International solidarity with women in the front line
of struggle against imperialism
by Lynda Walker
The Communist Party of Ireland has a long-established record of action on International Women’s Day. It has always kept the principles of the 8th of March to those that were put forward nearly a hundred years ago, in 1910, when socialist women declared that a special day should be given to recognise the working woman. At that time the First World War was on the horizon, and women like Clara Zetkin and Aleksandra Kollontai were writing and acting for peace and in opposition to the imperialist war. In more recent years communists have organised events to show solidarity with our sisters from various parts of the world and have also exposed the problems that women in Ireland were experiencing.
It was no easy thing to organise International Women’s Day in the height of the “Troubles,” but we did, and our sisters came from Angola, South Africa, Viet Nam, Cuba, Iraq, Germany, Czechoslovakia, England, America, and many other countries. As communists we always focused upon the problems that working-class and rural women faced.
In the past the Women’s International Democratic Federation helped to bring the different progressive women’s organisations together, but this solidarity work decreased with the collapse of the socialist countries. Up to date problems here regarding violence against women and social and economic injustices in the North of Ireland were highlighted last week with reports launched by Women’s Aid, the NI Equality Commission, Women’s European Platform, and the Human Rights Commission.
This year the Communist Party of Ireland is proud to have invited Aida Touma from the International Section of the Communist Party of Israel and Ahlam Sadoun from the Iraqi Women’s League to speak at their International Women’s Day events in Belfast and Dublin. Aida Touma is the director-general of Arab Women Against Violence as well as being an activist in many peace initiatives. She is a prolific writer about the injustices, especially those relating to Arab Israeli women. She is one of the authors of The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel. She is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel. Aida has a degree in psychology and Arab literature.
Ahlam Sadoun is the secretary of the Iraqi Women’s League, and she has a degree in civil engineering. Her family, some of whom were active communists, were killed and faced persecution and exile under the Ba‘ath regime. She has been constantly active in the Iraqi Women’s League, which is trying to build national unity as well as opposing the occupation forces of American and British imperialism and the sectarian gangs that operate on the streets in Iraq.
The situation that the people in both countries face is the result of imperialist actions, initially by Britain and America. The long history of Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia) and Israel (formally Palestine) is littered with intervention and attacks by the British and American governments. All people in these places of war are facing a situation where families are displaced from their home, people are killed on a daily basis, and the economic structure is constantly under attack.
In 2007, at an international meeting in Jerusalem, nearly thirty communist parties, other organisations and members of parliament from around the world, including the Palestinian People’s Party and the Communist Party of Israel, put out a strong statement that said: “We express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and with all peace-loving, anti-occupation and anti-settlement forces, in Israel and all around the world, in their struggle for a just Israeli-Palestinian peace based on ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state all over the land occupied in 1967.” (See full text on the PPP web site.) In condemning this situation, communists have called for a two-state solution that was introduced by the UN General Assembly sixty years ago. This plan has also been accepted by the United Nations, the Arab League, and the international community.
Through the atrocities of war and imperialism, women experience different types of repression and violence, ranging from rape to expulsion from their own communities. Aida Touma has been active and has written much about this violence. Women’s organisations, trade unions and community groups are organising against this violence. There have been major protests internationally and in Palestine and Israel against the “apartheid wall” in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. A recent report said: “The Wall bisects the main street of A-Ram, has critically damaged the life of the residents. It has divided families, stopped workers from reaching their workplace and cut off teachers and students from their schools; in fact, three schools have already been forced to close. The Wall has turned a thriving urban centre into a jail.” Such protests involve schoolchildren, teachers, and neighbourhood residents.
The blockade of Gaza has triggered a humanitarian crisis and has failed to halt the rocket attacks by Hamas. Last week (up to Monday) air strikes by Israel killed over 100 Palestinians, many of them children. According to a poll published on the 28th of February, Israeli citizens want their government to open direct talks with Hamas in Gaza in order to achieve a ceasefire and the release of a captive soldier. Israel rejected calls to end the strikes last weekend, but last Monday they said that they would withdraw troops from Gaza. The air strikes, which continue, have been condemned by the United Nations and the European Union. In response, the Palestinian authorities have withdrawn from the peace talks.
A recent delegation of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to Palestine and Israel brought back eye-witness accounts of the situation there, ones that will be transformed into solidarity with the Palestinians and action against the Israeli government, with a call by the ICTU to boycott Israeli goods. It is also fitting that on the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, the Women’s Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will be discussing a motion about the situation in Palestine and Israel at their conference in Tralee.
Iraqi Women’s League
As noted, Ahlam Sadoum will be representing the Iraqi Women’s League, which has recently held a meeting in Iraq in preparation for a forthcoming conference there. Since 1952, when it was founded, the IWL has played a significant role in the struggle against tyranny and oppression.
A statement by the IWL says: “The IWL has lost so many of our dear Iraqi sisters, who fell victim to ruthless political and gender-related repression in our country. The years of Ba‘ath Party rule engraved on our sisters the real meaning of fascism and dictatorial tyranny. After the 1958 Revolution we proposed and won laws which gave employment, education and inheritance rights to women. A major achievement was the introduction of a progressive Marital Act. The Ba‘ath regime abolished these laws and all the laws won in the revolution. An example of the repression was that women were forced into prostitution because of poverty, and others accused of being prostitutes could be beheaded. Polygamy was introduced, which further undermined the position of women. Many of our members were executed or disappeared; we are still in the dark as to their whereabouts. Thousands were tortured, raped and imprisoned, just for being members of our women's movement. The remains of some of our IWL sisters were recently uncovered by their surviving relatives in the mass graves of Iraqi victims.”
The IWL has members of different religions, including Muslim (Shi‘a and Sunni), Christian, Baptist, Jewish, and others. The Iraqi Women’s League has launched a campaign, both inside Iraq and abroad, to mobilise public opinion, exert pressure and intensify efforts to stop inhuman and barbaric acts that are happening against Iraqi women and their families. The IWL aims to allow the voice of Iraqi women to be heard by the world, rejecting all forms of exploitation and abuse of dignity. Iraqi women are fighting for the basic services, like clean water and electricity that have not yet been restored since the war began in 2003.
The IWL state that “the Iraqi people have not been liberated by the US and the UK, we have been subjected to a barbaric attack against our cultural, economic and national institutions, through wanton destruction of our civilisation, in order to deny us the hope of freedom and a democratic future. ‘Reconstruction of Iraq’ is now a euphemism for the daylight robbery of our resources. We, the Iraqi people, who were the victims of a fascist dictatorship, have now become the victims of an imperialist occupation.
“Women are living in a particularly dangerous environment. They cannot leave their homes, even during daytime: women are not seen on the street unless accompanied by men. Mothers are fearful of leaving their daughters at school. Male US soldiers search women at checkpoints, which is itself a form of rape; and soldiers are sexually assaulting women in other circumstances. No soldiers have been disciplined for these grave offences.” We ask for your support to end this abuse and exploitation.
With the International Women’s Day event coming so close to the Stop the War Global Day of Action on the 15th of March, this is an opportunity to bring to the occasion a threefold action: Stop the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a state for the Palestinian people, and solidarity with our sisters around the world. We look forward to hearing Aida and Ahlam speaking on the 10th of March. |