http://www.cpusa.org/article/the-fight-against-male-supremacy-and-the-working-class-struggle-for-socialism/
cpusa logo
CPUSA
The fight against male supremacy and the working class struggle for
socialism
Home > Article > The fight against male supremacy and the working
class struggle for socialism
Email
Share
BY:Dee Miles| April 6, 2018
The fight against male supremacy and the working class struggle for
socialism
The first report we heard established that women are half of the wage
labor force, half of the worker segment of the working class. This is
foundational because it was not always true, and this dramatic change
has taken place gradually over the years.
The question is: does our analyses, policies, approaches, and image
fully reflect this reality or do we need to upgrade our ability to fully
reflect this reality in every aspect of our work and in the projection
of who we are? If we are going to be honest, and there is really no
reason not to be, we would have to say we do need to make sure that
women as half not just of the working class, because they were always
that as wives of workers and mothers of working-class families, but
women as half of the wage labor force, women as workers is captured in
our concepts, analyses, policies, approaches, and image.
We have to admit that many of us still see the working class as the
proletariat and the proletariat as male. Part of the problem is caused
by the image of the working class that is projected to us by the
capitalist culture that dominates our country.
In the second report, we learned that male supremacy and misogyny have
been fundamental aspects of the tyranny of ruling classes historically.
With the development of private property and the domination of the
toiling classes by the owning classes came the subordination and
oppression of women. In our view, the evolution of male supremacy and
misogyny has its origins here.
The development of capitalism did not free women; the development of
capitalism intensified women’s oppression with exploitation. In addition
to culture, customs, historical tradition, ideology, laws, social
policies and practices, the full power of the state is brought against
women.
The election of Trump put male supremacy on front burner.
The election of Trump has placed the question of male supremacy and
misogyny on the front burner. The institutionalized terrorism of
capitalism subjects women to threats against their reproductive rights,
lower wages, job segregation, sexual harassment and rape in the
workplace, and continued domestic slavery at home, meaning the cooking,
cleaning and care for children, elders, and the sick.
The working class has the challenge of distinguishing itself from the
capitalist ruling class and all prior ruling classes. Because we live in
a society dominated by capitalist culture, their world views and
behaviors dominate. We live in their house, and they rule.
Even though our working-class lives produce styles and ways of life akin
to our reality, we are not free of the influence of capitalist culture.
Because the capitalist class is the dominant class, male supremacy and
misogyny seep into every nook and cranny of this society, and we, as the
working class, are not free of its influence.
Conscious Struggle
This reality produces the context in which we struggle. It is only in
the struggle to promote the embrace and further development of conscious
working-class styles and ways of life, culture, and thinking (as opposed
to bourgeois styles and ways of life, culture and thinking) and to
create the conditions for working-class unity (through building the
fight for equality and the advancement of democracy) that the fight
against male supremacy, misogyny, racism, homophobia, etc is advanced.
In the absence of this conscious struggle, in many instances the reality
can be very ugly and very violent in the work place and in the home.
Unity within the working class requires conscious sensitivity and
conscious support for issues important to its various segments that are
differently oppressed and exploited. This kind of unity will lay the
basis for social advance and the advance of democracy; this kind of
unity is the basis upon which we will win.
Male supremacy and misogyny harm the working class and the working-class
movement, and the only weapons we have against male supremacy and
misogyny are consciousness, working-class and socialist consciousness,
and united action. That means rather than view issues of concern to
working class women as secondary and on the back burner, especially
because women are half of the wage labor force, half of the proletariat,
this reality requires that women’s issues be placed on the front burner,
in the mix of all the other front-burner issues.
Battle across class lines
It also means we recognize that because women across class lines are
oppressed by this capitalist reality of male supremacy and misogyny, the
working class has the opportunity and therefore the obligation to
struggle to win wide sections of women to the movement for social
progress and the advancement of democracy by steadfastly speaking to,
representing, and fighting for the interests of women even across class
lines. If you disagree, then your argument is with Lenin, not with me.
It is not that the struggle against male supremacy and misogyny
supersede the struggle against racism; it is that the struggle against
racism and the struggle against male supremacy and misogyny are
organically intertwined given the reality of the historical development
and experience of the USA.
Unity
In fact, for Marx the biggest challenge to the working class was its
internal unity. For Lenin, the development of socialist consciousness
based on a scientific examination of the interplay of social forces was
fundamental for the development of working-class strategy and tactics.
Not only is unity within the working class between men and women
critical, but the working class can win the whole of women as a major
ally. What matters is the consciousness of working-class forces in
forging internal unity within itself and in forging the alliance with
the whole of women.
The working class has to speak to women and speak up for women, stand up
for women, march in support of women’s issues, and make clear the
connection between the interests of women and every other major issue on
the table today. The working class must continuously demonstrate how
women’s interests are embeddeds in all other major issues. Peace and
women’s interests, higher wages and women’s interests, expanded
unionization and women’s interests, climate change and environmental
issues and women’s interests, the fight against racism and women’s
interests, etc. By supporting women, the working class in reality is
simply supporting itself and one of its major allies.
Equal to all, second to none
Hence, today, understanding the unity of the working class to pivot
around women, along with the racially and nationally oppressed and other
differently oppressed segments of our country, is not the same concept
that we utilized in the past. The fight against male supremacy and
misogyny must be elevated along side the elevation of the fight against
racism and other forms of oppression. More than half of the racially and
nationally oppressed are women and women of color are a major segment,
more significant than their numbers, of especially working-class women
in the USA today.
Hence, today, if ruling-class culture and ideology (the ideology of the
extreme political right is especially horrendous) have been exposed for
the utter disregard for women, the debasement of women, the
extra-exploitation of women, the imprisonment of women to backward
reproductive policies, the continued subjugation of women to domestic
slavery and sexual terrorism, then it is in the interest of the
working-class movement to do everything it can to demonstrate the
genuine rejection of and struggle against male supremacy and misogyny in
every form.
Toward achieving this goal, the goal of the advance of the working-class
movement, we have to begin to examine how male supremacy and misogyny
penetrate and peddle influence in our ranks. In our ranks male
supremacy and misogyny can be grotesque, subtle, or even passive aggressive.
Male supremacy and misogyny leave little room for women to play
leadership roles.
Male supremacy and misogyny leave little room for women to play
leadership roles that are real, for the voice of women to be encouraged,
welcomed, and really heard. Male supremacy and misogyny within our ranks
convey the message that to be a leader means the “privilege” of being
able to sexually pursue anybody and everybody who comes around. Male
supremacy and misogyny ignore the reality that excessive drinking
creates spaces where many feel very unsafe. Male supremacy and misogyny
influence the delegation of time and the determination of what is
important and what’s not as important; one would never say the fight
against male supremacy and misogyny and the concerns of women are not
important, but there are those within our ranks who have said and still
say today that there are concerns that are more important. misogyny
If we don’t see that all of the front burner concerns have to be
organically intertwined with the struggle to increase working-class
engagement and involvement, and that this effort can be significantly
expanded if we include a targeting of the involvement of women, then we
miss the great opportunities of this moment.
It is in this light, this context, that we issue the statement against
male supremacy and misogyny. The goal is not just to discuss and adopt
and leave it there. The goal is to reach deep down into our clubs,
districts, and national collectives to change how we see and understand
the significance of this struggle and to upgrade the reflection of the
fight for equality in everything we do.
Image: Creative Commons 2.0 Elvent Barnes from Baltimore MD.
Author
Dee Miles
Dee Miles
View Profile
Leave a Comment
Comment
Related Articles
Half but not equal: The status of working women in the U.S.
International Notes: April 3, 2018
Marxist IQ: Capitalism and the oppression of women
With Bolton and Pompeo, Trump pushes for war
The capitalist culture of male supremacy and misogyny
For democracy. For equality. For socialism. For a sustainable future and
a world that puts people before profits. Join the Communist Party USA today.
Join Now
Upcoming Events
Apr 2018
11
8:00 PM
Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism
Online/Phone Only United States
Apr 2018
15
8:00 PM
The fight for voting rights today
Online/Phone Only United States
Show All
We are a political party of the working class, for the working class,
with no corporate sponsors or billionaire backers. Join the generations
of workers whose generosity and solidarity sustains the fight for justice.
Donate Now
CPUSA Mailbag
If you have any questions related to CPUSA, you can ask our experts
QHow does the CPUSA feel about the current American foreign...
AThanks for a great question, Conlan. CPUSA stands for peace and
international solidarity, and has a long history of involvement...
Read More
Ask a question
See all Answer
Most Popular
CPUSA Program
Half but not equal: The status of working women in the U.S.
The capitalist culture of male supremacy and misogyny
Marxist IQ: Capitalism and the oppression of women
CPUSA Constitution
Join
Contact
Political Affairs
Commenting Guidelines
Licensed under Creative Commons