Why socialists fight for women's equality

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6 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1989 The following is an updated version of a talk given by Carole Seligman at a Socialist Action-sponsored "Conference on Socialism and Feminism" in San Francisco on April 15. Seligman is a national committee member of Socialist Action.

What are revolutionary socialists doing in the women's rights movement? An excellent answer to that question was given by Louise Neland in a socialist magazine, New Review, in 1914:

"The socialist who is not a feminist lacks breadth, the feminist who is not a socialist is lacking in strategy. To the narrow-minded socialist who says, 'socialism is a working class movement for the freedom of the working class; with women as women we have nothing to do;' the far-sighted feminist will reply, 'the socialist movement is the only means whereby women, as women, can gain real freedom. Therefore I must work for it."

Since the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848, revolutionary socialists have struggled for the emancipation of women. Marx and Engels point out that "The bourgeois [capitalist] sees in his wife a mere instrument of production.... He has not even a suspicion that the real point aimed at [by communists] is to do away with the status of women as mere instruments of production."

In fact, one criterion the revolutionary socialist movement uses to evaluate a social regime, government, or society is the status of women. This is one way we know that the Soviet Union-despite the overthrow of capitalism in that country—is not socialist. The very idea of socialism is based on the full emancipation of women—not household drudgery for women or differentiation between the status of women and men in society, such as exists in the Soviet Union today.

Our whole outlook is at one with the goals of feminism. But our contribution to the women's rights movement is unique. Revolutionary socialists bring to this movement a class analysis of who the real enemy is and an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the forces we are fighting against.

Who are our enemies?

Take the example of Operation Rescue. I think they can be called an incipient fascist movement. They operate on the basis of fanatical woman-hatred. Through extra-legal methods they try to physically prevent women from obtaining abortions. But just because they are the most rabid opponents of women's rights, it doesn't mean that they are the most dangerous of our enemies.

There were attacks on abortion rights long before Operation Rescue appeared. The first serious attack came in 1977 from the U.S. Congress with the adoption of the Hyde Amendment. This amendment prohibited spending public funds for abortions, thereby preventing poor and minority women from having equal access to abortion.

The first woman to die as a direct result of the cut-off of public funds was a young Latina named Rosie Jimenez. She died, not because of Operation Rescue, but because the U.S. Congress-Democrats and Republicans alike—cut funds for abortion.

When we look at who the enemies of women's rights are, we see that they are not only the fanatical fundamentalists, or the Roman Catholic Church. In the last analysis, our biggest enemy is the government.

And who does the government represent? It represents those who profit from the oppression of women-the capitalist class. This is the most important idea that revolutionary socialists bring into the women's rights movement.. The bosses who pay women 60 cents an hour for every dollar men get are the same people who finance both the Democratic and Republican parties. They are the real owners of the Congress and the administration in the White House.

International scope of struggle Another important perspective that revolutionary socialists contribute to the feminist movement is the international scope of the fight for women's equality.

The women's rights movement is a worldwide struggle. This movement is not just limited to women in advanced capitalist countries. In fact, the feminist movement is of most benefit to women in the underdeveloped nations of the world where women don't have the right to vote, the right to own property, or any of the democratic rights we take for granted here.

In these countries women die by the thousands from botched abortions; the most extreme violence against women not only occurs but is tolerated and officially sanctioned. On a world scale, the same enemy of women—the capitalist class—is also the enemy of working people.

Class struggle approach

This one idea underlies the proposals that we bring into the movement. We don't think that full women's equality is possible within the framework of the capitalist system. This may make some people in the women's movement suspicious of us. They ask, "If you don't think that we can get equality anyway, what are you doing in a group like the National Organization for Women (NOW), which is fighting for equality within the system?"

We respond that although the full that women demand cannot be won within the framework of this system, it doesn't mean that we don't fight for them. Even though full emancipation for women won't come without defeating capitalism, it doesn't mean that important reforms cannot be achieved.

Roe v. Wade was an important reform. Fewer women have died from complications of botched abortions in this country since abortion was legalized. That in itself is a profound victory-and the 600,000 people who turned out in Washington, D.C., on April 9 attest to that.

But under the capitalist system, no reform, no victory for democratic rights, is assured. Today, under this system, forces are being mobilized to take back the hard won gains of the women's rights movement. And the right to abortion is one of their main targets.

Another important reform which revolutionary socialists fought for was the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). While this fundamental democratic reform could theoretically have been won under capitalism, it was betrayed by the capitalist politicians of the Democratic and Republican parties.

Affirmative action was a victory for women. But this important gain is today being reversed by a stroke of the pen of the U.S. Supreme Court.

What the ruling class giveth, the ruling class taketh away. And if the movement is not vigilant-and mobilized-these gains, like abortion rights and affirmative action, will be taken away.

So these fights for basic democratic reforms are important because they represent real gains; they expose the opposition and resistance of the ruling class; and most important, they demonstrate that when we are organized we can win.

Working-class issues

Abortion rights, education, childcare, higher pay, an end to sterilization abuse-are all women's issues because we are the most affected by them. But every single one of them is also in the interest of working class men—in other words-the majority of men. None of these issues sets us up against men.

It's true there are plenty of working class men who have ideas to the contrary. They don't think women's rights are in their interests. But they're wrong. Their daughters, their wives, their sisters will die, too, if abortion is illegal. The huge turnout of men at the April 2 and April 9 demonstrations graphically demonstrated that.

Revolutionary socialists believe the demands of women are in the interests of the working class as a whole. Therefore, our strategy for pressing our demands is through mass demonstrations like April 2 and April 9, abortion clinics against the attacks of the Operation Rescue fanatics.

Independent political action

Most important, we need independent political action. It's a fatal mistake for the feminist movement to tie itself to the coattails of the Democratic Party. That was a disaster for the ERA. We lost the ERA because the movement tied itself to the Democratic Party, instead of continuing the mass actions which they had so successfully started.

Focusing on political support for candidates who promised to support the ERA proved to be a false strategy. Many of these politicians, once safely elected, voted against the ERA, thus dooming it to defeat. The lesson is that women need to organize outside of the political channels controlled by the capitalist class.

Unfortunately, there is a political void in this country. What we really need is a Labor Party where workers, half of whom are women, can fight for their interests in the political arena. We need a Labor Party to represent the interests of women, of the whole working class, African-Americans, Latinos, all those who suffer under and have no material interests in continuing capitalist exploitation.

There will be emergency response demonstrations all over this country on the day the Supreme Court renders its decision in the Webster v. Reproductive Services case. No matter what the court decides-and you can be sure some inroad against abortion rights will occur-the women's rights movement has to go on the offensive in the streets.

Socialists and their ideas will remain an integral part of the national campaign to assure women's rights to safe, legal, and accessible abortion. Like their sisters in the past, they see this movement as part of the struggle of working people everywhere for political, economic, and social emancipation.

A victory for women's rights, whether in defense of rights already won, or in the ongoing campaign to expand our rights, is a victory for us all.

A key pamphlet The War *20* The War on Against Abortion Rights: How Rights *** to Fight 'Operation Rescue' and the Right to Life' By Carole Seligman Price: $1.00 Mail order to: 3435 Army St., Rm.

308, San Francisco, CA 94110.