On Saturday, April 25, thousands of outraged workers and young people filled the streets of Belfast, rallying under the call “Not One More” in response to the ongoing epidemic of femicide, which has claimed 30 women’s lives in the North of Ireland since 2020. In a chilling continuation of this violence, just prior to the protest, another woman, Milena Ostojic, was murdered.
The demonstration was filled with placards bearing the names and faces of the 30 victims, accompanied by speeches from campaigners, trade unionists, victims’ families, and survivors of domestic abuse. They all focused on one alarming statistic: the North of Ireland now shares the title of ‘most dangerous place in Europe for women’, a situation that worsens daily with the ever deepening social and economic crises in Ireland.
The figures paint a frightening picture of the immense scale of the crisis. PSNI statistics for the year 2024/2025 reveal a harrowing 29,751 reported incidents of domestic abuse. On average, police attended a domestic abuse incident every 17 minutes! Domestic abuse is so rife, that 20 percent of all crime in the North is domestic abuse related.
Politicians in the North pay nothing but hypocritical lip service to these victims – it is their system which is driving this epidemic! In the same breath, while justifying cuts to desperately underfunded public services that can protect women, MLAs disgracefully announced their own £14,000 pay rises!
The Belfast Communists of the Revolutionary Communists of Ireland intervened energetically at the demonstration, discussing with participants why violence against women is inherent to capitalism and how it can be brought to an end.
Saturday’s protest has shown us that thousands of people refuse to sit idly by any longer. We must help organise these activists into the fight for communism! To fight to overthrow capitalism as the only means to rid society of violence against women, sexism, misogyny, oppression and abuse.
