ps me keep going in the lowest points of struggle.
There is no formula for how struggles will begin. The radical movements of the sixties and seventies were underpinned by the contrast between expectations fuelled by the economic boom and the reality of capitalism. Sometimes it is because of bitterness stored up because of oppression, or attacks on living standards by bosses and governments, which is the driving force for the world wide new movement against corporatisation.
So socialists are on the lookout for opportunities to win people to the idea that they can win reforms by fighting , rather than relying on politicians or the benevolence of employers or the supposed neutrality of the courts. In that sense, socialists don't accept that to fight for women's liberation we always and everywhere have to be involved in so-called В«women's issuesВ». Strikes over wages, or the right to have a union, can very easily lead to gains in consciousness which lessen the sexism women have to endure. Activists who participated in the many picket lines during the late eighties in Melbourne to defend the BLF, who were facing deregistration by the Labor government, were struck by the heightened awareness of and opposition to sexism among these overwhelmingly male workers. Their years of militant industrial struggle had led to political discussion, contact with the left and a consciousness of oppression. Many young women activists who had not experienced an industrial struggle were similarly surprised at the MUA (Maritime Union of Australia) mass pickets in 1988 when thousands mobilised to defend their union. At pickets where the overwhelming majority were at times male, women commented that they did not feel threatened. Sexist ideas such as expecting women not to be capable of maintaining the picket lines in the event of a police attack were openly argued against. Again, this was a combination of the immediate struggle and its experience and a long history by waterside workers in political and industrial campaigns which had created a layer of activists with an understanding of the role of sexism and other oppressive ideas in society, and how to fight them.
So struggle is central to building a movement that can unite women and men in the fight against sexism. But socialists do not assume this is automatic. Sexist ideas are strong and many varied. So being organised as socialists, developing an understanding of sexism, where it stems from, how to fight it is part and parcel of building on the opportunities that emerge when struggles break out. The intervention of activists to explicitly argue against sexism is still often needed. The difference is, we can get a hearing that in В«normalВ» times might seem impossible. Because the need for solidarity can be stronger than the commitment to the horrible ideas of capitalism.
There are those who argue that women need to be organised В«autonomouslyВ», otherwise their В«issuesВ» won't be taken seriously, or they won't be able to participate as equals in the struggles. But this ignores the very real class and therefore political divisions which necessarily divide women. Unlike the divisions among workers caused by sexism, these divisions cannot be overcome in any permanent way. Take past women's struggles. In the campaigns for women's suffrage it was common for middle and upper class women to only support property based voting rights (Which denied the vote to working class women and men) to give them equal rights with men of their own class. It was only ever the working class movement that consistently supported universal suffrage. It might seem that all women can unite for abortion rights. However, leaving aside the religious views of many women who will never support that right, even women who want abortion rights don't have the same needs. So abortion campaigns have always been divided between more middle class women who simply want legalised abortion and working class women who need free, safe abortions on demand. And when it comes down to it, ruling class women don't need the right to work or equal pay, as they live off profits as do the men of their class. So inevitably, all women's movements, including the Women's Liberation Movement, while it could raise slogans such as В«Women united will never be defeatedВ» in its first flush, were in the end torn apart by class differences which were reflected in different political trends from the commitment to working class struggle and unity of socialism to radical feminism which argued that all men oppress all women, and therefore all women could unite, but could not expect solidarity from men. The first signs of the shifts occurring was the disappearance of В«LiberationВ» from the name of the movement. Janey Stone, a revolutionary socialist at the time and an activist in the Women's Liberation Movement, predicted where t...
