End Gender Based Violence – Lasair Dhearg
‘An injury to one is an injury to all’ – if you are a socialist republican and you are finding yourself questioning why women everywhere have been affected and hurt by the murder of Sarah Everard, remember the above quote.
As socialist republicans we have an obligation to confront gender-based violence locally and globally, wherever it appears. Socialist Republicanism and the organisations who purport to carry its mantle, must organise to eradicate cultures of toxic masculinity internally and in wider society.
This must focus on education, by listening to women, and teaching men to teach each other.
It was recently reported 97% of young women in society have experienced sexual harassment, alongside that 1 in 3 young women’s first sexual experience being non-consensual.
Organising to end gender-based violence isn’t a deviation from the struggle, but a step in its advancement. “When women rise, we all rise” spoke Angela Davis in her last visit to Belfast.
Republicanism must take onus on educating it members around consent, and the everyday dangers presented to women by male behaviour.
Commenting on the issue, Lasair Dhearg spokesperson Ciaran O’Brien said:”If women aren’t safe alone in taxis, or alone walking home – where can they be safe? This is what feminism means by ‘male privilege’. It is not to say men are free of oppression, but it is to say that the shackles of our oppression differ from their own – and that is our advantage.
If we are to be real allies to women’s liberation, men have their part to play in educating other men on these issues, and not expecting women to take full responsibility for challenging misogyny when it arises.”
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
