WOMEN will have to wage difficult but pressing struggles in the period ahead — this is the main concern of the organisations affiliated to the Women’s International Democratic Federation as outlined during a recent online meeting of its European office.

First, as far as health, healthcare, medicine and even scientific research in the field of medicine is concerned, it has now been proven that capitalism has dealt a devastating blow to the rights of the people. It isn’t a question of the quality of life, but of life itself now — and this has been demonstrated all through the pandemic.

As regards health systems, an unprecedented failure has been noted. Even if initially it was impossible to predict the magnitude of the needs arising from the pandemic, almost all capitalist states didn’t proceed to any proper preparation, through a substantial increase in the number of beds and ventilators or the hiring of more doctors and nurses to deal effectively with the pandemic’s subsequent waves. The result was that lives were lost.

At the same time, those claiming that the profit-based scientific research has a negative effect on the health of the people have been vindicated. No matter how many attempts are underway to cover up the fiasco in the production of vaccines and patents, business interests and the involvement of geostrategic policies and interests on the issue have all led to a setback in the efforts to confront the pandemic.

Instead of choosing the path of open data and co-operation, the path of competition was chosen, with huge sums ending up in the pockets of multinational companies.

Second is the attack on working peoples’ labour rights. For many years now, capital has found new forms of exploitation which it hides behind concepts such as flexible employment, flexible hours and remote working. Given this situation, working women, especially in the service sector, have now ended up working much longer hours than before, with employers even considering that it is their obligation since they are working from home.

No-one however, at least in most countries, has calculated the cost that each company in fact transfers to its workers. Laptops, technological upgrading or connecting to the internet, air conditioning, offices and other costs have been made the burden of working people.

In addition, with the excuse propagated by the big employers that we are entering a cycle of crisis, they are constantly proceeding with either reductions in salaries or to the curbing of gains and rights that have been won through fierce struggles.

There are, for example, numerous big companies that force workers to use their holiday leave so that they won’t be obliged to pay them on days when they do not need them.

Third, domestic violence against women is increasing. There hasn’t been, in almost any country, an effective and satisfactory framework in place to protect women from violence, starting with the education system and ending in structures to provide support and all-round assistance to victims. Today, however, the already major issue of violence against women has become a storm of protests which have broken out across the world.

Fourth is the issue of the curtailment of individual and collective human rights. The pandemic was, for those who had long been looking for it, the opportunity to completely suspend elementary human rights and use the lockdown for the approval of measures and decisions that in other cases would provoke protests and strikes.

There are cases in which the speed with which governments and presidents have delegated to themselves every responsibility, erasing the role and discourse of parliaments, has generated reflection about their very motives.

Fifth, we have various programmes — mainly of the EU — which are being propagated supposedly to help working people. But the truth is quite different.

Hundreds of millions of euros are being channelled to monopolies and big companies not for their sustainability but rather for securing their profits. What they are not informing people about is that the bill will sooner or later end up being paid by the workers themselves.

The Next Generation EU financial plan which has been incorporated in the long-term Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, announces three transitions — ecological, digital and social cohesion — that will take place to “correct the damage of the pandemic and prepare the future for the coming generation.”

First of all we must declare that despite the pompous verbal promises, we observe that for the funding of the Next Generation EU project, the EU will resort to issuing bonds in the financial market, including the private sector.

This means that European countries with access to the funding will be burdened with additional debt whose largest part will have to be paid by the future generations in interest. This will represent another consequence that the future generations will pay — in addition to the already devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Women in Cyprus have another task ahead of us. A task which for 47 years we have been setting as our top priority. Namely, our struggle to liberate Cyprus from the Turkish occupation and reunite our country and people and together, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to guarantee peace and prosperity for our country’s future generations.

Women in Europe and around the world face all these issues and much more, issues which we will have to tackle urgently. On the one hand working-class women must be vigilant in the face of the renewed attacks being waged on our rights and gains on the pretext of Covid-19 — and on the other hand we must not back down from our longstanding demands for equality and parity.

Skevi Koukouma is a Member of Parliament for AKEL, general secretary of the Progressive Federation of Women’s Organisations and vice-president of the Women’s International Democratic Federation.