Activists discuss SlutWalk perspectives

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Federal judge authorizes new union election at Kaiser SAN FRANCISCO—On July 23, about 30 dedicated activists assembled for an politically and socially incisive panel discussion about building SlutWalks, the international movement of women fighting against blaming rape victims and the oppression of woman more generally.

The tone for the open discussion was set by brief presentations from two Bay Area SlutWalk activists, Mer Stevens, a member of the International Socialist Organization and a job coach for people with developmental disabilities, and Marc Rome, San Francisco Socialist Action branch organizer and an activist with the United National Antiwar Committee.

Stevens put the SlutWalks in context by addressing the frequent high-profile sexual violence cases—most famously, the recent rape charges against Dominique Strauss Kahn—in which the media blamed the accuser. The right-wing New York Post shifted the guilt from Kahn, known as “The Great Seducer” of women, to the victim, claiming that “[t]he maid, who routinely traded sex for money with male guests, parked her cleaning cart outside [Strauss-Kahn’s] Suite 2806 on the morning of May 14 and keyed her way into the room.”

The way in which law-enforcement and governments perpetuate and contribute to victim-blaming mass psychology sheds another light on how the rulers of society shape social conscious. Stevens presented the recent example of the acquittal of two New York City police officers who had been accused of raping a woman.

She cited Arturo Gonazlez Rascan, who, in his capacity as Chihuahua, Mexico, state prosecutor, painted a misogynistic portrait of the nearly 13-year epidemic of murder and rape that claimed the lives of nearly 400 women workers of Ciudad Juarez: “Women with a nightlife who go out very late and come into contact with drinkers are at risk.” This violent history and open state-sponsored victim-blaming created the objective conditions by which SlutWalk Mexico City— and SlutWalks in general—have been so successful and empowering. The 5000 Mexican women marching in the streets in protest filled the vital subjective role of leadership building.

Rome’s presentation echoed Stevens’ view that the response in the streets by women has more to do with their outrage against systemic sexism than against any single sexist incident. He pointed to the long history of media objectification of women as one aspect of how women have been enduringly relegated to secondclass status. Addressing a lesser-known story of the gang rape of an 11-year-old in Texas, he illustrated how even the “liberal” press perpetuates the myth that rape-victims are at fault. The reporter, a man, asked how the girl could “have been drawn into such an act.” He offered an answer: the victim “dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at the playground.”

Rome also made the case for viewing rape in today’s culture through the lens of the study of the history of civilization and war. By the time of the ancient Roman republic, women had become the property of men. Even throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, rape of women has been “standard operating procedure,” often ordered by the highest military leadership bodies.

Both Stevens and Rome addressed the tactic of mass mobilizations in the streets, which has defined the Some 43,000 union workers at Kaiser Permanente will get a second chance to vote on which union they wish to represent them after Federal Administrative Law Judge Lana H. Parke ruled that collusion between Kaiser and the current union SEIU-UHW “interfered with employees’ exercise of a free and reasoned choice” and that a new election must be held.

Last October workers voted to retain SEIU-UHW over a new insurgent union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers. NUHW was formed after the SEIU international undemocratically trusteed UHW and expelled the elected leadership after they had criticized SEIU’s “partnership agreement” with hospital chains and plans to move UHW home healthcare workers into another state wide local.

The expelled officers, staff, and hundreds of shop stewards and activists in UHW formed NUHW and began petitioning decertification votes at UHW shops so the workers could vote for NUHW to be their bargaining agents.

What followed was a 20-month David versus Goliath campaign, with the underfunded, mostly volunteer organizing efforts of NUHW versus a multi10 Socialist Action august 2011 (Left) Participant in Toronto SlutWalk, April 3.

SlutWalks and points the way forward for the movement, although its political and social goals have yet to be definitively determined.

The floor discussion, guided by chairperson and SlutWalk coalition activist Lauren Smith, raised many important questions for the movement.

Several commentators took up the question of whether men benefit materially from the oppression of women. It was noted that women perform $11 trillion in unpaid labor in cooking, cleaning, and child care every year. This staggering amount of free labor, which is arguably keeping capitalism afloat, also keeps women who are dependant on a single breadwinner out of the “official” job market or forces working women to endure a “second shift” after they’ve clocked out. All men, regardless of their personal relationships with women, stand to earn more in sectors where they do not have to compete with women for “men’s work.”

Working-class men who think they have any real material interest in the continued oppression of women, however, would be making an extremely shortsighted assessment. By threatening to replace better-paid male workers with lower-paid women, bosses shrink wages for everyone. Is there a place, then, for men in feminist discourse? Indeed, there is no other way out of sexism. Men must recognize their gender privilege and actively eliminate their own potential for oppressive behavior—while committing to building a political movement to overturn the system that fosters sexist and racist oppression and prejudices.

Though most of the publicity for the Aug. 6 San Francisco SlutWalk has focused on what the movement is against rather than what it is for, the forum was also a place for organizers to share what they hoped to gain from the march and from a long-overdue mass movement of women. A popular desire among the women present was for a greater sense of safety in their everyday lives. This produced some speculation on the depth and breadth of social change required to simply make it possible to walk alone at night without fear.

Casting aside illusions about reforming or educating the police, there was also broad agreement that communities should take control of policing rape and domestic abuse situations. Community organization is furthermore capable, in the short term, of achieving million-dollar mobilization of staff and resources by SEIU. Hundreds of SEIU organizers from across the country were sent to spread lies and fear to the Kaiser workers. Pro-NUHW elected shop stewards were removed from their posts.

SEIU not only had the advantage in resources, they also had the bosses on their side. Kaiser illegally assisted SEIU by spreading lies that changing unions would result in the loss of benefits, intimidating and harassing UHW supporters, and punishing smaller units that separately voted to join NUHW. Kaiser retaliated against those 2300 nurses and other professional employees for switching unions by withholding scheduled raises and other benefits. The combined SEIU Kaiser campaign eroded support for NUHW among a workforce filled with fear. In February 2009, 25,000 Kaiser workers signed pledges that they would vote to join NUHW. The final was 18,290 for SEIU, 11,364 for NUHW, and 365 for no union.

SEIU will certainly appeal the decision, but NUHW supporters are confident they will prevail in the courts and are preparing for an election to be held in 2012. — DAVID BERNT free access to abortion and contraceptives instead of prohibitively expensive services not available to poor women, whose burden multiplies by the child. On the flip side, one participant advocated defending women on welfare who are trying to keep their children from being taken away by the state on charges of neglect.

Consciousness-raising is an important aspect to any public action, and perpetuating the present discourse also requires lowering the age at which this discourse becomes available. Reaching out to adolescent girls in schools and in the community at large with a less sterile approach to learning about sexuality is an important part of sparing young women anxiety and confusion and prevents the men in their lives from exploiting their vulnerability.

Helping young girls understand the role of the family and the media in shaping their expectations for themselves will provide them with the tools to consciously resist those expectations, and arm them with the intellectual capacity to identify sexual abuse not as an isolated occurrence but a symptom of an oppressive social and economic structure for which they are not at fault.

Lastly, there was unanimous agreement that one of the most important goals of this movement is to be part of an international struggle that rejects the imposition of Western cultural definitions on “third world” women. This will inevitably entail a re-examination of the word “slut” and its potentially alienating impact on women who have been sexually exploited or whose ethnic identities have been overly sexualized in Western media. However, the discussion did not produce much interest in “taking back” the word or standing by it in the long term. Rather, there was a commitment to understand and build a movement to eradicate the oppressive influence of capital as it intersects with race and class in the lives of women. n ... SlutWalks (continued from page 12: “SlutWalks: confronting the attacks on women’s rights”)

women that dressing in minimal clothing is not a prerequisite for participation. They have also had to alter the name in order to make it culturally appropriate.

Such adjustments highlight the complications that arise in a global movement for women’s rights and call attention to the need to include women of all ethnic backgrounds when setting an agenda for an international movement. These obstacles stem from the fact that the SlutWalk was originally developed as a small-scale response to a local incident and was organized in large part via Facebook.

Despite legitimate and vital critiques, the grassroots uprisings are an inspiring and welcomed development. They indicate that women and their allies are ready to fight institutionalized sexism in the face of a national blitzkrieg on women rights.

We must attempt to understand the aspirations that these layers of women have for sexual liberation, encourage others to join in and work with participants toward the development of a more inclusive feminist politics that addresses the class and ethnic specificities of all working women.

That said, the feminist movement cannot be reduced to the SlutWalk. As the politics of the SlutWalk develop and are continually shaped by global and cross-cultural influence, other efforts to combat rape, attacks on abortion and sexual freedom must continue. Although the SlutWalk has garnered substantial attention, it is hard to say where it is headed and what potential it has to engender real change. We’ve seen movements for women’s rights go awry through collaboration with the Democratic Party and law enforcement in the past.

Socialist Action argues for a grassroots mass movement that is independent of the capitalist parties. The rights that women have today were not handed to them or gained by pleading with politicians or begging for help from law enforcement. True women’s liberation means sexual freedom for all women despite ethnicity, class, or immigration status. It includes free and comprehensive health care, decent wages and the elimination of the wage disparity, job security, and safe, affordable child care. It means free and accessible birth control and abortion on demand and quality sex education from an early age.

This is impossible under a wage-profit system, but is possible under an economy based on human need. Because the oppression of women is inextricably linked to the capitalist system, full liberation of women requires nothing short of a socialist revolution. n

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