KJK: Women's freedom tied to labor freedom

On the occasion of International Workers' Day (May 1), the KJK Coordination issued a written statement congratulating Leader Abdullah Ocalan as the ultimate laborer for a free and democratic life, as well as all hardworking women, mothers, and humanity as a whole.

The KJK highlighted that the month of May is also the month of martyrs, stating:

“We respectfully and gratefully commemorate our martyrs who martyred in May, and all martyrs of May Day who reinforced the labor struggle with their lives. We pledge to crown the labor struggle with victory.”

The system mostly targets women

The statement added: “Labor is the primary value that creates society. Without labor, there can be no talk of society or socialization. The toil of laborers is what makes society a society. For this reason, the capitalist system has always sought to devalue labor and strip it of meaning. In doing so, it primarily targets women, who are the true owners of the economy.”

Women were turned into slaves of this system, either unpaid or for the lowest possible wages, and into domestic slaves by being excluded from freer spheres of activity. The same mothers who are said to have paradise beneath their feet are now forced to search for food in the garbage, crushed by guilt as they struggle to care for their children. This system, which views the economy only through the lens of money and profit, ignores the labor of mothers, even though they work 24 hours a day. Their minds, strength, and bodies are crushed, and they are commodified and sold in markets, seen as worthless laborers. When they travel as seasonal workers to major cities, they face enormous hardships, including gender-based violence, harassment, and rape, at the hands of the male-dominated system. Despite engaging in hard labor, they are underpaid, subjected to psychological pressure, harassment, and workplace bullying to the point of being unable to continue working.

Children forced into labor at an early age to support their families also face injustice, just like women. They are made to work for meager wages in the worst conditions, without safety or security.

Workers are killed due to low wages, unjust dismissal, and even systemic extermination. People who spent 40–50 years working in construction workshops end up waiting in long lines just to get cheap bread after retirement. Basic human economic activities, from agriculture to livestock, have been destroyed by the state. Products are thrown into the streets, and workers demanding their rights are beaten by employers and state agents.

Looting and exploitation worsen under state systems

Problems such as war, economic crises, hunger, thirst, displacement, and educational and health crises have plunged life into a never-ending cycle of crises. The capitalist system, which channels all societal energy toward survival and securing daily bread, tries to obscure other crises behind economic ones. On one hand, there is a society facing starvation; on the other, looting and exploitation are intensifying under state regimes that don’t even know what to do with the wealth stolen from the people. Though capitalism claims to be a global system, today’s crises have once again proven the need for socialism. Leader Abdullah Ocalan has identified socialism as the only path out of this crisis and defined our struggle accordingly: “To be without socialism is to be without air.”

Capitalism kills labor

Socialism means labor, but not labor in service of capitalism. Labor offered to sustain and expand capitalism is not real labor; it is, in fact, the elimination of labor. Therefore, we must live our lives, from our dreams to our daily activities, through labor that serves a free life.

Women’s labor is the most sacred

The peoples of Kurdistan and the Middle East, who have been oppressed by colonialism and occupation for centuries, have had both their homeland and labor taken away. We know that a major national struggle is necessary and that labor cannot be freed without building a free and democratic life. Labor in a free country and labor offered for the community are rooted in socialization. Labor that serves the liberation of society and the development of free life, and the sweat poured for this cause, is sacred. Therefore, the labor of mothers and women, though often the most exploited and ignored, is also the most sacred. According to the philosophy that sees women as the foundation of life, it is impossible to speak of liberation or of valuing labor and laborers without dismantling the male-dominated system that ignores women’s labor, especially on such a day. In other words:

“Without women’s liberation, there can be no liberation of life; and without life’s liberation, there can be no liberation of labor.” The free and democratic society built today in Rojava is the result of women’s labor and the true economic owners’ efforts.

While we celebrate May 1st as International Workers' Day, a day of solidarity, unity, and struggle for workers, it must also be a day to build socialism, to free labor from narrow economics, and to establish socialist character and life. The call made by Leader Abdullah Ocalan on February 27 for a free life and democratic society is specifically a call to build a homeland where labor regains its true value.

Leader Abdullah Ocalan has demonstrated socialism as a way of life through his practice of socialist living in the prison cell where he has been held hostage for over 26 years. Based on this principle, we call on Kurdish women and all women who wish to walk alongside the leader to actively participate in the events and demonstrations to be held on May 3 under the slogan: “Dialogues with Free Life.”

This aims to expand and sustain the campaign for the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Ocalan in the spirit of May 1st resistance.

Let us make May 3 a day to connect with the Leader and build a democratic life, strengthening the campaign for his physical freedom.

On this basis, we call on women, youth, mothers, villagers, workers, and laborers to embrace this call and struggle accordingly.

A-H

ANHA