International Women’s Day 2026

For several years now, March 8 — International Women’s Day — has been a day of protest demonstrations in Czechia. The younger generation in particular has become the bearer of resistance against patriarchal oppression and has unmistakably entered the scene. The indisputable impetus was the global feminist and queer wave, which brought a number of visible successes. The essence is the rapid growth of women’s share of the workforce in the neoliberal era, amplified by the particularly drastic restoration of capitalism in Eastern Europe after the fall of the bureaucratic Stalinist dictatorships.

The struggle for sustainable life on the planet or against exploitation has followed a similar trajectory. What unites them all is the deepening realization that the system in which we are living is not only dysfunctional for the vast majority of the population and offers no prospects, but also poses a direct threat to our existence. 

Many democratic and social achievements, often considered „self-evident“—such as the right to make decisions about one’s own body, the pursuit of equal and dignified wages, access to safe housing, and a secure, fulfilling life—are increasingly threatened by aggressive capitalism. Most of these rights have never really been fulfilled. Capitalism is not only incompatible with a dignified life, but it is also pretending increasingly less to be a system compatible with basic social, human, and democratic rights.

In recent years, we have warned against the spread of the far-right agenda to the highest echelons of politics, with the open support of the richest and most powerful. The new government, the most conservative in the country’s modern history, includes the most racist elements, which openly attack the rights of the LGBTQ+ people, ethnic minorities, and hundreds of thousands of workers without Czech passports who earn meager wages under the constant threat of deportation. It questions the very survival of the majority of the population as a result of the climate crisis and continues to support genocide and the imperialist system of exploitation, enslavement, and domination.

The so-called democratic opposition, including the president—a rival group of oligarchs and midwives of the current government panopticon—carefully avoids all these issues. As the former government, it systematically ignored or, at best, painted a rosy picture of the real situation of workers, students, and all oppressed people, directly fulfilling its own right-wing agenda of cuts and the dismantling of public services. We continue to see:

– Feminized professions being underfunded to such an extent that the gender pay gap—the difference between men’s and women’s salaries—remains virtually unchanged.

– The vast majority of women not only continue to work a second shift at home every day without pay, but parenthood is effectively subject to financial penalties when parents stay home on maternity leave or with a sick child.

– More than a third of single mothers survive below the poverty line, and their numbers are growing. More than half of women have experienced sexual violence and sexual harassment. At least fifteen murdered victims of domestic violence last year are the tip of the iceberg of once again glorified male chauvinism, the individual „right“ to absolute power without any scruples. After all, the global scandal of the Epstein files demonstrates the very close connection between economic and political leaders and the most heinous crimes.

– Both camps of „our“ oligarchs unanimously support the genocide committed by the Israeli state against the civilian population in Palestine – in the form of mass murder, impunity for executions, arrests and imprisonment without trial, denial of food, water, and medical care. We cannot overlook the equally heinous rampage of Putin’s armies in Ukraine, the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, the repressive apparatus of the Iranian regime, ICE in the United States, and countless other examples of terror.

– Both camps of „our“ oligarchs support the military adventures of the Trump administration in the hope that they will be able to share at least a small part of the profits from the subsequent plundering of subjugated countries and nations.

– Both camps of „our“ oligarchs agree on the EU’s inhumane policy towards desperate people fleeing war- and poverty-ravaged countries, including concentration camps in „third countries.“ If these people reach us, both groups of „our“ oligarchs see them only as a cheap and disenfranchised labor force. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian female workers in the lowest-paid professions are the most striking example.

The list of commonalities between all capitalist parties could go on and on. Babiš’s government is continuing the whole process, so far using the „salami method.“ Anti-women associations are getting into advisory positions, and their immediate targets are, exactly according to the patterns of the international ultra-right reaction, „LGBTQI+ ideology, genderism, climate alarmism“ and, of course, „neo-Marxism,“ i.e., any voice supporting emancipation and social justice.

Let us therefore strive for maximum cooperation between all forces that are not into illusion choosing lesser evel over and over again. Let us bring resistance and protest to every school, every workplace, every neighborhood, and every community. 

Let’s discuss forms of action, raise issues, and build an independent network, a safe space, and a voice for all oppressed people. 

We are asking people to imagine something better than choosing the lesser evil, especially in these times. We would like to invite people to imagine a better world, where taking care of people’s lives is at the centre of every decision. Where we work less and consume in a more meaningful way, a life with enough time to find peace and space for things that truly fulfill us. A world where kids can imagine a better future.

This is how we understand democratic and revolutionary feminism, anti-fascism, and socialism.