Feminist struggles – solidarity through hard times
How we’d love to spend a relaxed day on 8 March celebrating the achievements of feminist movements. Instead, the necessity of a feminist fight day remains. Because we are confronted with attacks from conservatives, right-wing forces and the so-called centre, and have to defend the rights of WLINTA* people.
We are angry! The overall sentiment in this country scares us: fascist, patriarchal, antisemitic and racist incitement is on the rise and is increasingly going unchallenged. The current election campaign is characterised above all by agitation at the expense of marginalised people. In the so-called migration debate, it is currently becoming particularly clear how easy it is to dehumanise the supposed „others“ and how this is becoming the social norm.
Nationalist thinking is preached and implemented across party lines. The causes of flight, such as climate change, poverty, hunger, war and violence, which are largely created by Western industrialised countries, are not being addressed. Instead, German and European borders are bloodily defended and authoritarian regimes are supported through (economic) cooperation and arms supplies.
There is no war in which patriarchal violence is not systematically used and at the same time reinforced internally. It is a central means of warfare. The omnipresence of targeted violence against women and queers in war stems from the same patriarchal logic as the possessive thinking behind femicide.
Patriarchal violence is omnipresent and systematic. There is one femicide every other day in Germany. Even this deadly form of violence is usually only a side note in the local news – Bielefeld is no exception. These acts are dismissed as isolated cases and so-called relationship offences, even though the violence is systematic and deeply rooted in patriarchy.
Antifeminism, nationalism, trans and queer hostility go hand in hand. The organised attacks on CSDs last summer, the attempt to appropriate the term pride months as „Stolzmonat“ and the agitation against the „Selbstbestimmungsgesetz“ are just a few examples of this. This is also due to the success of the right in social media. There they manage to revitalise traditional heteronormative roles and celebrate service to the fatherland and nation. The private companies behind those platforms support and profit from it.
One thing must be clear: (Queer) feminist struggles cannot rely on the state and political parties. The state is arming itself, both internally and externally. Those who actively oppose this are threatened by the state with enormous repression.
It is up to us to defend the successes and struggles of recent years, to organise ourselves and to build a world together in which we can all live freely and self-determined lives.
It is not only in hard times that we stand together and fight in a feminist way for a good life for all. In our struggle, there’s everyone who shares the utopia of a society based on solidarity and liberation. Nobody decides who we are and how we should love and live – except ourselves.
Let’s fight together on the streets in a feminist way on 8 March!