‘Women and girls around the world still face violence, super-exploitation, discrimination and inequality on a horrendous scale’, Carol Stavris told the Communist Party of Britain’s political committee on Tuesday evening (March 6).
‘Whether its domestic violence in Europe and Latin America, state violence in Iran, abortion rights in the USA, genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East or access to education in Afghanistan, they confront oppression – but women and girls are fighting back with the support of progressive men, trade unions and political parties of the left’, she added.
Ms Stavris, the Communist Party women’s organiser, paid special tribute to the Women’s International Democratic Federation and its affiliates across the world including the National Assembly of Women in Britain.
‘The WIDF and its sister organisations understand that the oppression of women today is determined by a warmongering capitalist system rooted in the exploitation of labour in the economy and wider society, much of it performed by low-paid and unpaid women and girls’, she pointed out.
Britain’s Communists also discussed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed by the Scotland’s parliament, since vetoed by the British government using powers reserved to the Westminster parliament.
‘The SNP government rejected all the warnings and amendments designed to stay within the Scotland Act and Britain-wide equalities legislation, hell-bent on contriving a constitutional crisis’, Ms Stavris accused.
‘But this reckless, divisive approach backfired as the Tory government in London grabbed another opportunity to fight the so-called “culture wars”‘, she added.
Ms Stavris urged the Welsh government not to follow the Scottish government into the constitutional cul-de-sac of gender self-ID, but instead use its existing powers to strengthen the law against anti-trans discrimination and enhance the access of trans people to specialised services.
The CP political committee reiterated the party’s commitment to maintaining single-sex spaces and services for women, while also respecting trans people and meeting their particular needs.
A detailed statement on issues of sex and gender will be considered by the Communist Party’s executive committee this coming weekend.
