This March 8, International Women’s Day, PLM stands with women and children everywhere who suffer under capitalism, political dynasties, corruption, militarism, and environmental destruction.
And we especially extend our solidarity with the millions of women who will be demonstrating around the world, fighting back.
PLM, as a socialist and feminist organisation, declares that the system we live under — ruled by capitalist elites, entrenched political dynasties, and corrupt government — is designed to exploit, oppress, and silence women.
Political dynasties deepen corruption, block meaningful representation, and entrench elite rule.
While a few women from the capitalist class and dynasties can shield themselves with wealth and influence, the majority of women and our youth bear the heaviest burdens — low wages, precarious work, unemployment, no access to quality and free education, healthcare and basic services, unpaid care labor, gender-based violence, climate disasters and denied reproductive healthcare and rights, including the right to abortion and choice.
The system is rigged against women. This system commodifies our labor, subjugates our bodies, and erases our voices.
Genuine women’s emancipation cannot happen under a system that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a few while millions struggle to survive.
Around the world, gender equality politics that don’t acknowledge and fight against class exploitation, that are not consistently anti-imperialist and which are committed to working within the system to reform it, have been rapidly coopted.
Militarism kills.
On February 28, 2026, dozens of girls were killed at the “Shajareh Tayyebeh” school in Minab, Iran, when U.S.–Israel strikes targeted and destroyed the building. 165 dead, most of them girls aged 7 to 12. At least 95 wounded.
This is the reality of imperialist war. Women and children always pay the highest price.
The Israel-U.S. genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza continues. This cannot be separated from the war on Iran. They signify an intensification of imperialist aggression against the Global South.
We unequivocally condemn the US-Israel combined war on Iran as an act of imperialist aggression, illegal and criminal.
We demand that the Philippine government:
• Condemn these attacks and reject any participation or facilitation, including the use of Philippine bases.
• Scrap EDCA and remove all U.S. military bases.
• Protect and immediately evacuate Overseas Filipino Workers from conflict zones.
Furthermore, the masses of women must not be made to suffer due to the oil crisis resulting from this war.
BBM’s proposed four-day workweek — reportedly under consideration to manage an oil crisis triggered by the U.S.–Israel war on Iran — is not what unions in the West fought for. Genuine four-day workweeks involve a reduction in hours without loss of pay.
BBM’s measure, by contrast, would cut incomes below the living wage, hitting workers hardest at a time when fuel prices and the cost of basic goods are soaring. Instead of taxing corporate superprofits, the regime is shifting the burden onto ordinary workers, sustaining and protecting corporate profits at the expense of working families.
We demand:
• A wealth tax on oligarchs and corporations in the energy sector — Meralco, Aboitiz Power, and others;
• Subsidized affordable gas and LPG prices;
• Subsidized transport costs for all workers, including jeepney drivers, formal and informal workers alike;
• Funding for universally subsidized renewable energy programs, including rooftop solar for households and MSMEs;
• Financing urgent social protection measures to protect families, women, and children from economic shocks.
Making workers pay for corporate profits? No way. Impose a wealth tax now!
The oil crisis shows that the Philippines’ energy system is broken. We are highly dependent on imported oil. Strategic reserves are minimal. Private companies control supply and profit from our suffering.
We demand a resilient, socialized energy system. Nationalized under workers management, democratically controlled — energy must serve people, not profit. Only this can stabilize prices, fund renewables, and protect households from shocks.
This International Women’s Day, we demand:
• An end to the continued expansion of political dynasties that entrench elite control and block genuine democratic representation;
• No to persistent and systemic gender-based violence;
• Stop government corruption that diverts public resources away from essential social services;
• Confront the climate emergency, which disproportionately harms women in vulnerable communities;
• Our reproductive rights and self-determination, including decriminalisation of abortion and the right to choose.
• The legalisation of divorce.
• Stop the Philippines’ deepening entanglement in U.S. military expansion and imperialist wars.
• End the Genocide in Gaza.
• End dynasty rule.
MARCOS, MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE; DUTERTE, MUST PAY FOR HIS ACTIONS! ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN CORRUPTION MUST BE HELD RESPONSIBLE! RESIGN ALL!
We must also go beyond this.
Women’s emancipation cannot happen without fighting capitalism, dynastic rule, militarism, and environmental destruction.
Organise. Resist. Fight back.
For a society built not on profit, dynasty, and war, but on equality, democracy, social ownership, and genuine liberation – a socialist alternative.
No Women’s Liberation Without Socialism! No Socialism Without Women’s Liberation!
Building the Philippine Socialist Movement Today 