Activism Change

Women's Day Tribute to Communist Le

Question:

Dotty explained for those not familiar with the Marxist classics that it was Marx and Engels who first demolished the bourgeois view of male-female relations, especially in their writings on the origins of the family.

Ah yes, the idea that the family is based on monetary proifit.  No doubt some families are– I can think of a few.  But Marx and Engels were attacking a straw man– er, "straw person". Marx and Engels drew on the anthropological and historical scholarship available in the mid-19th century, but those findings have since been confirmed many times over. They showed that the patriarchal family, which is based on private property, developed quite recently in human history.

I take it Sumeria is "quite recent"? Before that, there was a long period when people lived communally, property was owned in common, and descent was traced through the mothers. Women not only had equal social standing with men but were accorded special respect because of their child-bearing function.

The idea of a pre-Christian matriarcy where everyone was nice has been thoroughly debunked in sci.skeptic, soc.men&soc.women, and elsewhere. The only basis for it lies in people filling the gaps in history/archeology with speculation.  Besides, according women "special respect because of their child-bearing function" implies that women’s function *is* child- bearing… I dare you to stand up and say this at a N.O.W. meeting! Comrade Dotty’s pamphlet was a reminder that we are not mere activists, we are communists.

Comrade Dotty is telling feminists that they are communists? Many feminists, particularly those that have become stockbrokers and investment bankers, might disagree. We are attempting to move human society in a definite direction, through the great lever of the working-class struggle. And that direction is toward the abolition of private property and the eventual disintegration of class divisions.

Every time the communists have promised to do this, they end up just killing people instead.  Folks, this is not a good time to claim a connection between feminism and communism.  Particularly if you want to sell feminism in places like Poland and Romania. Paul Ciszek                      When we are planning for posterity, we                                  ought to remember that virtue is not

Response:

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn’t Fit INT’L WOMEN’S DAY TRIBUTE TO LEADING COMMUNIST WOMAN Following are excerpts from a tribute to Dorothy Ballan delivered by Deirdre Griswold at a Workers World Party meeting in New York March 6: One year ago we lost our leading woman comrade, Dorothy Ballan, one of the founders of Workers World Party. Dotty was an organizer, someone who knew the very heartbeat of the party. She also made an important theoretical contribution to the question of how to achieve women’s liberation. Since International Women’s Day is almost here, I’d like to talk about her pamphlet "Feminism and Marxism." Dotty explained for those not familiar with the Marxist classics that it was Marx and Engels who first demolished the bourgeois view of male-female relations, especially in their writings on the origins of the family. This was particularly revolutionary in those days because the bourgeois patriarchal family, in which women were so deeply oppressed, was seen as an eternal category, if not a god-given institution. Marx and Engels drew on the anthropological and historical scholarship available in the mid-19th century, but those findings have since been confirmed many times over. They showed that the patriarchal family, which is based on private property, developed quite recently in human history. Before that, there was a long period when people lived communally, property was owned in common, and descent was traced through the mothers. Women not only had equal social standing with men but were accorded special respect because of their child-bearing function. Much of Dotty’s pamphlet was a polemic answering the feminist author Kate Millett. In her book "Sexual Politics," Millett had argued that relations between men and women have always involved a struggle for power, that as far back as the earliest human societies, men have dominated, oppressed and exploited women. Millett also denied that the social revolutions of this century altered women’s position in any fundamental way. As Dotty pointed out, in Millett’s whole book the only reference to the most populous country in the world, China, was in a footnote acknowledging that the Chinese revolution had eliminated prostitution. Millett’s view back then, over 20 years ago, was that the Bolshevik Revolution had made some important advances for women, but that under Stalin there was a counter-revolution that negated all the gains. If that were true, then what is the struggle about now? Why are women now losing so much in all the countries where the workers’ states have been overthrown by bourgeois forces? Comrade Dotty’s pamphlet was a reminder that we are not mere activists, we are communists. Our activity is guided by a rich theoretical and historical heritage. We are not just striking out against injustice; we are not just a cry of outrage or an appeal to conscience. We are attempting to move human society in a definite direction, through the great lever of the working-class struggle. And that direction is toward the abolition of private property and the eventual disintegration of class divisions. It is this struggle that will lay the basis for ending all the special oppressions–sexism, racism, lesbian and gay oppression, national chauvinism–that are intertwined with and reinforce the exploitation of the workers by the capitalists. Before Comrade Dorothy Ballan died, she saw the terrible defeats for the working class in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the heroic resistance in countries like Cuba and north Korea that continues to this day. Had she not been so ill, there is no doubt that she would have contributed to the analysis of these events, especially as they have affected women. When Dorothy wrote her pamphlet, it was very difficult to convince people here that in the Soviet Union, as well as in most of Eastern Europe, women had benefits more advanced than in the richest capitalist democracies. What is the story now? Let me read you a recent piece about women in eastern Germany. This article appeared in Stern, a capitalist magazine put out in Hamburg. "In eastern Germany, the textile industry is collapsing. Before reunification, the Saxony Spinning Co. had 13,000 employees. Its payroll will ultimately fall to 300. … Three quarters of those who worked in the East German textile industry were women. Monika Lopez, 35, from Mittweida, married with four children, says, ‘Now I do any kind of dirty work: cleaning, scrubbing, cleaning up rubble. The main thing is staying off welfare. Otherwise, I’ll turn on the gas and we’ll all go.’ "A recent poll in Brandenburg found 82 percent of women surveyed believed that for them, things are worse now than they were before reunification. Before, a job was part of the women’s lives, along with the financial independence and sense of self-worth that it provided. The majority of East German women learned a profession; 50 percent graduated from a professional school or college; 83 percent held a job. … "In the German Democratic Republic, single mothers enjoyed shorter hours, longer vacations, special protection against layoffs, and comprehensive child care in day-care centers, kindergartens, and after-school programs. More and more of these parents now are living on unemployment or welfare." These women now live in what is considered one of the great capitalist democracies, the Federal Republic of Germany. Legally, women are not oppressed in Germany today as they were, say, during the feudal period. They can vote, they can own property, they are free to choose a profession. In other words, they are just as free as women are in the United States. Yet, for the women formerly of the GDR, being at the mercy of the capitalist market has made life incomparably worse. This gives us a clear example of the limits of bourgeois feminism that Dorothy Ballan wrote about. Here in the U.S., we are watching a new and presumably more liberal administration begin to translate into deeds its many promises to the women’s movement. After 12 years of Republican administrations openly hostile to abortion and other women’s demands, many women are of course very hopeful. Let’s suppose the Clinton administration actually carries out many democratic reforms–although, so far, they haven’t even talked about reviving the Equal Rights Amendment. Maybe there will be more women in politics? If so, good. But as long as the capitalist crisis goes on, there will also be more women on the unemployment lines. More women professionals, even corporate "spokeswomen"? Oh, fine. But there will also be more women homeless, more women selling their bodies to survive, more women unable to liberate themselves from abusive relationships because they have no economic independence, no security. This is why we are so relentlessly dedicated to the struggle against capitalism, on which everything else depends. Our Party has contributed much to the women’s movement. Many women activists know us for our tireless work and militancy. We bear on our shoulders the great challenge of reviving socialist consciousness in the working-class women’s movement. It was socialists fighting capitalist oppression who established the first International Women’s Day, and we will continue that great tradition. When Dotty was very ill, she had one last get-together with her women comrades. She recalled the words of the great labor martyr, Joe Hill: "Don’t mourn, organize." That’s our job now, as we pick up the banner from others all over the world who have fallen: Don’t mourn, organize.                                -30- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21 +        Join Us! Support The NY Transfer News Collective        + +       We deliver uncensored information to your mailbox!       +

Response:

Filed under: Feminism

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