By Gavrielle Gemma
For thousands of years before class society developed, men and women, expressing many forms of gender identity, lived and worked together with mutual respect. In fact, if anything, women were held in the highest regard.
Once class society developed based on individual rather than shared accumulation, mother right, the rights of women, was overthrown as women and children became the property of rich men and the family a unit to advance further private wealth and inheritance.
Just as U.S. imperialism demonizes countries, other religions and people to justify genocidal bombings and occupation, women were and are brutally depicted as less than human. Men suffering the worst exploitation and oppression could feel superior to women who were the servants of even the humblest peasant or worker. As the heroic Lucy Parsons said, “We are the slaves of slaves”. Racism among white workers is designed to make them feel that at least they are better than Black people. In both cases the rich white capitalist class laughs all the way to the bank.
The problem lies in the private ownership of all the means of production and the capitalist class that owns the Congress and the Presidency and the Supreme Court. This is a Congress that has never been able to pass an Equal Rights Amendment. The problem lies in that women workers do not control and run things as we would under socialism. Congress has allowed a rapist pig to be president – Donald Trump – for fear that firing him over being a sexual predator would not serve Wall Street’s interests.
Even while new exposes are constantly being revealed, the real condition of working class and oppressed women sinks lower every day. But what cannot be undone is the potential revolutionary force that women workers are in capitalist society.
In the meantime, we must not be handcuffed to internet petitions and phone calls to Congress. We need to get out into the streets by the millions to say no to Sexism, Racism, Poverty, Homophobia & War. They need to be afraid of our power.