Women's Fightback 33, Winter/Spring 2025

If you watched the re-election of Donald Trump with horror, just imagine what it must have felt like in Rafah or Kyiv. Since his (re-)inauguration, he has reinstated off-shore drilling, attempted to end birthright citizenship, sacked many thousands of federal employees, ended the US ’s overseas aid programmes, sided with Putin over Ukraine, backed ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and pardoned the 6 January rioters. Senior officials of the most powerful government on Earth now give Nazi salutes from the stage of political rallies. For millions of working-class Americans, especially women, girls, LGBT+...

Jean Lane Don't say cheeky chappie Do say stupid twit Don't say a bit of a lad Do say sexist shit Don't say working class Do say grocer and loser Don't say funny with women Do say sexual abuser

Natalia Tylim is a restaurant worker and socialist activist based in New York City. She is a leading member of the Tempest Collective, which was formed in 2020. Natalia spoke to Kelly Rogers. Trump is back, and his election has ushered in a period of urgent reflection for the socialist left in the US. "But," says Natalia Tylim, "his reelection is not a popular mandate for Trump’s policies.” There were nearly 90 million people who did not vote, and while Trump’s vote share increased by 3 million, the Democrats lost close to 6 million votes compared to 2020. Rather, there exists a deep...

Members of Workers ’ Liberty submitted a resolution, calling for the full decriminalisation of abortion and removal of all barriers to access, to the Abortion Rights Annual General Meeting in March. Are you a member of the Labour Party? Below is an amended resolution, for members to take to their local parties. 2025 Labour Women’s Conference is due to take place on Saturday 27 September. Will you organise with us? Write to us at: womensfightback@workersliberty.org DECRIMINALISE ABORTION & REMOVE ALL BARRIERS TO ACCESS Notes: • Abortions in England must be approved by two doctors and take place...

Ella Keidar is an 18-year old military refuser living in Israel. She is an activist with the refuser network Mesarvot and the Communist Youth. Ella spoke to Kelly Rogers. Every few years, high school students across Israel sign an open letter setting out why they are planning to refuse to enlist in the military. In 2023, Ella Keidar was among them. 280 signed – the second-largest number ever. The night before the Hamas attacks on 7 October, she and a few friends were at a punk night in Tel Aviv handing out the letter. "And then," she says, "it was a giant whiplash." In the first half of 2023...

By Dominika Szarek Writing about Poland's reproductive rights today means confronting the seismic shifts set in motion in 2015, when the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) came to power. Over eight years, PiS enacted anti-democratic policies, igniting a constitutional crisis over its judicial reforms, and waging a war on “gender ideology”. Unlike in the US, where far-right attacks on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights aim to roll back progress, Poland never had many significant victories. Isolated under Soviet rule, it largely missed the second-wave feminist movement. Since 1989, progressive...

Alla Gutnikova is a political exile from Russia and former editor of the left magazine DOXA. In 2021, the Russian government placed her under house arrest for backing protests in support of then-opposition leader Alexei Navalny. She is studying Contemporary Literature, Culture and Theory at King's College, London, with the support of a Freedom Degree scholarship. Alla spoke to Kelly Rogers. In January 2021, tens of thousands of Russians, most of them young, rallied in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who had survived an assassination attempt the previous August. Alla Gutnikova was...

In November last year, a group of education workers and members of the National Education Union (NEU) visited Lviv in Ukraine to meet their fellow workers and show solidarity. Janine Booth reports. WOMEN IN UKRAINE We met three young women activists from the Social Democratic Platform. They told us that Ukraine has a Women’s Lobby, and that women have more presence in some areas of life. Since the invasion, more women have become tram and bus drivers. New women’s organisations have developed. More women were elected in the last election to the Rada (Parliament) than previously. But women still...

Annie Lawson-Foley Because of its sprawling, nebulous nature and because the lines between irony and genuine belief are often blurred on the internet, it can be hard to wholly grasp the extent of the manosphere, let alone begin to analyse it. But in recent years, more research has been conducted as mainstream awareness of the manosphere has increased, mainly due to violent crimes by its adherents and the arrest of influencer Andrew Tate for human trafficking, amongst other charges. The manosphere refers to a diverse collection of websites, blogs and online forums promoting misogyny...

Bella Beorsma “Consider also our spirits that break a little each time we see ourselves in chains or full labial display for the conquering male viewer, bruised or on our knees, screaming a real or pretended pain to delight the sadist, pretending to enjoy what we don’t enjoy, to be blind to the images of our sisters that really haunt us — humiliated often enough ourselves by the truly obscene idea that sex and the domination of women must be combined.” – Gloria Steinem, Erotica and Pornography (1978). Second-wave feminism called attention to sex, pleasure, and women’s bodies in a way that had...