April 20, 2008

Declaration of Solidarity to the First Encontro Nacional de Mulheres da CONLUTAS in Brazil

Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party extend our solidarity and revolutionary feminist greetings to the participants at the first National Meeting of the Women of CONLUTAS. 

We were thrilled to learn about this momentous gathering and wish you every success in your deliberations.  We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you as socialist feminists in the United States where we too are fighting hard to end the discrimination, poverty, war and misery engendered by international capitalism and neoliberalism. 

Here in the U.S., women--especially women of color and immigrant women--pay the highest price for privatization and cuts in government subsidies for food, housing, education and healthcare.  Bitter experience has taught many of them that they cannot place their hopes and confidence in the twin parties of U.S. capitalism or expect them to provide meaningful assistance to poor and working women in this country.

Just as you are fighting the fake hope offered by the Lula government, we are fighting to raise consciousness here of the necessity for working women to put their hopes and confidence in each other and their global class.  Your meeting inspires us to continue this struggle here in the heart of imperialism. We know that the leadership of workingclass women is essential if we are to win a world without the curse of sexism, racism, war, hunger, ignorance, homophobia, and anti-immigrant scapegoating.

No one needs fundamental social change more than women who are the majority of every oppressed group on the face of the earth. By working cooperatively with men around an anti-capitalist feminist program, they can unite the international struggle and create a socialist system of shared abundance. In the words of the great feminist anthem, women fight for "bread and roses too!"

We are with you in spirit and reach across the distance separating us to offer our congratulations and support in your efforts. 

No one is free until we are all free! Viva las Mulheres da CONLUTAS!

Guerry Hoddersen
International Secretary, Freedom Socialist Party, U.S.

Anne Slater
National Radical Women Organizer, U.S.