“Nations are at war. Territories are being occupied. Nature is being exploited. Women are being killed. In such a situation, we cannot celebrate 8 March as a festivity. We can only celebrate 8 March if we can meet as free people.”
YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) International released a statement on the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day. Calling for a re-evaluation of 8 March, YPJ International said: “It is no longer enough to wage the women's struggle on just one day a year!”
The statement released by YPJ International on Friday reads as follows:
On behalf of YPJ International, we congratulate all women worldwide on 8 March and send you revolutionary greetings from Rojava, where the largest autonomous women's organisation in the world is flourishing in the spring light of the women's revolution! The 8th of March has always been a day when women overcame all borders and their voices united in a loud cry for peace and humanity. Today we find ourselves in the third world war, with the Middle East and Syria in particular at its centre. But this war is not only being waged in Syria, not only in the Middle East. It is being waged all over the world using a wide variety of methods. This war is so devastating, so far-reaching and pervasive that it threatens the whole of humanity and our native earth. Entire peoples are to be annihilated again, as if we have not learned from history. Every day, the worst war crimes take place in front of the eyes of the entire world public. The international institutions, whose official task is to prevent wars, show us in an impressive way how powerless they are or to what extent they are part of the politics of war. So far, 2 world wars have been fought. Women have always been the main victims. Women are also the most affected by World War 3. We must decide that we no longer want to be victims. To no longer be an instrument used in wars. In wars that are not the wars of women, that are not the wars of the people. That is why we must come together, discuss, make decisions, join forces, build a strong organisation and develope a strategy that cannot be defeated.
In the face of this war, we must re-evaluate 8 March. It is no longer enough to wage the women's struggle on just one day a year! It is not enough to organise on just one day a year! It is not enough to energise the strength and cohesion of women on just one day a year! Nations are at war. Territories are being occupied. Nature is being exploited. Women are being killed. In such a situation, we cannot celebrate 8 March as a festivity. We can only celebrate 8 March if we can meet as free people. That is why we have to fight today to reinvent 8 March. If we don't turn every day into 8 March, 8 March has no meaning. We have to make a choice. To celebrate women every day, to celebrate life, to celebrate humanity, we have to fight a very strong and comprehensive fight. That is why we are calling all women worldwide on 8 March this year: Let us come together, let us be one, let us succeed!
Let the light of the spring of the women's revolution shine all over the world!
It is possible to build a free life together! In Rojava and north-east Syria, a region with many different peoples, minorities, linguistic and religious communities, we have made this experience. Here, hundreds of thousands of different women are organising with their own identity, with their own colour. Because they all share the same goal, no other force has yet managed to impose a system of oppression on these women and society - neither IS, nor the Baath regime, nor other forces that want to establish their foothold here. Here, women's free will has won. Women who say "No!" to occupation, war, colonialism, nationalism and oppression. Women who fight for their society. Women who defend themselves. Because more than ever, we must learn to defend ourselves. We can expand these experiences worldwide. Because to stop these wars, we need to build a global system of self-defence. We must build a worldwide organisation of women. We must not deny the fact, that we are threatened by a worldwide feminicide. Only by organising and defending ourselves will we be able to protect ourselves. And we will not only protect ourselves, but the whole of humanity from extinction. Our fight is not just a fight for women. We are fighting for a beautiful, good, free world. In this world there are free women, free men, free people, free nations. A world in which children grow up with the confidence that their dreams can be realised.
Dreams are not achieved by miracles, but by revolution!
Hundreds of thousands of women joined the Kurdish women's uprising last year under the slogan "JIN, JIYAN, AZADÎ". We must value this potential. It should not remain just a reflex, a wish, a dream. Let us transform this power, this energy that has broken through into a daily uprising of millions of women for freedom and a good life. Into a common women's front that says "No!" to war and oppression and that fights for peace. We must show a great sacrifice for this struggle, otherwise we will continue to be victims of this war every day. Every woman who was killed, no matter if she was Kurdish, Arab, Palestinian, Israeli - she was a woman, and we must take our responsibility accordingly. We must fight so that none of them will ever be victimised again!
With this spirit, we congratulate you all once again on 8 March and call out loudly.
Jin, Jiyan, Azadî! Together we will change the world! “
