Resolution
on Women in Western Europe and North America
13th
World Congress – 1991
SINCE
the 1979 11th World Congress resolution "The Socialist Revolution and the
Struggle for Women's Liberation" important changes have taken place in the
forms of women's radicalization in western imperialist countries. That
resolution noted the mass resurgence of feminist ideas and organizations. It
came at the end of a period marked by large-scale mobilizations on the abortion
question, by self-organization of sizeable sections of the female population
and by workers' struggles in which women had played an important role.
Breaking
with a tradition of indifference or distrust towards feminism by our movement,
the text advocated building independent women's movements in every country
according- to the rhythms and particularities of local situations. It affirmed
the strategic character of building such movements as an indispensable
condition for challenging women's oppression and achieving real socialism.
Since
then we have to note a decline of "organized feminism", but this does
not mean a generalized decline in women's radicalization. The centre of gravity
of radicalization has changed, as have the channels by which it is expressed.
The essential question facing feminists is to find ways of linking up with the
new generations of radicalizing women in order to build feminist movements that
preserve the gains of past years and that can once again have an influence on
the political scene.
The
decline can probably be explained by two interlinked factors. The economic
crisis has altered the overall balance of forces in favour of the bourgeoisie;
reformist organizations have accepted the logic of austerity. In some countries,
the media have been pushing the idea that we are now in a
"post-feminist" era, where equality between the sexes has already
been achieved. In this context, which is also marked by a relative lack of
workers' activity in many countries, the weakness of the women's movements
meant that they could not swim against the stream and impose anti-capitalist
demands; winning genuine women's liberation seemed to be a utopian idea.
During
the 1970s it was possible for the various currents of the women's movement to
unite and engage in mass action in alliance with trade-union and democratic
organizations nationally and internationally to win and defend women's rights,
such as abortion. The granting of legal reforms slowed down this type of
mobilization.
Our
analysis of the nature of women's oppression has not changed. The absolute need
to build an autonomous movement the only guarantee that there is a radical and
effective struggle against oppression has in no way disappeared. What remains
is to make tactical adjustments to a new conjuncture.
The
general trends in the social situation of women described in the 1979
resolution remain fundamentally valid today, but new elements should be
incorporated:
·
Continuation of the
massive participation of women of all ages and from all family situations in
the labour market, although their integration into waged work takes place
fundamentally through part-time work. Wage discrimination and sharp segregation
between "masculine" and "feminine" jobs – running through
training, promotion, working conditions, etc. – is continuing and even
deepening.
·
Better technical
possibilities exist for women to control reproduction, but in the majority of
cases these are limited by laws limiting women's right to decide.
·
Continuing massive
presence of women in public education to the level of high-school graduation
and university entry. Mixed schools have not meant real co-education. Women's
presence is limited to humanities faculties, and in any case diminishes sharply
in higher levels.
·
The development of
legislation which postulates formal "equal rights", outlawing
discrimination, penalizing sexual violence etc., without taking positive steps
to enable women to overcome their historically disadvantaged position.
·
An increasing choice by
women to live alone, with or without children, as seen in the number of
divorces requested by women, single-parent families, women living alone, etc.
Obviously this situation does not always represent a free choice insofar as it
is does, it is made possible by women's increased economic and legal
independence.
·
Black and immigrant
women continue to suffer from racism, which combines with and reinforces their
oppression as women.
·
Greater social recognition
and rejection of maltreatment within the family and the sexual violence which
men use against women.
·
Increasing participation
of women in public spaces until now reserved for men; exclusion has been
replaced by integration in unequal conditions in all spheres of public and
social life.
·
Liberalization of sexual
habits and customs, recognition of women as sexual beings, although this is
still not expressed in greater sexual equality between men and women.
All
this reflects the political activity of feminist organizations and has meant an
important development of women's consciousness, their personal autonomy and
self-esteem; and a change of the socially established stereotypes for men and
women. All these elements have created a situation which is different and more
complex -- because contradictory - than that of 1979.
This
reality has been noted by those who defend the social- and economic order,
forcing them to re-elaborate their discourse so that it seems more in tune with
the new situation. It has also led to a differentiation in the policies
developed, although there is obviously a basic and firm agreement to preserve
the family institution, the fundamental pillar of oppression, and to keep women
in the workforce in a particular form. But the bourgeoisie is far from having a
single, clearly-defined plan to achieve its goals.
The
changes indicated above have introduced important fissures in the traditional
model of the family, determined by the seclusion of women in the home,
dedicated to domestic tasks and care of the children, and by the relations of
domination which existed within it.
Some
of these changes are:
·
the increase in the
number of non-married, cohabiting couples;
·
the large increase in
the number of single-parent families;
·
the soaring divorce
rate;
·
the increase in the
number of lesbians and gay men living open and proud lives;
·
the decline in the birth
rate, reflecting women's change of attitude to bringing up children as their
only preoccupation;
·
The increase in legal
complaints for domestic violence is an important indicator of the change in
women's self-esteem, and the cracks made in women's relationship of emotional
and sexual dependence on their husbands.
This
change in women's consciousness and the social rejection of this most brutal
expression of women's oppression has also demanded greater attention to the
problems which exist in the family: media attention and campaigns around
battered women in the 1970s; exposures of physical and sexual abuse of
children; the problems of children of separated parents. However, there are not
sufficient of the social services necessary (battered women's centres, etc.) to
meet the demand.
There
are a number of different bourgeois responses to this situation which also
reflect national particularities:
a)
Constant promotion of the ideal of the happily-married couple in a permanent
union, with a mother responsible for the home and two children, despite the
fact that most women work. This is particularly the case for the white
working-class family. Capitalism is less concerned with defending or promoting
the unity of black and immigrant families, which it will happily break up
through immigration laws, deportation orders or police harassment.
Another
aspect is the European bourgeoisies' insistence on the "dramatic
consequences" of the falling birth rate. The need to "reverse this
trend" is used to reinforce the idea that women's fundamental role is
within the family, producing children (directed at white women). At the same
time this prepares the ground for cuts in social spending and throwing the
burden especially of the care of old people back into the family, under the
pretext that there will not be enough workers to contribute to social security
funds.
b)
Certain sections of the bourgeoisie have become more flexible on questions such
as the status of children born outside marriage or legal recognition of
cohabiting couples. This flexibility aims at incorporating the structural
changes in the way people live their lives into the system, because capitalism
requires the continued existence of the nuclear family as the general model
even if different variations can be accepted. No alternative to this style of
living exists on a mass scale. The indices given for the "crisis of the
family" can be countered in different countries by various elements
including the rise in the number of marriages, the possibility to register
"illegitimate" children in the names of both parents, the
incorporation of certain types of "acceptable" homosexuals (white,
male and middle class) into the norm through offering a possibility of
"marriage", and so on.
c)
Some openly reactionary sectors of the bourgeoisie use the "crisis of the
family" to press for measures of moral order in Europe this often includes
the idea of a maternal wage, eroding the incomes of single parents and attacks
on lesbian and gay men. These currents are still markedly on the extreme right
of the political scene, even if some churches have put themselves in the
vanguard of this struggle but they have had some success in the British state
and in Germany, and they do influence more mainstream bourgeois thinking on the
family. In the United States, they have a larger mass base and have been openly
encouraged by successive governments. Those who do not adapt to the nuclear
family or the dominant sexual model are often considered marginal, while women
who accept the more or less established rules of social behaviour are
considered more favourably.
B. Women's massive
presence in the workforce on terms determined by their specific oppression
Contrary
to the most pessimistic predictions, the economic crisis has not led to women
being pushed back into the home. In all the European countries, women's economic
activity continues to rise. Even if the rate of women's unemployment is higher
than men's everywhere, nowhere has there been a systematic attempt as there was
during the 1930s to replace female workers by male ones.
The
reasons for this are evident. Outside of women's own increased reluctance to
return to the home, it is the change in economic organization over the past 40
years that is responsible for this new attitude of the bourgeoisies. The
development of the tertiary sector has led to the creation of a large female
workforce, not highly skilled but sufficiently so that they cannot be replaced
from one day to the next by an unskilled metalworker or a redundant miner.
In
addition, women's low wages encourage the bosses to keep these workers. This
continuous entry of women into waged work has taken place on varying scales
according to the country. But the forms that it takes are determined
every-where according to the situation of domination over women. Modern
capitalism faces a contradiction for it is dependent on female labour outside
the home, but it is also dependent- on "free" female labour inside
the home.
The
precarious conditions in which women are integrated into waged work form a
whole which goes from discrimination in professional training, in hiring
conditions and wages, and which finishes in the feminization of poverty.
The
expressions of this specific insertion of women into the world of work are as
follows:
a) Increase in part-time
work
In
countries with the highest levels of female employment part-time work has
reached its highest levels. Part-time work is most likely to be exclusively
female: 80% of all part-time workers are female, and in West Germany and
Denmark the figure rises to 95%. The majority of women workers in Britain – the
first European country to promote part-time work on a large scale – are
part-timers. This carries with it low pay, low status, high productivity levels
and lack of union organization and maternity rights.
Lack
of adequate child-care facilities for children below school age is the key
factor that forces women into part-time work. Although it seems the only
possibility for them others – particularly young women – want to work full-time
but cannot get jobs.
Trade
unions in Europe have generally not responded to the special needs of part-time
workers.
b) Job segregation
The
expansion in female employment has not been spread across the occupational jobs
and groupings. Job segregation- has even increased with the rise in women's
rate of activity and is the key factor in their lower average pay. Women are
predominantly employed in the service rather than industrial sector. Among
semi-skilled women workers, many of them work separately from men in jobs like
wiring and routine assembly work. Nor, despite anti-discrimination legislation
and changes in education, have we seen women breaking into male-dominated jobs
or a marked increase of women working in the top professions.
c) New technology
A
quiet revolution is taking place using new technology to structure and restructure
the hierarchical sexual division of labour at work, at a time when the workers'
movement is on the defensive. These changes are geared to the interests of a
capitalist, imperialist and patriarchal society.
Introduction
of new technology not only brings job losses but also a deterioration in
women's working conditions. According to recent surveys in the tertiary sector,
women just do not have the "promotional characteristics" post-entry
qualifications, an unbroken service record, geographical mobility to take
advantage of the new managerial and administrative opportunities. Men are more
often encouraged to retrain, while women are left to occupy the lesser-skilled
jobs (such as computer operators rather than programmers).
d) Flexibility and the
reorganization of work
To
get the most out of the new machines capitalists are demanding that workers
work around the clock introducing shift work, weekend work and attempting to
lift the ban on nightwork for women. An increasing number of firms (banks,
insurance) are also proposing to exploit women's dual role by installing
terminals in their homes.
The
arguments used to try and convince women workers to accept flexible hours are
not the same as for male workers. The argument directed at women emphasizes the
possibility to combine "their" family responsibilities with waged
work. For men, the arguments emphasize increased leisure time.
All
the attacks outlined above go in the direction of introducing flexible jobs,
hours, wages and employment patterns. The ruling class tries to creates a
divide between a small minority of skilled workers usually male, of the
dominant nationality and an increasingly large marginal layer of unskilled,
precariously employed workers made up of women, a section of young workers,
immigrants, and unskilled males, who only have temporary jobs and are not
covered by social security. It needs to cement the sexual division- of labour
at work as it reorganizes production to achieve these aims.
e) Unemployment and social
security
Since
1974 there has been lower economic growth and higher levels of unemployment
than at any time since World War II. In nearly all countries the proportion of
women registered as unemployed is higher than for men in Austria, Greece and
Portugal the unemployment rate among women is double that for men. (Of course,
official statistics mask the full scale of female unemployment as many women
fail to register as unemployed.)
No
capitalist state ever recognizes women as workers on equal terms with men. One
example is the series of measures taken recently in various European countries
that tend to exclude even more women from social security coverage, while
married women without jobs have never qualified for benefits. The new
restrictions on unemployment benefits give priority to heads of household
(usually men). Such measures reinforce the fiction that a woman's place is in
the home and that women's work only provides a "supplement" to family
income. They deny women's right to economic independence.
a)
The USA has been at the forefront of
the attacks on the right to abortion with the recent attempt to reverse the
1973 Roe v Wade ruling, which gave women a constitutional right to abortion.
This frontal legal attack is combined with grass-roots fanatical mobilization
by extreme sectors of the "Moral Majority" and evangelical churches,
taking the forms of burning down clinics and physically preventing women from
entering them. However, it now seems that the Republican Party will downplay
its hardline opposition to abortion which unexpectedly turned out to be a
vote-loser.
This offensive has also developed in a less frontal way through attempts to limit existing laws: reducing time-limits or limiting women's right to decide, giving greater power to parents and husbands or lovers, demanding parental permission for minors, etc. Attempts to restrict the laws meet massive rejection expressed in mobilization. In some countries, (Belgium, Spanish State) there have been big mobilizations to broaden the scope of the existing laws.
Another
line of attack is the severe restrictions on health service resources making
access to abortion difficult.
The badly-named pro-life organizations, whom we should better call "pro-foetus", are developing an international campaign with extensive means and economic resources, as well as counting on the support of sectors of the political, judicial and medical establishment. They are attempting to erode the social climate favourable to abortion created by the activity of the feminist movement. These forces use a discourse that tends to criminalize and culpabilize women, using the communication media, schools etc, with particularly aggressive rhetoric and propaganda.
However, abortion as a right is never secure under capitalism as it conflicts so strongly with the subordinate role ascribed to women in our society. In fact, all legal changes on this front have failed to give abortion to women as a right instead it is framed in legislation as a "necessary evil" of the modern world. We have certainly not seen the end of such attacks. But, at the same time, the bourgeoisie knows that it has to reckon on women's ability to fight back against any challenge to this right, limited as it may be. The great majority of women now consider that this is a fundamental element in their battle for independence.
There
have also been a series of attacks on other aspects of women's rights to
control their own bodies, around issues of surrogacy, new reproductive
technologies and donor insemination.
b)
The response of bourgeois governments
to the AIDS epidemic consisted of a wave of hostility particularly directed
against the male gay community, with demands for the registration and
segregation of victims and potential victims. While US figures show that while
only 8% of AIDS victims are women, in New York it is already the primary cause
of death for women of child-bearing age. The extension of AIDS beyond the gay
community has forced most Western governments to take it more seriously. This
has led to some sex education campaigns about "safe sex" in the mass
media or in the schools. However, the right wing uses this issue to attack
sexual freedom in general. It has also been used to reinforce racist ideology.
A
symptom of the economic crisis is the tendency of the capitalist class to
cutback on the costs of reproducing the labour force. Social services are more
expensive than women's unpaid labour in the home.
The
state aims to transfer the burden of these services back onto the individual
family. Attacks on maternity rights, crèche and nursery provision, health and
community services not only increase the level of female unemployment because
these are female intensive areas, but they also step up the unpaid work and the
oppression of women in the home.
a) Legal rights
Throughout
the 1970s most governments (right or left) under the pressure of women's
mobilizations - introduced a series of major legal reforms on women's rights,
although- American feminists' attempt to enshrine equal rights in the
constitution was defeated after a hard battle. However, these laws have
generally had little practical impact. The deepening economic crisis has made governments
even less willing to bear the costs themselves or to impose the extra costs
involved upon employers. But these laws have had an important effect in raising
women's expectations and willingness to struggle.
b) Women as voters
The
changing social position of women has been accompanied by a change in their
pattern of support for the existing political parties. Before World War II the
general pattern was for more women than men to vote for right-wing parties. A
gender reversal is now underway.
A
number of parties of both right and left have engaged in wide-ranging tactics
to win over women voters. This has taken a number of forms, including
pseudo-radical feminist arguments ("re-evaluating motherhood",
reconciling work and family life), establishing ministries for women's rights,
feminizing their image, etc.
c) Women in bourgeois
political institutions
The
absence of women from representation in the legislative assemblies and
government has led to increasing demands- for reform. A number of bourgeois parties
have responded- with proposals to increase the representation of women, but it
is remarkable how little impact this has so far had. There has been a small
increase, reaching 20%-28% in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands,
but not exceeding- 10% or 12% in the other imperialist countries of Europe.
The
reformist leaderships are caught in the contradiction between maintaining their
traditional relationship to the base of the mass workers' organizations, and
thus to women at the base beginning to express specific aspirations, and their
general logic of "managing the capitalist crisis".
The
reformist discourse varies from country to country. The general framework tends
to be a pro-equal rights position, but without being prepared to take the
positive action necessary to make them a reality. In some countries the
argument is that "the basics have been won". In others, where a more
specifically feminist gloss is given to reformist ideas-, we see arguments
developing for women's low pay to be alleviated through an incomes policy.
Increasingly, the reformist leaders, both in and out of power, are being pushed
rightwards accepting the logic of the capitalist crisis and refusing to fight
against the basic inequalities women face at work and in society. To the degree
that the labour movement confines itself to the narrow, economist concerns of
the traditional industrial sectors of the working class, the parties of the
ruling class will have some success in recruiting layers of women behind their
own fake "feminist" banners.
a) The trade-union
leaderships
a)The
paper policies adopted by many unions over the last twenty years in themselves
were quite progressive and could represent a real step forward for women. But
the specific structures in the trade unions nationally, locally or in the
workplaces (women's commissions, officers or secretariats) usually receive no
real support from the leadership and the real battle is often for thorough
implementation of these policies. Hence their effects and achievements have
been limited, though not negligible, in areas such as equal pay, sexual
harassment and childcare.
On
many occasions, the trade-union leaderships have turned their backs on women's
demands, ignoring or even opposing them, thus deepening elements of conflict
between working class men and women. This helps to justify the relations of
domination which exist between men and women in the working class, and makes
convergence with the feminist movement more difficult. The
French
unions have not mobilized an active opposition to the imposition of flexibility
and part-time work, and the disappearance of the CGT women's monthly journal
Antoinette is final evidence of this union federation's policy to stop all specific
work aimed at women. In Belgium we saw women workers left to fight alone at
Galerie Anspacht in Brussels and at the Bakaert-Cockerill steelworks near Liege
over the introduction of part-time work and the loss of jobs. In Italy, the
FIAT union did not oppose the introduction of nightwork for women.
b) The leaderships of the
reformist parties
In
1979 we noted that social democracy and Stalinism (particularly the latter)
were slow to respond to the rise of the modern feminist movement, and that
their response was influenced by two factors: i) commitment to the family; and
ii) the need to maintain and strengthen their influence with the workers'
movement.
Since
1979 the inter-dependence of the struggles of women and the workers' movement
has necessitated a more developed response. Women as voters, as trade unionists
and as political activists comprise an important political entity that these
parties have to consider. Most parties have adopted and developed policies
formally supporting women's equality, in some cases including immigrant and
black women and lesbians, although the policy that has flowed from this has
been patchy and partial. The reformist leaderships in some countries have shown
a willingness to incorporate leading spokespersons of the feminist movement as
researchers, journalists, counsellors, MPs and top civil servants in women's
ministries or committees of local councils. This is made possible because the
socialist and feminist revolution which many women were expecting along with
the rest of the left did not come about and women still wanted to see changes
here and now.
i) The Socialist parties
Most
Socialist Parties have adopted specific "positive action" measures,
albeit superficial, aimed at winning women's votes, and particularly increasing
their representation as parliamentary candidates. The left currents within
these parties have sometimes been able to use this opportunity to pass
progressive measures.
Social-democratic
governments particularly have attempted to integrate feminists into
institutional work, encouraging moderate feminism oriented simply to obtaining
small reforms, producing changes which appear the natural result of the
evolution of a democratic society, blurring the role and combativity of women
in winning these changes. However the gains are real, however small, and they
may be used as a lever on social democracy.
The
creation of women's ministries or institutions emerges from the need to give an
institutional response to the social pressure of women. The French and Spanish
experiences show that women's ministries, although long on speeches about
equality, in practice accept the traditional sexual division of labour and are
no guarantee that women's interests will really be defended, particularly in
the context of austerity policies. Their lack of executive capacity and respect
for official policy put clear limits on their activity, but their existence can
be positive in reaching broader layers of women. The contradiction between
their formal and practical positions can provoke debate and differentiation
between the women in these parties, some of whom are prepared to engage in
united action.
ii) The Communist parties
The
current upheavals in Eastern Europe and the discrediting of Stalinist rule have
thrown most CPs into crisis. However, we should not expect any significant
about-turns in the CPs' policy and practice on women. They will continue either
to deny the need for women's autonomous organization and struggles or push a
(sometimes very sophisticated) rightwing version of gender politics, for
example arguing for a "feminist incomes policy" which increases
women's wages at the expense of men's.
However,
as their crisis provokes significant ruptures and departures we can hope for a
questioning of traditional policies and a greater readiness from some layers to
get involved in united feminist struggles. In conclusion we can say that the
impact of the women's liberation movement, its lasting effect on political
consciousness and the political agenda, have made it impossible for the mass
organizations not to respond in some way, however inadequately, opening up
increased possibilities for united action with women from these organizations.
III. Women's
radicalization and self-organization and the autonomous women's liberation
movement
The
birth of the women's liberation movement reflected the profound structural
change in the lives of the mass of women. The feminist movement succeeded in
revealing the social character of women's situation and giving an expression to
the revolt of women as a gender. Despite the changes that have occurred,
women's lives are characterized by discrimination, subordination and
oppression. All these factors mean that the basis for women's activity and
radicalization of women continues.
Many
of the ideas expressed by the movement have been accepted by a big majority of
society. At the beginning of the 1980s, there was a decline and a
disintegration of the movement, sometimes as the product of integration into
institutional and/or social service work, or dilution into different types of
sectoralized organizations. In many cases women's organizations continue,
although isolated and focused on concrete and/or one-off activities. Today,
except in the Spanish state, there are no national coordinating structures of
women's groups, which implies an element of weakness of the movement, a
sectoralization of the struggles and demands.
But
women's active resistance to concrete attacks on their rights has continued and
new organizations have emerged on specific themes or initiatives of temporary
co-ordination, allowing optimism for the future. Women's greater participation
in various types of struggles in the unions, political parties and other
movements is a feature of the situation. Although this has not always been
translated by an organizational strengthening of the movement the potential
exists for this and for a political expression of gender consciousness.
In
many countries there has been a greater convergence between the struggles waged
by women on their problems as a gender and those of the whole of the workers'
movement; the workers' organizations are a point of reference for many women to
solve their problems. As a relatively new active force in the workers'
movement, many women can be more combative than the workers' movement as a
whole and challenge the class-collaborationist policies of the bureaucracy. The
investment of feminists in the labour movement is aimed at transforming the
labour and mass movement to make them reflect women's needs and to make it
possible for women to become a permanent part of these organizations.
In
several countries in Northern Europe large numbers of women have joined the
trade unions as they entered the labour market over the last period. In some countries
this has even helped prevent a dramatic decline in trade-union membership of
the kind experienced in the 1930s. In Scandinavia, the level of women's
unionization reaches 50%, and in Britain, Italy and Belgium it is around
30%-33%. In France, given the overall weak rates of unionization (5% in the
private sector, 10%-12% in the public), the number of unionized women is very
low, almost nil in some sectors.
a) Women trade unionists
The
active participation of women workers has played a key role in a series of
workers' struggles. In West Germany women workers in the steel industry have
been in the forefront of the campaign for a 35-hour week. They adopted as their
own the demand for a 7-hour day, first articulated by social-democratic women
in Sweden in 1972.
The
strike that took place in the National Health Service in 1982 in Britain
involved large numbers of women workers and won significant solidarity from
other workers, such as miners, firefighters and teachers.
The
women in Denmark's unskilled all-women union (KAD) played an exemplary role in
the near general strike that took place in Easter 1985 following the break-up
of negotiations between employers and the main trade-union federation. The
women's union took the initiative to form an inter-union strike committee on
one of the industrial estates, and it was here that the strike held out
longest. The women successfully forced the trade-union bureaucracy to release
funds for the strike.
Working-class
women also fight for their specific demands. In 1984 for example a group of
women workers in Asturias (Spanish state) demanded to be employed in the mines,
where the men from their communities have always worked. With the support of
the women's secretariat of the CCOO, and against the media and the UGT, they
won and a group of them were finally employed in surface work, winning the
support of their fellow workers.
At
a more generalized level, we saw at the end of the 1980s a wave of struggles in
majoritarily feminine professions – particularly nurses – which affected most
West European and North American countries. They brought a whole generation of
women to the front of the social scene. Among other things, they demanded
recognition of their professional qualifications highlighting the inequality
between their situation and that of male technicians, and refusing the status
of handmaidens to doctors thus going beyond simply demanding women's right to
work. In addition particularly in France they developed structures of
self-organization to control their struggles from top to bottom.
b) Solidarity struggles
Two
examples of women's involvement in solidarity struggles with strikers are:
·
The Spanish
steelworkers' wives who organized a women's coordination to build support for
the struggle at a national level against the Gonzalez government's decision to
close the Sagunto steelworks, which were the mainstay of the local economy.
They often adopted vanguard positions which were more radical and
action-oriented than the steelworkers who were threatened with the loss of
their jobs.
·
Born out of the NUM
dispute with the Tory government in 1984-85, the Women Against Pit Closures
movement was a nationally-organized autonomous network of women's groups based
in the mining communities. These groups had to fight for the right to have
their own bank accounts, representation in NUM branch meetings and the right to
picket alongside the men. Many of the women were miners' wives and new to
active politics, yet their resolution helped to ensure that the dispute lasted
so long, won so much support against Thatcher, and made links with other
movements such as CND, Greenham, black and immigrant groups, lesbian and gay
groups and international campaigns.
This
movement arose, of course, in the rather particular context of the vanguard role
of the miners' union, the length and intensity of the struggle and the
relatively homogeneous nature of the mining communities. But beyond this
specificity it should be emphasized that it was a dramatic example of the
political power of working-class women in action, and an example for other
women in Britain and elsewhere.
a) Under the pressure of women's organization, and in
order to keep or win women members, many trade unions have been forced to make
small concessions in representation or broaden their debates to include such
questions as a guaranteed minimum wage, abortion rights, sexual harassment at
work, the portrayal of women in the media, specific demands of black or lesbian
women, etc.
But
the greater presence and participation of women in trade-union struggle and
activity has not always led to a strengthening of their organization within the
unions. Often these attempts clashed with the negative attitude of the
trade-union bureaucracy and sometimes had to confront the distrust of the
majority of the membership. Or, as in the Spanish state, they succeeded in
maintaining special structures, but faced problems in terms of concrete
activity. Equal opportunities committees and programmes exist in many major
unions, but these are not the same as positive action. Women's mistrust of
trade-union organizations is such in certain countries that they have developed
structures of self-organization outside the unions. The most striking example
was the French nurses' coordination during the winter 1988 strike.
b)
Women realize that for their struggles to be supported and their needs as women
to be acted on, the representation of women has to increase at all levels of
the unions.
There are a number of reasons for the under-representation of women in the labour movement:
·
the sexual division of
labour means that most women are in the least organized sectors;
·
the history of the
workers' movement, and the chauvinism of the traditional leaderships;
·
the large proportion of
women in the "informal" sector in certain countries.
In
Britain, NUPE, a municipal and health workers' manual- union, ran a successful
campaign in the late 1970s to encourage women the majority of their members to
become shop stewards. In West Germany, women in the printing and textile unions
raised the demand for quotas in union structures in proportion to their numbers
in the union. In Italy, the male leaders of the CGIL themselves criticize the
limited presence of women in the leadership, because they are alarmed by the
low level of activity or, indeed, the disaffection among women.
One
of the striking aspects of women's radicalization in the last decade is their
mass participation in the social movements in ecology, peace movements, in
solidarity committees with liberation movements or aid to the third world.
A
particularly important example was the women's peace movement that developed in
many European countries out of the anti-missiles struggle. Women were attracted
to this movement both on the basis of a general appeal around disarmament, and
because of the links highlighted by feminist coalitions in the Spanish state
and Britain for example between militarism and patriarchy. The forms of
organization this movement adopted were networks of women's peace groups, mass
action initiatives, and coordination at an international level forms learnt
from the women's liberation movement. Many women, particularly young women,
gained their first experience of feminist ideas- in such formations. In many
cases women were at the forefront of the most dynamic mass actions, as at
Greenham Common.
a) Black and immigrant
women
Struggles
against racism have often involved black and immigrant women in a prominent
way, and they have taken up their specific oppression: pinpointing sexual
harassment; discrimination in housing, jobs, health and education; immigration
laws; specifically racist violent images of women's bodies and violence towards
black and immigrant women; and racist assumptions about black and immigrant men
involved with rape and violence.
They
have taken up the specific oppression they suffer due to the family forms and
culture of their own communities, and launched campaigns against excision and
infibulation of women and girls. Black and immigrant women have been at the
forefront of placing anti-imperialist questions before the whole women's
movement.
Where
black women's organization is more developed, for example in Britain and North
America, they have challenged many assumptions of white feminists for example,
taking up the issues of fertility control as they affect black and immigrant
women such as forced abortion and sterilization. This has been in the context
of xenophobic speeches from forces like Le Pen in France, and Margaret Thatcher
in Britain, on the fear of being "swamped" by the
"alarming" fertility of black and immigrant women. They have
challenged the idea of a consensus among women, stressing that they cannot put
gender before race and class.
b) Young women
The
feeling that men and women are equal and that women are not oppressed because
of their sex is much more deeply rooted among young women today, and talk of
the women's liberation movement seems "old-fashioned". However, they
can be attracted to a movement capable of developing the
"traditional" themes of feminism: contraception, sexuality, violence,
which enable women to radicalize quickly and build specific organizations to
carry out their own feminist activity in the neighbourhoods and educational
establishments. In the recent student mobilizations young women played a more
active role, as they do in the peace, anti-racist or Green movements. In
France, young women of North African origin have unquestionably played a vanguard
role in anti-racist mobilizations. Through this political activity they can
become aware of their oppressed situation in society, in the family and in the
labour market. The contradiction between their assumption that they are equal
and the reality when they find that their movement is dominated by men can
provoke a sharp reaction and a turn to organizing among themselves as women.
In
a country like the Spanish state the youth mobilizations have given birth to
groups of young women whose struggle focuses on questions such as sexuality,
violence, education, etc.
It
is important to explain that the solution to this oppression is a collective
fight, and not an individual one or an individual search for a career. A
collective fight must include those young women who are outside the education
system, who are unemployed and for whom the only future seems to be to find a
male breadwinner.
c) Lesbians
The
fragmentation of the women's movement has been largely reflected in the lesbian
movements. There are a few exceptions and there are also some countries where
the lesbian community is only now beginning to grow and organize.
The
fragmentation of the women's movement often involved major disagreements over
issues of lesbianism and sexuality. The failure of socialist feminist currents
to adequately respond to the issues and demands raised by lesbians has
contributed to the relative hegemony of radical feminist ideas in the lesbian
movements.
The
weakness of the feminist movement is also a major factor of the de-politicization
of the lesbian communities. Although lesbians remain generally much more
political and radical than their gay male counterparts, the late 1980s saw the
emergence of a growing preoccupation with style rather than with women's
liberation on both sides of the Atlantic.
On
the other hand, the campaign against the British Section 28 involved the
largest lesbian and gay rights demonstration ever in Europe and was one of the
most dynamic campaigns against the Thatcher government in recent years. It was
notable not only for the fact that it was led by lesbians, but also the support
generated in the labour movement and internationally.
Women's
presence in the non-revolutionary left parties has become stronger by a
combination of radicalization of women in the traditional base of these parties
that is the growth of their aspirations as women under the influence of the
women's movement and the entry into these parties of certain layers of
feminists previously organized in the women's movement.
These
women were in search of a seemingly more "effective" alternative to
the women's movement, once the period of big united-front struggles was over.
New political formations (such as the Greens) can also have a certain
attraction for women who are seeking an overall political alternative but who
reject the traditional parties which often have a very "masculine"
image.
a) The traditional
workers' parties
Women
have organized at rank-and-file level, for example in the British Labour Party,
the German SPD and Norwegian social-democracy, to fight for policies
corresponding to their needs as women and for greater representation. We have
already underlined the possibilities opened up for joint action by the
contradiction between this battle and the attitude of the leaderships. The
women's structures in these parties sometimes take more radical positions on
general political questions than the parties themselves.
b) The German Greens
In
this party autonomous women's caucuses exist and leadership bodies are elected
on the basis of gender parity. Speakers in meetings are taken on the basis of
equal time for men and women. The all-woman leadership of the parliamentary
fraction caused an enormous stir when they publicly challenged the sexual
harassment of men in their own party. Taking on the politics of gender does not
however avoid the debate about political strategy, and women will often be
found to have different political views about the priorities in the struggle
and what alliances the Greens should make.
Traditional
feminist themes re-emerge from time to time as new subjects of mobilization,
sometimes in response to attacks on rights already won, sometimes as concrete
demands to broaden these rights.
For
example, in 1982, under the left government, the French feminist movement
mobilized to impose the reimbursement of abortion by the social security. In
1985, women from the entire Spanish state decided to collectively defy the
government's restrictive abortion law. This campaign has inspired a resurgence
of activity among women on a whole host of other issues surrounding their
oppression, and strengthened the national coordination led by the far left. Two
thousand women in Germany met to discuss new reproductive technology, and in
November 1989 120 women from all over Europe came to the Socialist Feminist
Forum in Sweden. International Women's Day can provide a focus for involving
all currents of the movement in united initiatives.
Different
examples demonstrate the strength of the autonomous- women's movement when it
is able to take initiatives on questions which rally broad layers of women and
bring behind it sections of the traditional organizations of the workers'
movement. The self-organization of women within the labour movement is a key
mechanism for effecting the necessary political interaction between the
movements of women for their liberation and the organizations of the working
class.
The
changes in women's situation have provoked a political- differentiation in the
movement. This greater differentiation has been shown on the theoretical
terrain. Among the new theoretical themes some related to questions of race,
class, imperialism and sexuality show up the different situations that exist
among women. Feminists' differing attitudes and relationship to the state and
its institutions have also provoked discussion. Other discussions arise with
new problems (for example the new reproductive- technology), or on themes such
as sexual violence.
The
development of the struggle against men's sexual violence against women,
touches one of the most vulnerable aspects of masculine domination. We situate
the origin of this violence in women's oppression and raise the necessity for
it to be considered as a social crime, placing the accent particularly on
women's self-organization and self-esteem. Another line has been developed
which situates sexual- violence as the origin of women's oppression and
elaborates a series of demands which include an anti-pornography movement,
censorship, strengthening the police- and demands for stiffer prison sentences.
The
development of fundamentalist ("back to nature") alternative currents
(who consider industrialization of any form as totally negative) has had a
strong impact on feminist thought. The possible implications of new
reproductive technologies have stimulated these discussions. These
"naturalist" tendencies, profoundly anti-science, demand a serious
response on our part.
At
the core of these ideas is the view that women's oppression is a product of
biological differences, reflected in the cultural sphere, and not a result of
the social and economic organization of society. Such an analysis involves a
retreat from the early perspective of modern feminism that argued that
femininity and masculinity were socially constructed and could therefore be
changed. Instead they advocate creating "women's space" within the
framework of existing capitalist society.
The
process of differentiation has produced a variety of currents among which we
can identify:
·
Radical feminists who,
on the basis of their analysis of the existence of sexual classes, consider the
struggle between- the sexes as the only element in the struggle for women's
liberation.
·
Various strands of
bourgeois feminism, chiefly characterized by their strategy of making gains for
small and privileged layers of women through an alliance with the ruling class
and its parties.
·
Reformist feminists, who
either do not take into consideration the factors which determine women's
condition as a gender or consider them as a product of the dominant ideology or
reduce them to the economic aspects. They have the perspective of reforming the
state and thus place the struggle for women's liberation simply in the context
of reforms and a "democratization" of society.
·
Socialist feminists who
see the struggles of women as more closely linked with the struggles of the
labour movement.
·
Revolutionary Marxist
feminists including ourselves : we try to integrate into our theory, analysis
and political practice the different contradictions which shape women's reality
(gender, class, race), situating women's struggle in a revolutionary
perspective and recognizing the importance of an alliance with the labour
movement as a whole.
We
should emphasize that the frontiers between these different currents are
relatively fluid and the categories can often not be rigidly applied. Moreover,
our relationship to these currents can vary: on some questions we have
united-front work with radical feminists. At the same time the ideas of radical
feminism, for example, have a stronger impact on women when the workers'
movement turns out to be incapable of responding to women's aspirations.
Confronted
with those who deny the specific oppression of women, who situate it in the
cultural terrain, who consider it a product of biology or think that it is
possible to do away with domination, subordination and oppression in the
framework of this society, we affirm the existence of a material and social basis
for gender oppression and the need for women to constitute themselves as a
social subject, with their own political expression. The feminist movement
makes possible the reaffirmation of women's identity, both individually and
collectively, and is the only movement able to give a political expression to
women as a gender.
The
process of feminist consciousness-raising is complex and takes very different
forms: on the basis of the contradictions generated by participation in social
production or in the public sphere; on the basis of a political practice in
other movements which makes possible a greater reflection and understanding of
their particular reality and conditions for participating in the struggle; on
the basis of a process of individual affirmation in the search for their
individuality. All these roads can lead women to fight for their economic,
emotional and sexual independence. But this often individual rise in
consciousness will not become a collective strength if it is not transformed
into collective consciousness, into a desire to change her own reality and that
of other women.
Women's
liberation work is not simply a sector of work in itself but something that
must influence every other area of our work and our entire organization. Every
section has to identify the layers of women that they are going to work among
on a consistent basis. This is necessary in order to be in a position to take
political initiatives to defend and extend women's rights.
Starting
from their aspirations and the radicalizing movements in which they
participate, we do everything possible to ensure that women become conscious of
their specific problems, encourage their self organization to defend their
specific interests and thus strengthen the autonomous women's movement.
We
also take initiatives each time we can in the workplaces and unions to defend
and extend women's rights. We systematically highlight the link between women's
domestic responsibilities and their position in the workforce. We support
women's right to self-organization and representation within the labour
movement.
We
intervene in defence of women's rights, particularly those of the most
exploited women black and immigrant women, women workers, young women and women
of the oppressed nationalities. We particularly emphasize:
·
The fight for women's
right to control her own body, participating in campaigns against any
legislative backsliding on abortion and contraception; and for liberalization
of laws in countries where abortion is still not a right.
·
Intervening around the
themes of violence against women (rape, battered women, against any kind of
sexual harassment in the workplaces or trade unions ) through campaigns
explaining the issues or by participating in women's or social movement
structures concerned with these questions. Our objective is that laws should be
introduced which defend women's rights and define violence against women as a
crime.
·
The fight for shorter
working hours, with no loss of pay. This brings women into the fight against
unemployment and flexibility and responds to women's need for leisure and time
for their own personal needs.
·
Wage equality between
men and women, and the recognition of women's qualifications. We link wage
demands to the themes of the right to work and economic independence for women,
including through a national guaranteed minimum wage.
·
Refusing all forms of
temporary employment. We under-stand that some women choose to work part-time,
but we emphasize the dangers (low wages, marginalization, de-skilling) and we
are resolutely against imposed part-time work. We encourage collective struggle
against super-exploitation in the form of temporary work, home-working and
insecure "fill-in" jobs and for full rights to time off, job security
and trade-union activity for part-time workers.
·
For education, training
and retraining programmes that make it easier for women to gain the necessary
skills to challenge their traditional employment patterns. For positive action,
including where appropriate quotas in employment and training.
·
Demanding the abolition
of all discriminatory measures limiting women's rights to social security.
·
Participating in
campaigns for the maximum extension of social services (crèches, nurseries
etc.), we continue to propagandize for the sharing of domestic tasks.
·
Opposing all
discrimination against lesbians and defending women's right to freely define
and exercise their own sexuality.
What
we have said before shows the decisiveness of the existence of an independent
feminist movement, able to carry- forward struggles on all aspects of women's
daily lives, that is against their specific oppression, particularly inside the
family.
This
is the condition for consistently defending the specific interests of women and
for transforming the trade unions into revolutionary instruments. This can only
be achieved if there is a radical questioning of the traditional divisions of
the working class, beginning with the sexual division of labour.
The form or shape of such an independent women's movement will vary from country to country, depending on history and present struggles. But the need for continuity that is, passing on theoretical gains, strategic debates, the experience of previous struggles makes this a permanent and central question. Without that and one can see this in our own ranks and in particular in our youth organizations we will be faced with a very alarming steps backward from the programmatic gains of the 11th World Congress.
The
way forward is not simply given by the overall political situation. We do not
give up actively contributing to building trade unions and forming
class-struggle currents within their ranks on the pretext that political
perspectives are difficult. Nor do we abandon our full involvement in building
an independent women's movement where we defend- our line and where we struggle
to be a part of the leadership.