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Capitalism Oppresses Women

Women are oppressed, not because it’s "natural", but because the system requires it. In most previous societies, except the earliest forms of hunter-gatherer communities, a woman’s role has been determined by the family to which she belonged and the man who "headed" the family. The family played an important role in maintaining class divisions, making sure that the rich passed on their wealth and the poor, their humility. Capitalism wasn’t going to junk a good thing. Early capitalists were keen to make quick profits by employing women and children in their factories for low wages. But this meant high child mortality and less time and energy for women to do all the unpaid labour that was needed to raise the next generation of wage-slaves. The capitalists soon learned that keeping women at home to preserve the family was more profitable. A 1990 survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that women’s unpaid work in the home — cooking, cleaning, washing and caring for children — is equivalent to 83% of gross domestic product. The family reproduces the work force that capitalism needs at the cheapest price. Imagine how much profit capitalists would lose if their factories had to provide just childcare and food. Just as importantly, the family perpetuates the social norms that fit with the system. It moulds children to obey authority, respect their "superiors", to be competitive, to look after "number one" and "get ahead". And it does this a lot more effectively than the education system, because the widespread superstitions that the family is "holy", "natural" and "private" mean most people think the family, unlike education institutions, is "off limits" to pressure from social movements to be more progressive. It also keeps society’s moral code. It represses and distorts sexuality, keeping sexual expression within the boundaries of "raising a family". Gay and lesbian sexuality is taboo. Only heterosexual sex is "natural", because it preserves the family. The system needs everyone to be "straight". So sexual expression is repressed and distorted from infancy. Sexually active young people have "dirty minds". Not surprisingly, sexuality for young people involves many fears, tensions and prejudices. The family unit also holds capitalism’s reserve pool of labour. Women can be drawn into the work force, as in wartime, and then sent back home "where they belong", whenever it suits the system. The widespread acceptance of sexist ideas also allows capitalists to give women the least creative jobs with the lowest pay. Capitalism makes the most of sexism by selling the "beauty myth". Women not only have to wash and clean; they have to look like the latest fashion industry model. They have to pay to lose weight even if it causes them ill health. They have to pay for that special dress, perfume, haircut, underwear or jewellery. It suits the system to turn women into objects, to keep women as second-class citizens. Women aren’t allowed even the elementary right to control their own bodies. In Australia, abortion is still on the criminal code in most states. Feminism is about fighting for women’s equality, opposing inequality that helps the ruling class divide and rule, which undermines the united action of working people and all those oppressed by the system.

Movements Against Injustice

Nineteenth century US President Abraham Lincoln once famously said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time!" The truth of this observation is shown by the fact that mass movements repeatedly emerge to challenge the injustices and inequities of the system. The struggles against slavery, for decent working hours and wages, the right to organise trade unions, the right of women to vote, against war and conscription, against racism, for equal pay, for abortion rights, against homophobic discrimination and violence, for solidarity with Third World revolutions, against environmental destruction, against Third World debt and countless others have shown that ordinary people have never stopped rising to the challenge of trying to create a more just, humane society. These movements have won important victories that make a real difference in our lives. Mass movements won the eight-hour working day, prevented conscription during World War I, won formal legal rights for Aborigines, got the troops out of Vietnam, reduced uranium mining, prevented the damming of the Franklin River, expanded national parks, brought about anti-discrimination legislation and more. None of these gains would have been achieved simply by appealing to "nice" individuals within the ruling class. The capitalists cherish their ideological dominance and their political and economic control, and it’s usually only when these are threatened by people marching in the streets, striking, occupying, holding mass meetings, that they will consider making any concessions at all. As militant unionists are fond of saying, "If you don’t fight, you lose!" But that doesn’t mean that if you fight, you’ll always win. For every movement that has won an important change, there’s another that hasn’t. And under capitalism, the victories that have been won remain under threat. We won the 38-hour week, but now many people work 50 or 60 hours. We won free education in the ’70s, but lost it in the ’80s. We’ve won the protection of some forests, but other ancient ecosystems are being cleared like there’s no tomorrow. The troops were taken out of Vietnam, but they were able to send them to Iraq. The unsustainability of capitalism means that the ruling class is always trying to claw back any protections for ordinary people and the environment that get in the way of their "right" to profit. Sometimes they can hold out against movements long enough that the activists get demoralised and give up. Other times they have to make concessions, but they never stop looking for an opportune time to take away what they were forced to give. Unless we want to be forever stuck in a cycle of fighting over single issues, trying to defend and re-win past victories, we eventually have to get rid of the capitalist system and replace it with socialism. That doesn’t mean that socialists ignore the mass movements and only make abstract propaganda about socialism. To transform the world into a just, humane, sustainable one will take an immense movement, a revolutionary movement. The only way to gain the skills that we’ll need to be involved in, organise and lead such a movement is to be involved in the ones that exist today. Furthermore, it’s only in the context of mass movements that most people become aware of their power to make change when they act collectively. It’s one of the few ways many people can overcome the isolation, powerlessness and alienation of the television-and-supermarket lifestyle (if they’re lucky enough to have even that). When movements win important gains, it raises people’s confidence and belief in working together for change. Even when movements are defeated, people can learn lessons from that about the nature of the system. But people don’t automatically draw socialist conclusions from this. It takes socialists, actively involved in movements and struggling alongside others for change, to explain socialist solutions to the problems of capitalism and the links between one issue and another. And socialists can expect to be taken seriously only if their ideas and efforts actually prove to be of some use to the movement. If socialists are able to respond effectively to the challenges of helping organise and lead movements, it can give a big boost to developing the kind of organisation that can lead the revolutionary transformation of society.