Women's Liberation and Socialism

Emancipation. We often hear this term. Not infrequently the term is also associated with women. Yes. Women's emancipation. Then, what does it mean? Emancipation means liberation or freedom. Therefore, women's emancipation means the liberation or liberation of women. Yes, liberation from prisons makes women second-class human beings, with lower status and dignity than men. Yes, liberation from the shackles that prevent women from actualizing or realizing themselves.

Feminism and Socialism

Since Marx and Engels, Socialism has always been committed to the liberation of women. In this case, Socialism is in line with women's movements which are commonly called Feminism. But Socialism and Feminism have very different approaches and visions. For Feminists, especially Liberal Feminists, women live in a society where men oppress women. This oppression is rooted in male nature. There is something in the biological and psychological structure of men that makes them view and treat women as lower human beings. These views and attitudes are then embodied in patriarchy, a social order in which men rule and women are subject to male power. Thus, women become second-class humans. Political, economic, and social unequal with men. Even women do not have power over their own bodies and sexuality. Therefore, women must unite to fight for their rights and end men's oppression of them.

Without discarding our sympathy for Feminists, as Socialists we are not in line with the approach and vision of Feminism. Essentially, by seeing the oppression of women as something that is rooted in the nature of men, Feminism has a static and non-dialectical concept of human beings. His concept of the human condition is also non-historical. Logically, these concepts lead to pessimistic conclusions. The reason is, if we believe that there is something inside a man that makes him oppress women, it is impossible for us to improve the situation that women are currently experiencing. In conclusion, the oppression of men against women will never end – unless there are no more men in this world.

As Socialists, our approach and vision for women's liberation is grounded in class lines. This allows for a dynamic, dialectical and historical approach and vision. How concrete? I see. According to the Socialist view, men's oppression of women arises from private property and class society. Studies on the history of human civilization since the stone age show that in societies that do not recognize private property and class differences, women and men are both involved in the production process in an equal position. In such societies, women have freedom and equality with men. The emergence of private ownership of the means of production and class society has removed women from the production process and thrown them into domestic work (householding). In this way, women's freedom is taken away, and their equality with men disappears. It is clear to us Socialists, therefore, that the liberation of women cannot be separated from the struggle to end private ownership of the means of production and class society. Yes, women's liberation cannot be separated from the struggle for a Socialist society! that women's liberation cannot be separated from the struggle to end private ownership of the means of production and class society. Yes, women's liberation cannot be separated from the struggle for a Socialist society! that women's liberation cannot be separated from the struggle to end private ownership of the means of production and class society. Yes, women's liberation cannot be separated from the struggle for a Socialist society!

Contradiction

Today we, both women and men, live in the epoch of Capitalism. The development of Capitalism has brought enormous changes to our lives. In particular, this profound change also affected women. In accordance with its own logic, Capitalism has returned women to the production process, that is, now we find women working in factories, offices and many other workplaces. Of course, as a laborer alias wage worker. Thus, women also work to earn a living, no longer confined to household work.

This fact contains tremendous potential for women. Potentially, women have economic independence, they do not have to depend on men, both as fathers and husbands, for their daily lives. In addition, if women organize themselves collectively, they will also be able to fight for their rights. Very different from their previous "fate", right? Women are no longer "destined" to become second-class human beings! At this point, it can be concluded that the material basis for the oppression of women has actually disappeared.

However, why are women still being oppressed? In this case, capitalism, whose core ownership of the means of production is in the hands of a few people (namely the bourgeoisie, aka capitalists), shows its contradiction. The logic of capitalism at the same time returns women to the production process as well as confining them in families in the traditional sense. How come? First , Capitalism uses the traditional family institution to ensure that male workers still have prime conditions for work. The role of women, in their status as wives, is to serve their husbands. Second, Capitalism uses the traditional family institution to ensure that workers have children who will become the next generation of workers to replace them. The role of women, in their status as mothers, is to care for and raise their children to become laborers for the masters.

Within the boundaries of the traditional family, at worst, women experience capitalistic oppression that occurs through traditional family institutions. As best they can, they experience exploitation as female laborers and are at the same time “destined” for domestic tasks: serving their husbands and raising their children. In both cases, women are prevented from realizing themselves. On the other hand, the capitalist will enjoy enormous profits. In the former case, it always has male laborers in prime condition and has a “labour supply” provided by women. In the second case, the advantage is even greater, because he also has women workers, who can usually be paid less than male workers.

Socialist Vision

Committed to the true liberation of women, Socialism states that a social order that recognizes class differences (with private ownership of the means of production as its material root or basis) is a fertile ground for male domination (patriarchy) and oppression of women. Slave society and feudal society removed women from the production process and placed them in a position completely dependent on men. This exclusion and placement is institutionalized in a social institution in the form of a traditional family. In it women "carry out a noble duty": serve their husbands and raise children.

Capitalist society inherits the traditional family from the previous epoch. On the one hand, Capitalism shakes up the traditional family by bringing women back into the production process. In this way, women are no longer dependent on men. But on the other hand capitalism has an interest in the preservation of the traditional family because it provides enormous benefits or benefits. Therefore, through its "ideological producers", namely intellectuals whose livelihoods depend on the "splash" profit (added value) absorbed by the capitalists from the work of the workers, capitalism seeks to convince the working people that the "traditional family" is the foundation whose sacredness must be maintained for the benefit of society, nation and state.

At this point, of course, we understand the vision of Socialism: the liberation of women cannot be separated from the struggle to end private property and class society and build a new society, a Socialist society. In other words, the liberation of women was accomplished through socialist struggle. Only in a society where the means of production are democratically owned, controlled and accessed by men and women of the working people can the liberation of women truly be realized. Only in such a society will women really be able to actualize or realize themselves fully. In this society, the social institution called the family, if it still existed, would lose its "traditional" character as a unit of women's oppression.

Has this vision ever become a reality?

Of course! The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 succeeded in realizing women's freedom and independence and strengthening their equality with men. Women's rights to determine attitudes towards sex, marriage and pregnancy are fully guaranteed. “Household chores” such as raising children, washing clothes, preparing food, and caring for elderly parents are the responsibility of the community. Thus women can control their own lives and have the widest opportunity to actualize. That is the achievement of a Socialist revolution!

Unfortunately, the storm of counter-revolution unleashed by the enemies of the nascent Workers' State gradually turned the tide. The working people of the Soviet Union are facing the enemy on two fronts, namely, the combined imperialist forces from outside and the anti-Soviet forces from within. Meanwhile, socialist revolutions in the advanced capitalist countries failed. The Workers' State lost many of its revolutionary workers who died on the battlefield, experiencing industrial stagnation and famine. It was then that the Stalinist bureaucracy, which was nothing but a counter-revolutionary force within the Bolshevik Party, emerged and took power from the hands of the working people. The Stalinist bureaucratic dictatorship, which believed that Socialism could be established in one country, returning traditional families with oppressive characteristics to their position as sacred foundations for the development of society, nation and state. Women are again experiencing oppression.

We believe that women's liberation can only be achieved through the collective power of the proletariat, aka the working class. Only with the revolutionary union of working women and men together with other brothers and sisters of the oppressed will class society end, Socialism will begin, and women's liberation will become a reality.

Women, emancipate yourselves by participating in the struggle with the proletariat to overthrow capitalism and establish a socialist society! Therein lies your liberation! That's where your true actualization is!

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Pandu Jakasurya, member of the Semarang cell militant