{"id":20064,"date":"2019-03-08T21:20:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T13:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=20064"},"modified":"2019-04-04T21:32:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T13:32:02","slug":"take-metoo-to-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/03\/08\/20064\/","title":{"rendered":"Take #MeToo to the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Global feminist protests against sexual violence and gender discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

International Women\u2019s Day statement by Socialist Action<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again we are marching alongside socialist and working class feminists around the world to turn International Women\u2019s Day into a massive global protest for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions of women and men have taken to the streets in recent years to hit back at the sexist capitalist system and right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, whose policies attack the rights of women, LGBT people and workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pay gap <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong also has a huge need of mass feminist protests. One in four Hong Kong students have been sexually harassed in school according to a 2019 survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission. But fewer than 3 percent filed a complaint. This shows the pressures on victims not to report out of fear they will be blamed or not believed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong\u2019s pay gap has widened with women on average earning 22 percent less than men, compared to a 19 percent gap ten years ago. By the age of 60 the gender pay gap is even worse: women workers only get half the salary of their male counterparts on average. All Hong Kong workers suffer from some of the world\u2019s longest working hours and increasingly precarious work, but these problems hit women hardest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, which only serves the billionaire tycoons, refuses to invest more of its billion dollar reserves in public services. Hong Kong nurses are forced to go on street protests because the public hospital system is overcrowded and collapsing from underfunding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lam flatly says no to a universal pension system. Like a figure from the French Revolution, she says Hong Kong\u2019s army of 30,000 elderly women scavengers who collect used cardboard boxes to sell, \u201cdon\u2019t have economic needs\u201d. Lam alleges these women all have \u201cfinancial assets\u201d to fall back on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These wrongs won\u2019t right themselves! To change things we need to organise and fight back. This is what millions are now doing worldwide in a new wave of working class feminist struggle. Hong Kong needs to get in on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialist Action is part of the Committee for a Workers\u2019 International (CWI), which coordinates struggles for workers and women\u2019s right in dozens of countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Spain and Ireland the CWI has been a driving force in women\u2019s struggles in the past year, especially in Ireland\u2019s historic abortion victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workers\u2019 party <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We fight for a socialist alternative to the parasitic capitalist system, which exploits workers for profit and also rests on male-dominated (patriarchal) structures to hold down women and limit their freedoms and rights. We want to build a new working class party for all those who want to end this oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mass workers\u2019 party could defeat the capitalist politicians (who all stand for the same right-wing policies) and form a socialist government committed to taking the big companies and banks into democratic public ownership, under the control of society and the working class majority.
Socialist Action organises alongside migrant domestic workers, the most exploited women in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city\u2019s 380,000 migrant women work the longest hours, for very low pay, and are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse because they are imprisoned by the government\u2019s Victorian \u2018live in\u2019 rule. But by organising they are also a force for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n