#widf

April 7, 1930: Birthday of Comrade Vilma Espín, Cuban revolutionary, anti-imperialist guerrilla fighter, founder of the Federation of Cuban Women - Federación de Mujeres Cubanas. She made a crucial contribution as an early champion of queer rights in socialist Cuba.

Last year I learned from her daughter, Mariela Castro Espín, that Vilma initiated what would eventually become Cenesex under the auspices of the women’s federation. She was responsible for importing and publishing scientific and political materials from the German Democratic Republic on LGBTQ rights, contributing to Cuba becoming a leading example of queer and trans rights today.

Vilma also rescued the records of the Women's International Democratic Federation - Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres during the counterrevolution in Eastern Europe in 1990, and made sure Cuba undertook keeping the global women’s organization alive. Today Women In Struggle - Mujeres En Lucha is a proud member of the WIDF.

The Women’s International Democratic Federation Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean calls on women’s organizations throughout the world, as well as international public opinion, to speak out against this new, brutal and infamous outrage against Cuba with strong solidarity actions that demonstrate recognition of Cuba’s efforts and resistance to the frequent and unsuccessful onslaught of the imperialist power against this enterprising country.

By Lizz Toledo

The fight against the oppression of women is not only women’s work but it is the work of all revolutionaries no matter the gender.

Report by Lizz Toledo to the World Steering Committee of Women’s International Democratic Federation/Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres in Windhoek, Namibia: 

The status of women in the United States continues to be one of struggle. Women have been and continue to be in the frontlines of all people’s fights for liberation. We are union workers fighting to raise the minimum wage to $15 and fighting for equal pay. We are in the Im/migrant Rights movement demanding that family separations end and to abolish the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) police.

While in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, communities buried their dead from racist mass shootings, the U.S. government arrested 800 workers at their jobs in Mississippi chicken processing factories. Their children were left without their parents on their first day of school, but the racist billionaire owners exploiting these workers were not arrested for hiring undocumented workers.

We are in the streets demanding an end to mass incarceration and to abolish the oppressive police system that only serves the rich and powerful, who continue to kill Black and Brown youth at will and with impunity.

We are among the fighters for LGBTQ2S liberation. Stonewall 50 was celebrated this past June 30 in New York City, as delegates from around the world came to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the modern-day LGBTQ2S movement.

By Berta Joubert-Ceci

It is not accidental that very little is known in the U.S. about the Women’s International Democratic Federation, which was born to fight against the same imperialism that the U.S. leads. On Dec. 1, 1945, right after World War II, women from 41 countries met in France to create the WIDF (FDIM in Spanish). Many of these women had suffered directly from the bloody effects of the war and many had struggled against fascism. ...

The WIDF was especially hard-hit during the 1990s, when the disintegration of the USSR and the Eastern and Central European socialist countries meant that material support and great theoretical and practical contributions so instrumental for the functioning of the federation suddenly stopped.

By Lizz Toledo

Windhoek, Namibia: The friendship and love shown between comrades Sam Nujoma and Fidel Castro continues in the solidarity between the Cuban and the Namibian peoples. Their revolutionary energy is intoxicating. 

On this sacred ground, the World Steering Committee of the Women’s International Democratic Federation/Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres (WIDF/FDIM) met in Windhoek, Namibia, from Aug. 9 to Aug. 12, to draft resolutions for our upcoming congress to ratify and spread worldwide. 

Representatives from Asia, Africa, the Arab world, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean presented their resolutions from their respective regions. Cuba demanded an end to the U.S. blockade and for U.S. imperialism to stop pressuring Cuba to withdraw their support for Venezuela in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against Cuba. As Alicia Campos, representing the Federation of Cuban Women, put it, “We will never sacrifice our principles.”