Socialist Challenge No. 36, Battle of Ideas Supplment on Women's Liberation, 9 March 1978
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Page 1 scan of this page
Revolution and Women's
I commonly
assumption that men are socially superior to women Decause iney are natural) superior. Male supremacy, according
ERIS myth, -1OL2 phenomena at a particular stage in nstOry. oul anatura aw. Ana What
the 'proof" that inferior? They are mothers! Nature, it is believed, has condemned the female sex to an inferior status.
If these assumptions are correct, then the prospect for liberation would be grim. Yet the confidence of Marxists in the struggle to overcome women's arises because we reject these "truths' and maintain that oppression - including national, and racial oppression spring from historic, economic and social conditions. not (in the case ot women) from their sexual make-uo
Of course, it can't be denied that
- unlike men have been reproducers of the species throughout history! need to go beyond this elementary tact to assess the social meaning or value associated with reproduction. To get to the roots of the subjection of the female sex, it is necessary to examine the combination of all social relations in any particular period of history, including how organised in the production process and maintained, through reproduction. how
ORIGIN OF WOMEN'S OPPRESSION
HUMAN HISTORY can be divided 3HLO LWO main epochs: food-gathering epoch, which extended over hundreds of thousands years; and the food-producing epoch, which began with the invention agriculture and stockbreeding some 8,000 years ago. In primitive societies, production was limited to hunting, fishing, and gathering immediate consumption community. Everyone played arduous role in overcoming the harsh forces of nature sustaining me commumity.
In these subsistence-based sociemes. a socia division ot labour existed: men generally hunted while
gathered wild womer
However, although division of labour developed along sex lines, there is no evidence to suggest that this division oppressive to women.
of both women and Status reflected the roles each of the sexes
performed in social production the activities of everyday life.
Increasing antropological Gence suggests contribution to these hand-to-mouth societies was not unimportant. Men
- nela
SOCa
women are
women's
oppression
sexual,
biological or
But Marxists
labour is
itself is
the for the the an they sang Common to and physically
fruits and
this
empty-handed, was
ne socia
mer
and
evi-
labour
London women marched in defiance of McKnee's Public Order Ban to celebrate International Women's Day. And
Cano Chantes al une way Brixton Community harassment could not prevent cicterhood The women chose to march illegally refused to be classified as a 'cultural or religious festival'
were just as likely as not to return
because hunting prully, the care of young members community's of the community did not fall upon the women within individual family units — as the family has evolved today -but was borne by the community as a
with its social division of
As productive forces in society
Liberation
from Clapham Centre- Police this annual show of
and
developed - with the invention of improved implements, for example -a small surplus of goods was created above and beyond the immediate
agricultural revolution made possibe a quantalive chance ul society. With the domestication of plants, food became more abundant, and new productive forces The former division of releaseu. labour between the sexes
which would have exempted them from the ban.
Leatlets distributed on the march reminded women thai International Women's Day commemorates the strike in 1908 of 15,000 New York sweatshop garment workers all women and all muitant ne Womens movement still has to fight the oppression of women at home, at work and in the streets
displaced by a new series of social divisions specialisation of jobs was possible now that some people were freed from food gathering. which The emergence presented the possibility of exchange, together with the private appropriation of the social surplus. Although were this transition in society was complex and extremely uneven, the developing societies rapidly became stratified. was
ideas
the
Te Tire appeared.
production
favourable
property
charactes New
generation.
for exchange.
point -
that defined
SOCa DrOduCUOl
oppression Family,
rooting women's
that
this WOLK
WHLE
labour, and
ot this surplus This
menoe endoles analyse
liberation.
BATTLE OF IDEAS supplement 9 March 1978 page 1 Those who came to privately control the society's surplus laid the basis for
emergence COT classes WILS fundamentally different interests. For
time inequality
The new division of labour and the changing relationship between men
the DIOCCOS of for exchange created conditions for men to dominate, both in the seizure of the surplus and in the class of the owners of this surplus. Why did men as a group have this
relation to the social surplus? This question is a point of continuing debate among anthro pologists and winn une women liberation movement.
Whatever the reasons. it is cleai that with the development of private
and the emergence ot a state to defend it - the value of women's role as reproducers of future generations assumed quite a diferent patriarcha family Forms vere men at family forms the head, so that the paternity of children could be guaranteed and private property passed on to the new
Women themselves like cattle - became valudole ooject
They, were a source of wealth, who could produce new human beings with potential labour to be exploited. It was at this
with the emergence of the patriarchal family in class society -
women became increasingly by their reproduction capacities, rather than their role in
In the classical Marxist work which explains the origins of women's
The Origin of the Private Property and the State - Frederick Engels is careful to argue against any notion of men and women as antagonistic classes.
oppression in the family forms which developed with the passage from pre-class to class
class antagonism coincides win me cevelooncat antagonisms of man and woman in the monogamous marrage
There has been much debate abour
Some critics feel that Engel's sources were inadequate given the low level of antropological knowledge and data when he was
Others challenge conclusions he draws from the data. Whatever the assessment of Engels contribution on these points, it is hi method which remains an important acquisition for Marxists.
historical and materialist us to scientifically women's oppression and to for women's We can't tackle the subjugation women have suffered fo centuries on the basis of subjective
Page 2 scan of this page
BATTLE OF IDEAS supplement 9 March 1978 page 2
wishes or hopes. It needs hard analysis which comes to terms with how male-female reproduction combine with the total set of social relationsdominant relations of production — in society.
It isn't an easy task. It means we need to examine these historically, from preclass through the slave, feudal and capitalist forms of class society. Furthermore we need
SCC why women still oppressed and subjugated by the East European and Soviet bureaucracies, even after capitalist relations have been overthrown.
WOMEN'S OPPRESSION UNDER CAPITALISM
WOMEN'S ROLE in the different family forms that existed throughout class society has served the interests of the ruling class. In our society, ne capitalisin advanced industrial countries, nuclear monogamous family is the unit that maintains and determines ine specinc character of women's oppression. The mother-father-children set up we are all familiar with is a far cry from the communal kinship structures of primitive societies or even the slave family slave-owner, wife and all the slaves as one basic social and economic unit.
The family plays many important functions for the ruling class today. It is no longer the unit for economic production it was in the early days of capitalism, when all members of the family worked none cloth, making chains, and so on. But it still has a vital economic role.
The family of the classes. todav reproduces
for capitalism. small unit, on its own, is responsible for the over-all well-being of both today's workers and those of the future. And it produces workers to suit the system. The family system is a repressive and conservative institution that reproduces within itself the hierarchical, authoritarian necessary to the maintenance of class society as a whole. at tosters the possessive, competitive, and aggressive attitudes which are necessary to perpetuate class divisions.
The bourgeoisie and even sections of the petit bourgeoisie defend the family for it is une mechanism through with their private property can be passed on.
Because women's 'natural' place is supposed to be in the family, this enables the ruling class to maintain a
pool of low-paid, TeSCEYC skilled, and dispensable labour which
is vital to the irrational fluctuations of the economy. Women are relied on to take employment in sectors which are extensions of their role in the family, such as caring, teaching, cleaning, restaurants.
The family as a unit is álso a consumer for the myriad of products produced under capitalism for profit.
A glance at any modern advertising material indicates that this potential promotion experts - whether it be
cosmetics to catch a husband, spray
polish to brighten the family home, or
anti-depressants to make its isolation
bearable:
Of course, the inequalities in this
situation are hidden, and the Church
and the media are determined to see
they remain that way. Just as the state
appears to be neutral,
life-long sacrifice
husbands, and the elderly is made to
seem natural'.
democracy that appear to exist are
systematised and promoted by the
bourgeoisie, thus obscuring
nature of relationships
society.
The family, in reproducing this
ideology, further denegrates women.
For example, women's sexual desires
and expression hardly exist - if the
dominant notions in society are to be
believed. She is seen to have sexual
relations only to fulfill her 'natural'
instinct as a child bearer
And even if sexual relations for
women aren't so directly linked to
procreation, the role of women is
reduced to giving pleasure to men
Lesbianism doesn't fit
so it is labelled as
'unnatural', and 'perverted".
ideology does
simply 'keep women in their place. It
weakens the working class as a whole
by strengthening
already exist and opening up new OLICS. exclusively the organisers of family
life, their isolation in the home can lead them to 'breadwinner' from rocking the boat at work, because of the extra burdens such achions relations household affairs.
industrial action might pay off, but it doesn't subsitute for cash in the hand for the family's food and clothing
remain And it's not a long step between
their women SCCInE separate from breadwinner to both men and women putting the private concerns of family ife ahead of the collective interests of the working class.
The daily struggle of the working class in a time of crisis like
many suffers from these notions.
have working class accepts the idea that
women belong in the home, it's not ditticult to understand why men and often women see the propertyless
future
This Te anons
also
little-
• MARTIN SLAVIN
for the
women's
charch.
equality and cucouldec.
THE the POWER
in class
are striving
What Have
Unlike primitive
mass of the
into this daily life.
more than
the drive Civisions wile
WORICI are people. The
pressure ORIC
will place in managing In the long term
, and social. interests those of the society by control of
If the forces will
women's jobs,
ROYAL
RUSSELL
SCHOOL,
Staff at the Royal Russell School at Croydon who refused to leave their union
- the GMWU - didn't get the pay increases given other members of the staff.
The strikers have been in dispute since 3 March. Support to GWU office, 205 Hook Road, Chessington, Surrey.
wages, and welfare needs as 'luxuries' women. to be dispensed with. It is this kind of weakness in the working class that the bourgeoisie is only too happy to
STRUGGLE FOR STATE
cutterences AS REVOLUTIONARY socialists,
to achieve the liberation of human life from all forms of oppression and exploitation
festered and flourished since the dawning of class society.
and pre-class of state power societies, the productive forces of today's society - and the technical, scientific and cultural capacities of its members - have the potential for the
people exercie collective control over all aspects of
This potential for human liberation economic is blocked at everv turn bv a socia system in which the production and whole, reproduction of life is determined br
accultulatc and appropriate capital, and not by the
needs and demands of the mass of the
maintenance of capitalist relations depends in important ways
continuing oppression women. Nevertheless the destruction of these capitalist relations is not an end in itself — it simply removes the major barrier to the achievement of our longer term goal; the liberation o humanity from all forms of apres sonian sexual, cultur-
precondition for women's liberation is the replacement of class
collective and planned all forms of production.
Women's liberation won't automatically come about when the private ownership of the means of production is transferred to the working class as a whole. To begin with the productive
need to be totally redirected and planned. This way, they will be channelled to fulfill the needs of the mass of people, including
The possibilities of women gaining
independence and confidence Part
enormous in a society which develops
its productive forces so that inequality
is eradicated. Safe and effective birth
control; mechanisms to eliminate the
relevance of. all historically evolved
socialised
childcare, laundry, and restaurants,
will all become possible.
Whether they are realised, depends
upon the conscious efforts of the
autonomous women's movement
vitally necessary even after the seizure
- in tackling not only material basis of women's
oppression but also the ideological
baggage of capitalist societies which
will stubbornly persist.
Unless we recognise now that an
integral part of the transformation of
society is the transfer of social and
functions borne by the
individual family unit to society as a
women's
liberation will recede well into the
distant future even after the working
class has seized state power.
This means we need to be clear about the nature of the state we are presently up against. That the state defends capitalist relations is a point on wnich all revolutionarie agree. But the economism syndicalism of the British left has tended to reduce capitalism to the economic relations at the point of production.
Capitalism is a complex system of social, political, and relations. The state defends all these in the interest of capital by regulating and controlling every aspect of our existence - from supervising tamily life and stepping in with the 'welfare state' if the family fails to deliver 'the goods', its more interventon m the CCUHUHLY rescuing ailing firms or using police force against pickets intervention into sexual relations of nomosexuals. This is the scope bourgeois domination revolutionarie are out to destroy, and it is against the power of the state that demands for women's liberation need to be posed
It's obvious that one sector of oppressed people or even workers on their own can't successfully challenge this formidable political adversary The working class • an essential, but by no means only, component of the struggle for state power - must aim to unite all the oppressed and exploited in society. Every step along the way from today's through the establishment of organs of dual power, to the final overthrow of the capitalist state, the working class must lead an struggle for a system of demands, or a programme, which can generate the unity that is vital.
Demands for the liberation of women can't therefore be separated from the political concerns of the class struggle. In place of ahistoric, ultimatistic demands to abolish the family, demands should be pursued for State take responsibility, under our control, for tasks carried out today by women in the individual family unit. The family won't disappear by dictat!
It will wither away only when society as a whole assumes its collective responsibility tor member of the community. That is a central task for socialism. Placing these demands now on the capitalist state takes forward the struggle, as Lenin explained in relation to divorce: 'Marxists know that democracy does not abolish class oppression. It only makes the class struggle more direct, wider, more open and pronounced and that is what we need. the freedom of divorce, the clearer will women see that the source of their "Domestic slavery' is capitalism not lack of rights. The mere democratic the system of government, the cleare will the workers see that the root evi is capitalism, not lack of rights.'
'Divorce in this quotation can be replaced with 'childcare', 'a woman's right to choose on childbirth', 'equal pay and other demands of the women's movement.
In place of demands for the creation of new lifestyles independent ol polluical and working struggle, as radical feminists raise, revolutionaries fight to transform the
daily concerns of women into a
challenge against bourgeois control over them. This isn't easy
especially with issues like rape and
women battering. But with these
quesuons well,
determination to challenge
weaken the bourgeois state, combined
with a firm commitment to women's
liberation, which underlies
revolutionary approach.
For all these reasons, although it
may appear a bit contradictory on the
surface, revolutionaries demand; the
democratic right to civil not Church
marriage in Spain; resist the breaking
up of Asian families through the
immigration laws of the British state;
and oppose sterilisation when it is
imposed by the state — as it is on
Black women in Britain
Revolutionaries in
been slow to understand the centrality
of women's liberation. What we have
had to overcome is the legacy
the reality today - of both social
democracy and stalinism.
democracy has traditionally insisted
that the unions will take
economic matters, and Parliament
will solve all political and social
questions. The
scrupulously avoids what it deems are
'personal matters' - like abortion
rights, which it was only forced to take up when movement that could no longer be ignored.
When social democracy does take
and up social questions in
women's movement such as child care provision, it offers utterly reformist simply 'patch up' the system rather than transforming it. sought to achieve these more often economic
than not through backroom wheeling and dealings with local rather than mobilising the mass of women. But even in these cases, the economism -OI blinkered its forthright struggles, and in ignoring them, the
in political initiative hands of reformists.
state The reformists try
defenders of women's rights - but of ignore the material roots of women's oppression. more interested in changing attitudes struggles
independent
Socialist
and the atmosphere.
social
why the these The fuller the 'new left'
ciass women.
to face. class
responsibilities state a
grew
change
- and
Social
care of
Party
SEXUAL
reminists oul
which the IS concerned, perspectives to And it has
authorities
the SATINSA
orientation to these
was left in the
to pose as
Thev have been much
The sociali
is rel
The socialist current in the women's liberation movement is reborn. This was affirmed at the thousand-strong
Feminist Conference January, at which women from the International Marxist Group partici pated. We were impressed by its size
positive, supportive
Thinking back to the national socialist current conferences before they collapsed in 1975, we were struck by the different flavour and content of discussion. This set us thinking -
difference? What has changed in the socialist current? Is it a positive or negative change?
Since the earliest days of the women's liberation movement, there has been a debate about the links between the battle for women's liberation and the struggle against capitalism. Activists during the late 60s applied the tools of Marxism to
discussions, sharpened debates in the student movement and
As working class struggles gathered steam in the early 70s, the WLM responded with solidarity action. And as well as discussions on the nature of domestic labour and the family in capitalist, society, there was lively debate on the links between the WLM and the organised struggles of the working class — particularly working
Labour was returned to office in 1974. And women had new problems
Promises of equality and independence evaporated. Attacks on living standards placed even greater
on women in the family. The toothless Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination laws didn't live up
Labour's promises, and the Government failed to lift a finger in defence of women's abortion rights against reactionary attacks.
In response the WLM vigorously campaigned on its six demands. The National Abortion Campaign, the Working Women's Charter, and actions around such issues nurseries, rape and battered women
stronger. Through their experience of struggle, more and more women new to the ideas of the WLM saw the need to fundamentally
society by challenging women's oppression and the class society which perpetuates it.
But these changes don't come easily. The movement was up against basic problems: the strength and political power vested in the State; the collaboration of union and labou leaders; the labour movement itsell which dismisses the plight of women experienced beyond their economic conditions at work; the inadequate perspectives for liberation offered by
sections of the socialist movement
Discussion and analysis of the
Page 3 scan of this page
OLITICS
in society. The toothless measures of the Sex Discrimination Act bear this out.
Stalinism has erious problem. When the women' movement emerged, the policy of the Communist Party of Great Britain was to defend the nuclear family as a basic unit in socialist society. The CP maintained that the family was a working class could be a haven from the pressures of the class struggle.
These policies first appeared in the working class as the stalinist degeneration set in in the Soviet Union. reinforced the familv for many the same reasons it is maintained bv capitalist society — as a means of inculcating attitudes of submission to and privileges of a minority. And so the gains made by women in the 1917 revolution in the Soviet Union were rolled back. Bolshevik policies which
st current
orn!
fundamental problems of strategy confronted in the movement's activity was needed. From this, the socialist feminist network was set up at the 1976 WEM COHICICHICC Woman, the socialist newsletter, and regional conterences and workshops were organised.
What was different January's conference of the socialist current in Mance on
Most conference hoped a discussion on socialism TEHRISE provide some answers to the problems confronting them in struggle.
earlier socialist discussions were largely attempts by Marxists in the WLM to apply their analysis to the movement's debates.
ine renor socialist current has grown out of developments in the WLM itself. Its links with the WL places it in a good position to spread its ideas about a socialist strategy for women's hoeration to the movement.
The present debates start from a criticism of sections of the socialist movement which reduce the struggle for women's liberation to the narrow confines of the economic struggle of WOrKIng class workplace.
However, the basis of agreement within the current is at a very elementary level. The importance of a class struggle against capitalism recognised. But, its relationship to the hattie for women's iberation is tar from clear.
The meaning of feminism' remains undefined. some women it is an alternative to the political strategies revolutionary left, involving radically new demands and actions, even to the exclusion of women from left groups.
For others, the renewed confidence and strength of the socialist current offers good possibilities movement as a whole to develop clear links with an anti-capitalist struggle. Through its influence on the labour and socialist movements, women feel that the WLM can ensure its struggles are fully integrated.
This debate was inadequately developed during the socialist feminist conference. recognised this failing. The debate on theory and strategy will continue therefore through the Scarlet Woman journal and another conference, after a further year of local and regional discussion.
The lessons to be learned from this welcome debate are relevant to the discussion agitating socialist movement. organisations cannot be content to comment from the sidelines. have a responsibility to contribute to
promoted
osed an equall aununics.
burdens discarded.
stronghold, which megiumacy
process of seen as a The bureaucracy ICCOnSLrUCHOl
perpetuating the
bureaucracy
oppression.
Party, Scarlet
feminist bourgeois
miserably failed. about the transformed,
women at the
women's would The
feminist family.
not
Darty
whole
groups. the
movement
groups
'socialist
For
offered by the actions
TOr the
The scope
THOSE
raisce bul
Most
national
women
Revolutionary
They
women
free, legal abortion, benefits, communal houses, public eating places, central
nurseries and other measures to liberate women from the
of domestic labour were The rehabilitation of the the ly is: the Soviet Union began. in the abortions were abolished in 1936;
reappeared; wedding rights and marriage ceremonies were again instituted; homosexuality wa made a criminal offence in 1934; and non-reproductive sexuality came to be
deviation from socialist Women The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe remain oppressed today. They are still responsible for domestic labour in individual family units. According to an official Soviet census in 1970, 90 per cent of all urban women between the ages of 16 and 54 hold jobs outside the home. Yet the average • Soviet
voman spenas tour to seven nours
lay on housework, in addition t eight hours on an outside job. An important component of the political revolution needed to overthrow the
will thus be women fighting to end the double day of work and all other vestiges of their
The emergence of the women's movement in Britain has made an impact on the crisis-ridden Communist Party. The CP, unlike the Labour
officially recognises SEne existence of the women's liberation movement. But the policies of the CP cannot change in any fundamental way wnie it remains nea to une interests of the bureaucracy in the
And to dare, on une Vita question of the need to destroy the
State. WICE SCCKS reinforce the family, the CP has
It not only argues mistakenly that
bourgeois state be but like the Labour Party has been totally unable to address itself to the material roots of
oppression in the family.
CP has Decont
exclusively concerned with changes in atutude ana personal relauons in tac
With the tailure of the main organisations of the working class to champion women's liberation, it is
surprising that of the women who began to organise against their oppression in the late '60s did so
response to the inadequacies of the left. Even today,
economism persists. Some sects still dismiss the women's movement as petit bourgeois. And the Socialist Workers Party; although it now recognises the need for a broad OWDRY women's movement, insists it be tied to their party through Women's Voice
nus une 'Women's Voice movement' is projected as a parallel one to the women's movement under the control of the SWP.
•Une women's liberation comes quite strategies. The movement appeared in the militant days of struggle in the late
WCIC formed across the country: including groups for study, self-help, consciousness raising, and
The new wave of unleashed by womer demanding their liberation followed an important equal pay strike at Fords
Dagenham, and of the campaigning activity by the National Joint Action Council for Women's Equal Rights, which had similarities with today's Working Women's Charter Campaign.
of actions taken by women for their rights at work made it clear that the new consciousness
along wolnch was
disappear overnight. Working class
were influenced by the
militant upsurge of the '60s and they, too, through their unions and other working class organisations, demanded their rights as women.
It was on the question of how to make this challenge effective and how to take the feminist struggle forward
that differences have emerged in the movement hor raocal Tem sE
and men make up two antagonistic classes. wolen s ol
pression arises thanks to attempts by
the dominating male class to maintain
patriarchal and sexist relations. In
other words as long as men have
existed, so too has the subjugation of
The common feature of all radical
feminists is that they analyse women's
olasession as separate frey. the
class re anons society. struggle for socialism has no place in their strategy, and their concern for unity among all women leads them to see Changes lifestyle perspective for struggle, over above alliances with the working class
ind other oppressed groups who ar
Iso seeking to eradicate capitali society.
The strategy offered by radical feminists rests on the assumption that WORCH share identical whatever their class. surprising, therefore, that the more extreme wing this advocates a separate life from men as the route to liberation.
A critique of radical feminism has emerged within the movement itself, from the socialist feminist current. reminists in unis current are equally concerned
the Marxist method
Act
1901 Factory a workshops
1909 Trades Board
'What's Left' on page 10 for further details.
socialis politics from
perspectives. The first
organised by socialist
concerned domestic labour. It is in
this area of analysis, especially on the
related women's oppression, which Marxists ideological
have been weakest on.
Through these debates, Marxists
will be able to arrive at a more
enriched understanding
oppression of women.
ways. ior example, in wach society
uses social, cultural, and psychologi-
cal mechanisms
bourgeois démocracies to perpetuate
women's oppression? Many critics of
Marxism have turned to Freud's
theories psychoanalyst.
investigate this question.
have arisen when
concepts are used to explain, rather
than simply describe, the nature of
women's oppression.
Very often these debates have start-
ed from the assumption that patriar-
chy - male-dominated family forms
existed before class society. The drawn are
different from those of the radical feminists: patriarchal relations once again become a parallel form oppressive relations, independent of the class struggle. is that it fails to look at the plight of women historically, to see the specific form oppression takes in each epoch.
It's a bit too easy just to put women's oppression down to nation! And when concepts are used to scientifically explain women's oppression, it ofte
interests, comes back to the familiar idea that i
not exists thanks to women's biological makeup or their innate psychological current drives.
parallel to the class struggle not a central part of it - then it's not
women's going too much further to see the
movement as politically autonomous from the struggle. Thus there is the idea that and organisation is necessary 1901 Select "Come caser seeing is believi
lode Detail from hessian-mounted collage created by Margaret Harrison from the 'Women at Work' exhibition now on at Battersea Arts Centre, Lavendar Hill, SW11. Harrison's montage exposes the plight of women homeworkers. See
workerist debate liberation feminists oppression of women by
aspects of into a political party which saw
based and united,
What are the forces
women.
advanced LIBERATION MOVEMENT
'AUTONOMY'" MEANS
Problems who need to psychoanalytical Headersho in them
revolutionary not workers'
COT
The danger in this kind of approach way.
Sexist
male domi- by the psychoanalytical
If women's struggle is regarded as
and
from
confidence separate political leaderships interests - Devone
антотансан develops.
Class
After the
WITn aspect example,
challenge
1959 Wages councils
Oct
actions on important
light lor
to the
because acuvIsts.
our
the social movement for women's THE WLM
to eradicate sexual men
This is a dangerous perspective. If ialists the movement were transformed
its purpose as being separate from the class struggle, it would be weakened ana incapable or becoming oroadi division.
ready / to forge unity with other social and political
involving both men and
THE AUTONOMOUS WOMEN'S
maids,
self-government. In other words, it is women
take control and struggle for liberation. Support for the autonomous women's movement - whether it be the right of women to meet in women's only groups or for action groups such as the National Abortion Campaign — is a vital part of the
programme. Today, foundations movement remains
BATTLE OF IDEAS supplement 9 March 1978 page 3
influenced by the ideas promoted by -the ruling class whic! SCt primarily as mothers and wives. The bureaucracy of the labour movement is quite content to keep things this
divisions weaken the working class not only in its efforts to confront the bosses, but they can also help reinforce the privileges i enjoyec
bureaucracy itself. The undemocratic nature of the workers' movement makes it difficult to turn the tide within the unions.
In preparation for a superior form of democracy in socialist society, well as to advance women's struggles,
n important part of the figl for
orking class democracy is the rig of women to organise independently of the bureaucracy and discuss apart
male workers WInG hold sexist ideas. This helps women to gain
and - TOTCE SEnE represent
These problems won't disappear
struggle Even when the working has established its own democratic organs of power which challenge those of the bourgeoisie, the
naterial basis of women's oppressio
ind the ideas to sustain it will persis
overthrow of capitalism choices will still have to. be made about where resources are allocated. The autonomous women's movement meld ore omen are not swept aside.
of women are not swept aside. today's ae vance. productive forces and a new level of feminist consciousness that go well beyond what was possible in Soviet Union in 1917, revolutionaries are better equipped to confront the inequities suffered by women in every
their existence. For the Bolsheviks generally accepted a sexual division of labou which continued to assign women te staffing the child care centres collective laundries. Thanks to the
•ov une women. movement today, these tasks are no longer automatically regarded as the 'natural' duty of women.
The wavs women organise nov and during the transition to socialism
- will vary immensely. Autonomous organisation will involve campaigns
caucuses in the unions, consciousness raising groups, and so on. Not all of these groups exclude men. Indeed, the organisation of mixed campaigns and
'women's issues are an indication commitment to seek unity with
everyone prepared to join in the class
struggle in a way which integrates the
women's liberation But
whatever the form this might take, i
is up to women to take the leadership
in the fight for their liberation
The commitment of revolutionarie
autonomous movement isn't something we agree with today, bke
dismiss tomorrow economistic currents on the left, we
don't condemn the movement as an
irrelevant petit bourgeois formation
its 'middle class Rather than simple
tactical orientation, our commitment
stems from the contribution we see
the movement making in confronting
the bourgeois state and in reaching
common political goal
universal liberation.
SOCIALIST STRATEGY FOR
SOC seek to build the broadest
possible movement of
recognising that women as a sex are
oppressed by class society we can't
brush aside the effects of class
Sexism is experienced in qualitita
tively different ways by differen
classes of women. It is possible for
women of the ruling class to alleviate
the privaused nature or domesur
labour, for example, by employing
sending children to public
schools, or investing in labour-saving
devices And thev are auite able to
control their fertility by a visit to the
private clinics of Harley Street
That's not to suggest that thes
women won't be drawn to the rank
of the women's movement. In Britain
it hasn't occurred yet, but as feminist
ideas penetrate deeper it could. But
struggle for women's
liberation begins to challenge the very
of class society, these
women will have to choose between
Page 4 scan of this page
the dominant class relations from which they benefit, and the struggles being led by women to put an end to une class and is state wnich oppresses them.
These women will loin movement on the basis of agreement with its six demands, along with a lot
rangther pritical hold Should
political views. revolutionaries support the unity of the movement, or simply be satisfied with becoming active in the socialist current? In our view, to join with only self-professed socialists weaken the movement as a whole. If the socialist current separated from the WLM tomorrow logic if one argues that the rest of the movement should be ignored - much
SIES sondanity imagination would dissipate.
The unity of the movement today around demands which take struggle for women's liberation forward can lay the basis for confident fighting and immensely larger movement tomorrow. issues. such as rape, first taken up by radical feminists, have had enormous impact in society. although serious criticisms made of the strategy put forward on the issue of rape, any differences can be better resolved within a common movemen miss especaly ue cast when the movement is in ferment and cicar ponacal arternauves nave nol yet crystallised.
Agreement on the six demands of the WLM does not necessarily give the
mic. But insofar as it was born in the midst of the youth radicalisation of the late '60s — with its challenges to hierarchy, authority, attitudes, and the distortions society imposes on all forms of daily life -we can at least say it has a disposition to develop with this dynamic.
As the class struggle develops, this will be mirrored in the movementse ano une seal tor unity action with Cao lausE Torces — mier are women. through debate and clarification on a strategy for liberation. the socialist current of the women's movement can help win the within the movement to a socialist strategy.
This will strengthen and bring more forces into broader struggles. this lays the basis for raising demands for the needs of women in • these broader struggles those against racism against une urunwick bosses, and so on. This is the best way to ensure the deas or une women s movement are spread far and wide.
Revolutionaries have an important role both within the socialist current and the broader MOYCHICHIL. arguing for our programme of action independent of the ruling class and its state, revolutionaries seek to activists to our ideas. It is through the active struggles waged movement that the different strategies will be tested. This will force the petit bourgeois or bourgeois forces in the movement to choose whether to link up with the working class as the only means or acmeving noeranon.
However broad we may try to build the WiM. we can't pin our present hopes on numerically increasing the involvement of working class womer in local groups. When working class WHICH OCCU challenge oppression, they often see the unions, tenants associalluls groups, or even the Labour Party as their terrain of struggle. For these woleh, immediate there identification often
which sharply women's 'natural' role in the family.
We need to take the ideas of the women's movement into all working class organisauons. mn adaron tc women organising within these bodies — tor exampie, I women's caucuses women have been drawn to many activities: single issue campaigns, campaigns launched (however inade quately) by the leadership of mass organisations, and one-off meetings and conferences organised by WLM groups.
Women new to the ideas of the women's movement are beginning to act. And ine wEM nas a special responsibility to ensure that through debates, pampniels, and books, tne links between these specific issues and
questions oppression are drawn.
uvea up to in many cases.
terraola London this the DarL of the
fully HOL immediately
because of their sex.
would
and this is the
and
the
Many
And can
bureaucratic
women's
other anti-
broadest torces
anti-capitalist
such as and fascism,
By
win
by the their
is not an
with the
challenges
independently
working class
wide-ranging
local
tion.
Challenge
This liberation
This is
being
responsibility which the WLM has not
weneed only look at the activities planned for
month to see how WLM. failed approach many women who might
understand, with, the full six demands of the movement. Yet many of these women are fighting hard battles against injustices they face
Whatever the form this broad radicalisanon may take, me wEM needs to maintain — and even step up - 1is тасрепасп аспупу. A ngnung force of women determined to put an ena to une oppressive Tamuy walch class society has forced on them can only give a spur to women struggling 'Police protect pornography', chanted women marching in London to celebrate International Women's Day. When women began to put This exploits women' stickers on the sexist Jaffa orange squash hoarding, police moved in to
AT THE PRESENT time there is a
debate within the
revolutonary ett on both us portical
perspectives and the way to build a
new, unified revolutionary organisa-
OT Benne
ppeared in the columns of Socialis
supplement on women's by the International COTTONS
contribution to this discussion.
The IMG consider.:: that the issues discussed al
around specific issues in the labour movement united Callpaleus such as thes Abortion Campaign.
THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY AND THE WLM
THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY
The WLM movement which seeks to eradicate sexual, cultural, social and economic oppression faced by women. entails confronting the state, so the movement cannot remain politically autonomous from the class struggle. Ultimate success requires unity with every force out to end the power of the bourgeois state.
But to say that the women's
EXP - S
An invitation from the
International Marxist Group
conference in April will be of interest to many on the revolutionary left. For
organisations and individuals to participate in our conference
of regional meetings of IMG members are being organised. The final series place on the locked of and pr
following STUBUS individuals are invited to attend: Big Flame, Workers League, national Socialist Alliance, Libertarian Communist Group
movement has a political link with the
front class struggle and snoula notignore H National is quite
should therefore be organisationally tied to political parties, trade unions or any other body which appears to share some or all of its aims. Any successful effort to take over the women's movement organisationall would disastrous!
social struggle for liberation - even if the
agreed!
MOYCHCHE revolutionaries can best influence the This WLM is by democratic right to present their ideas to the movement, and through debate and activity, winning women to them. The party can't substitute itself for the WLM. It has a very limited and specific role: to synthesise the experiences of struggle into a protect this degrading image of women.
The marchers refused to leave, and the police were To centaneon men waran cerence.
Socialist Challenge supporter
The aggregates two items: tactics in the trade unions, and the next steps in building a unified revolutionary party. Regional meet ings wilbe taking following cities: London, Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham,
If you would like to attend either Ine aggregares or the conterence mer
Inter. write to: IMG, PO Box 50, London
NI 2XP. Please state if you are in one and of the organisations mentioned.
different from arguing
weaken
The way The party
arguing for the
OT questions power revolutionary niernanonally This has
state against muggers •UnE
confidence. pating
CUBe centrality revolution'
can only
will be discussing
conduct
consciously
BlaC uces
direction
BATTLE OF IDEAS supplement 9 March 1978 page 4
programme of action and demands capable of unleashing a battle agains the right of the bourgeoisie to dominate and control all areas life. The party fights for
within all movements struggles aid them recognising the nature of bourgeois domination and to win them to the need to challenge capitalist relations and ultimately to seize state power
is united and on fundamental agreement - that is its political programme. On a wide range
Vol neory, history, aesthetics, philosophy, etc, the
party takes no line Policies taken by the revolutionary party, on the contrary, relate to one limited concern — how to get from today's struggle to the seizure of state
On a whole range of questions revolutionaries consciously do not adopt a political line. Furthermore, even where revolutionaries agree on a line, it doesn't mean they have all the answers! What we do have is method of approaching the struggle and an overall strategic framewor which links present struggles with the seure or state dower. rough ou organisation we are able to synthesise
of all our militants, and can share our assessment and policies on a wide range of issues which the WLM is beginning to take up - like thi anti-imperialist struggles, racism, and
Because the IMG is the only group on the far left which is part of a
international, with sections in over 60 countries, we also have the benefits and experiences of struggles in which our comrades, all over the world have engaged in. It is the responsibility of revolutionaries, therefore, to ensure that perspectives adopted by the women's movement don cur across me reces o ouie sections of society either in Britain or
lappened. It is on
ecessary to recall the support whi some feminists first gave to the Peace People in Ireland or the lack of sensitivity in the rape actions to the racist witchhunts launched by the
the so-called black
The relationship between members of a revolutionary organisation and the WLM isn't a one-way process. The development of the revolutionary programme is not drawn from the air or from 'holy texts'. It is drawn from ne mose avance expenerces struggle and debate in movements lik
WLM. anvolvemen women members of a party in the WLM not only gives them individual
but by bringing their experiences back to the organisation, it strengthens the party itself
The fact that we are scheduled to discuss at the IMG conference this year such a wide range of aspects of women's oppression and activities is in many ways attributable to a decade of struggle and debate in the WLM.
For revolutionaries, a commitment to the class struggle and to the autonomous women's movement is inextricably linked. Actively particicampatible with membership inte WLM. revolutionary organisation as long as
recognises of the struggle agains
fooling ourselves, however, if we maintained that the revolutionary party was able to escape the pressures of the society in which we live. These pressures will exist even after class relations are overturned! This doesn't
and put off confronting them until 'after the
The positive lessons of the WLM
Said the organisation's method of work and its programme And the more action taken by the party in support of struggles launched by women, the more conscious all of its militants will become their
ana approach -TO these questions. Every effort must be mad
overcome sexist prac Steps that are taken in this should not be hidder because unthinking, backward behaviour not only degrades women, but also weakens the credibility of the ideas of the organisation as a whole.
← Socialist Challenge No. 36, 9 March 1978Socialist Challenge No. 37, 16 March 1978 →