International Women’s Day 2024 – the last year in women’s movements

By: Global Justice Now
Date: 8 March 2024

Today, 8 March, marks International Women’s Day. IWD was set up as a day of protest and campaigning, to demand the social, economic and political liberation of women through both female suffrage and the abolition of capitalism for a socialist economy – pushing for women’s liberation from both waged and domestic servitude. In other words, IWD was conceptualised as an International Working Women’s Day – informed by the waged and unwaged labour of women – and fighting for struggles to be overcome on the path to liberation.

In this vein, we wanted to highlight just some of the feminist organising, activism and struggles women and non-binary people have engaged in over the last year globally. This list is not even close to exhaustive – but hopefully can act as a starting point to some of the work taking place, to give us courage to build momentum and continue fighting the struggles faced by women and non-binary people the world over today.

Ni Una Menos, fighting for women’s rights in Argentina 

In 2015, the murder of 14-year-old Chiara Páez at the hands of her boyfriend sparked an outpouring of rage and resistance against femicide in Argentina. The Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) movement signified that Argentinian women had reached a breaking point; tens of thousands took to the streets in protest.

Nearly a decade on, the movement has helped achieve abortion access in Argentina, and inspired feminist resistance globally, including influencing 2017’s #MeToo. Now Argentinian women are facing a new threat in Javier Milei, the country’s far-right president. Milei has already said he will campaign to overturn abortion rights, while the violence he legitimises has led to feminist activists facing continuous threats, with some even fleeing the country.

Argentinian women’s resistance should make us reflect on what International Women’s Day is for in 2024. Our rights were won; brave women around the world continue to fight for them every day. We must keep pushing a decolonial, intersectional vision of feminism and women’s rights, one that is based on global solidarity. Luciana Peker – an Argentinian feminist in exile, who continues to bravely challenge Milei’s regime – reminds us of this:

“I have not left to be silenced…Women in Latin America need women in the west to work with us to put an end to this violent oppression. Read the work of Latin authors, activists, writers and journalists, follow them on social media, share their content and support our women’s words, so that violence does not silence us and economic suffocation does not steal our voices again. Our freedom cannot be pushed back. Neither can our words.”

Izzie McIntosh, climate campaign manager

The ongoing struggle of Palestinian women under occupation

The horrific and gendered impacts of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza have seen Palestinian women fighting for survival in impossible circumstances. The war on Palestine has seen 2024 marked as the deadliest year for women throughout the years of occupation – and right now, Gaza is the most deadly place to be a woman in the world.  Every two hours, seven women are killed, and women have faced horrific and devastating violence and resulting impacts as Israel’s assault on Gaza rages onwards. “From consoling the grieving to forging essential aid networks for survival and fiercely championing the rights of women and girls amidst occupation and war, Palestinian women navigate a landscape of destruction with unparalleled courage and resolve”, NGO ActionAid states, “But they should not have to do this alone, nor should they be in this position at all.”

Historically over the decades of occupation, women and women led organisations have acted in Palestine to advance women’s rights, despite the limited space and obstacles faced resulting from the historic and ongoing occupation. Feminist leaders in Palestine have called for the world to speak up. The Rural Women’s Development Society in Ramallah states, “The occupation is the main reason for everything that is happening, and neither Palestine nor the region will enjoy security or peace without ending the occupation.”

Anita Bhadani, media manager

Women on the frontlines of the Stop EACOP campaign

Young women are front and centre of Stop EACOP – the campaign to stop TotalEnergy building a 1,444km heated oil pipeline across Ugandan and Tanzania. Women such as Hilda Nakabuye – who also founded Fridays for Future Uganda, now East Africa’s largest youth movement. And fellow Ugandan Patience Nabukalu, who was inspired to become an environmental activist when the draining of her local wetlands led to the flooding of her home.

Patience came to Edinburgh as part of a visit to the UK, and her passionate speech about the Stop EACOP campaign persuaded everyone in the room to start campaigning in solidarity. After visiting Edinburgh, Patience supported demonstrations in Manchester and Glasgow outside the offices of oil and gas insurers Chubb, a large oil and gas insurance company that has refused to say whether it will insure the project. She also took part in the ‘Oily Money Out’ week of action outside the oil and money conference in London together with Global Justice Now and other climate activists.

Both Patience and Hilda felt the impact of climate change in their own lives and communities and are working both within their communities and internationally to call out the neo-colonial project. Uganda is not an easy place to be an activist: strikes are banned and stop EACOP campaigners have been imprisoned for taking peaceful action. Which makes what Patience and Hilda are doing, together with other young women climate activists, all the more impressive and inspiring. And we need to show solidarity by supporting the campaign in the UK.

As Patience says: “Projects like the EACOP that are set to increase emissions will affect not only East Africa but also those that call themselves developed nations. It’s high time they woke up and stood with frontline communities. They must also understand that we cannot exercise the same right to freedom of speech and human rights in our own countries. So they should use their privilege to call leaders to account….The least they can do is speak to people from the frontlines, listen to them, amplify their voices, and be a part of their journeys.”

Jane Herbstritt, Scotland campaign officer

Indian women organising for workers’ rights in the gig economy

Women have been making history in India, by organising for workers’ rights in the gig economy. In July, in the first nationwide labour action by women gig workers in India, thousands of women took to the streets to protest against unfair treatment by Urban Company, an app-based beauty and home care services company. The women say that the app sets impossible targets and then blocks their accounts when they can’t meet them. It is well known that platform algorithms often discriminate against workers who can’t respond instantly, or take on the maximum number of jobs, with this hitting women especially hard, as they often have unpaid care responsibilities on top of their work.

In November, women were also on the frontlines of the Black Friday protests against Amazon, using Whatsapp to organise and sign up fellow workers to the Amazon workers’ union. Much of women’s work in India has been more informal and invisible (usually involving a lot of unpaid care work), but more and more women are joining unions and labour rights collectives. Inspired by witnessing other protests against unfair labour conditions, many women have been emboldened to take the lead in protests and negotiations with companies and states for better workers’ rights, benefits and more control of their data. “We saw the women protesting against Urban Company and we were inspired”, said organiser Manju Goel. “Like me, many women there were also single mothers – if we don’t speak up, who will speak for us?”

Daisy Pearson, campaigns and activism officer

Ghanaian women resisting the crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights

Ghanaian women and non-binary people, who experience increased risk of violence for their sexuality, have been on the frontlines of fighting back against the intensifying oppression of LGBTQ+ people across the country. This year, Ghana passed colonial-era legislation which would see a prison sentence of up to five years for same sex relations or the “wilful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities”.  Homosexuality in Ghana was first criminalised in the 1860’s, when Ghana was subject to British colonial rule. Though Ghanians fought for, eventually winning their independence in 1957, the scars of empire still run deep, and this colonial-era law was never overturned.

Activists and movements have been bravely fighting back for years, and against this new bill on multiple fronts. Academic and advocate Dr. Amanda Odoi has taken the fight against the bill to the courtroom. Meanwhile, women-led organisations in the country have been providing essential community support while advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and pushing for change. Ghanaian trans woman, activist and musician Angel Maxine, said: “All these MPs and ministers who are defending the law know very well that in Ghana, we have a cultural, social and religious problem with homosexuality and trans identity. All they have to do is point fingers at us to get unanimous support.”

Anita Bhadani, media manager

Celebration of the 40th anniversary of women standing up for mining communities in the UK

Today’s generation of activists and feminists may no longer remember, or even be aware of, the decisive role of women in the National Union of Mineworkers. In 1984-85 under Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government, miners faced pit closures – but they fought back. The strikes against pit closures, and the violent retaliatory measures used by the state 40 years ago, were a turning point in the history of Britain’s social movements and democracy. The period ushered in the dismantling of the welfare state and the lowering of the living standards of people in the UK.

But the violence used against the working class also produced the rise of women in the mining communities. Women’s organising broadened what was then still traditional labour organising. Mutual support groups were organised in and beyond mining villages to address the problem of survival among poor communities. The liberatory power of such organising and the many forms that followed survived the strikes, the harsh years of Thatcher, and the assaults of neoliberal policies.

Dorothy Guerrero, head of policy and advocacy