FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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Communism will create the material basis for ending sexism. We all need to understand this more clearly and in more depth. We also need to understand the sharp political struggle required, now and after communist revolution, to actually end it.
The El Salvador May Day article in the previous issue (v. 7 #6) describes some of the ways that communist society will differ from capitalism. That includes the same opportunities for women and men, collectivity in child-rearing and household chores, mutual respect instead of violence, an end to sexist prejudices.
But many have fought for these anti-sexist ideas and practices in the past. Many still do. Many have struggled to change their own lives and attitudes. We need that! But that alone is not a winning strategy. Why couldn’t socialism end sexism? How do we know that communism can?
An earlier Red Flag article (v. 7 #2) began to answer this last question.
Communism will end the private ownership of the means of production: land, factories, mines, forests and all the rest. This will destroy the material basis for the capitalist attitude that we are all things to be used for someone else’s benefit. In particular, it will allow us to win the political struggle against the outlook that women are men’s property and the abuses justified by this divisive idea.
Production for need will replace the wage and profit system. This will destroy the material basis for the separation and devaluation of “women’s work.” It will enable us to win the struggle to organize collective labor in all spheres, including responsibility for children. This will end the isolated drudgery of housework.
As the May Day article said, communism needs to unite the masses, in contrast to capitalism’s need to divide us.
Each one of these points needs a whole article! And there is much more.
How can the communist philosophy of dialectical materialism help us counter capitalism’s idealism and mechanical materialism that teach us to think of “male” and “female” as essentially and wholly opposite?
The bosses’ press said that the first day of the wildcat strike of Bangalore (India) garment workers, April, 2016 was peaceful, because “only women were involved.” These pictures expose this sexist lie.
How can 21st century communism go beyond the gender division of labor that existed even in pre-class societies?
What are the similarities and the differences we confront in our communist fight against sexism in the many places our Party is organizing? What do we learn from this about building international communism?
Readers and Party collectives should discuss these and other questions. Then send in contributions for a series. The Red Flag editorial collective should make sure that the series develops our line as well as possible. It should guarantee that disagreements are aired in these pages.
The series should also answer questions some have asked about why we say that working-class women are often the best-prepared to become communist leaders. It should provide guidance to the work of developing many more new comrades, especially women, in leadership roles.
Wherever possible, articles should inspire us with stories of communist-led anti-sexist struggles in the past. They should also show how these were limited by mistaken strategies like feminism, nationalism and socialism. Most of all, they should show how we can win.