Socialism and the Women’s Movement
In the spirit of the ongoing women’s movement in Trump’s America, we should remember that the history of socialism and feminism are intertwined. Women have played — and should continue to play — a huge role in workers’ movements.
Foreign Affairs
Sam Brooke
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The female struggle for gender equality is intertwined in the working class struggle for a fair society. French philosopher and utopian socialist Charles Fourier once said that “The extension of women’s rights is the basic principle of social progress.” Ever since then women have played an important role in the socialist movement, from the role that International Women’s Day played in the February Revolution that deposed the Tsar, to the Women’s March and Women’s Strike against President Donald Trump.
Arguably the most important and influential socialist feminist is Rosa Luxemburg, founder of the German Communist Party and one of those executed by the right-wing Freikorps during an attempted Spartacist Uprising in January 1919. The Polish-born revolutionary wrote two of the most important books in socialist thought — Reform or Revolution being her most famous, in which she argues that trade unions, social democracy, and reform are not enough to build socialism.
She was not only a harsh critic of the German Social Democratic Party’s move to the centre, but also of Lenin’s authoritarianism during the founding of the USSR, famously saying: “Without general elections, without unrestricted freedom of the press and assembly, without a free struggle of public opinion, life dies out in every public institution.” Democracy and a focus on the working class would go on to be the tenants of her own ideology, Luxemburgism.
In the early days of the USSR itself, feminists also played a big role in the country’s development — the most prominent being Alexandra Kollontai, a Central Committee member and the Commissar for Social Welfare. She would go on to shape the famous Family Code of 1918, which was a landmark law for women’s rights and was based around Kollontai’s idea of free love. Much like Luxemburg before her, Kollontai protested the bureaucracy that Lenin and Stalin created and formed a Workers’ Opposition, before being sidelined later.
Despite Stalin’s reversal of Kollontai’s reforms in the Great Retreat of 1936, women did gain financial independence in the USSR — albeit after losing many divorce and abortion rights — and a few were admired as idols. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, became a national hero after her journey to space in 1963, while Lyudmila Pavlichenko — known as “Lady Death” due to her 309 confirmed sniper kills during World War Two — still enjoys a high status today thanks to her military prowess.
The USSR was not the only country in which a woman embodied the spirit of the working-class struggle. During the Spanish Civil War, Mexican photojournalist Juan Guzmán took an iconic picture of 17 year-old Unified Socialist Youth member Marina Ginestà atop the Hotel Colón in Barcelona, posing with a rifle. The photo emobodied the revolutionary fervour in Catalonia at the time, and was the cover image for Carlos Fonseca’s book Trece Rosas Rojas, named after the 13 young women killed by a Francoist firing squad.
The Spanish Civil War also attracted Emma Goldman — by then a well-established anarchist philosopher. Arrested multiple times in the US for inciting riots, distributing birth control, and opposing conscription during WW1, Goldman was deported to Russia but quickly (like Kollontai) became disillusioned with the revolution after the Kronstadt Rebellion — eventually writing My Disillusionment In Russia based on her experiences.
A free-thinking rebel, Goldman made waves in both the anarchist and feminist movements and was admired during the second-wave feminist movement of the 1970s. A devout atheist, she was outspoken on freedom of speech and militarism, and was socially progressive even in anarchist circles due to her support of free love and homosexuality. Her famous quote “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” exemplifies her outspoken personality.
The same adjectives could be used to describe Angela Davis, a Communist Party USA member and civil rights activist so rebellious she was labelled a “dangerous terrorist” by Richard Nixon. Charged with involvement in the Marin County Courthouse incident — in which an armed high school student gained control of a courtroom and died in a resulting shootout — Davis proved her innocence confidently. In a time period in which black people were humiliated and treated awfully not just in courtrooms but in all aspects of life, Davis was an excellent example of everything the Black Power movement stood for: a strong, independent woman who could hold her own even when the authorities conspired against her. She continues to be a huge influence today, and is still involved in much of the feminist socialist movement. She spoke at the overwhelmingly successful Women’s March in January and organised the Women’s Strike that took place on 8th March, not only showing her tenacity and skills at protesting, but also showing that socialism and feminism are intertwined in the struggle for justice — leaders like Davis know that our current system is designed to oppress both women and working class, and recognises that both of their struggles are occurring simultaneously.
That brings us to the situation now. In this age of nationalism and right-wing populism, women are playing a huge role in the fight for economic and social justice. Of course, those like Front National leader Marine Le Pen and Alternative for Germany leader Frauke Petry are also at the forefront of Europe’s far-right movements, but this is because they believe that immigration is the cause of women’s oppression, scapegoating Islam instead of seeing that the capitalist system is the cause of their woes. The resistance from women against President Trump on issues such as abortion, as well as the actions of feminist politicians such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, shows that women are at the forefront of anti-nationalist resistance.
The aforementioned protests proved hugely successful in showcasing the breadth of the feminist movement across the world, and all around the globe women are fighting against the system, such as Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) of Rojava, who are confounding gender norms and have proved crucial in the fight against the so-called Islamic State.
Just as International Women’s Day — originally organised by the Socialist Party of America — kicked off the February Revolution that brought an end to Tsarist rule in Russia, so too today will women prove crucial in the working class struggle. The socialist feminist movement offers a new perspective on politics, offering real solutions for women’s woes instead of symbolic victories that liberal feminism champions. As former Burkina Faso communist Thomas Sankara once said: “Women hold up the other half of the sky.”
