The Scottish Socialist Youth welcomes the new wave of Women’s Marches taking place on either side of the Atlantic ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20th. We were already in an era of a rising far right, but now we are entering a grim new chapter of oligarchic rule in the United States, unrestrained by even a fig leaf of legal or democratic accountability.
Trump walks free of his charges, the insurrection of January 6th goes unpunished, the Supreme Court is utterly captured by the far right, and swathes of the media, whether mainstream tv news or supposedly “independent” influencers and podcasts, are totally bought out by the right.
Some on the left have talked fancifully about Trump’s victory being a “kick in the teeth” to the establishment, however it is anything but. Trump is the billionaire’s man, the champion of private healthcare, oil companies and the prison-industrial complex, and him and his cabinet of rich friends will make use of any prejudice or moral panic — whether over immigration numbers, transgender existence or reproductive healthcare, to distract the people from corporate robbery, deprive them of hard-won rights, and divert anger away from health insurance CEOs and tech billionaires towards powerless immigrants and trans children.
So it is fantastic to see a renewal of the Women’s’ movement in these marches — the struggle to defend and extend bodily autonomy will be a crucial part of the wider fightback against reaction, and not only in the United States. The far-right all over Europe take inspiration, instruction, and, most importantly, money from the American far-right, and we should prepare to see an American-style offensive against abortion exported over here in the years to come.
We cannot afford to be complacent — the women’s movement must treat these marches as the first step towards building up a new and re-energised feminist movement across these islands, one that can resist the coming far right storm and also strike back for new gains in reproductive healthcare, in the workplace, and in our neighborhoods.
We also need to abandon the elite, corporate feminism of glass ceilings and female representation in the boardrooms, the feminism of girls who just want to be part of the 1%. We won’t be saved by a more representative imperialist war-machine. We won’t be saved if the person selling bombs to Israel and slashing the social work budget is a woman. We’ve had enough of Hillarys and Kamalas. Liberatory, internationalist feminism means recognising the patriarchy as an essential pillar of imperialism and capitalism, and knowing that to get rid of one you need to get rid of the others too — it is a linked system of oppression.
And of course, we must not forget that our struggle as women links naturally with the struggle of queer people, especially transgender people, for the right to the healthcare they deserve and the freedom to live as they wish. Patriarchy is a system closely connected to homophobia and transphobia — they all, at the end of the day, boil down to the policing of “appropriate” gender roles and the control of bodies, all to the benefit of the patriarchy. Why should we get caught up in going after transgender siblings who just want to live in peace, when our enemies, misogynists like Trump, are also cheerleaders for transgender elimination? We need to look to our transgender siblings and link arms with them against the far-right menace.
As new movements arise out of these marches and the feminist struggles to come, it is the duty of all socialists to fight for these principles within them.
Our bodies, our choice!
Down with gender roles, down with femicide, down with patriarchy!
Fuck smashing the glass ceiling- We want to smash capitalism!