PRP Statement on International Women’s Day

Introduction/history of IWD

On the eighth of March one hundred and nine years ago, Russian women in what is now St. Petersburg went on strike. At first their demands were focused on economic needs. The struggle quickly escalated into an all out confrontation with the Tsar and the autocratic state with which he ruled his empire. It was these working women who toppled Russia’s seemingly immovable monarchy. In the early decades of the twentieth century, socialist and feminist groups in a handful of nations celebrated variations of women’s day. German Communist women, particularly Clara Zetkin, had a role in popularizing International Womens Day through their work in the COMINTERN.

In the contemporary context, we recognize that bourgeois media and interests of the empire use women’s rights as a talking point to further buy-in from the masses within the “US” so that it can escalate violence on sovereign states abroad for its own gain, much of which, of course, will fall onto those same women.

Legacy of Revolutionary Women

We want to take a moment to reflect on revolutionary femmes that have had a particular place in our collective struggle in spite of the patriarchal structures of oppression, although there are thousands throughout history that have been recognized and unrecognized.

Assata Shakur: (1947-2025): Assata Shakur was a true revolutionary who passed in September, 2025. For much of her life she was an essential part of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. She was imprisoned, and, with the assistance of revolutionary organizations, escaped in 1979. In 1984 she was granted political asylum in Cuba, where she spent the rest of her life in spite of the efforts of the “US” government.

Claudia Jones: (1915-1964) Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian-born African-American intellectual and activist. She was deported from the “US” for her active role in the Communist Party in 1955, and she lived out the rest of her life in the UK. Black and New Afrikan women face particular struggles against erasure, an issue which was addressed in a biography by Carole Boyce Davies titled Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones.

Clara Zetkin: (1857-1953) Clara Zetkin, a German Marxist, was deeply committed to bringing women’s liberation from the realm of “bourgeois feminism,” most often seen at the time through the suffrage movement largely confined to upper and middle classes, and connecting it to class struggle through socialism. Her work, advocacy, and political career was pivotal to the progression of women’s liberation in the communist movement.

Patriarchy and Women’s Liberation

We recognize that much revolutionary work happens because of the unseen or unrecognized labor of women who might not receive validation for it because it is detailed by design, and it is taken for granted as expected by the patriarchy and capitalist society. Such labor might fall under the criteria of domestic duties, emotional labor or care-taking roles, roles that are often assumed to be a matter of course as gendered, but they constitute enough labor that they can be a barrier and restriction to engaging with other areas of the movement, the absence of which frees up time for those who don’t have to manage them.

Patriarchy has been a strong structural development that allows a collective to be divided and perceived as in opposition, which in turn allows for the perception of superiority of one group over the other. This serves oppression of one group, allowing the dominant group to benefit from “primitive accumulation.” In Capital, Marx defines primitive accumulation simply as “an accumulation not the result of the capitalistic mode of production, but its starting point” stating that “primitive accumulation plays in Political Economy about the same part as original sin in theology.” (3, ch. 26) This accumulation ensures that one group will have the benefit of resources generated by the labor of the other group. In Capital, Marx ties colonialism to primitive accumulation, and these structures play into one another to maintain divisions that alienate a collective into parts.

In the work Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici expands upon Marx’s concept of primitive accumulation as it was applied to gender and shows how oppression of women established gender roles and familial structure, which claimed control over women’s labor and bodies. Federici points to historical developments, especially the witch hunts, as the nobility’s reaction to resistance movements in which women had a fundamental role. Thus, patriarchy, once part of the superstructure of european society, ensures that society is served by the oppression and control of women. Federici states that “If we consider the historical context in which the witch hunt occurred, the gender and class of the accused, and the effects of persecution,” then the inevitable conclusion is that it was an attack (premeditated or not) on “women’s resistance to the spread of capitalist relations and the power that women had gained by virtue of their sexuality, their control over reproduction, and their ability to heal.” (2)

When patriarchy is embedded in the superstructure, it becomes part of the greater systemic roots that break apart a collective into parts; it embodies division and serves to oppress, subjugate, and benefit some while uplifting others. As noted in the Decolonial Feminist Collective newsletter, “If democracy is a colonial political technology, and gender is a colonial social ontology, then liberation cannot come from inclusion within these systems.”(2) It is vital that the movement understand the origins of patriarchy as well as combat chauvinism so that these structures that serve capitalism and oppress or harm women are not replicated within it.

It is important that, in addition to highlighting the role of women in revolutionary movements and in the spirit of internationalism, we examine the structure and function of patriarchy through the colonial export of gender roles as one of the principal social determinants and patriarchy.

An often understated aspect of the struggle against patriarchy in the global south is the role of Colonialism in the export of Western patriarchal norms and institutions into their former colonies, both as official state policy in the repression of those deemed culturally backward for their non-conformity to the gender binary and as part of the broader export of Western culture and institutions. The development of gender categories and norms was, until the colonial period, a remarkably heterogeneous process that took countless forms across the world, with many being far more open to what we would today call queer from third gender communities in Turtle Island and the Indian subcontinent to homosexual marriage amongst the precolonial Azande in Central Africa. However, to illustrate this, we will be giving a brief overview of the history of the Indian Hijra community under colonial rule and the way in which colonialism affected the marriage customs in Igbo land, a region in southeastern Nigeria home to the diverse Igbo culture.

Combatting Chauvinism

Patriarchy is a particularly strong structural force that continues today, and many otherwise revolutionary groups have not recognized or reconciled this massive contradiction, and PRP is no exception. The contradiction of patriarchy and its resulting chauvinism remains particularly strong today, especially given the celebrity status of extreme misogynists who brazenly extoll abuse of women and femmes as a proof of strength in society…

“A challenge to all revolutionaries is to take an objective approach to our scientific analysis. This is very difficult. To wimmin struggling within the national liberation movements, looking at the social and historical context of these remarks is imperative to overcoming this alienation from sexist brothers in struggle. Recognizing and resolving this contradiction will be a dialectical process . Once such a structural splintering such as patriarchy has been established, it becomes embedded in the superstructure, which reinforces it through social patterns and individuals who directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, that uphold and/or enforce it.” (3) This quotation from an article titled “Fighting the Patriarchy: George Jackson and the Black Panther Party,” pointed out the deep misogyny of Jackson in Soledad Brother, although it also argues that had the party not been disrupted, it would have advanced and corrected its line on gender and the patriarchy. In spite of the powerful patriarchal tendencies that were and are still unfortunately upheld by revolutionaries, as well as the systemic racist and colonial social forces, which some have described as “super-exploitation” developed from Marx’s description of exploitation as laid out in Capital. Patriarchy can be overcome, but it will be a process in which we all need to take part.

We recognize the many revolutionary women and femme-presenting Comrades who have been pivotal to revolutionary work in spite of continued oppression and chauvinism. Revolutionary movements need to get beyond “inclusion” and representation; inclusion and representation ring hollow if they only bring femmes into structures that recreate patriarchy, which is one of the fundamental structures of capitalism. Structural issues such as this go much deeper than individuals and must be dismantled and abolished. [It’s important to understand how patriarchy manifests to be aware of how it is upheld within our movement well as by the state and capitalist interests, especially as the state violently enforces patriarchy by removing women’s rights, such as though the criminalization of control over their own bodies, for example through access to gender-affirming care or abortion rights.

From our National Chair:

Chauvinism is individualism is reactionary. The display of tendencies are to be corrected and further display requires acute and immediate attention from the rest of the organizing body. The dialectal relationship has it, one cannot be without the other and of no excuse does this phenomenon pass by the relationship of women and men. One cannot go on and on about how one is distinct from one another and then to posit ’inherency’ or ‘superiority’, this is immediately counter-revolutionary since the material condition is at a constant state of change and discovery by its instances and existences. What may be inherent now is found to be historically developed upon further investigation. What may be considered superior now may be turn inferior upon rising contradictions made aware and exposed through praxis and the act of social engagement that is active emancipation from private property relations. Things exist in this dialectical relationship, as we have these many distinctions amongst ourselves, we indeed would not be our individual selves without the collective self. Chauvinism is individualism by this engagement of the particular over the general, not having realized or made conscious that is the particular that exists entirely within the general. For the general sets the tone for the particulars notes to play. Chauvinism puts forth the appropriated dialectal relationship, in that there is one OVER another. Chauvinism is reactionary for many a reason but one in particular here is that it’s based on assumptions, critically, chauvinism is reactionary since there lacks a clear analysis of the phenomenon at hand receiving the hostility. Chauvinists do not take the time to (1) prepare an analysis for their baseless critiques against what they assume to be superior over but commonly (2) have not even considered forming an critical analysis in the first place, giving to the chauvinistic behaviors some of us are unfortunately familiar with.

Tendencies are to be addressed before the tendency becomes of the individual. In our spaces of liberation, we are to indeed base ourselves in principle unity, but furthermore, call out and correct such tendencies in progression of class struggle. It has been said, a correct material observation that women hold up half the sky, just yet another way to say one cannot ever be without the other and vice versa. Our opposites give to a basis of unity, and when organizing, the lot, the most and the many have many opposing understandings of how to conduct revolution, even as many similar and immediately unifying understandings.

In appreciation and recognition of International Womens Day, let us unite for a future in where we appreciate women everywhere, everyday, because the liberal at best will put their politics aside in respect to another on a given day, but for the life of him, he cannot bear the thought of having to do it everyday of his life. Most commonly though, the liberal, reactionary and idealist will outwardly spurt their ignorance with chest, and not even without consequence, but praise among their conservative camps. We abolish relations by making it our common scheme to acknowledge and appreciate whoever and whatever makes our environment, makes our schemes, makes our material condition shared. The more we come to acknowledge and appreciate, the more we are able to engage in advancing society instep to the benefit of the masses and workers of the world, and that most definitely includes women of the world!

Membership notes on chauvinism:

Anonymous comrade:

One basic example of this that a male PRP comrade had recently experienced in his own personal life was when he recently spent time with his father for a few days. While out shopping for groceries, they were looking for items in the frozen food section but needed help. His father then asked a nearby female retail worker for help, and according to our comrade, he heard him jokingly ask, “Hey, you’re a woman, you know how to cook better than I do, can you help me?” A few minutes after the female worker had finished assisting them, our male comrade directly confronted his father and said, “You do realize that what you said was kinda sexist, right? Why did you suggest that because she’s a woman she knows how to cook?” He responded with something like this: “Well, I don’t know how to cook, but lots of women do, so I asked someone who might be more knowledgeable or experienced about it than I am.” Our comrade tried to slightly reframe the problem so that his point could be better understood, but as he has suggested, it didn’t work the way he wanted it to. Even though this particular example was done with intentions of humility and humor behind it, it simultaneously shows how deeply patriarchal and divided our socially constructed existence under capitalism has become. Without the historical context of the division of labor between different genders where women have largely taken on the role of reproductive labor the household, this “joke” wouldn’t exist in the same way it does now. Without the interrelation of patriarchy and capitalism in the oppression of women (and other gender identities or expressions of gender), this ”fact” (which is really just an extremely harmful yet common social relation) wouldn’t exist in the same way it does now. In short, it’s why we communists take women’s liberation (and gender oppression) seriously, and it‘s why we will always fight for the abolition of the material conditions that perpetuate these harmful social relations.

Anonymous comrade:

Years ago, I made the attempt to join a socialist organization, but it became apparent that I was not taken seriously as a potential comrade but rather was only the subject of sexual interest, and I had to ignore and block the organizer of that organization. As a femme, much of my experience has been shaped by gender-based violence. My experiences in activist organizations include misogynist behavior such as being subject to more scrutiny or derision than non-femmes, whereas in greater society they have included direct violence through rape and sexual or other assault,.sometimes even while being recorded. I often unwittingly internalized such abuse as my own fault, although I have tried to recognize that I did not give consent and did not contribute to these assaults. When I fought back, I was continually harassed, threatened and verbally assaulted, assigned nicknames, and sent hate messages. Our superstructure extends this to our personal value as an individual, and it is possible that I punished myself in part through the use of drugs and high-risk behavior. There were times that after assaults, when receiving medical care, I was told to simply stay home, or that I “should not hang out with those people,” which places responsibility on the victim. Our spaces that are revolutionary, our spaces that are theoretically for liberation, need to ensure that misogyny is not welcome; femmes do not have the protection of the state. The state recognizes the power of patriarchy and exerts its control over bodies, and we need to do better to ensure that patriarchy is abolished within our movement. Within revolutionary spaces, the expectations for women are still heavily determined in a large part by the norms of larger society, and they often heavily policed or considered misguided. Bourgeois society tells women that now we can feel empowered through work and we can girl-boss our way through the world to gain respect, yet the domestic labor expectations of managing a household remain, as do the expectations placed on behavior. What is the option we have, as “independent” women under capitalism? Hire a domestic worker once we make an income that allows us to offset the labor onto another,.often underpaid, often woman? Suffice it to say, we need to really consider what women’s liberation means and bring that into our revolutionary spaces. We can and must do better.

Footnotes:

  1. Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. Penguin Books, 2021.
  2. Jackson, Jalessah T. “Democracy, Gender, and the Overrepresentation of Man.” Democracy, Gender, and the Overrepresentation of Man, Decolonial Feminist Collective, 9 Feb. 2026, decolonialfeministcollective.substack.com/p/democracy-gender-and-the-overrepresentation.
  3. “Fighting the Patriarchy: George Jackson and the Black Panther Party,” PTT of MIM(Prisons), May 2016.
  4. Marx, Karl. “Capital, Vol. 1 Part VIII: Primitive Accumulation.” Marxists International Archive, 1999, www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1.
  5. Hinchy, Jessica. Governing Gender and Sexuality in Colonial India, 4 Apr. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108592208.
  6. Van Allen, J. (1972). “Sitting on a Man”: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, 6(2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.1972.1080366.