(en) US, Miami Autonomy & Solidarity MAS statement for 2013 International Women's Day

Today we celebrate International Women?s Day. The history of International Women?s Day 
dates back to the struggles of working women in the United States and Russia in the early
20th century. Although many advances have been made since this time in fighting against 
gender oppression, patriarchy not only still exists but fundamentally influences every 
aspect of our lives. The fight against patriarchy in all of its forms is a central part of 
any true struggle for revolutionary change; and it is integrally linked to the struggle 
against capitalism, the state and all other forms of oppression. The struggle against 
gender oppression is not about women gaining access to, and utilizing, the positions and 
tools of oppression that have been used to oppress them; the struggle is a struggle to 
abolish these positions and tools of oppression in order to liberate both the oppressed, 
as well as those benefiting- however unhealthily- from oppression.

The struggle has developed, identifying more sources of gender oppression rooted in an 
all-pervasive and intersectionally-linked patriarchal system. Just some of these fronts of 
struggle include confronting the gender binary system, essentialization of roles and 
expectations, disempowering socialization processes, repressive dominant cultural mores, 
elite control of the body, objectification and commodification of the body, gender 
restrictions around sexual practices, and so much more. However, it is essential to 
remember that development of these early struggles of working women does not and should 
not mean development away from such struggles. In the United States and around the world 
the centrality of the struggle against capitalism and other forms of oppression to the 
struggle against gender oppression remains fundamental to a truly liberatory movement 
against patriarchy. So on this International Women?s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and 
with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the 
various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism, 
the state and all forms of oppression!

Related Link: https://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/0...ment/