https://socialistaction.org/2019/06/21/books-abolitionist-socialist-feminism/
Books:?? ???Abolitionist Socialist Feminism???
/ 1 day ago
July 2019 Wom March 2017 (Mario Tama:Getty)
The Women???s March brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to
Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2017. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)
By HEATHER BRADFORD
Zillah Eisenstein, ???Abolitionist Socialist Feminism: Radicalizing the
Next Revolution??? (New York, Monthly Review Press), 2019, 160 pp. Heather
Bradford is the Socialist Action candidate for vice president of the
United States in the 2020 elections.
An astonishing three to five million people participated in the 2017
Women???s Marches in the United States, and this year, 600,000-700,000
people are believed to have participated. Yet, the Women???s March and the
feminist movement in general have been critiqued for ignoring racism and
how the experiences of women of color differ from those of white women.
Although women of color were leaders in organizing the Women???s March,
the march has been criticized for failing to address racism in signs,
leaders, and demands.
Another critique, such as one from Alicia Brown, a co-founder of Black
Lives Matter, was that those who attended the march had neither spoke
against nor shown up to protest the racist nature of mass incarceration,
unemployment, police violence, and homelessness.
The feminist movement today is often criticized as ???white feminism??? or a
movement which fights for middle-class or upper-class white women, only
giving lip service to racial issues when it furthers their own goals or
image. A similar critique is sometimes launched at socialists, who are
at times accused of sidelining race and gender issues in the interest of
class struggle.
The substance and meaning of Bernie Sander???s version of socialism is
debatable, but he has been accused of color blindness and avoiding of
racial issues. For those who associate Sander???s with socialism, it sends
the message that race is not important to socialists.
???Abolitionist Socialist Feminism: Radicalizing the Next Revolution??? by
Zillah Eistenstein seeks to remedy of the problem of ???white feminism???
and color blind socialism by connecting anti-racism, feminism, and
socialism.
One important way that the book addresses racism is by centering itself
around the voices of people of color. Although author Zillah Eisenstein
is white, she highlights the insights of a large number of antiracist
thinkers and activists such as Kimberly Crenshaw, Angela Davis, bell
hooks, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Frantz Fanon. Centering the voices and
experiences of people of color is important to anti-racist movement
building, and Eisenstein models this throughout the text.
The book itself ceners upon examining multiple oppressions in ways that
are inspired from Kimberly Crenshaw???s intersectionality as well as the
Black feminist thinking that preceded it, such as the work of the
Combahee River Collective. The Combahee River Collective argued that
???sexism, racism, heterosexism, and capitalism are interlocking systems
of oppression that necessitate revolutionary action (p. 57).???
Thus, as the name suggests, ???Abolitionist Socialist Feminism:
Radicalizing the Next Revolution??? takes a multifaceted approach to
feminism and socialism and is a tool for building a movement which
fights against racism, while fighting for workers, women, and other
oppressed groups. The book begins by posing a series of questions meant
to provoke deeper thinking about the interconnectedness of racial,
class, and gender oppression. These questions are explored throughout
the book, though the big idea is that socialism and feminism must be
anti-racist, anti-racism needs socialism and feminism, feminism must be
socalist, and socialism must be feminist.
While the book offers many insights, there are a few which are
particularly important. Again addressing the issue of white feminism,
the book vigorously pursues the important point that white women have
been complicit in maintaining white supremacy. A largely white female
jury determined that George Zimmerman was not guilty of murdering
Trayvon Martin. White women historically supported the lynching and
castration of Black males. They also obtained social standing by
controlling slaves.
Eistenstein also argues that white women helped to get Trump elected, as
53% if white women voted for Trump (with the caveat that half of
eligible voters did not vote at all.) She posits that white women voted
for racism and sexism when voting for Trump, who represents misogynoir,
a term coined by Paula Moya. Misogynoir is a term to add to the
vocabulary of multiple oppressions and is used several times in the book
to describe the intersection of sexism and racism.
Another important point made in the book is that the working class is
not white and male; nor has the global working class ever been
predominantly white and male. The struggles of workers of color are
spotlighted in the book, such as the example of the 2014 fast food
strikes, which were led by women of color and the largest to occur in
the history of the industry. Around the world, women engage in paid and
unpaid labor and while laboring, have been the victims of rape and
murder, such as in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, where women
have been killed while gathering wood. This connection between labor and
vulnerability to sexual assault is an important observation, as women
are often victim-blamed when they are assaulted at work, especially if
they are sex workers or work at bars, alone, or on night shifts.
Labor and sexual assault warrants more attention in feminist and
socialist circles. While there are many differences in women around the
world, labor and experiences of violence is a common experiential thread
that binds many of the world???s women. This leads to another important
point, which is that feminism is often predicated upon an imagined ???we???
of female experience. Eisenstein makes the point that women are both
presidents of nations and die in the hundreds of thousands in
childbirth. Women are not a heteorgeneous group, but do share some
similarities, most markedly in their experiences of sexual violence and
for many, their expanded role as part of the proletariat.
A third important point is that Black women are the fastest growing
segment of the prison population. The prison system itself is a
continuation of slavery, and the point is made that Sandra Bland had no
more rights than she would have had as a slave. Because of the racist
nature of the criminal justice system, the answer to crime against women
is not punishment but restorative justice.
Despite the many strengths of the book, there are some weaknesses. For
one, the book does not say enough about the solution to prisons. While
it is established that the United States??? criminal justice system
violently upholds white supremacy, the question of prisons is not given
full attention.
The word ???abolition??? in the title may suggest prison abolition, though
prison abolition, reform, and restorative justice are giving passing
attention. Instead, the title of the book refers to the author???s
conception of a more revolutionary version of intersectionality.
Abolition as described in the book means ???the abolition of white
supremacist misogyny and its capitalist nexus alongside the racist
misogyny of everyday practices??? (p. 99).
Abolition is further described as interlocking, revolutionary, radically
inclusive, and multilayered. It challenges white dominance by
redistributing white wealth through taxes and reparations, ending white
privilege, and calling upon white people to no longer act as deputies of
the carceral state.
A more revolutionary analysis of interlocking oppressions is a welcome
development, especially when Eisenstein states early on that ???comrade???
is a better term than ???ally??? or ???accomplice,??? which imply distance from
a struggle. However, the book would have been strengthened by offering a
bit more on the ???what is to be done???? aspect of criminal justice,
especially when carceral feminism is the dominant solution to issues of
justice for women.
Likewise, the book would be strengthened by answering some important
questions about the nature of multiple oppressions. Socialist feminists
should have no qualms with the notion that oppressions are
interconnected, as Eisenstein posits. She does not believe that these
oppressions are bifurcated, or can be examined without examining each.
And, there should be no argument with Eisenstein that these oppressions
are a part of capitalism. Yet, the nature of oppression is never quite
expanded upon.
Yes, oppression is interconnected, but by what mechanisms, by what
origin, and to what end? Social Reproduction Theory seeks to connect
oppression back to the functioning of capitalism and thus would fortify
the arguments of the book.
A full exploration of the topic of social reproduction theory???s
examination of multiple oppressions is beyond the scope of this book
review, but a glimpse of what the theory has to offer is made in an
article by David McNally and Susan Ferguson (2015) entitled ???Social
Reproduction Beyond Intersectionality.???
McNally and Ferguson argue that racism, sexism, homophobia, and other
???isms??? serve capitalist accumulation and dispossession but not evenly,
neatly, or with crude economic determinism. They state that the ways in
which labor power is produced and reproduced exists in a social world
that is bound and differentiated by race, nationality, gender,
sexuality, age, and so on. These differences serve as determinants for
the conditions of production and reproduction.
For instance, McNally and Ferguson use the example of migrants. In the
interest of higher profits, labor power is often sourced from outside of
wealthier countries such as the United States, where there are higher
wages and often better conditions. Some work is less mobile, such as
child care for American families or work within the service industries
of the U.S. Migrants are a cheap labor source to fill this need, but are
also vulnerable because they are not afforded the same legal or labor
rights.
The oppression of migrant workers can be connected to their precarious
position within capitalism and the differentiated status that keeps them
vulnerable. Thus, the oppression of immigrants intersects race, gender,
and class and this oppression can be understood through the mechanism of
extracting labor power, their role in social reproduction, and their
place in a social world which renders them vulnerable. Capitalism
contains contradictions, unevenness, struggle, and agency but it
fundamentally divides workers from the means of their sustenance (social
reproduction), and in doing so, is the totality in which oppressions exist.
A more significant shortcoming is the book???s contradictory message
regarding elections. For example, the book begins with some biographical
information about Eisenstein, who has been engaged in anti-racist
activism since her childhood in a communist family. Her family???s
principled stance against racism invited hardship in their lives. For
instance, she could not buy a prom dress because of a boycott of the
segregated department stores in Atlanta and she missed out on visiting a
pool because it was unwelcoming to Blacks.
Unfortunately, these immutable principles did not prevent her from
voting for Hilary Clinton, which was a disappointing conclusion to an
otherwise compelling introductory chapter. Eisenstein correctly
describes Hilary Clinton as a neoliberal feminist, beholden to corporate
interests, and implicated in her husband???s racist, carceral state. Even
more could have been said about her role in the State Department.
While this critique correctly recognizes Clinton as an accomplice to
capitalism and white supremacy, she is still framed as the lesser evil
and it is puzzled over why white women voted for Trump over Clinton. The
two-party system, like so many things in the lives of women, is a
choiceless choice. Trump is overtly sexist and racist, while Clinton is
perhaps less overtly either, but still an agent of U.S. imperialism,
which relies on racism and sexism to function.
Eisenstein describes how lynching became the electric chair and how the
electoral college privileged slave states. She describes how Barack
Obama sided with the rule of law in Fergusson after the death of Michael
Brown. She even calls for the formation of a third party and working
towards revolution, but,she is unfortunately unable to break from
Democrats entirely.
Part of Eistenstein???s unwillingness to break with the Democratic party
is perhaps due to Trump ???exceptionalism.??? This is the narrative that
Donald Trump is uniquely horrible and therefore, voting for the most
abhorrent Democrat is preferable to Trump???s unique brand of racist
misogyny. Every Republican is framed as the next worst thing, as it
seems like just yesterday when George Bush Jr. was the worst president
for being a warmongering, civil liberty defying dolt. Now, he is looked
upon favorably by some who critiqued him before.
Understandably, the 2016 election is a central focus of the text. This
is an important focus as many of the readers may have been recently
radicalized by the election of Trump. The book reasonably tries to make
sense of this election. While Trump is no doubt racist and sexist and
unique in his crude comments and unabashed narcissism, it seems a bit
far to say that Trump is America???s ???first white supremacist misogynistic
president (p.91).???
It is hard to imagine that Trump???s policies are worse than Andrew
Jackson???s Indian Removal Act and the fact that at least 12 presidents
owned slaves. All presidents have been racist to varying degrees, from
Franklin Delano Roosevelt???s internment of Japanese Americans to Bill
Clinton???s crime bill.
While Trump certainly seems exceptional in his sexist language and
behaviors, Nixon was accused of domestic violence, Bill Clinton has been
accused of multiple sexual assaults, Grover Clevland sexually assaulted
a woman who later had his child and had her committed to an asylum, and
Thomas Jefferson had a family with his slave, Sally Hemings.
Trump is terrible and must absolutely be challenged for his racist
misogyny, but in the long view of American history, Trump fits right in
among the slave holders, war makers, overseers of genocide who have been
U.S. presidents. To consider him exceptional gives too much credit to
the presidents who came before. All U.S. presidents serve U.S. power and
capital.
The two-party system is a two-headed monster. One head is not better
than the other, as both are attached to the body of capitalism and
imperialism. Revolution is possible only with the decapitation of both.
The electoral shortcomings aside, the book is powerfully written and a
short, accessible, and important text for socialist, feminist, and
anti-racist activists. Eistenstein makes a vibrant and energizing call
for building a revolutionary movement that takes on racism, sexism, and
capitalism, and also tackles climate change, environmental racism, LGBTQ
rights, Islamophobia, and war.
She boldly states that ???resistance is not enough. Reform is not enough.
Civil rights are not enough. Women???s rights are not enough. In other
words: liberalism and liberal feminism do not work for this moment and
never did??? (p. 127). Despite the mixed messages about Democrats, she
even states that voting is not enough. She calls upon activists to move
beyond moderation and employ a variety of tactics such as building
connections between movements, workplace actions, internationalizing
movements, mass actions, and visible civil disobedience.
Building connections between movements or creating a movement of
movements is central to her prescription for social change. One of her
more profound connections is towards the end of the book when she quoted
Frantz Fanon, who said: ???We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we
can longer breathe??? (p.129). She connects this to Eric Garner, who said
???I can???t breathe??? 11 times before he died. The point is well taken.
Activists are called upon to fight relentlessly and courageously, with
real solidarity, for a world wherein everyone can catch their breath, be
it from police violence, polluted air, or the other suffocating miseries
of capitalism.
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June 21, 2019 in Vote Socialist Action, Women's Liberation.
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??? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. ???
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