Leeds
Twenty comrades from the district attended a rally for International Women’s Day (IWD). We set up our stall, armed with literature and our flags, and kicked things off with a rousing speech from a couple of comrades.
They spoke about the failure of the liberal ruling class, which, instead of liberating women, has overseen decades of austerity and attacks on the working class – policies that have only further oppressed women.
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The comrades also discussed the material basis of oppression: the system that divides and distracts the workers from their true enemies – the billionaires, bankers, bosses, politicians, and the capitalist system itself.
The speeches captured the attention of the crowd, drawing many people to our stall. We then ventured into the crowd to engage with people about our ideas.
Those we spoke to agreed that the rise of reactionary figures like Trump points to a deeper societal malaise – one rooted in frustration with the capitalist system and anger toward the liberals for their austerity policies and support for war.
One young woman from the Palestine movement shared that she was looking for a movement that connected the issues in society, rather than separating them. She didn’t want to just fight for Palestine; she wanted to fight against all forms of oppression globally.
Next, we marched through Leeds as an RCP bloc, with our megaphone and chants ringing through the streets. Our chants resonated with the crowd, many of whom joined in:
“1, 2, 3, 4, Sexual violence, no more!
“5, 6, 7, 8, We know the rapist is the state!”
Throughout the rally, we attracted a particularly enthusiastic and radical group of young women, one of whom said, “I’ve been looking for something exactly like this!”
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There was a genuine enthusiasm for our ideas. We sold eight copies of The Communist, two copies of the ‘Struggle Against Women’s Oppression’ In Defence of Marxism magazine, and various pamphlets and books.
We also met six people interested in joining the RCP, all of whom plan to attend our meeting on Women’s Oppression next week. Additionally, two existing sympathizers, who had attended the rally are now looking to formally join the RCP.
Edinburgh
Twelve comrades from across the city joined the IWWD march this Saturday. We met early to discuss the communist position on women’s oppression and identity politics, and how we’d connect our ideas to the march attendees.
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The march started with a bit of a slow and restrained mood, with the attendees marching quietly, chants being shouted every once in a while. This was not how people felt, however.
This was proven as soon as we started using more bold and militant chants, which the marchers immediately picked up. Chants like: “there’s only one solution, a women’s fight is revolution” and “no justice, no peace, fight the sexist police” clearly resonated and were repeated throughout the march.
Many of the people we talked to were not organised politically or otherwise involved in activism. However, several people completely agreed with our ideas, that class struggle is the means to liberation in contrast to the identity politics which was on offer elsewhere.
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We sold 17 papers and two IDOM magazines and four people were interested in attending one of our meetings next week!
Simmering away, there’s rising politicisation in these young women (and men) waiting for the right ideas. The same person who told us “I don’t really follow politics”, also agreed with us on the farce of representation and said “it’s a façade, and [the women’s rights movement] is being co-opted by politicians”.
Someone who bought the paper was seen flipping through it during the rally, clearly engrossed by the long article on “the death of woke”.
If we had just accepted the initial perceived demoralisation of the crowd and the depoliticised atmosphere, we would have gone home empty handed. But being bold, connecting with people their daily struggles to the need for revolution, revealed that beneath that apparent apathy was deep anger against the system.
