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Articles From
 For Women's Liberation Through Socialist Revolution |
| Labor: Use Your
Power to Defend Immigrants and
Trans Rights! Anti-Trans Hysteria Fuels Police-State Repression Racist, Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Gay – All-Round Bigots Want to Erase Transgender People MAGA Hatemongers Escalate, Democrats Capitulate – Build a Workers Party to Defend All of the Oppressed On June 30, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho banning transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams or events. Five days earlier, on June 25, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump can strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian refugees. The vicious assault on immigrants’ and transgender people’s rights is a battering ram of the drive for a racist police state that would shred the democratic rights of all. The same reactionary forces leading the charge against transgender people are also pushing for the mass deportations, are the ones who engineered the cancellation of the right to abortion, who opposed school desegregation, gay marriage and every other measure against social oppression. From banning transgender medical care for youth (and setting precedents to ban this for many adults), to “conversion therapy” and forced “detransition” of inmates in prisons, to setting up trans people for detention by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) police and invalidating their driver’s licenses and other identification documents, the federal and more than two dozen state governments are seeking to stigmatize and turn trans people into non-persons. In the process they are compiling lists of trans individuals and de facto barring them from buying firearms. Both for transgender people and immigrants, looking to the Democrats to defend them is a ticket for defeat. What is needed is a class-struggle defense of immigrants’ rights, trans rights and the democratic rights of all. We call on the organized workers movement to use its power to defend trans people and immigrants against the bigoted crusade targeting them. Anti-Trans Hysteria Fuels Police-State Repression (August 2026) |
| Not Democratic “Faux
Friends” But a Revolutionary Workers
Party! Against Trump’s Blitzkrieg of Bigotry, Labor Must Defend Trans Rights Starting on the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump unleashed a series of attacks on one of the most vulnerable social groups in the United States: transgender people. In his inaugural address on January 20, he proclaimed that “there are only two genders, male and female.” With a stroke of the pen, Trump & Co. seek to erase transgender people. Trump’s executive order had many immediate effects, among them assaulting transgender health services. For us as revolutionary Marxists – whose outlook is based on science and reason, not obscurantist prejudice – decisions on such intimate and consequential questions, and on medical issues in general, are a matter for the person and their doctor. We say: Hands off trans kids! While Democratic liberals started posturing as trans people’s “allies” in the recent past (only to abandon this when they decided it was electorally expedient), revolutionary Marxists’ support for gay and trans people’s democratic rights goes back well over a century. Remembering that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” labor must use its power against the deadly dangerous offensive targeting the rights and very existence of transgender people. Against Trump’s Blitzkrieg of Bigotry, Labor Must Defend Trans Rights (May 2025) |
| Marjorie
Stamberg (1944-2024) Revolutionary Trotskyist, Marxist Educator, A Leader of Struggles for All the Oppressed Our comrade Marjorie Stamberg died on May 29 after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer. She was 79 and had been active in the New Left, was a pioneer fighter for women’s liberation, a Trotskyist activist and leader since her ’20s, a teacher for the last quarter century, and a revolutionary all her adult life. Throughout, she fought tirelessly for the working class, for black people, women, immigrants and all the oppressed. In different arenas, she defended all those exploited and downtrodden by capitalism. She was the candidate of the Spartacist League for New York state assembly and New York City mayor. Later, as an educator and delegate of the United Federation of Teachers, she defended immigrant students and families. Up to her last days, as a central leader of the League for the Fourth International and its U.S. section, the Internationalist Group, Marjorie continued the struggle for international socialist revolution, which was her life. She never stepped back from that goal. It was a measure of Marjorie’s fortitude that in November 2023, when it was increasingly difficult for her to walk, she participated in three Gaza solidarity protests in one week. She was determined to show her opposition to the slaughter by the Israeli Zionists and U.S. imperialists; to refute the slander by the purveyors of genocide who equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism; to speak out on behalf of the Palestinian Arab people under attack, and to defend the rights of others to do so as well. Firm in her communist convictions, she was also a warm collaborator, mentor and friend of so many who worked with her. Her comrades and colleagues cherish her great contributions, which will continue to inspire us and hopefully many others in years to come. Read an extensive account of Marjorie’s revolutionary life. Marjorie Stamberg, Revolutionary Trotskyist, Marxist Educator Who Led Struggles for All the Oppressed (June 2024) Women’s Liberation and the Class Line |
| Free
Abortion on Demand – Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution Supreme Court Cancels Right to Abortion: Trigger for Ultra-Rightist Mobilization On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision which for almost 50 years was the basis for women’s constitutional right to abortion. In response there was an outpouring of anger as tens of thousands went into the streets to protest around the country. Establishment abortion rights groups seek to channel the outrage into support for the Democratic Party. But voting for the Democrats will not restore the right to abortion, and any law they might pass would be struck down by the reactionary Court. While opportunist leftists sought to pressure the Democrats, Internationalist contingents participated in the protests denouncing the Democratic Party and calling for a revolutionary workers party. We emphasized that the anti-abortion crusade is rooted in racism. The fight over abortion rights and gay and trans rights is already a flashpoint for emboldened ultra-rightists and fascists, who now feel that the capitalist state has their back. In the post-Roe U.S., abortion clinics are threatened by vigilantes, bounty hunters, racists and fascists. We call to mobilize union power to defend the clinics and disperse anti-abortion bigots.The Bolshevik Revolution first legalized abortion on demand, and it will take a socialist revolution to achieve it today. Supreme Court Cancels Right to Abortion: Trigger for Ulltra-Rightist Mobilization (7 August 2022) Racism and the Deadly Anti-Abortion Crusade (7 August 2022)May 14 Is About Pressuring the Democrats, Who Will Do Nothing for Abortion Rights, Again To Win Abortion Rights Fight, Pro-Democrat Marches Are a Dead End Free Abortion on Demand – Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution Following the leaked Supreme Court majority draft opinion that would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision granting women a right to abortion, there have been large protests around the country. Democratic elected officials quickly grabbed the spotlight. For them, the leak means that they have six months to pound away at the theme that a Republican victory in the mid-term elections is a threat to every woman’s rights. A nationwide series of marches was held on Saturday, May 14 on the slogan “Bans Off Our Bodies” calling for “elected officials [to] take action before the Court gets the chance to overturn abortion.” Yet since the U.S. Senate just blocked the Women’s Health Protection Act, the actual aim of the May 14 protests was to get out the vote for Democrats. These capitalist politicians are faux “friends” of women. The Democrats are a party of war and mass incarceration that seeks women’s votes, but buries legislation to defend their rights. As Internationalist youth emphasized at recent speak-outs in New York and Los Angeles, what’s needed is mass mobilization bringing out the power of the multiracial working class, fighting for the full and unrestricted right to abortion. To Win Abortion Rights Fight, Pro-Democrat Marches Are a Dead End (13 May 2022) The “Green Tide” in Latin America: A Festival of Class Collaboration The Struggle for Full Abortion Rights, From Latin America to the U.S. Free Abortion on Demand – For Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution The battle over abortion is at a critical point throughout the Americas. As reactionary forces in the United States wave the banner of the “right to life” and “the family” to eliminate rights won in the past, elsewhere in the hemisphere there has been an upsurge in actions to eliminate laws that have sent thousands of women to jail for the “crime” of ending an unwanted pregnancy – or just having a miscarriage. In Latin America much has been made of an advancing “Green Tide,” as feminist groups have labeled the mass mobilizations in Argentina that won a partial legalization of abortion. Yet that movement was led by bourgeois political currents – bringing with it obstacles and limitations to winning crucial rights. In the U.S., the issue is sharply posed of how to fight against the assault on women’s rights, abortion rights, gay and transgender rights. The new/old dead-end “strategy” of bourgeois feminists is to vote for the Democrats, who despite the hype are no friends of women.Everywhere, the issue of control of women’s bodies by the state is poised point-blank, as decaying capitalism endangers the rights of all the oppressed. The pending calamity in the U.S., where the constitutional right to an abortion is on the verge of being eliminated after being in force for a half-century, underlines the need for a revolutionary class struggle for the liberation of women. The Struggle for Full Abortion Rights, From Latin America to the U.S. (March 2022) Democrats Uphold the Hyde Amendment: Race, Class and the Right to Abortion (March 2022) |
| After
Court Orders Partial
Legalization Mexican Trotskyists Call for Free Abortion On Demand Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution! Last September 7, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice declared “absolute criminalization” of abortion unconstitutional throughout the country. Invalidating several sections of the penal code of the state of Coahuila, the court legalized abortion for the first 12 weeks of gestation. This is an important step that will bring relief to many women seeking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. And by eliminating “conscientious objection,” it removed a very real barrier to carrying out abortions. However, these are limited measures, and after the first trimester, abortion is still considered a crime. The Grupo Internacionalista fights for the unrestricted right to free abortion, based exclusively on the decision of the woman or other pregnant person, at any time during pregnancy and with access to medical and health care of the highest quality. Mexican Trotskyists Call for Free Abortion On Demand (December 2021) |
| Women’s Liberation Through
Socialist Revolution! Democratic Party Feminism and the “#MeToo Movement” On January 19, there were two “women’s marches” in New York City, amid much acrimony. In a transparently Zionist-orchestrated campaign, the Women’s March Alliance accused Women’s March Inc. of anti-Semitism. Behind the squabble among the feminists was a dispute between two wings of the Democratic Party, the former being supporters of Hillary Clinton’s “New Democrats” while the latter were in the Bernie Sanders camp. But who did these more “intersectional,” radical-posturing feminists have as their keynote speaker? None other than Gloria Steinem, who for years was a CIA “asset,” finking on leftists for U.S. imperialism. And if the women’s marches were smaller this year, that’s partly because they had achieved their aim of electing more female capitalist Democratic politicians. The same day, the Revolutionary Internationalist Youth held an educational and organizing conference, which emphasized that the Democratic Party is an enemy of women’s liberation, which is rooted in the structure of capitalism. Taking on the “sexual paranoia” of Title IX prosecutions, the #MeToo slogan “believe women” and campus codes of “affirmative consent,” the RIY speaker emphasized that feminism cannot liberate women. That requires freeing women from the bourgeois nuclear family, socializing its functions, and establishing a classless society, through a common struggle by working men and women and all oppressed sectors of society. Democratic Party Feminism and the “#MeToo Movement” (January 2019) Chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.” to Woman-Hater Trump’s Praise Imperialist Feminism and the Democrats So Donald Trump finally got his State of the Union speech to Congress on February 5. What we were treated to was a bipartisan spectacle of imperialist politicians chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.” True to form, Trump used the event to demonize immigrants. Republicans cheered Trump’s xenophobic fear-mongering while the Democrats just sat there. In fact, the Dems are just as committed to militarizing the border. Trump's annoucement of the U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela received bipartisan applause. And when Trump bragged about creating millions of new jobs, mostly filled by women, Democratic congresswomen (all wearing white in honor of the suffragettes) gave a standing ovation to the misogynist president! Then when Trump cynically hailed the record number of women in Congress, the women in white broke into cheers and joined in chanting, “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.” Among the chanters were the supposed "democratic socialists" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, both of whom had earlier voted $20 million to fund the right-wing opposition in Venezuela. These “progressive” and even “socialist”-posturing Democrats have acted exactly like the capitalist politicians that they are, loyal to the U.S.-dominated imperialist world order. Imperialist Feminism and the Democrats (10 February 2019) |
| Free Abortion
on Demand! Ecuador: Populist President Correa Attacks Women’s Right to Abortion For Women’s Liberation Through Socialist Revolution! There is an onslaught against women’s right to abortion underway, extending from the U.S. to Central and South America. This is notably the case in Nicaragua, El Salvador and now Ecuador, all three countries under supposedly leftist governments. Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa, a bourgeois populist who came to office in 2007, recently let loose a tirade to squelch any talk of reform on abortion. He thundered, accusing women legislators of his own party of “disloyalty” and “treason” for daring to the minimal reform of permitting abortion in cases of rape. Correa’s tirade was immediately saluted by some of the most reactionary anti-women forces. This onslaught against women’s rights reflected the increasingly authoritarian character of Correa’s presidency, in which all manner of left-wing dissent is subjected to state repression. Against the unholy alliance of right and populist “left” against women’s rights, the League for the Fourth International call for the repeal of all laws penalizing or restricting abortion, and fight for free abortion on demand, in safe, high-quality medical facilities. Ecuador: Populist President Correa Attacks Women’s Right to Abortion (December 2013) The Fight to Save Beatriz’s Life Down with El Salvador’s Abortion Ban! For the last month and a half there has been a mounting cry to allow a young woman from El Salvador, Beatriz, to receive an abortion that would save her life. But although she suffers from lupus and kidney disease, and the fetus lacked a brain and could not survive outside the womb, the Salvadoran Supreme Court refused a petition to allow doctors to perform a therapeutic abortion. On the contrary it ruled that under no circumstances could the woman’s life take precedence over the fetus. Due to the outcry over the case, she was finally able to terminate the life-threatening pregnancy with a Caesarean section. But the struggle against the murderous abortion ban continues, as women in El Salvador are jailed for up to 30-40 years for abortions, or simply miscarriages, which are labeled aggravated murder. The right to abortion is a democratic right, but also a class demand since the bans affect poor and working women in particular. The Internationalist Group calls for free abortion on demand, and puts forward a working-class program for women's liberation through socialist revolution. Down with El Salvador’s Abortion Ban! (6 June 2013) Protest in NYC Against Abortion Ban in El Salvador (6 June 2013)Obama/Democrats’ Conciliation Emboldens Reactionaries Assassination of Courageous Doctor in Wichita: War on Abortion Rights Escalates Mobilize to Defend the Clinics! Abolish All Restrictions – For Free Abortion on Demand! The vile murder of the courageous abortion doctor George Tiller marks an escalation of the war on women’s right to abortion. The constitutional protection hangs by a thread – a single vote in the Supreme Court. The “god squads” are in a frenzy, harassing women patients and abortion providers at the clinics. The reaction of the bourgeois feminists has been to look to the Democratic Party and the government of Barack Obama in the White House. Yet the Democrats are not allies but enemies of women’s rights. Obama opposes the late-term abortions that Dr. Tiller provided while seeking “common ground” with the Bible-thumping bigots who harbor the abortion doctor killers. And the police, from local cops to the FBI, give a free pass to the assassins, whom they know well. Assassination in Wichita – War on Abortion Rights Escalates (11 June 2009) Outrage! Teenager Prosecuted for “Procuring a Miscarriage” Defend Amber Abreu – Drop All the Charges! State Wants to Charge Her with Murder for Attempted Abortion Last month, Amber Abreu went to the hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts after trying to terminate a pregnancy by taking a drug, misoprostol, that is a key component of the abortion pill RU-486. Now the state has charged her, using an archaic law dating back to the 1840s, with “procuring a miscarriage.” Amber, a recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic, faces seven years in jail on this outrageous charge. But the state wants to go even further and charge her with homicide, for which she could face a sentence of life behind bars. The whole prosecution is an obscene miscarriage of justice. But where is the national outcry over the hideous persecution of this 18-year-old immigrant who symbolizes the plight of young women, often terribly alone, who face desperate decisions that can ruin their lives. The “mainstream” (bourgeois) feminists haven’t exactly rushed to highlight her case. They are following the example of Democrat Hillary Clinton, who wants to find “common ground” with anti-abortion forces. The persecution of Amber Abreu underscores how the oppression of women is deeply embedded in the structure of capitalist society. Trotskyists call for free abortion on demand, and for women’s liberation through socialist revolution. Defend Amber Abreu – Drop All the Charges! (22 February 2007) Women’s Liberation Through
Socialist Revolution! Nigerian Woman Sentenced to
Death for “Adultery”
U.S. Sponsors Enslavers of Afghan Women No to the Veil – Women’s Liberation Through International Socialist Revolution! For the last quarter century, the status of women has been at the forefront of war in Afghanistan. Today, liberals and bourgeois feminists use the vicious oppression of Afghan woman by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban as a justification for Bush’s terror-bombing of Kabul. Yet the Taliban took power in 1996 with the approval of the U.S. Washington's current allies of the “Northern Alliance” are the same Afghan warlords who during the second anti-Soviet Cold War II were financed, armed, trained and paid by the CIA to wage counterrevolutionary terror in the cause of anti-Communism, Islamic fundamentalism and maintaining the enslavement of women. Not only the feudalist patriarchs on both sides in Afghanistan but their imperialist sponsors who claim to be defending “civilization” are enemies of women. The Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International defend Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s, stand today for defense of Afghanistan and defeat of the imperialist attack, and fight for the liberation of Afghan women through socialist revolution throughout Central and South Asia. U.S. sponsors the enslavers of Afghan women (25 October 2001) For a Class-Struggle
Fight to Unionize the Maquiladoras! |
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