Women's oppression did not originate in ideas or in psychology or in religious myths, but on solid socio-economic grounds.'

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vate mily the old, -was mall for one f the and was class ne to abor, erty. ce of n beThis hich lestic word word • one trole : role they were epenise of rule. ;, and ir the ed the and states. However, the family's essential nature, as an economic unit which assured women's subordination, did not change. The family fulfills different social and economic requirements for different classes, but its basic function is the same.

In addition to passing on property from one generation to the next, the family serves another function. For the ruling class, it is the least expensive way of reproducing human labor. Making women responsible for the unpaid labor to care for their children assures that the least possible share of society's wealth is used to reproduce the producers. The family teaches and reinforces the sexual division of labor in which women are primarily defined by their childbearing role.

The family also has a repressive and conservative side that reproduces all the hierarchical, authoritarian relationships basic to society as a whole. It fosters the traits necessary for the maintenance of class society, including a competitive attitude and submission to authority. It represses sexuality and ties it, especially for women, to reproduction. In short, the family inculcates all the social and behavioral norms necessary to survive in class society.

Capitalism did not give rise to the family. However, like many pre-existing institutions, capitalism preserved the family and shaped it to its needs. Even though much of the domestic and agricultural labor which once went on inside the family have been eliminated, women still spend a large amount of time in unpaid domestic labor. This is within framework reforms.

Since the right of women to control their own bodies is a fundamental precondition for women's liberation, access to safe, legal abortion is one of the most important gains extracted by the feminist movement. In more than 20 countries, there has been a marked liberalization of abortion laws.

While the campaign to reverse this victory is led by the most retrograde elements in the bourgeois camp, they only continue to exist because of the support of official government policies. Maintenance of abortion rights in the face of these mounting attacks remains the key task facing today's activists.

The feminist movement isn't isolated from the general situation of the working class and other progressive movements. The bourgeoisie seeks to shift the cost of its crisis onto the working class as a whole and onto working class women in particular.

Real wages of working people have declined so sharply that it now takes two full(continued on next page) group of people who determine this policythe U.S. capitalists who see nuclear deterrence as a hedge against revolution.

Labor struggles

Women have appeared at the forefront of a number of recent work-place struggles. The Watsonville, Calif., cannery workers—predominantly Latinas—held out for months, winning support for their strike as a social cause, not only an economic fight. Teachers, nurses, and flight attendants have taken to the streets in record numbers.

Women have demanded "pay equity"-equal pay for work of comparable worth—a demand with the potential to challenge who assigns the value of work in the workplace. Successful union organizing drives among clerical workers have been conducted around this demand.

The women of UFCW Local P-9, organized in the P-9 Support Committee, played an important role in solidifying the 1985-86 strike against George A. Hormel & Co. in Austin, Minn. international union executive boards, citywide central labor councils, and local union meetings. Labor groups which had never spoken out on abortion rights-ranging from the United Steelworkers of America to the Minnesota State AFL-CIO, to the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor-were pressured into supporting this march. We can expect even more openings for winning labor support for the Nov. 12 rally.

Many local union women's committees have been transformed from purely social groups organizing charity dances and potlucks to groups that actively address the problems of women workers on the job and participate in actions in defense of labor and women's rights in their cities.

This is not to say that only women as wage workers fight for their liberation. Recent attacks on abortion rights have also caused a tremendous outpouring on college and high-school campuses. NOW is currently planning its first national young feminist conference and discussing organizing campus chapters.

Betrayal by reformists

Many women participated actively in the campaign to win the ERA, organizing rallies, meetings, press conferences, and marches. Although gains were accomplished only when women organized themselves through mass actions, the NOW leadership of this campaign was seriously mistaken in their belief that the ERA could be won by supporting various Democratic politicians for office. The Afti moven munist set up Radica suppor Democ In 1 liamen Democ opposi their o other n This degene the jett consoli The quite d After t Russia ment, abortic illegiti accessi and la domest This of the materi: rise of the des worker For

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WOR AROUNI Joe Rvan/Socialist Action Women's Auxiliary of the United Mine Workers of America rally in Pittsburgh, Pa., during 1980 coal miners strike.

SOCIALIŚT ACTION SEPTEMBER 1989 11 (continued from preceding page)

time wage earners to maintain the same standard of living as a one wage-earner family enjoyed in 1972. That is, women's jobs are an integral part of family income.

Cutbacks in social services hit women doubly. Not only do they suffer as employees in such female-dominated job sectors as social work, childcare, education, and health care, but they also find the burden for these services shifted back to the home where women perform them without pay.

Despite increased employment by women with small children, childcare is being cut back rather than extended. The vaunted voucher system moves toward reprivatizing the educational system-making it a class privilege, not a right. In the name of cost containment, many elderly patients are forced out of hospitals while still needing extensive nursing care.

At the same time, popular magazines and television talk shows bemoan the emotional damage done to latch-key children by working mothers. These myths are brought up with depressing regularity whenever women are exhorted to get back in the kitchen.

Developing links

The picture, however, is not unrelentingly bleak. Links have developed between women's organizations on an international scale. Delegations from several countries participated in the April 9 march in Washington. Abortion rights demonstrations were also held on the same date in a number of countries.

In the United States, women's groups have formed in support of the women of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Feminist leaders have participated in protests against U.S. intervention in Central America, South African apartheid, and racist attacks. They have spoken at rallies for the Eastern Airlines workers and the Pittston coal miners.

Women's peace encampments like those in Greenham Commons (England), and Seneca Falls, (N.Y.), make important connections between the lack of resources for women's needs and the vast resources wasted on the war industry.

One misconception held by some participants in the women's peace movement is that militarism arises from the irrational warlike nature of man and that war is simply a more dramatic expression of male violence— like rape. This is a reflection of the conservative view which says women are more loving, more emotional, and less rational, etc. This confuses cause and effect.

It is not generic male violence which is the root cause of militarism, but the system of production for profit, the political requirements of which include an arms economy. What is clearly irrational for society as a Whole makes perfect sense for the small group of people who determine this policythe U.S. capitalists who see nuclear deterrence as a hedge against revolution.

Women have appeared at the forefront of a number of recent work-place struggles. The Watsonville, Calif., cannery workers—predominantly Latinas-held out for months, winning support for their strike as a social cause, not only an economic fight. Teachers, nurses, and flight attendants have taken to the streets in record numbers.

Women have demanded "pay equity" —equal pay for work of comparable worth-a demand with the potential to challenge who assigns the value of work in the workplace. Successful union organizing drives among clerical workers have been conducted around this demand.

The women of UFCW Local P-9, organized in the P-9 Support Committee, played an important role in solidifying the 1985-86 strike against George A. Hormel & Co. in Austin, Minn.

During the British coal strike, "Women Against Pit Closures" played an essential role. One aspect of the fight was the active participation of women on the picketlines, reminiscent of the old movie "Salt of the Earth." And, it produced similar discussions in the mining families over whose turn it was to picket and whose turn to mind the kids. This participation by miners' wives also drew feminists into actively supporting the miners against the government.

Today we see the Daughters of Mother Jones, women relatives of striking Pittston coal miners, participating actively in all aspects of the strike.

Women workers have also played a role in winning support from the labor movement for feminist demands. Active pressure from women members caused the AFL-CIO to reverse its earlier position against the ERA. Affirmative action, paid maternity leave, and AUX BIG-OIL quality affordable childcare are now viewed as labor issues.

Women members have forced the trade unions to examine the health hazards of VDTs and address these concerns in contract negotiations. Although labor officials try to limit union participation to women's demands on economic questions, they are under increasing pressure to speak out on other feminist issues.

The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) has a longstanding pro-choice position. Numerous official labor publications reported plans for the April 9, 1989, March for Women's Equality/Women's Lives.

Support for this march was debated in international union executive boards, citywide central labor councils, and local union meetings. Labor groups which had never spoken out on abortion rights-ranging from the United Steelworkers of America to the Minnesota State AFL-CIO, to the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor-were pressured into supporting this march. We can expect even more openings for winning labor support for the Nov. 12 rally.

Many local union women's committees have been transformed from purely social groups organizing charity dances and potlucks to groups that actively address the problems of women workers on the job and participate in actions in defense of labor and women's rights in their cities.

This is not to say that only women as wage workers fight for their liberation. Recent attacks on abortion rights have also caused a tremendous outpouring on college and high-school campuses. NOW is currently planning its first national young feminist conference and discussing organizing campus chapters.

Betrayal by reformists

Many women participated actively in the campaign to win the ERA, organizing rallies, meetings, press conferences, and marches. Although gains were accomplished only when women organized themselves through mass actions, the NOW leadership of this campaign was seriously mistaken in their belief that the ERA could be won by supporting various Democratic politicians for office. The subsequent defeat of the ERA by both Democratic and Republican party elected officials had to leave a bitter taste in women's mouths.

At its July 1989 national convention, the leadership of NOW correctly answered those who proposed following a similar strategy for abortion rights-that is, concentrating on influencing legislators on a state by state basis.

They explained that abortion rights is a federal issue and that access to safe, legal abortion in some states but not others is no more acceptable for women than advocating voting rights for Black people in some states but not others would be acceptable for Blacks.

However, they failed to directly address their failed ERA strategy. We can expect continued pressure to take the abortion rights fight off the streets and into state legislative cloakrooms.

Slim.

In other countries, as the unions begin to take up women's demands, the reformist workers' parties have reacted to the feminist movement. This is much clearer in Europe, where these parties exist as mass organizations.

Although the European social-democrats adopted feminist slogans and rhetoric, they have shown a total disregard for women's rights. From the Socialist Party in France to the Socialist Party in Spain, these parties have supported their governments' austerity programs. As in the United States, such cutbacks in social services impact particularly severely on working women.

After initially condemning the women's movement as bourgeois, the U.S. Communist Party adopted some of its slogans and set up its own organization, Women for Radical and Economic Equality, to channel support for women's rights back into the Democratic party.

In 1976, Italian Communist Party parliamentary deputies blocked with Christian Democrats to kill abortion law reform. Their opposition to women's liberation duplicates their opposition to a class-struggle fight for other needs of the working class.

Workers' states

This position has a history related to the degeneration of the Russian Revolution and the jettisoning of women's demands with the consolidation of bureaucratic rule.

The Bolshevik tradition on women was quite different from present Stalinist policy. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, despite Russia's extreme economic underdevelopment, the Soviet government legalized abortion, eliminated legal inequality and illegitimacy, made marriage and divorce accessible, eliminated anti-homosexual laws, and laid plans for the real socialization of domestic toil.

This process was cut short by the isolation of the revolution, the continued cultural and material backwardness of Russian society, the rise of a bureaucratic caste led by Stalin, and the destruction of many of the institutions of workers' rule.

For women, this Stalinist lution resulted in a policy of reviving and fortifying the family system. In 1936, a new Soviet constitution declared the victory of socialism-and the recriminalization of Just as in capitalist society, the Soviet bureaucracy utilized the family system to inculcate attitudes of submission to authority and perpetuate the privileges of a minority. Reinforcement of the family continued the division between men as head of the family and breadwinner and women as responsible for tasks inside the home-in addition to whatever else she may do.

While 50 percent of the wage earners in the Soviet Union are women, like their counterparts in capitalist society, they are disproportionately concentrated in less-skilled, lower-paying, less responsible jobs.

For example, 43.6 percent of all women still work in agriculture, while another quarter are employed in the textile industry. Eighty percent of all primary and secondary school teachers and 100 percent of all preschool teachers are women.

Even where women have achieved gains in certain jobs (e.g., 60 percent of Soviet doctors and 40 percent of Soviet scientists are women) their advancement in these occupations is hindered by their continuing domestic responsibilities. The average Soviet woman spends four to seven hours per day on housework in addition to eight hours on her outside job.

Despite historical, cultural, economic, and social variations from one country to another, maintenance of the economic and social inequality of women through official government policies aimed at reinforcing and justifying the domestic labor of women are common in all the deformed workers' states (Eastern Europe, China, Vietnam, etc.).

In 1970, despite laws on equal pay that had been in effect for decades, women's earnings in Eastern Europe averaged 27 percent to 30 percent less than men's.

Today legal abortion is generally available in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. However, in those Eastern European countries with labor shortages, women seeking abortions face humiliating conditions and economic penalties such as denial of paid sick-leave time and refusal to cover abortions as a free medical procedure.

Access to safe, effective birth control is limited in much of Eastern Europe, forcing women to use abortion as a form of contraception. In Poland, in an attempt to placate the still influential Catholic Church, severe legal restrictions have been proposed.

In China, on the other hand, strict steps have been taken to limit the population, resulting in many forced abortions and sterilizations. Instead of recognizing the right to choose abortion as a fundamental human right, reproductive freedom iș subordinated to the economic needs of the bureaucracy—in some cases to promote population growth, in others to promote population control.

Women in the deformed and degenerated workers' states will not win their full (continued on next page)

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(continued from preceding page)

liberation short of a political revolution that removes the bureaucratic caste from power and restores workers' democracy.

Colonial and semi-colonial

countries Women's liberation is also vitally important to women in the colonial and semicolonial world. While women's circumstances vary from country to country, all experience an added oppression from the weight of imperialist domination.

The predominance of the capitalist market economy has a contradictory aspect for women in the semicolonial countries and colonial world.

On the one hand, it introduces new market relations that begin to lay the basis for women to overcome their centuries-old oppression. But, on the other hand, it takes over and utilizes the archaic traditions, religious codes, and anti-women prejudices— initially reinforcing them through new forms of discrimination and super-exploitation.

In these countries, the development of capitalist production proceeds according to the needs of world imperialism. In most semi-colonial countries, the majority of the population still engages in subsistence farming, utilizing extremely backward methods.

In such societies, although women play a decisive economic role, working long hours in the field and home and producing the children, they are barely considered human. In practice, they scarcely have any legal or social rights as individuals. They live under virtually total domination and control by male members of their family.

However, the incorporation of the colonial and semicolonial countries into the world capitalist market inevitably has an impact on the rural areas. Inflation coupled with the inability to compete with larger units utilizing more productive methods lead to continued waves of migration from the countryside to the cities.

Women in the Third World generally comprise a much lower percentage of the workforce than in imperialist countries. Although the rate is sometimes as high as 20 percent, it normally varies between 8 percent and 15 percent.

Women are concentrated in the least skilled, lowest-paying jobs which are least protected by laws on safety conditions, minimum wage, etc. A high proportion are employed in agriculture, piecework in the home, and as domestics.

Their average wage tends to be one-third to one-half that of male workers. Those women who are able to acquire some skills and education are strictly confined to such "female" occupations as nursing and teaching.

Women also frequently make up a majority of the labor force in textile, garment, food processing, and electrical parts-the largest industries in many semicolonial countries. The employment of women at lower wages allows the capitalists to divide and weaken the working class and keep down the overall wage scale.

Unemployment and underemployment are of crisis proportions, and much of this burden falls upon women. In many Third World countries, women still don't enjoy even the most basic democratic rights. Educational opportunities, as reflected in the high female illiteracy rate, are severely restricted. Religious prejudice also serves to severely curtail women's rights.

Women in the Third World have less control over their reproductive functions than women in imperialist countries. They have little if any scientific information about reproduction or sex. Economically and soc¡ally they are pressured to produce more children. What access there is to birth control unemployment, inadequate health and educational facilities, and housing.

They also include the general demands that have been raised by women in the advanced capitalist countries, including reproductive rights, childcare facilities, and access to jobs and education. Even the most elementary of these demands can only be won by the mobilization and organization of the working class.

Since political repression is widespread and civil liberties are generally quite tenuous in colonial and semicolonial countries, women must frequently fight even for their right to hold meetings, have their own organization, publish a newspaper, and demonstrate. Thus, the struggle for women's liberation cannot be separated from the more general struggle for political freedoms.

The fight for women's liberation has always been intertwined with national liberation struggles.

Women played a decisive role in the mass upsurge which ousted the Shah of Iran. Women in Chile, Argentina, and Mexico have organized massive demonstrations demanding the return of "disappeared" political prisoners. Women in Nicaragua, who played a key role in the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship, now continue to press the Sandinista government for legalized abortion and an end to sex discrimination.

Only socialist revolution can open the way to a qualitative transformation of the lives of WHO SEZ DIDNT * 88 s.* Right the masses of women in the colonial and semicolonial countries. Once capitalism is eliminated, unemployment and underemployment, with their devastating effects on women's lives, become scourges of the past.

As Cuba has demonstrated, even in an impoverished Third World country, once the laws of capitalist accumulation are replaced by a planned economy based on the nationalization of the decisive sectors of production, massive resources can be turned toward the development of education, childcare, medical services, and housing.

Our perspective

Socialist Action recognizes that since sexual inequality is built into the very foundation of capitalism, the struggle by masses of women against their oppression will be an important component of the fight to end capitalist rule. Therefore, we welcome and champion the emergence of all struggles by women against their oppression. Like other feminists, members of Socialist Action actively participate in these struggles.

We understand that women's liberation is not something that will be handed to women by some higher, wiser body the day after a revolution. Freedom comes when you take it. Women are both a significant component of the working class and a potential powerful The feminist movement has already raised many demands. As the fight for women's rights continues, other important demands will come to the fore. Sexism in all its forms and expressions must be understood and opposed. More and more, we can expect to see feminist demands interrelated with demands raised by other oppressed sectors of society and the needs of the working class as a whole.

Our demands

While emphasizing that pro-choice demonstrations be organized around the demand with the broadest possible support-keeping abortion safe, legal, and accessible-we will use our paper, forums, and classes to explain that a coherent fight for women's liberation includes demands:

• For full legal, political, and social equality; no discrimination on the basis of sex; an end to all laws and regulations with special penalties for women; pass the Equal Rights Amendment.

• For full economic independence; for guaranteed jobs at union wages and a sliding scale of wages and hours to combat inflation and unemployment; for training and preferential hiring to rectify past discrimination; challenging the sexual division of labor in the factory and on the farm and beyond; for equal pay for jobs of comparable worth; for a minimum wage based on union wages; for paid parental leave; for an end to two-tiered wage systems; for part-time workers to be guaranteed the same hourly wages and benefits as full-time workers; against piecework homework schemes.

• Against reactionary family and marriage laws; against all discrimination against unwed mothers; against laws which victimize prostitutes or laws against adultery, those two companions of marriage in this society; against laws which criminalize homosexuality.

• For the reorganization of society to eliminate domestic slavery; for the society as a whole to take responsibility for the rearing, education, and welfare of children; for free 24 hour daycare and schools, for free medical care, decent low-cost housing, and high-quality social service centers which can provide restaurants, collective laundries and house-cleaning services.

• Against all forms of violence against women; for strict laws against child and spousal abuse.

• For minority rights; for an end to discrimination against Black, Latina, Asian, and Native American women; for access to jobs, education, and social services for immigrant women.

Rights This list is only the beginning and doesn't include everything women will struggle for and demand. As women organize and fight for their rights independently, and within the working class as a whole, they will gain the experience and self-confidence necessary to win their demands.

Though some may view this list as utopian, what's actually unrealistic is expect a society based on exploitation to be able to provide women real equality.

How to win

Some strategies utilized by feminist groups are doomed to failure. These include reliance on electing "feminist" Democrats and Republicans and lobbying elected officeholders. Repeatedly, these politicians have gladly accepted money and campaign volunteers from women's groups-only to vote against women's concerns once elected.

Other feminists mistakenly attribute women's inferior place in society to a flawed male character. They argue that the only solution for women is organizing everexpanding, women-only collectives and institutions. Such a utopian individualistic approach fails to address the needs of the vast majority of women.

From the suffrage movement of the early 1900s to the reproductive rights campaigns of the 1970s and '80s, victories 'have only resulted from women, and their male supporters, mobilizing in action indepen dently of the Democrats and Republicans. Demonstrations, teach-ins, conferences, and speak-outs, reaching out to broader and broader layers of society, forced these concessions.

On Jan. 23, 1973, the Nixon Supreme Court only issued the famous Roe v. Wade decision ruling abortion is protected by the Constitutional right to privacy under the pressure of a massive, developing protest Similarly, the way to assure that this important victory is not reversed is by mobilizing the millions who support wo men's right to choose in visible protest actions. The April 9, 1989, March for Women's Equality/Womens Lives provides an example of the type of actions which are needed.

Just as the suffragists organized 486 marches before women won the right to vote, today's feminists must also continue organizing larger and ever-growing pro-choice demonstrations.

Through the experience of fighting for their demands, women will see the connection between these demands and those of minorities and the working class as a whole.

At the same time, increasing numbers of men will learn that sexism and racism are not in their interests, that they simply divide the working class, driving down the wages and working conditions of both men and women. Millions will eventually learn that true equality can never be won within an economic system based on exploitation, that a revolutionary struggle is necessary against the capitalist roots of sexism.

No longer will these millions be tricked by the promises of "Tweedle Dee" Democrats and "Tweedle Dum" Republicans. Instead they will look to-and join-the revolutionary party which is prepared to lead the total reconstruction of this society from one based on private profits, to one based on human needs.

Not only will the active participation of millions of women fighting for their liberation help ensure the success of this struggle for a just society, but it will also provide an important safeguard against bureaucratic degeneration. For the first time, all humanity will have the opportunity to realize our full potential.

The Fight for Women's Rights Today The War on Abortion Rights: 'Operation Rescue' and the 'Right to Life' Moveme. by Carole Seligman ($1.00)

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