South African Communist Party

Statement on International Working Women’s Day

Sunday, 8 March 2026:- The South African Communist Party (SACP) joins the millions of women in South Africa and around the world in celebrating the international working women’s day.

We recognise that this day is an outcome of women’s struggles and not an act of charity by those in power including the patriarchal structures that dominate society.

We further recognise that the substance of this day and its continued commemoration lie in the validity of the demands of women in the modern world, in workplaces, homes and families, governmental spaces and all other spaces where women exist and exercise their agency, creativity and will.

Working class women continue to constitute the backbone of the women’s movement for gender emancipation. It is the emancipation of working-class women as they form part of the emancipation of the working class as a whole that will represent a qualitative step forward in societal progress against all forms of oppression.

To that end, the struggle for socialism is integral to the struggle for the destruction of patriarchal society and subjugation of women within it. As the SACP, we pledge our solidarity with women across the world who face the worst forms of gender oppression.

As the Party, we are patently aware of the grave crisis of gender-based violence facing South Africa and have observed the inadequacy of the legal interventions implemented thus far. We stand with the women of our country in this struggle as they fight against violence meted towards them.

Women continue to perform a large part of unpaid labour globally, and where they are employed, they receive the lowest wages. This situation is prevalent in both the global south and the global north.

The trade union movement and the communist movement in South Africa and internationally face this significant challenge, among others. We will continue to collaborate with the trade union movement and progressive forces to overcome these challenges.

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ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA