South Africa has been gripped in recent weeks by countless accounts of gender based violence against women and children at the hands of men they have often known, and in some cases been intimate with. The trending #MenAreTrash hashtag expressed the rage many feel at the experiences of women who live in a violent, patriarchal neo-liberal society.
Also in the news recently, townships all over Johannesburg were alight with protests for access to adequate housing, land and public services. It is clear that these grievances, and those of rising food and goods prices, crime and corruption affect Black women particularly and more sharply, as household responsibilities often fall to them solely.
With the feminisation of labour in the workplace, and the violent backlash we see today, there is a need, now more than ever, for feminist organising by social justice and labour activists and organisations. It is essential that we feminise the way we organise our struggles, to ensure that our struggle for an egalitarian socialist society is achieved.
Yours in solidarity,
Searatoa Van Driel
