Women’s rights must be a central tenet of our class-based anti-austerity campaigns. This can be put into practice on N30, writes Tansy Hoskins.
Of the horror of 1914, Rosa Luxemburg wrote: “In the midst of the war, the masks are falling and the old familiar visages smirk at us.”
In 2011 we face our own wars – military, economic and political. Once again the masks of the ruling class have slipped to reveal a smirking disregard for our lives. Unless something drastically changes, Europe is set to be run by banker kings and the IMF. The truth about who is really in control once again lies exposed.
In Britain, as the cuts stab society in the gut, accompanied by a jovial message that ‘we’re all in this together,’ women in particular bear what Bolshevik leader Alexandra Kollontai called the ‘double weight’ of capitalism. It strikes first as the exploitation felt by all working people, but then with a smirk hits women again as the unpaid labour of housework and caring roles, as body dysmorphia, plastic surgery, rape, sexual harassment, low pay and meager pensions to name but a few.
Women in Britain currently make up two thirds of the public sector workforce, making them vulnerable to the slashing of public sector jobs. The pay gap between men and women is so huge that each year after November 4th, women work the remaining two months of the year for free. Services relied upon by women like domestic violence and rape crisis centres are being cut, leaving women more at risk to abuse. In addition cuts to housing and child benefits will impact hardest on women – twenty Sure Start centres have already been shut down since May 2010.
This condemning of women to inequality and unemployment must be stopped. Campaigns have already begun which highlight proposals to turn back the clock on women’s rights with regards to issues like equal pay and abortion. Whilst it is important and right to highlight the impact of the cuts on women, the position must also be maintained that gaining equal rights is not an end in itself but rather as Kollontai put it “a means of advancing the struggle against the economic slavery of the working class.”
This does not downplay the importance of women or these campaigns, rather it makes them essential. As Lenin stated in 1918: “The success of a revolution depends on how much the women take part in it.” From the Paris Commune to Tahrir Square and the global anti-war movement, women remain central to the success and ferocity of radical change.
It is during these fights against capitalism that a sense of being ‘in this together’ as we understand it becomes a reality. The lines are clearly drawn – it is not about women versus men, it’s us versus the 1%.
In the face of austerity and war it is essential to unite rather than divide. Men and women must not be divided but neither must those who wish to fight the cuts in a variety of ways. By making women’s rights a central tenet of class-based anti-austerity campaigns, we can work towards this unity. A forthcoming event where this could be put into practice is 30th November – a national day of strikes which look set to be led by women. More than two thirds of UNISON – almost one million members – are women. They will be out on force on the 30th alongside workers from the NUT, PCS and NASUWT amongst others. This presents a chance to link up the class struggle with the fight for women’s rights. A chance to question why women workers are losing their jobs and children’s services are being cut while Britain is spending billions on war in Afghanistan, Trident missiles and bailing out banks. ‘Fund Childcare Not Warfare’ or ‘Jobs Not Bombs’ would make strong unifying slogan for the day.
At the same time, class-based movements must also recognise that sexual equality is not an automatic outcome of social progress. Rights are never granted - they must be won. Women’s rights have to be fought for by women, with the support of the wider movement. The liberation of women – what Lenin called the ending of life being a “sacrifice to a thousand unimportant trivialities,” the ending of sexism, of being patted on the head and sidelined from leadership roles will not happen automatically. This is a job that must be done by women themselves. As former Afghan MP Malalai Joya has stated: “No nation can liberate another nation.” Struggle comes from within, it is born within us and carried on our own shoulders. For your freedom, no one else can fight.
This means that within our own movements, women must continue to make demands. We must demand women be equally represented on committees, as speakers at meetings and as leaders of demonstrations. We must demand that sexism, whether as jokes, wrongful analysis of situations or harassment, be dealt with.
Women also have to be on guard against societal conditioning within themselves. They must recognise that society demands a degree of perfection from women that it does not expect from men. This pressure becomes internalised not only with regards to personal appearance, but in the way it conditions many women to think that they must be perfect before they speak in public, design a leaflet, write an article or pick up a megaphone and lead a charging crowd.
This double weight of aspiring for a non-existant perfection must at once be recognised and discarded. Knowing everything is not a prerequisite to holding a political opinion. The top thinkers across the world – both male and female – don’t have all the answers, they mess up their lines, get nervous, get things wrong, and rely on their comrades to draft and redraft their writings.
So whilst reading Marx (or writing something similar) is important, it should also be remembered that Marx believed: “Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes.” The experiences that have got you to this point make your voice not just valid but vital. We are in for the fight of our lives and it is time for everyone to banish the socially imposed fears that hold us back.
As this international movement against austerity and war grows, more women will begin to pour into it. If you are already here it is your responsibility to encourage new comrades to reach their full potential. As Kollontai stated of women in her autobiography: “it is not her specific feminine virtue that gives her a place of honor in human society, but the worth of the useful mission accomplished by her, the worth of her personality as human being, as citizen, as thinker, as fighter.” If we truly believe that women are equal to men then each and every one of us has to put this into practice, to prove that we believe this through our daily behaviour.
If we can reach this state of demanding unity we will have taken an important step in achieving what we need both for women and for society.
