IN Belfast and Dublin this year, the Communist Party of Ireland held meetings to mark International Working Women’s Day with contributions from Jennifer McCarey, a Unison official and chair of Glasgow Trades Council, who spoke about the women of the Red Clyde and Sandra Trotter of the Communist Party of Britain, who spoke about Clara Zetkin.

Dr Jenny Farrell chaired the meeting with humour and political clarity, pointing out her own connections with Scotland and the German Democratic Republic.

There was also an inspiring greeting from the Chloe Nic Einri of the Connolly Youth Movement, who said: “It serves as a huge source of inspiration and it is a pleasure to be here and speaking alongside women who have made a massive difference in the women’s struggle over the decades and continue to do so. They are the fountain from which we draw our inspiration and learn from their actions. It is because of these women that there is a feminist, a Marxist feminist movement in Ireland today that I can be involved in.

“My name is Chloe and I am deputy chair of the women’s committee of the Connolly Youth Movement. It is important for us, as women, to encourage other women to get involved in politics, to help them understand their role in society as the rulers of their own destiny, that women do have agency and that we are not reduced to, as Connolly said, “the slave of the slave.”

“We are making a difference. We need young women to get involved, as together, we can accomplish so much. Our movement needs young women to get involved in activism; it is us who are the change, the future leaders.

“Every day, women experience constant discrimination and it’s for us to put an end to that and speak out, regardless of whether this is in public, at home or in the workplace. We should stand strong together and in solidarity with women across the world.

“I’m proud to say that our women’s committee has grown from last March and has been successful in raising money for period poverty as well as our members getting involved with the charity and setting up links with great women’s organisations such as the Footprints Women’s Centre, who are doing amazing work.

“This is only the beginning. The Connolly Youth Movement has fearless women ready and prepared to agitate, educate and organise alongside the women of our city.”