This International Women’s Day we share a message, a series of articles from the WRM bulletin, and a recent video made by the Informal Alliance Against Oil Palm Plantations in Central and West Africa.
In the midst of the global health, social and economic crisis caused by Covid-19, women organized around the world—from Brazil to India, Sierra Leone to Mexico—once again show a possible way forward: One of solidarity, of growing and accessing healthy foods, and of caring for and sharing the commons; one in which women resist, and sustain paths of collective struggle toward sovereign ways of life—free from the oppression of capitalism and patriarchy; and one where livelihoods are interconnected with cycles of nature, coexisting in harmony and balance with forests and other ecosystems.
This March 8, on International Women’s Day, we want to highlight the path forged by feminist struggles, which continue to resist and combat the various and brutal forms of violence against women. These forms of violence are intrinsically related to the extractive industries, such as oil palm companies.
Particularly, women who live near or work on industrial oil palm plantations suffer rape and sexual abuse, dispossession of their land, and contamination of water sources and health problems; this is because they are subjected to forced labor and exposure to agrochemicals. This pattern of violence is seen repeatedly in countries in Central and West Africa, Asia (especially in Malaysia and Indonesia) and Latin America.
On this day, we share a series of articles from the WRM bulletin, and a recent video made by the Informal Alliance Against Oil Palm Plantations in Central and West Africa. These publications and video denounce the violence against women and highlight their struggles in different countries in the Global South.
Today, we once again express our solidarity with women organized around the world, who are resisting and forging a path of hope in the face of oppression from capitalism, racism and patriarchy. The struggle goes on.
Articles from the WRM Bulletin:
- Sexual Exploitation and Violence against Women at the Root of the Industrial Plantation Model
- Patriarchies in the Forests in India: Communities in Peril
- Brazil: Against Covid-19, Feminist Economics in the Countryside and the City
- Communities in West and Central Africa Resist Industrial Oil Palm Plantations, Even in Times of Covid-19
- India: Women, Commons and Patriarchy
- Women, Territories and Land Ownership. Reflections from Women in Mexico on Why We Want Land