۱st of May the International Workers Day

Is the Day of Struggle against Oppression and Exploitation

In a world that the class division is increasingly widening, in a world that is extremely unequal, its main victims are the workers and toilers. Among them the women as half of the population and the women workers as a big part of the working class and the toilers are the forefront of the ferocity of the class state, that suffer the most from the poverty, sexual abuse and broad violence, unemployment with no future that in many cases they been driven into selling their body.

The rate of unemployment in the world because of the crisis of the imperialists system is growing and women are the first to be laid off. The unemployment in the third world countries with the crisis of the world capitalism and the privatisations dictated by the IMF and the World Bank is growing and giving rise more than ever to the poverty, misery of the lower classes of these countries and women form the majority. Because women have less opportunities to become skilled and specialised and getting scientific and professional experiences and also because of numerous chains that the laws and the patriarchal culture, religion and traditions tie on them they become the main victims of the policies of the economic reforms and their consequences such as broad unemployment.

In a country such as Iran with the changes in its infrastructure, taken place in the last few decades, more women have entered into the job market. At the same time the number of educated women have increased, these changes are not due to a revolution that its aim would be to eliminate the sexual oppression but is due to the growth of the capitalist’s relation in the service of the world capitalism.

Hijab that according to the Islamic Sharia law has been imposed on all women in Iran is to reinforce that women are a commodity that their husbands, fathers and brothers and as a whole the male members of the family have the permission to own it or decide for it. The women according to the law are not in a situation to decide what and how to wear. The functioning of the compulsory hijab and the other anti-women laws of the Islamic republic is to establish the degradation of women and to lay emphasis on an already institutionalised gender inequality in all spheres of the society. The compulsory hijab is affecting the majority of women workers and toilers more than others. Because of their gender the women of working class and the women toilers are even more the targets of suppressive and anti-woman assaults of the Islamic regime. Islamic republic through consolidating the relation of ownership of women by men that the ownership of the body of woman is at its centre has created a situation to exploit ever more viciously the women workers. It is easier to force the women who have no right to control their body and even cannot decide for their own clothing, to work under hardship and super exploitation situation and easier to concede to the most horrific gender oppressions in the factories, farms, services and even in their own home.

Women wherever they work are under the threat of sexual abuses by their employers, managers, foremen besides that the women workers are sexually oppressed by the men workers. According to the culture and the patriarchal division of labour institutionalised in the society the women with a job whether are married or head of a family are responsible for the house work and taking care of the children and elderly members of the family. Many of the women in addition of suffering of gender oppression in their work place will suffer from the abuse, violence, rape and despise by their male partner workers at home. Many of the men worker are the perpetrators of anti-woman views and laws in the society that have been dominated in the society by the class state.

The imperialist’s who are dominating the world to extract the maximum profit and accumulate ever more the capital need to intensify the exploitation of the workers and toilers. For them deepening the gender, national, ‘race’ and other divisions among the workers and toilers to break their resistance against intensification of exploitation is a common practice. This is their practice to split, break and weaken the strong force of revolution versus counter revolution. The imperialists massively invest financially and culturally for such splits. In order to extract the most out of the women and men workers they try to deepen the domination of men over women in the society. In opposition to that the working class and in particular the revolutionary vanguards of this class must consciously and persistently work to prevent and eliminate such divisions and splits in the ranks of their allies and make the army of toilers and oppressed powerful and undefeatable to enable them to upside-down the old relations and construct new relations to serve the interests of the workers and toilers and other deprived class and sections of the society. If the men and women workers and toilers wage a conscious and revolutionary struggle against the dominant anti-woman views and against gender oppression in the society, that would be a step forward to fill one of the deepest divisions in the ranks of revolution.

The women workers whom for being a woman are oppressed and exploited more than men workers would have a stronger incite to be liberated from the chains of oppression and exploitation. If these women are armed with the revolutionary consciousness they could become brave and persistent leaders of the struggle to overthrow the Islamic regime. These women if are armed with the science of class struggle will be able to develop the men and women of their class through a process of struggle against the ruling regime. These kind of women of the working class along with the men of this class in unity with other classes and sections of the society who benefit from the revolution can consciously and with the aim of the struggle, stand against their enemies such as imperialists and Islamic fundamentalists regime and other reactionaries, and pave the way for creating a new society that its agenda is the elimination of oppression and exploitation in the world.

۸ march women’s organisation (Iran-Afghanistan) ۱st May ۲۰۱۹