Dear people of Leipzig, dear demonstrators
While so many of us have gathered here today and are speaking out together against patriarchy, wars and crises rule our world. Yes, we know: we are not living in easy times: Here in Germany, racist deportation laws are being passed, everything is becoming more expensive and many no longer know how to pull through. Today, our solidarity is with Gaza, where a genocide is currently being carried out against the Palestinian population before the eyes of the whole world. Our thoughts are with the people of Congo, who are also being subjected to genocide. And our hearts are with the courageous fighters who are resolutely defending the women’s revolution in Kurdistan against the Turkish state’s war of aggression. Women and LGBTI+ people are suffering particularly from these current wars. Rape is being systematically used as a weapon of war, hygiene products are lacking and misogynistic and trans-hostile violence is becoming particularly acute when people are fleeing. But here in Germany, too, many are suffering from the crisis: underpayment, financial ties to their husbands and daily violence against us are already part of everyday life for many women.
We heard it in the previous speech: fascism is marching into Germany and is gaining more and more support in society and the government. This triggers incredible fear and helplessness in us when we look to the future. What do the current developments mean for us in the future? Laws are already being passed against us, packaged as hypocritical improvements. Laws such as the „Selbstbestimmungsgesetz“, which forces all trans people who want to change their name on their passport to be counted, documented and criminalized. Or the blocking of progressive laws. For example, Germany recently opposed the EU’s „only yes is yes“ law proposal. So while the state stamps our safety as unimportant and secondary, not in 20 years have so many women and girls been murdered as in 2022. 89,000 sisters were brutally torn from their lives worldwide in one year for the sole reason that they were women. One of these 89,000 is Zohra Mohammed Gul. She was murdered in Berlin by her husband after being denied protection by the authorities and the state. The state knew of the danger Zohra was in as she had repeatedly asked the authorities for protection and help, but the state didn ́t do anything while she became a victim of femicide! He was complicit! A year later, a 16- year-old trans girl was murdered by her classmates in the UK. Brianna Ghey had walked proudly through her life, empowering countless others with her courage, until misogynistic and anti-trans violence brutally ended her life and took another sister from us.
All of us gathered here today have different realities of life and also different personal reasons why we are here today and why we are taking to the streets on the 8th of March. We have different realities of life, we have different experiences of oppression, but in the end we are all fighting against the same thing: The patriarchy that has oppressed us for centuries, keeping us down and inflicting violence. Capitalism, which continually exploits us as workers and wages wars around the world. We are all fighting against the
same system! We often feel alone in our struggles. We often look suspiciously at others. But we have an incredible amount in common: let’s ask ourselves: why am I here today?
What am I fighting for? Many of us will answer: The violence against us should come to an end. I am fighting for the liberation of all genders, so that one day everyone can look to the future with hope and confidence and everyone can live out their identity and sexuality freely!
Or perhaps some will answer: we don’t want a life where our prospect is a poorly paid 40-hour week and unpaid housework on top of that, no, we want a free and secure life without having to live in constant fear and worry. That is why we are standing here today. These are things that unite us. What also unites us is hope. We have come here today because we have hope for a better world. Because we know that we can make a difference. Because we know that together we are stronger than the oppressors. Because we want to fight together for a free life for all. When we organize and unite our struggles, together we gain an unbreakable force. The system weighs on our shoulders every day. Today and every other day we will shake it! So let’s defy the daily violence and fight together for our liberation!