the task is reclaiming International Women’s Day as a day of struggle, not of celebration—a day to dismantle Western imperialism and fight for a world where all women can live in freedom and dignity.

No Compromise.

No Retreat!

IWD

8 March: Solidarity with women in Gaza, the DR of the Congo, and of the world at large

Saturday 8 March 2025, by CADTM International

On this international day of struggle for the rights of women, the CADTM reasserts its commitment to feminist movements that fight systemic oppressions everywhere in the world: patriarchal capitalism, neocolonial exploitation, and militarized violence.


Austerity measures imposed in the name of repayment of illegitimate debt are a heavier burden on women,* who are over-represented in exploitative and invisibilized sectors. Privatization of public services, destruction of health systems, dismantling of social protections: the consequences are tragic for women (as well as for the most vulnerable groups), who have to make up for the State’s shortcomings. In all countries, whether in the South or in the North, the logic of debt and profit relies on exploiting free or underpaid labour by women.

Women in the South pay the highest price!

In a global context earmarked by the deepening of social, economic and ecological crises, women of the South pay the highest price for their governments’ illegitimate indebtedness. Debt feeds the neoliberal policies imposed by international financial institutions (IMF, World Bank) that take public services apart and privatize public goods.

Whether in Africa, South America or Asia, women attempt, through their invisible and unpaid labour, to make up for the destruction of health systems, of education, access to water and to land. Far from being isolated instances, those acts of violence are actually part of a global system of domination in which patriarchy, racism, capitalism and colonialism feed on each other.

It is worth remembering that in Belgium alone the Ligue des travailleuses domestiques (League of female Domestic Workers) estimates that some 70 to 80,000 undocumented women work in the domestic sector. Those thousands of women are deprived of their rights and exploited yet respond to a blatant deficit of services dedicated to children and dependent people, a sector that has been neglected by successive Belgian governments at every level. The transfer of this essential care work to undocumented, invisibilized and badly paid workers is one of the symptoms of our liberal societies, which exploit the most vulnerable people and devalue the work of women to the benefit of the rich.
Gaza: women face war and destruction

In Gaza, Palestinian women are subjected to an unprecedented level of violence while the world merely looks on: their children are murdered, their land is grabbed through a colonial occupation, their houses and schools and hospitals are relentlessly bombed, they are forced into displacement and deprived of all basic care and facilities. They have to survive practically without access to water, food or medicine.

The CADTM denounces an ongoing genocide and Zionist colonial violence, supported by Western powers. The CADTM affirms its unconditional solidarity with Palestinian women and the Palestinian people as they stand up to a colonial war. According to available data women and children represent a significant part of the victims in the Gaza Strip. The UN indicated that from October 2023 to October 2024 women and children accounted for “almost 70%” of deaths in Gaza. In addition, Oxfam reported that more women and children were killed by the Israeli army in one year of war in Gaza than in any other equivalent period in the last twenty years.

DRC: the exploitation of resources goes hand in hand with extreme violence against women

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women’s bodies are on the front line of violence. In mining areas, where the exploitation of cobalt, coltan and other minerals feeds global supply chains, they suffer sexual violence, mutilation and forced displacement. The CADTM points out that the predatory extraction of Congolese resources is intimately linked to the debt system, which is used as a tool of domination that subjects the country to structural dependence.

In the east of the country, notably in Kivu, violence perpetrated by armed groups such as M23, supported by regional and international interests, are part and parcel of a neocolonial logic of exploiting underground resources (among other interdependent factors). Sexual violence used as an instrument to control and subject women, as also forced displacements, cannot be reduced to mere manifestations of individual violence or to direct consequences of armed conflicts. They are part of a global system in which the extractivist economic logic and power relationships play a major role in perpetuating violence against women.

The CADTM denounces the complicity of international creditors and multinationals in perpetuating this violence. The illegitimate indebtedness of the DRC for decades has served only to deprive the population of infrastructure, and women in particular of their fundamental rights of access to health, education and security.

Let us fight for a world that is free from the burden of debt, from patriarchy and colonialism

Faced with such systemic violence, the 8th of March is for us an international day of struggle for a radical transformation of our societies, aiming to build a collective resistance against the prevailing model. We consider that women’s struggles cannot be dissociated from struggles against capitalism, against illegitimate debt and for a social, environmental and feminist justice.

The CADTM calls upon international solidarity with women in Palestine, the DRC and of all areas in the world where patriarchal, racist and economic violence has to be resisted. We reassert that the cancellation of illegitimate debt, the end of austerity measures, economic sovereignty and self-determination of the people are necessary conditions for a feminist, just and liberated future, in the North and in the South.

On the 8th of March, let us strike and demonstrate in the streets for a world without debt, without exploitation and without war!

*When we refer to women, we mean anyone who identifies as such..

Attached documents8-march-solidarity-with-women-in-gaza-the-dr-of-the-congo_a8890.pdf (PDF - 908.4 KiB)
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CADTM International


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DEI,IWD,WOMENS HISTORY MONTH

The female explorers who braved the wilderness but were overlooked by the history books

Nagel Photography
Ferryland lighthouse near Labrador in the Canadian Arctic, an area mapped by Mina Hubbard in 1905.

The ConversationMarch 04, 2025




In the summer of 1905, a young Canadian widow, Mina Hubbard, set out on an expedition to map the northeastern corner of Labrador, from Lake Melville up to Ungava Bay, an inlet of the Arctic Ocean. It was an unusual challenge for a former nurse who had left school at 16.

Her husband, Leonidas Hubbard, had died in this same harsh environment two years earlier. Mina, 35, intended to complete his work.

Although she faced physical dangers on the 600-mile journey – starvation, bears, freezing rivers and rapids – her greatest antagonists were the reporters and editors of the male-dominated outdoors press of early 20th-century north America.

The popular Outing magazine, for whom Leonidas Hubbard had written, was the most excoriating. Its editor, Caspar Whitney, thundered in an editorial that “the widow” should not be in the wilderness, let alone speak about it.

The wild was no place for a white woman, especially one accompanied by First Nation (Native American) guides. This was not long after she had given an interview to another paper.   

Mina Hubbard in northern Labrador.

Other newspapers described her as a grief-stricken hysteric. This was the only explanation they could find for her decision to go on such a long and arduous journey. When she was 300 miles into her expedition, having found the source of the Naskaupi River, the New York Times reported on its front page that she had given up, beaten back by hardship and privations.    

New York Times.CC BY-NC-ND

Instead the paper claimed that a man, an explorer called Dillon Wallace who was also in northern Labrador, was “pushing forward beyond any white man’s previous track”. In fact, Hubbard had neither given up, nor had Wallace caught up with her. She would reach Ungava Bay several weeks before his party. But it fitted the dominant narrative of the time: that the wilderness was no place for a woman.

I explore the idea of what the wild is, and of its being a gendered space, in my new book, Wildly Different: How Five Women Reclaimed Nature in a Man’s World. From ancient myths such as Ulysses or Gilgamesh, to the present where research shows that women face harassment and othering even on remote Antarctic bases, the wild has for centuries been a site of heroic male adventuring and rugged exploration.

Studies show that even in modern hunting societies, while women tend forest plots and hunt small game near the village or camp, it is the men who go away, often for many days, to hunt for big game and status.

Myths from across the world have told listeners and readers that women who stray beyond the city wall, village paling or encampment are either supernatural, monsters, or have been banished for perceived sins against society.

In the Greek myth of Polyphonte, the young girl who refuses to follow the correct gender role to become a wife and mother, and wants instead to hunt in the forest, is treated to a terrible punishment from the gods. She is tricked into falling in love with a bear-turned-man and gives birth to two bestial children. She and her sons are then transformed into flesh-eating birds.

In a more recent echo of the media coverage of Mina Hubbard’s journey, in Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s, the environmental activist Wangari Maathai was attacked and belittled. She even had a curse put on her for planting trees in forests earmarked for development by the country’s then president, Daniel arap Moi, and for challenging Moi’s plans to build a skyscraper in one of Nairobi’s last green spaces.

At the height of Maathai’s confrontation with President Moi, the Daily Nation newspaper repeated criticism of both Maathai and her Green Belt Movement organisation. Headlines included: “MPs condemn Prof Maathai” and “MPs want Maathai movement banned”. Her crime? Wanting to slow disastrous desertification and soil erosion, and to empower rural women by planting 30 million trees.

When British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves was killed in the Himalayas in 1995, reporting focused on her being a mother and wife. Historical newspaper records I found during my research roundly accused her of abandoning her primary role of caring for her children.

The Sunday Times called her “A mother obsessed”, while the Independent led with the headline, “Dangerous ambition of a woman on the peaks”. The Daily Telegraph headline read, “A wife driven to high challenges”. Readers’ letters were even more critical, branding her as selfish and irresponsible.
A novelty nail file

Women who have received neutral or positive coverage for their work have tended to have novelty value, or had accomplished a feat so extraordinary that their being a woman was part of the narrative   

.
CC BY-SA

The entomologist Evelyn Cheesman spent decades collecting insects on Pacific islands, from the Galapagos to New Guinea. Her work led to support for a biological dividing line between different ecosystems in the New Hebrides to be named Cheesman’s Line, and her contribution to science was a great novelty for the newspaper press.

Her months-long, arduous expedition to Papua New Guinea in the early 1930s earned her the headline in the now defunct UK News Chronicle, “Woman collects 42,000 insects”.

After Cheesman published her memoir in 1957, detailing four decades of exploration, the headline in the newspaper Reynolds News announced: “Woman trapped in giant spider’s web”. The sub-head simply statesd, “saved by her nail file”.

More broadly, my research disappointingly concludes that over 100 years on, women explorers and scientific fieldworkers are still represented as unusual or out of place in the wild. These media narratives are dangerous as they feed into social attitudes that put women at risk and cause them to change their behaviour outdoors by avoiding isolated places, especially beyond daylight hours, for example.

Studies show that women (and black and hispanic) hikers in the US are more afraid of being attacked by men than by bears or other wild animals. Women’s outdoor groups, and campaigners such as Woman with Altitude and the Tough Girl podcast are working hard to counter this narrative, encouraging women to enjoy the beauties and discoveries still to be made in the world’s most rugged and remote places.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

Sarah Lonsdale, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, City St George's, University of London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

IWD: Raya Dunayevskaya

IWD

FROM THE ARCHIVE

100 Years Of Bread and Roses

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day one of two Internationalist Workers Holidays begun in the United States. And it is one that recognized women as workers, that as workers women's needs and rights are key to all our struggles hence the term Bread and Roses.

Women have led all revolutions through out modern history beginning as far back as the 14th Century with bread riots. Bread riots would become a revolutionary phenomena through out the next several hundred years in England and Europe.

It would be bread riots of women who would lead the French Revolution and again the Paris Commune, led by the anarchist Louise Michel.

Bread riots occurred in America during the Civil War.

It would be the mass womens protest and bread riots in Russia in 1917 that led to the Revolution there. The World Socialist Revolution had begun and two of its outstanding leaders were Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin, both who opposed Lenin's concept of a party of professional revolutionaries leading the revolution and called for mass organizations of the working class. Their feminist Marxism was embraced by another great woman leader of the Russian Revolution; Alexandra Kollontai.

Women began the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 by shutting down the phone exchange.

Women began the Winnipeg general sympathetic strike. At 7:00 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, May 15, 1919, five hundred telephone operators punched out at the end of their shifts. No other workers came in to replace them. Ninety percent of these operators were women, so women represented the vast majority of the first group of workers to begin the city-wide sympathetic strike in support of the already striking metal and building trades workers. At 11:00 a.m., the official starting point of the strike, workers began to pour out from shops, factories and offices to meet at Portage and Main. Streetcars dropped off their passengers and by noon all cars were in their barns. Workers left rail yards, restaurants and theatres. Firemen left their stations. Ninety-four of ninety-six unions answered the strike call. Only the police and typographers stayed on their jobs. Within the first twenty-four hours of the strike call, more than 25,000 workers had walked away from their positions. One-half of them were not members of any trade union. By the end of May 15, Winnipeg was virtually shut down.

Again it would be mass demonstrations of women against the Shah of Iran that would lead to the ill fated Iranian revolution.

Today with a food crisis due to globalization bread riots are returning.

When women mobilize enmass history is made.

March is Women's History Month, March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD), and March 5 is the birthday of the revolutionary Polish theorist and leader of the 1919 German Revolution, Rosa Luxemburg. It was Rosa Luxemburg's close friend and comrade, Clara Zetkin, who proposed an International Women's Day (IWD) to the Second International, first celebrated in 1911.

Clara Zetkin, secretary of the International Socialist Women's Organization (ISWO), proposed this date during a conference in Copenhagen because it was the anniversary of a 1908 women workers' demonstration at Rutgers Square on Manhattan's Lower East Side that demanded the right to vote and the creation of a needle trades union.

The demonstration was so successful that the ISWO decided to emulate it and March 8 became the day that millions of women and men around the world celebrated the struggle for women's equality.

Actually, International Women's Day is one of two working class holidays "born in the USA." The other is May Day, which commemorates Chicago's Haymarket martyrs in the struggle for an eight-hour day.

Clara Zetkin

From My Memorandum Book

“Agitation and propaganda work among women, their awakening and revolutionisation, is regarded as an incidental matter, as an affair which only concerns women comrades. They alone are reproached because work in that direction does not proceed more quickly and more vigorously. That is wrong, quite wrong! Real separatism and as the French say, feminism à la rebours, feminism upside down! What is at the basis of the incorrect attitude of our national sections? In the final analysis it is nothing but an under-estimation of woman and her work. Yes, indeed! Unfortunately it is still true to say of many of our comrades, ‘scratch a communist and find a philistine’. 0f course, you must scratch the sensitive spot, their mentality as regards women. Could there be a more damning proof of this than the calm acquiescence of men who see how women grow worn out In petty, monotonous household work, their strength and time dissipated and wasted, their minds growing narrow and stale, their hearts beating slowly, their will weakened! Of course, I am not speaking of the ladies of the bourgeoisie who shove on to servants the responsibility for all household work, including the care of children. What I am saying applies to the overwhelming majority of women, to the wives of workers and to those who stand all day in a factory.

“So few men – even among the proletariat – realise how much effort and trouble they could save women, even quite do away with, if they were to lend a hand in ‘women’s work’. But no, that is contrary to the ‘rights and dignity of a man’. They want their peace and comfort. The home life of the woman is a daily sacrifice to a thousand unimportant trivialities. The old master right of the man still lives in secret. His slave takes her revenge, also secretly. The backwardness of women, their lack of understanding for the revolutionary ideals of the man decrease his joy and determination in fighting. They are like little worms which, unseen, slowly but surely, rot and corrode. I know the life of the worker, and not only from books. Our communist work among the women, our political work, embraces a great deal of educational work among men. We must root out the old ‘master’ idea to its last and smallest root, in the Party and among the masses. That is one of our political tasks, just as is the urgently necessary task of forming a staff of men and women comrades, well trained in theory and practice, to carry on Party activity among working women.”

Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses

SEE:

IWD: Raya Dunayevskaya

IWD Economic Freedom for Women

Feminizing the Proletariat

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FAMILY VALUES