CHICAGO, March 11—Fight sexism by fighting capitalism. Fight capitalism by fighting sexism. With this dialectical poster message and others, comrades and friends of PLP celebrated International Working Women’s Day with our third annual dinner. A room full of over 40 workers and youth honored past and present working women by sharing some of the rich history of their contributions to anti-capitalist movements and towards a communist society.
The event was organized with the goals of continuing to develop a sense of international communist culture within the Party and around our friends. We also wanted to sharpen the consistent anti-sexist struggle and build communism. Those in attendance were treated to a program that included class-conscious poetry, a case study describing gender equality in hunter-gatherer societies, a brief history of the holiday, and personal recollections of immigrant mothers fighting to keep their community center from being destroyed by the racist and sexist bosses. The event wrapped up with an open political discussion, and finally dancing and socializing.
Giant Leap for the Working Class
A central theme in setting the political tone of this year’s program was the importance of challenging the sexist division of labor. The Soviet Union made lifetime leaps for the equality of women and men. This included collective childrearing, thus redefining the family, legalization of abortion ages before the capitalist United States, struggled with women to give political leadership, were taught literacy, and much more.
A legitimate criticism of both Soviet and Chinese revolutions in their fight for gender equality is that while these societies were effective in getting women to work in roles that had long been traditionally “male” (such as heavy industry or the military), there wasn’t as much effort in winning men and women workers to understand the importance of tasks long characterized as “female” work, such as childcare and cleaning.
While the old communist movement made the most qualities advance for women workers in history, its socialist economics did not eliminate the core of gender divisions: unpaid vs. paid labor. Contrast that with our vision for a communist future, where there are no wages or profits. All labor is done according to commitment and struggle. PLP is putting the pieces in place for a society that begins to undo all the damage caused by thousands of years of sexism in thought and practice.
As one comrade remarked during the open discussion, before we can see that future, there needs to be an international communist revolution led by PLP to destroy capitalism, the present form of class society and primary root of women’s oppression. She explained the need for women leadership in class struggle in the fight for communism. It’s essential for all of us to challenge the bosses’ sexist exploitation and sexist culture.
Celebrating International Working Women’s Day is a huge inspiration. Fight sexism in the class struggle—at work, in schools, in the hospitals, streets, military, and wherever you are. Fight sexism by building a communist Progressive Labor Party worldwide. Let’s celebrate by fighting with anti-sexist politics every day of the year!