March 8th is the international day for womens and gender minorities rights. It’s a celebration of historical and ongoing fights of feminist struggles. In video game, where sexual and gender based violence thrive, these fights are necessary.
Everywhere, the far right is gaining power to impose its project of reinforcing patriarchal, racist and capitalist dominations. Everywhere, it’s attacking our rights: reproductive rights, women’s rights, queer people rights, POC rights, children’s rights, workers’ rights, health and education public services. The sudden rise of fascist ideas and their constant normalisation in the public discourse directly threatens our lives.
In the United States, the Trump administration is destroying trans people rights and creating concentration camps for the undocumented immigrants. In Italy, the Meloni government removes parental recognition for lesbian couples. In Argentina, the Miley government shuts off the undersecretary’s office to the protection against gender violence. In Afghanistan, women are made prisoners in windowless rooms. In Sudan, rape is deployed as a weapon of war. In Palestine, Israel is perpetuating a genocide against the entire population. In Germany, the vast majority of men vote for a nazi party.
The video game industry is not foreign to the constant progression of the far right in the world. Players are radicalised through gamergate that tries to come back by, harrassing players, streamers or workers, in particular when they’re trans women. Our bosses don’t say anything against far right ideas, sometimes even support them!
Our bosses and companies play a crucial role in promoting and normalising fascist ideas, by protecting perpetuators of sexual and gender based violences, discriminating against and exploiting women and queer people. We, video game workers, are concerned and we won’t let this happen.
Video game workers demands are simple, and it’s mind-boggling to even have to formulate them:
- companies management must truly listen to workers, thus take seriously their representatives and respect the negociations ;
- tangible data and information collecting processes must be implemented, in order to then give them to workers representatives ;
- this second item must come with publicly providing statistical and non-personal data, in particular for salary grid implementation ;
- to prevent workers being silenced, real warning, reporting and internal investigation processes must be created and include workers’ representatives
In summary, to be clear: we demand our managers and company leaders to stop pretending to care about marginalised people only to use them as a stepping stone for the their company image, their career, or to maximise profits.
As we stated loud and clear in an assessment about our industry and our role, the fight against gender oppressions will go through unions. This statement comes from the fact that our rights are conquered only by fighting.
Unions are fighting spaces for women and marginalised people rights, whether it’s by creating choosen diversity spaces, by assisting victims of sexual and gender based violence in the workplace or in study areas, by forcing company managers to give back power to the workers, by enforcing equal pay, by assuring stable careers to precarious peoples, or even by undermining abusers authority and powers and of those who protect them.
Against the far right and macronism extreme economic liberalism , we demand dignified life for everyone, through the feminist strike!
Consequently, the Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo call for a strike in video game on saturday, the 8th of march 2025. We call for video game workers, unemployed people, retired people and students to mobilise in their companies and to join the mobilisations that will take place everywhere in France that day.
We remind that this call covers STJV purview in the private sector, and thus concerns everyone employed by a publisher, distributor, video game creator or services provider, regardless of their position or status, and regardless of the company’s domain of activoty (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esport, online content creation, etc.), and all teachers and professors working in private schools with video game related curriculum or courses. As it’s a national strike call, no process is necessary to be on strike: it’s enough to not come to work.