Emancipation of
Women – Perspective of CPI (ML)
(This article Published in 'CLASS STRUGGLE' Organ of CPI(ML) Central Committee.)
The Women who have
been creating all the wealth, and playing an important role in
reproduction
are devoid of any
rights or freedoms and are being oppressed by the patriarchy. They
are living as slaves of the slaves.
India, where people
of different nationalities live, was a British colony for almost 200
years. During this period of British colonial rule in the 19 th
century many reformist movements had come up against brutal and
inhuman feudal social evils. The people of India moved in a large
scale in the struggle for liberation of the country from the British
colonialism that was plundering country’s natural resources. The
Indian national movement had initially drawn the women and organized
them in to struggles in a large scale. This activity enabled the
Indian women to tear themselves away from the traditional family ties
and the backwardness of dark rural lives with patriotism and
awareness to participate in struggles.
In 1930s itself the
then Communist Party of India had formulated the demands of the women
to resolve the problems of the Indian women who were suffering under
the British imperialism and the feudal enslavement. It provided
leadership to their struggles. The Communist Party led the famous
Telangana armed
struggle for land, food and liberty of the people against the brutal
oppression
exploitation by the
nawabs and feudal zamindars and against reducing the people as their
bonded labor in Telangana region. The struggle against the rule of
Nizam and Indian army liberated 3000
villages,
established village states (Grama Rajyas) and distributed one million
acres of land to the poor. The Communist Party had molded the women
as fighting forces against feudal exploitation and for liberation
from all sorts of oppression. In the course of the movement women on
one hand
were able to face
repression and the other were able to run the movement and protect
the fruits of the movement. Thus they made great efforts and played
valuable role.
In this movement
both women and men gained a progressive awareness that was different
from the then existing feudal values. The Communist party made a
special effort to train the women as political organizers, cultural
activists and orators during this movement. It trained them in self
defense also. During this movement several women were molested and
raped by the army and land lords. The women and men withstood the
sufferings caused by these atrocities with the consciousness that
they were the part and parcel of the oppression and learn to cohabit
in the families and society without caring the so called values of
chastity imposed by the feudal society. Women were able to raise
their social status. The Communist party launched an extensive
campaign
about the right of
women to educate, to refuse the arranged marriages and to opt for
marriages by consent or love. It also propagated against caste,
religious and gender discriminations. The propaganda made by the
Communist Party about 1917 Russian revolution and anti-Fascist war
inspired numerous people.
In the contemporary
period so many struggles such as the revolt of tribal peasants of
Worli of Thane district of Maharashtra in 1945, the Tebhaga peasants
struggle in West Bengal in 1946.
In 1947 while
continuing its economic exploitation and indirect control the British
imperialism had transferred the power to the land- lords and
comprador bourgeoisie who had colluded with it. The exploitation and
oppression had further intensified on the people in the semi-colonial
and semi- feudal system. The struggle against this ruthless
exploitation and brutal oppression continued in
the decades 60s and
70s. The Naxalbari and Srikakulam struggles have had their impact on
the people of the country. They shook the ruling classes. Women had
participated in these struggles
militantly. They led
the struggles. Hundreds of women like Panchadi Nirmala, Ankamma,
Saraswati, and tribals braving the cruel oppression had laid down
their lives in these struggles. They
made countless
sacrifices and became martyrs. The memories of their struggles and
sacrifices remain in the hearts of oppressed masses forever. The
women were in the forefront of the struggle of tribals of Kondamodalu
in Andra Pradesh in 1969, and they played a significant role in
spreading the movement. Even today the activities connected to this
struggle constitute a main part of their
lives. In the
struggles that are continuity in the East Godavari, West Godavari,
Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts even today against feudalism,
the women continue to play a daring and
courageous role.
The semi-feudal and
semi colonial mode of production that caters to the needs and
interests of the imperialists and their comprador capitalist, land
lord classes is still existing in India. In India, predominantly an
agrarian country, the land is highly concentrated in the hands of a
few. The vast masses of people remain as landless poor and
agricultural labor. Majority of them are the dalits (lowest caste
people). The women agricultural laborers are subjected to the
atrocities, sexual
exploitation and
oppression of the land-lords. The patriarchal oppression of women has
been
institutionalized by
the social system in the society. Both the feudal and imperialist
exploitation
and feudal and
imperialist cultures have forced the lives of women to a walk on the
burning coals. The imperialists are exploiting and plundering the
labor power and resources of the third world
countries very
cheaply. Labor of the women is being exploited ruthlessly under
heinous working
conditions.
The IT sector
promoted by the imperialists in the name of development is imposing
heavy work load on the women. It is distancing them from the society,
social movements and social environment. On the other side, the
feudal and comprador ruling classes stood as the main prop for the
social economic system. They pursue the policies of exploitation
oppression against the women as dictated by their imperialist
masters. The state – an instrument of power - in the hands of
rulers is also having the nature of male-hegemony and patriarchy.
This gender hegemony of males over the women can easily be perceived
in its use of severe oppression and suppression on the movements of
the women against exploitation suppression meted to them.
So, the emancipation
of women in our country means, in the main, emancipation of toiling
women. The basis for the emancipation of women will only be laid in
the new democratic system. Therefore the women liberation movements
shall be a part and parcel of the movement having the objective of
new democratic revolution and uniting all the oppressed classes to
realize the same. In the course of
such a movement
alone women acquires the consciousness about their rights. They will
be able to fight against various forms of economic and cultural
exploitation.
The women liberation
movement has to be organized with the objective of freeing them from
the routine family work, social bondage and limitations in order to
prepare them for a fight against
various problems and
society and to make them partners in the struggle of new democratic
revolution.
To realize this
objective, CPI (ML) has taken up the task of fighting against the
system of patriarchal oppression, patriarchal ideology and
patriarchal family system. The CPI (ML) is making
special efforts to
make the women actively participate and take part in the struggle
against the feudal and imperialist exploitation. It will strive to
awaken and organize the people against the imperialist exploitation
and aggression in the third world countries. It has organized various
protests and agitations against the US invasions against Afghanistan,
Iraq, and Lebanon. It extended its
solidarity to the
people of those countries who were attacked by the US imperialism.
Ideologically
the Party fights
against the imperialist culture that reduced the women into an object
and commodity. At the same time the Party strives to rally and unite
all these forces of women into these
struggles. One of
the main objectives of these struggles of the Party is to fight
against the
ruthless
exploitation of the labor of toiling women and lower caste women
besides fighting against
caste discrimination
and oppression. The women liberation movement stands in solidarity
with
all the struggles of
the oppressed classes against exploitation and injustice. It will be
in the forefront
of the struggles
carried on against feudalism, unemployment, suicides of farmers,
closure of industries and struggles for equal pay for equal work,
etc..
Thus the CPI (ML) is
striving to organize and build up the women liberation movement in
our
country with a clear
perspective, tasks and objectives.
The success of the
new democratic revolution alone can liberate the people from the
existing semi-feudal and semi- colonial system in India It alone can
ensure the necessary basis for the emancipation of women.
The CPI (ML) is
striving to achieve this objective through an appropriate activity.
An activity
different from this understanding is also in the practice. There are
certain reformist trends which say that women can be liberated with
some reforms within the limits of the present system. Those under the
influence of this trend seek to convince or pressurize the
governments to enact certain laws to solve the problems of women. We
know that on various occasions, the governments made some enactments
owing to some movements. The movement for women franchise in other
countries, the movement for right to abortion, the movement for the
right to education for women in India, the movement for abolition of
child marriages and for widow
remarriages have
certainly influenced the women. But these reforms were unable to
touch the root of the problems. They were unable even to go nearer to
the issue of liberation of women. Even the rights provided in the law
have not come into practice due to so many limitations. A glaring
example for this can be seen in the failure of anti-dowry act. The
very idea that liberation of the
women can be
achieved through laws and reforms is too unrealistic. Such trend only
takes the women movement far away from the task of giving politics to
the toiling women.
“It is our duty to
take politics to reach every toiling woman”
- Lenin
In the recent years,
certain trends have come to the fore. The important among them are:
- The problems of
women must be seen from the angle of women alone;
- Patriarchy shall
not be considered as the question of ideology, but as the question of
base;
- The contradiction
between man and woman is antagonistic contradiction;
- They talk about
the right of reproduction without going into the relations of
production
- They demand the
freedom of sexuality to women questioning the control on women’s
sexuality;
June - 20- They
opine that women are a class since they are subjected to male
domination;
- They conveniently
ignore class exploitation as the main problem of majority of the
women.
If one examines
these opinions with the outlook of dialectical and historical
materialism one can easily understand that the first division of
labor was done between woman and man on the natural basis. In the
work division that stipulates domestic work to women and outside work
of hunting for men, there was no domination or dependency of one
gender in the other. The home (a home of the primitive society) was
the center of production and distribution. The women, who conducted
the domestic duties, had enjoyed certain status too. But due to the
limitations to the production at home and due to the wider scope to
the production outside the house, the labor outside the home has
developed and a surplus in the production was accumulated. Men
aspiring to give their property only to their children had, with his
financial might, subjugated the women forcibly. They withdrew the
freedom of women. They reduced women into instruments that give birth
to their children, as entities that satisfy their sexual urges and as
domestic servants.
This transformation
based on personal property led to patriarchal ideology. The objective
of this
transformation is
that the women have to handover the pious heirs. If this has to
happen, women shall be pure. This very idea is the main objective of
patriarchal control over women. Since it is impossible to control
women with physical might alone, various patriarchal ideas of male
dominance were propagated through religious beliefs and social
customs. In this way the idea that women are dependent and males are
dominant has been spread for generations and crystallized.
Ultimately a stage
has come where women themselves accept as inferior to males and they
themselves propagate
the same idea.
The personal
property, when reached to the stage of capitalism through various
stages, the
capitalist pays the
worker a part of his labor power as wages, but not the total value of
the entire
labor. A worker, who
spends all his labor power of that day in the industry, has to recoup
his labor power through the domestic services and go to work the next
day. So the capitalist has to pay wages to the worker to the extent
of domestic activity the wife of the worker who conducts the domestic
activity and to tend the future generations of workers whom the wife
conceives and tends the total amount needed to this activity. But in
the capitalist system of production where profit alone is the
objective the capitalist pays only the wages that keep the worker
alive loots the surplus value. Due to competition, value of labor is
being decreased while the necessity of domestic service activities
increases proportionately. Thus the capitalist is looting even the
labor of the worker ’s wife directly. The payment for the domestic
services done by her has to be paid by the capitalist who employed
her husband. But since the domestic services were enjoyed by the male
of the house, the opinion that he himself is exploiting her has come
into prevalence. This protects the real exploiter and safe guards
him.
The women working
in various sectors are not only being exploited along with males but
are also being exploited more than their male counterparts of their
sections by way of low wages. The
rulers and
exploiting classes have evaded bothering about the family welfare
related issues as their
responsibility and
are considering them as the personal matters of workers. Due to this
reason
conceiving,
child-birth, rearing children and the looking after family welfare
became a burden
to the women. The
real reason for this extra burden to women is the exploiting classes
only. But the
opinion viewing the
male of the house as the cause for the exploitation of women will
keep the
toiling woman in the
opposition to the toiling man. Such a view will ignore that the
toiling male and
female shall jointly
oppose the exploiting classes. Finally it hinders the liberation of
woman. Instead of resolving the contradictions between men and women
it confuses the contradictions. In the society even the toiling men
have no rights and freedom of any sort. Majority of women are sharing
their lives with such men. The contradiction between the exploited
women and men on one side, and the exploiting classes on the other
side is only an antagonistic contradiction. So the men and
women having a
non-antagonistic contradiction between them have to fight against
their foe. In the
course of such a
struggle and as a part of it the woman and man shall find out ways to
resolve the
contradiction among
them. Only by participating in the wider struggles women can attain
awareness about
their rights and equality.
In this society
based on personal property where the exploiting ruling classes refuse
to take any responsibility about the toiling men and women and their
children, the family system alone is working as their welfare system.
In the degraded living conditions family alone is keeping them alive.
The system of male
hegemony and dominance viewed women as a machine that satisfies
sexual urges and reproduction. Woman is not only an entity of
reproduction but is also a human being that has been striving for the
development of society as a part of the society has been highly
neglected. Only due to the male hegemonic ideology women are being
viewed as only the instruments of sex.
Every human society
is controlling sexual relations according to its stage of
transformation. The joint sexual relations have been developed into
individual sexual relations in the system of the monogamous marriage.
But this system of
marriage of pairs came into existence with the system of personal
property,
had controlled the
sexual relations of women in the family. In order to continue the
system of male
luxury and sexual
enjoyment a parallel system of ‘prostitution’ came in to
existence to that of
monogamous family.
Those women in prostitution are purely and totally are the objects of
sex.
A simple pairing of
a woman and a man alone is the salvation for this existing
contradiction.
When we state that
the control of sexuality of women has started with the individual
property
system, a question
arises whether the freedom of women can be achieved only after the
individual
property is
abolished? To such a question the answer has been provided by Engels
in his famous
book “Origin of
Family, Individual Property and State”…
“If there shall be
a total freedom in the marriage, the capitalist system and the
property relations that came into existence as a result of that
system shall be abolished. Then only in the matter of selection of
husband wife giving importance to the financial (monetary) matters
will be removed
(ended). Then there
would be no other reason for marriage than mutual love.” “The
love between
man and woman
naturally prohibits plurality. Today this prohibition is made to be
followed only by the women. So the marriage depending on the natural
love of man and woman will be as the marriage of a pair only. When
equality between man and woman is established then the women do not
happen the liveness of many men on the contrary the experience of the
previous period explains us that the man really becomes the husband
of only one women.”
In any society the
freedom in sexual relations cannot be absolute. Coming into contact
with
opposite sex will
lead more mutual understanding. In any society, by controlling the
women, the man is losing her partnership is a fact without any doubt.
In the present society all the immediate burdens of the freedom of
sex is borne by the women alone.
The burning urge to
achieve liberty from the control and oppression alone is not
sufficient. Activities based on a proper ideological understanding
are needed.
The main flaw in the
demand for the right to reproduction is the view that the process of
reproduction belongs to the bodies of the women, and ignoring the
societal angle of the issue.
The male hegemonic
society considers the childbirth as an animal activity even today. On
the
other hand, it
created the ideology that motherhood creates a higher status to the
woman. The objective of this ideology is to hand over pious heirs to
the male. Even today the system of exploitation is having the
reproduction activity. Toiling man and woman are a matter of no
importance in these activities. Exploiting class itself decides as to
how many children have to give
birth in future by
the workers and decides the future labor power to be given birth
according to its profit making requirements. At the individual level
the decision is doubtlessly taken by the male.
Under such
conditions, to talk about the freedom of reproduction is meaningless.
In the background of
the inequalities between women and men in India, people are divided
in
society on the lines
of classes, castes and nationalities. Without talking about these
inequalities,
talking only about
the equalities of men and women cannot be scientific. Even in the
women
there are varied in
their classes with varied class interests. There is no ground of
reality to the
independent women
movement that intends to collect all the women under one umbrella.
There
is no economic and
social basis to take forward such a movement and, in the end, it only
limits to the interests of the women of the elite classes.
These sorts of
trends are being propagated in India mainly by NGO organizations.
These
organizations are
debating only about the forms of patriarchal oppression widely, but
not
expressing or
propagating the fact that individual property is the basis for
patriarchal ideology. Their silence about the liberation of toiling
women, who are oppressed under the semi -feudal and semi - colonial
system, will ultimately lead to protecting the interests of the
exploiting classes.
Therefore the
liberation of women is linked with the liberation of majority of
toiling masses
without any doubt.
So the movements of the toiling women shall be inter- linked and
intertwined with the
movements for the change of society.
While fighting
against wrong tendencies on a proper basis, the CPI (M-L) is striving
to build the
movement for the
liberation of women from the system of exploitation and oppression.
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