Sir, – I read in your newspaper ("Socialist Party documents illustrate criticism from international comrades", News, March 6th) that the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) disapproves of recent feminist activism on this island, specifically the Repeal the 8th and I Believe Her movements. It seems the CWI is of the view that the womxn's movement is at odds with the socialist cause. Irish socialists must not not forget the struggle of the worker and the womxn are one. Let us not forget that the womxn is the worker, the worker is the womxn. Let us not forget economies have been built on the backs of our labour, both waged and unwaged, for centuries.
We have come to a point of awakening on this island where womxn are putting our foot down: literally.
Our anger has boiled over and onto the streets. We have taken a step out of the shadows to say: we will no longer “wait our turn”. We will no longer have our cause be secondary.
Our experiences of sexual coercion, abuse, oppression, and violence are so familiar that we believe her. We are rising up to say “I believe her” because we are her. To the masculine socialists who claim to hold a monopoly on how to correctly action for change, it must be terrifying to see womxn of all classes, genders, races march through the streets and scream our anger.
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It must be terrifying because those abusers who wear the mask of a socialist, who have oppressed and sidelined us in their own way, are not safe from our anger. We are here to dismantle patriarchy, and we’re only getting started.
That must be terrifying to those who benefit from it. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH
McCORMACK,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.