EFF Western Cape Woman’s day message
EFF on commemorating 60 Years of Women speaking Truth to Power
We as EFF Western Cape celebrate the 60th anniversary of the women’s march of 1956 against pass laws in Pretoria. The month of August has been dedicated to women emancipation in recognition of more than 50 000 women who bravely raised the banner of freedom on the 9th of August 1956 against the apartheid regime. These women opposed laws that racially restricted the movement of black people in the interest of the white capital’s migrant labour system.
We affirm that they and many other notable women over the years since 1956 shed blood to realize the political freedom all South Africans enjoy today. It is therefore fitting that in this Woman’s month we should enjoy one of the fruits of their labours, namely our elections and the privilege to participate in a democracy for which they faced guns and imprisonment.
Women’s Month is also dedicated to women emancipation in recognition of the fact that patriarchy continues to structure the lives of women. It is for this reason that Economic Freedom is even more urgent, for there shall never be a truly economically free society without the economic betterment of women. Violence against women and girls is a pandemic; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and inter-sexed people face horrific abuse and often murder from homophobic and patriarchal elements. Brave women continue to confront these multiple violences at huge risk to their own safety. The EFF is clear that economic freedom must crush patriarchal oppression and its associated violence against women.
Since there are many un-acknowledged and undocumented women who fought against the apartheid regime and for women’s rights issues we as Western Cape EFF feel honoured to commemorate the sacrifices of a few Western Cape born anti-apartheid struggle women leaders who gave us political freedom.
