The emancipation of women is only possible in a communist society

ICC Introduction

We publish here an article by the Internationalist Voice group, which argues forcefully against the attempts of the international bourgeoisie to steer the mounting anger of the population in Iran towards the illusion of an “emancipation of women” inside the confines of capitalist society. The article was written before the end of Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership, but the point still stands: the oppression of women will not end with a change of government or political regime, or by placing female politicians in positions of power, but only through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.

***************************************************************************

With the beginning of the street protests against the criminal Islamic bourgeoisie, accompanied by a movement against their ideological superstructure, the right and left bourgeois tendencies are struggling to reduce the demonstrations to the level of those concerning the mandatory hijab and civil liberties, from the White Wednesdays campaign to the women’s revolution[1] The removal of the headscarf is considered a symbol of women’s liberation, as if women in Turkey, Bangladesh, the Philippines, America, etc., are not bound by the shackles of capitalism and are “free”. Bangladeshi workers don’t have to wear headscarves, but they must work 10 to 14 hours a day in the 21st century.

The new British prime minister, Mrs Liz Truss, wants to follow in the footsteps of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, and has drawn her sword to destroy the working class through anti-labour policies. This is especially important because the British working class has begun to fight. The neo-fascist Mrs Giorgia Meloni will be the first female prime minister in the history of Italy. Mrs Meloni has said that she will stand up to African refugees and close Italian ports to refugee boats. This civilized lady never hides her opposition to abortion and homosexuality and will implement anti-labour policies to the same extent as Mrs Truss. These civilized women have never had to wear a headscarf and have been “free” all their lives, to stand in front of the working class with complete freedom and present the dictatorship of capitalism to the working class and other people under the name of democracy and civility.

Contrary to the demagogues of the right and left tendencies of capitalism, the world of the working woman is alien to that of the bourgeois one. The life of the working woman involves double exploitation and oppression, as well as humiliation, inferiority, suppressed anger and stifled tears – essentially, the terrestrial and real hell that upside-down capitalism provides for humanity.

The root of the oppression of women is the class system and capitalist production relations. It is only with the disappearance of its material bases, i.e., capitalist production relations and wage slavery, that the foundations of the economic domination of this kind of oppression will also disappear. The oppression of women cannot be eliminated only by changing bourgeois governments. For the real liberation of women, the brutal capitalist system must be overthrown. Only the joint struggle of working women together with working men as a single body, as one class, and with the involvement of class battles can create a decent human life, not only for the women of the working class, but for humanity. The sole future horizon for the real liberation of women from sexual oppression is the struggle of the working class, and the true emancipation of women is only possible in a classless communist society.

 Firoz Akbary, 1 October 2012

 E-mail: [email protected]

Homepage: www.internationalistvoice.or

 

---

[1] After immigrating to America, a journalist who used to be a supporter of former president Khatami launched the White Wednesdays campaign with the support of western bourgeois institutions. In this campaign, women and girls individually removed their headscarves and sent the videos to the journalist to be shown on satellite TV. Some from the left of capital also believe that women are the material force of the future revolution, so they talk about the women’s revolution. The goals of the right and left tendencies of capital are the same, channelling the hidden anger of women in line with anti-regime and pro-democracy protests