International Women’s Day: Push back against militarisation and sexist attacks from the far right

In many parts of the world, the clock appears to be turning back on the gains made by the women’s movement and workers’ struggles in the past. This is a symptom of a capitalist system which, in its state of crisis and decay, turns towards reactionary ideas and leaders to defend itself. Faced with this, what’s needed now is a strong socialist feminist response.

International Socialist Alternative

(This article was first published on 1 March 2025)

The fourth International Women’s Day was the first one to take place on 8 March. The year was 1914. The world was on the brink of the bloodiest inter-imperialist conflict in the history of humanity up to that point. And International Women’s Day was a focal point of struggle for those who stood against this.

In Germany, perhaps the most iconic International Women’s Day poster ever designed was formally prohibited in the weeks leading up to the planned marches. Police tore the signs down and targeted activists. Yet the striking image used — a woman carrying a long billowing red flag, with the demand for universal women’s suffrage emblazoned underneath — remains one of the most recognisable political posters in history. The police repression did not succeed. International Women’s Day protests went ahead. In fact, as well as being a day of protest demanding the right to vote for all women, 8 March 1914 became a day of mass action against imperialist war and the reactionary capitalist state.

War and reactionary gender politics

The socialists who pioneered International Working Women’s Day, including figures like Clara Zetkin, understood that fighting for women’s rights and fighting militarism, nationalism, imperialism and capitalism went hand in hand. War and its build up emphasises and exacerbates all of the capitalist system’s most ugly reactionary features. Militarism and authoritarianism are close bedfellows. ‘Strong man’ regimes, as the name suggests, enthusiastically lean into patriarchal gender roles. The nuclear family is freshly promoted as the foundation for a stable society — a source of both discipline and care.

In the first world war, working-class men became cannon fodder for the capitalist war machine. Millions died in the name of imperialism. Meanwhile the ‘double burden’ on women workers, who toiled in the factories and in the home, was further intensified. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was women workers who went on to kickstart the Russian Revolution on International Women’s Day three years later. In 1917, they walked out of the textile factories and onto the frozen streets of Petrograd.

This history seems especially pertinent as we mark International Women’s Day 2025. While a world war is not immediately threatened, as it was in 1914, we too live in an era in which inter-imperialist conflict is the defining feature. Ours is a time in which the authoritarian right is on the rise and has momentum. Donald Trump, the most powerful man on the planet, is a worldwide figurehead for these forces.

Trump’s regime prides itself on a fangs-out approach to social questions. His right-hand man — the world’s richest — is Elon Musk, self-styled leader of the ‘war on woke’. Trump has built a core of reactionary support within the US which is committed to his agenda and willing to fight for it. A central plank of their politics is the reassertion of backwards gender norms via attacks on women’s and trans people’s rights.

Trump’s day one executive orders included a decree on the immutability of the gender binary, asserting that there are “only two genders”. Most immediately and directly, this represents a chilling attack on the rights of trans people — who already face massive violence and discrimination within the US and around the world. But policies like these also have a knock-on effect on all women, because they serve to reassert and reinforce traditional ideas about separate, biologically-determined gender roles. These are the ideas used to justify the disproportionate weight of domestic labour placed on women, to attack reproductive rights (as we have already seen with the overturn of Roe v Wade), and to help underpin a culture that permits, and sometimes promotes, gender-based violence.

The fact that Trump has a cabinet, which includes several alleged abusers of women and children speaks to this reality. Of course, Trump himself has faced 26 separate allegations of sexual misconduct over the course of his career. The fact that this being widely known has failed to halt his rise to power underlines the reactionary nature of the forces currently being unleashed. Indeed, the rise of the manosphere, and of repulsive misogynist influencers like Andrew Tate, is contributing to a growing minority of men developing extremely negative attitudes towards women. This has played a part in the spate of terrorist attacks and femicides carried out by individuals influenced by online ‘incel’ culture. It has also helped to feed the rise of violent far-right and white-supremacist groupings.

The far right and anti-feminism

This is not just about the US. Around the world, in country after country, the right is becoming more assertive. It is on the ascent across much of Europe. In Germany, the build-up to the general election has been marked by the watershed breakdown of the theoretical ‘firewall’, which had previously meant mainstream capitalist politicians would refuse to work with the far-right AFD. In neighbouring Austria, the far-right Freedom Party recently topped the polls at the general election, even if it has been unable to cobble together the coalition agreement needed to form a government.

Meanwhile, in France, Marine Le Pen continues to have her sights set on the presidency. The workers’ movement and the left, in the form of Melenchon’s France Insoumise, are the only forces capable of stopping her. Across the Channel in Britain, the right-populist Reform Party is now the most popular in opinion polls. The far right is already in power in Italy. And Eastern Europe has been ahead of the curve in terms of rising far-right forces — with figures like Orbán having been in power for a decade and a half.

The forces of revolution and counter-revolution continue to face-off against one another in many countries across Latin America. But the right has certainly gained a boost from Trump’s election. The far right in Brazil hopes to capitalise on Trump’s victory, despite Bolsonaro’s recent indictment for plotting a coup following his election loss in 2022. In Argentina, the Milei government has in many ways pioneered the anti-woke policy agenda now being implemented in the US. This is being fiercely resisted, however, by a strong feminist, LGBTQ+, and workers’ movement.

Elsewhere, India’s ‘strongman’, Narendra Modi, poses as defending the honour of Hindu women against ‘dangerous’ Muslim men. This is a classic device of the right. On the one hand, they style themselves as the saviours of one particular group of women (generally white, cisgendered women in the west) against the ‘dangers’ posed to them by various demonised minorities — trans women, Muslims etc. This is then used as the pretext for the violent policies of the capitalist state towards these minorities — which affect millions of women directly. They can also use this narrative to justify the street violence of vigilante far-right groups, whose thuggery is actively encouraged by the state.

China is the second main protagonist in the global inter-imperialist conflict with the US. There, Xi Jinping’s strategy for addressing the country’s demographic crisis is the aggressive reassertion of traditional gender roles. This approach has included restricting abortion rights. The state has also scrapped the repressive two-child policy. But rather than leaving it up to individuals to plan their families, the government is now pushing women to have three children. Feminist activists have been jailed. Meanwhile, the #metoo movement, which had an important surge in 2018, has been pushed underground.

Russia also has a strongly anti-feminist policy. Even as more and more men have been sent to the ‘meat-grinder’ of the bloody war in Ukraine, Putin’s messaging to women has continued to focus on the need for them to “have babies for Russia” and embrace “patriotism, not feminism”.

Across Africa, where the rival imperialist powers continue to divide up the spoils of a continent rich in natural resources and with a vast and youthful working class, the conditions of everyday life continue to deteriorate for millions. Africa remains the region of the world where women are most likely to be killed by an intimate partner. Protests against femicide in Kenya earlier this year were repressed by the hated Ruto government. In the Congo, mass rape has been used as weapon of war as the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group has seized control of much of the country’s east. All the while, another of the continent’s most significant conflicts — the ongoing war in Sudan — has resulted in more than 5.6 million people becoming internally displaced. This makes women and girls even more vulnerable to gender-based violence.

Women’s oppression magnified in times of war

Women’s oppression is magnified during war. Women made up 40 percent of deaths in conflicts in 2023. The number of women in conflict zones, who face sexual violence, is sharply up and many lack access to health care. A UN Report on Women and Peace and Security noted an “escalating backlash against women’s rights and gender equality.”

The bloody war in the Middle East, in particular the Israeli regime’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, has provoked by far the largest international protest movement of the last year. This was also the most important issue reshaping world relations in 2024. The breathtaking human toll of the Israeli regime’s murderous policies has shocked working-class people everywhere. The official death toll has reached more than 67,000, even as bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble of homes. As many as 70% of those killed have been women or children. Yet the ‘ceasefire’ has still not completely halted the slaughter. Over 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since it began and it may break down altogether.

Chillingly, Trump recently sat alongside a smiling Netanyahu to announce his new approach to the 2.1 million Palestinians living in the Gaza strip. His genocidal intention, which he announced loud and proud, is outright annexation by the US of the whole area, along with the forced deportation and ethnic cleansing of the entire population. This underlines that, far from winding down, the movement in solidarity with Gaza must now be stepped up.

Solidarity with the Palestinian people should be a theme of the actions this International Women’s Day. As part of this, ISA will put forward the need for the workers’ movement to use its strength internationally to disrupt the supply of arms to the Israeli war machine. We have already seen the potential for this, on a small scale, with dock workers in Italy, Spain, Sweden, the US, Belgium and Greece taking action to block arms shipments to Israel. There have also been strikes and protests by health workers in solidarity with Gaza, and with the situation of health workers there. But actions like these need to be much more widespread and sustained to begin to significantly impact the regime materially.

Though military secrecy makes the Ukraine war’s death toll challenging to ascertain accurately, it is likely that those killed now number in the hundreds of thousands. The human toll of this conflict — a proxy war between two imperialist blocs — is immeasurable. It has intensified the suffering of millions of women.

Trump’s entry into the White House has dramatically altered the US’s approach to this conflict. But his so-called peace plan does not offer a solution. We stand for an end to the war and for a genuinely just peace — on the basis of socialism — with the democratic right to national self-determination for all the peoples in this region, and guaranteed rights for minorities.

Working-class fightback

Capitalism’s decay and its resulting turn towards war, reaction and authoritarianism is only one half of the story. Around the world, the last year has also seen brave and determined action by millions of working-class people to resist this. Women and other oppressed people are frequently at the forefront of these actions and are often the majority taking part in protests. Just in the last weeks, the ‘whip of counter-revolution’ in Germany has provoked mass protest against the AfD. Ten thousands of new members have flocked into the left party Die Linke, in spite of its many weaknesses, determined to get active in fighting for a real alternative to the politics of the right.

It is increasingly obvious to millions of workers around the world that mainstream ‘liberal’ capitalist politicians offer absolutely nothing to those wishing to stand against the far right. Indeed, the centrists created the conditions for its rise! Faced with growing support for far-right and populist forces, their response has been to mimic them politically — stepping up attacks on migrants and trans people, for example. Far from cutting across the right’s rise, this approach fuels it.

The cost-of-living crisis now looks likely to worsen. Trump tariffs and a potential trade war will further encourage the capitalists to hike prices in order to protect profits. These conditions intensify the burden placed on women in the workplace and in the home. They can also help create more fertile ground for the far right — who misdirect the blame for worsening social conditions onto already marginalised and oppressed people.

In response to all this, what’s needed is a robust response from the labour movement. It’s essential that trade unions and workers’ organisations stand with and help to organise movements of oppressed people. This must go alongside the development of a clear political alternative to the capitalist system, which the right ultimately defends.

Women’s struggle

Since International Women’s day 2024, in many countries the women’s movement has been mobilising against the far right. On 25 November, huge demonstrations took place all over France. These were the culmination of a year-long #metoo movement. This has been spurred on by disgust at the truths revealed about French society in the horrific mass rape trial made public by the incredibly courageous decision of the main victim, Gisele Pelicot. Powerfully, on protests for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women last November, thousands carried placards emphasising that the fight against sexist violence and the struggle against the far right go hand in hand.

In Argentina, the women’s movement has been at the forefront of resistance to the reactionary Milei. Following his remarks at the World Economic Forum, where he attacked ‘gender ideology’ and declared the intention to abolish femicide in Argentina’s penal code, LGBTQ+ and feminist campaigners have taken to the streets to fight back. Tens of thousands have joined the protests. This builds upon the fightback already underway in 2024. On last year’s International Women’s Day hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets under the slogan “Against hunger and austerity policies — for the right to legal abortion and against violence against women.”

Another anti-feminist mini-Trump — South Korea’s Yoon Suck Yeol — faced fierce resistance when he attempted to impose martial law. An uprising of the masses — with women in the frontlines — led to him being forced from power. He now faces trial for ‘insurrection’.

In India, the last year saw an enormous movement against violence against women. This was sparked in response to the brutal rape of a female doctor. The protests called out Modi’s lie that he would “address the epidemic of violence against women and girls” in the country. More than a million doctors joined enormous strikes. This illustrates an increasing and instinctive move towards the women’s movement utilising working-class methods of struggle.

While there has not yet been the scale of protest witnessed in the early days following Trump’s election in 2016, there is now a significant movement developing to resist the regime’s extreme ramping up of racist deportations. Importantly, this is a movement in which Latina and Latino workers and young people are taking the lead.

Socialist change needed

In many parts of the world, the clock appears to be turning back on the gains made by the women’s movement and workers’ struggles in the past. This is a symptom of a capitalist system which, in its state of crisis and decay, turns towards reactionary ideas and leaders to defend itself. Faced with this, what’s needed now is a strong socialist feminist response.

Socialists fight for an end to all the myriad forms of oppression the capitalist system generates and perpetuates. We stand for linking together struggles across borders — against war and imperialism, for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, against racism in all its forms, for trade union rights, decent jobs, fair pay, public services and good-quality housing.

We can look to the gains made by women in the early period following the Russian Revolution, before the Stalinist degeneration, to inspire our fights today. In that period, implementing legal equality for women (including the legalisation of divorce and abortion, as well as the right to vote) was coupled with programmes and services to relieve the domestic burden placed on women, such as public laundries, restaurants and nurseries. The principle of equal pay for equal work was also legislated. This went alongside a campaign led by the Zhenotdel — or women’s commission — to challenge the sexist ideas that remained present within society. As part of this, the commission had the goal of developing the consciousness and political self-confidence of women workers. Anti-gay laws were also removed from the criminal code, and trans and intersex people had legal rights and access to healthcare.

International Women’s Day 2025 will be a crucial day of campaigning for ISA. We will be out on the streets, taking part in and organising protests and public meetings, putting forward socialist ideas. We understand that the fight for women’s rights is not secondary to the fight for socialist change. It’s part and parcel of it. With the right on the rise, it’s absolutely essential that the workers’ movement internationally takes on its necessary historic role as the tribune of the oppressed. This means standing strongly against all attacks on women’s, LGBTQ+ and migrant rights and actively leading a fightback against them. This is essential for ensuring the unity of the multi-gendered, multi-racial working class which, because of its economic power, is both the force most able to push back against the right, and the only force capable of transforming the world.

International Women’s Day 2025 should be a day of action against war and imperialism, just as it has been in the past. It should be a day of protest against the violence women experience from the capitalist state and in the home. It should be a day to stand against the rising right — the decaying capitalist system’s monstrous incarnation. Most importantly, it should be a day to build the struggle for socialist change.

We stand for a new society — one built on the solidarity of revolutionary workers’ struggle. Public ownership over the biggest monopolies and democratic economic planning across borders could entirely eliminate the drive towards imperialism and expansionism. It would replace the desire to maximise profit with the goal of increasing human well-being as the fundamental economic imperative. This could lay the material foundation for the complete transformation of all human relations. It would create the basis for not just formal or legal equality, but for the ending of all forms of oppression. If you agree, and if you want to be part of building an international socialist organisation that fights for this, join ISA today.