Click here for the latest magazine article on sexism, "Only Communist Revolution Can End Sexism."
March 8 is International Working Women’s Day. The capitalist media stripped this holiday from its communist roots in order to push feminism, an ideology that blames men, instead of capitalism, for sexism.
In the U.S., March 8 is used to prop up women politicians and women profiteers. As of last year, women make up just over a quarter of all members of the 117th Congress, “the highest percentage in U.S. history” (Pew Research Center, 01/21). Meanwhile, Black, Latin, and immigrant working class women continue to suffer the most under the extreme sexist conditions of this system– in all aspects of life. And Texas legislators are trying to outlaw abortion. What good is more representation in a system that that profits off of, depends on, and perpetuates sexism?
Born from class society, the sexist division of workers is a pillar in both maintaining and justifying this capitalist system. Like racism and nationalism, sexism keeps the capitalist bosses in power by dividing workers—in this case, by driving a wedge between working-class women and men. This generates superprofits for the bosses and society then assumes women will freely provide daily and generational reproduction of labor power.
Capitalist ideology reinforces the special oppression and exploitation of women. Capitalism teaches us that society is naturally unequal, that women are intrinsically nurturing. Communist history and leadership celebrates International WORKING Women’s Day instead, highlighting the international efforts of working-class women leading fights to improve the material conditions of women and our class as a whole. Only working-class solidarity can build a movement against sexism.
Confront the dangers of feminism
Like all identity politics, the women’s movement is a dead—and deadly—end for workers. It obscures the fact that capitalist society is driven by a fundamental conflict between the class that owns the means of production and the class that creates everything of value—between bosses and workers.
Feminism misleads women workers, in particular, by recruiting sell-out stooges like Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and the late (and unlamented!) Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Black women workers key in the class struggle
Women workers are still leading present day fights against sexist terror. The thousands of garment workers in Port Au Prince, Haiti are a case in point that offers leadership across borders for all workers. The mainly-women textile workers are calling for a minimum wage increase– $ 15 a day– from the power-hungry companies Nike, Levi Strauss, and Gap. Even if companies like Nike, with a net worth of $30.44 billion (statistica.com)pay workers in Haiti the $15 per hour rate that many U.S. workers demand, it would still be crumbs for the working class, and a drop in the bucket for garment bosses.
The women were met with police repression from fascist acting-Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Henry is in the pocket of U.S. imperialist bosses and pushed to squelch the workers' act of resistance immediately, no doubt knowing what a threat a victory for the workers would be to his capitalist regime.
However, this did not stop the working-class women from fighting back. Women workers who make up the majority of the workforce in the garment industry have the understanding that the imperialist bosses will never remove their racist boots off our necks and the only way to remove them is by force. The workers met again the next day, where violence intensified, injuring several, including one pregnant woman. This sexist, violent attack demonstrated that women are forced to work in dire conditions while pregnant and simultaneously being expected to perform unpaid labor as mothers. In a communist society, women, as all workers, will no longer be alienated from their labor or subject to the racist, sexist violence engendered by this system. We will smash the material basis for sexism: capitalism.
In a system designed to prioritize profits over people, imperialist corporations exploit with absolute impunity one section of workers in Haiti more severely than they do in the U.S.
Similar to these women workers in Haiti, communist women in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) lend us the tools of how to fight. Women workers—who lead fights against police terror, exploitative landlords, and bosses—are the ones that should be celebrated during International Women’s Day, not commercialized petty increases in wages or the election of women to a government who will in turn uphold the super exploitation of international working class women. Reformist solutions, such as closing the gender wage gap, will not suffice to end sexism. Under capitalism, they will only create more incentives for individuals to strive in their own self-interest. Only by eliminating the wage system can we bring an end to sexism. Only then will the profit system’s dogma—“Every man or woman for themselves”—be replaced by the communist principle, “To each according to need.” Only then will collective behavior overcome the selfish me-first thinking enshrined by capitalism.
A world led by PLP
Progressive Labor Party’s deep commitment to seeing a world beyond the shallow gaze of identity politics is one of the tenets of our Party’s line. Working women’s power will be self-evident in a communist world, as they will be giving leadership in the fight against sexism. In a world led by millions of communists in the PLP, we have the basis to live an egalitarian life free from capitalist chains.