Feminist struggles are historical and Friends of the Earth International is a reflection of these struggles. To mark 8 March 2023, International Womens Rights’ Day, we produced this video with Real World Radio and Friends of the Earth Nigeria/ERA. In the video, we pay tribute to the women who paved the way for gender justice. We celebrate those who are building a more dignified present and a future with greater opportunities.

Honoring the women who struggle

Many of the rights and freedoms that women and the LGBTIQ+ community have today did not emerge naturally from the state, nor were they gifts from governments. They are the fruits of a tireless, historical struggle. The right to vote, the right to a life free from violence, access to education, the right to decide over their own bodies, and many other freedoms which are nowadays seen as a basic part of our fundamental human rights – these have not always been a reality for women. 

“Sometimes words are not enough to reflect all what we have built. So many years have passed, so many struggles, and so many comrades sharing different spaces and conversations,” say Rita Uwaka, from Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

To those who fight every day to change the system, to those who want a world that revolves around life on earth, not capital. To all of them, thank you.

To workers, students, activists, peasants, Indigenous and Afro-descendant women. To those who defend territories and stand in the way of extractive violence. To those who plant and grow our food. To those who sustain homes and organisations. To those who make the wheel turn and who defend democracy. To those who stand up for rights in the streets and within institutions. To those who defend common causes. To all of them, thank you.

The struggle for gender justice in Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth International is a diverse network of people, spread across five regions and more than 70 countries. Gender Justice and Dismantling Patriarchy is a cross-cutting theme of our work. 

The distribution of wealth in the world is unjust. The damaging impacts of the capitalist system are also unjustly distributed, and mostly fall on women. Systems of oppression mutually reinforce one another, and capitalism is founded on patriarchy. 

We fight for social justice, environmental justice, economic justice and gender justice. We are Friends of the Eearth, we are life in struggle.

“In the offices and streets. In cities, mountains and forests. At the front and on the background, as spokeswomen or backup. Proposing a new world. Organising the struggle. We women have always been here, and we will always be here: mobilising, resisting, transforming.”

Video produced by Real World Radio and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria.  Real World Radio services social movements around the world as part of the communications of Friends of the Earth International.