Subjecting Working Women to violence, discrimination, humiliation
strengthens ruling class,
weakens working class
Excerpt, minor edit by Carolyn Bennett
Patricia Ramos August 2013 writes:
 |
| PRT leader, labor lawyer with employee union at University of Costa Rica Patricia Ramos |
“To our socialist feminist sisters and brothers in the
United States: You are not alone, and we are not alone!
“…If working women are the most exploited and oppressed
sector of the working class and of humanity, that in itself gives working women
great potential and capacity to fight.
“Experience teaches us that hundreds of working women whose
names we do not know because they are always ignored break into History ─ 
…impelled by the concrete need to
defend and protect their children from hunger, lack of housing, and misery. 
“One might think that they act in this way to fulfill their
stereotypical role that obligates them to be ‘good mothers.’ But the fact is,
it is this same drive that makes them confront the conditions of misery and
hopelessness that the capitalist system creates.
‘It is impossible to liberate oneself
while oppressing another.’ [Marx, paraphrased]
“It is not possible to adopt consistently revolutionary
positions without taking into account oppression at home, in the labor and
popular movements, in unions, and in the Party itself. 
“….As long as working women experience violence, discrimination, and humiliation from their partners and comrades, the ruling class will survive and grow stronger, while the working class becomes weaker.
“In the same way that male workers fight against their
employers and the capitalist state that exploits them, so they should also
fight backward ideas generated by anti-youth ageism, xenophobia, and prejudice
against LGBT people; and, above all, oppression against women. Women must cease
to be the ‘proletariat of the proletariat,’ as Flora Tristan declared in the
19th century.
“The banner of socialist feminism is ours, just as it is
yours. Under this banner we reaffirm that ─ without women’s participation at
the forefront of the socialist struggle ─ the foundations of true socialism
cannot be built.”
Sources and notes
Patricia Ramos is a PRT leader and labor lawyer with an
employee union at the University of Costa Rica. She is the mother of two and
former candidate for Costa Rican vice president on a united left slate. Her article
in Spanish / Este artículo en español
2012 celebrated the 35th anniversary the PRT also
commemorated the name change that occurred at the 18th Congress in September
2006. From that moment forward, the Partido Revolucionario de Trabajadores
became the Partido Revolucionario de las Trabajadoras y los Trabajadores — the
Revolutionary Party of Female and Male Workers
http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/2413
Why Socialist Feminism:
“One answer is that reforming capitalism so that it is
"kinder and gentler" is a dead end. Reforms are important for
survival but they are always undermined or reversed. Never-ending attacks on
reproductive rights and affirmative action and endless imperialist wars are
just a few examples of the limits of reformism. Social justice advocates end up
fighting the same battles over and over again instead of expanding democratic
rights for excluded groups or preventing the next war.
“Another answer is because you can’t have one without the
other. Equality for women cannot be achieved under capitalism while socialism
cannot be attained without the participation and leadership of working and poor
women in the struggle to win it. Socialist feminists believe that the only way
to win the fight for women's rights is to connect it up with the larger global
campaign for human liberation in all its forms. …
“Socialist feminism would turn capitalism and the
subjugation of women and all other underdogs upside down. First, because
socialism replaces the current system of wealth for a few with a system that
can meet the human needs of the majority. Secondly, because the fight for
women’s equality, with the lowest paid and most oppressed in the leadership,
would guarantee everyone wins, because when those at the bottom of the economic
ladder rise up, everyone moves up with them.”
Another socialist world is possible!
A socialist U.S. is absolutely necessary for human survival!
http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/3
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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