An oasis of hope for a better future

Colombian activist reports on ROSA Conference , 18 & 19 March 2023

The first Rosa Conference has demonstrated how important our labor is. It's been shown, in the voices of all of our comrades, one of the keys to effectively organizing against capitalism: international solidarity. Sometimes it’s difficult to continue the fight, and probably it seems like too much is left to do for us, as we have a whole world yet to win after all. That’s why it’s important to remember that we’re not alone, and that the struggle is being fought at this very moment by people just like us, by valiant women in dozens of countries, facing all kinds of violence and oppression.

It’s impossible not to feel inspired when you listen to their stories, when you hear not only their words, but the pain, and especially the relentless urge to keep the revolutionary struggle alive.

These combative women, in this Conference, and in front of all of us fellow comrades, have proved that we can’t back off with our fight, as we can always achieve more to benefit our class even during the darkest of times. It’s exemplary how ISA in the US got to create a sanctuary for women to exercise their reproductive rights in a country that seems to start collapsing under their own weight. In this sense, as a ISA activist in Colombia with the intention to bring this collective fight to my country, not only I’ve been given hope to achieve our next goals here, but the firm conviction that this is not just the ‘correct’ way to take, but the only in sights of overcoming a global system of domination.

Our work is not minor, as we have seen the worsening of the living conditions of billions of people worldwide, and the material reality has shown us that there’s no alternative within capitalism, but that we have to organize and resist.

Socialist feminist struggle faces notable adversity in a world like ours, and just like pioneers like Kollontai and Zetkin, we have to take a combative stance for the demands of women to be addressed and rightfully accomplished. We can’t wait for the liberal feminism to undertake a task that must be fought from below. We can’t wait for timid changes while thousands of women are violently killed every year in Mexico alone.

Having more female CEOs won’t change the critical, present situation that hundreds of thousands of single mothers in south Bogotá—and in all countries— face trying to bring some food to their tables. Their daughters, on the other hand, have to suffer the traumatic objectification of sexual harassment on public transit or at their schools and universities. It seems no matter how many politicians call themselves feminists—as the current mayor of the city—there’s still a problem of oppression at the core of the worldwide social reality; women rights can still be reversed, and ideals of ‘traditional family roles’ are flourishing among right, ‘liberal’ circles. Their lives and bodies appear to be one of the first—if not the first—trench to be attacked by capitalist reaction and crisis. But we can only wish women would only be oppressed in such times! The truth is that even during the most ‘prosperous’ days of late capitalism, with their liberal moralism, millions of women never stopped being exploited in the global south, nor systemic inequalities even in industrial, ‘advanced’ countries were completely addressed, some of them completely forgotten nowadays.

Here the main role of campaigns and organizations like ROSA. We not only understand all of these problems are deeply rooted in capitalism, and organize around a combative focus in order to overcome it, but we build solidarity networks around our universities, neighborhoods, cities, and just as we’ve seen at the Conference, around the world. We share our experiences, and we let each other inspire thoughts and feelings we can’t always regard in our local struggles, we feel supported, and we are welcomed with friendly arms . An oasis of hope of a better future, and a redeemed past for our ancestors, our mothers and grandmothers. We are at the vanguard of the fight against a system that has entered a phase of even more evident crisis and decay, and we can’t slow down. Bigotry and reaction are gaining power amidst the fear of a dark future. Is our task to give this same hope to all the oppressed, the hope that fighting, organizing on a global scale will bring a future without horror and chains, but always remembering that without the fight of women, that future will never come.