Women’s Political Forum in Germany

From 1 to 3 of November a very important event took place in the German city of Kassel — the Women’s Political Forum organized by the Women’s Political Council (Frauenpolitischer Ratschlag). Communist women from all corners of the world gathered to tell how things were going in their countries, to exchange experiences and contacts for further co-operation. Comrades from Western Sahara, Congo, Togo, Nepal, Peru, France, Botswana — in total, women from more than 20 countries attended the event.

A representative of the RCP(i) was also invited and made a presentation.

The first day of the forum was called ‘Travelling the World’: each delegation presented reports on the current situation in their country. It is one thing to read about labour movements, wars and social problems on the internet. It is quite another to see through the eyes of someone who has been directly involved in these processes, oftentimes it is someone who has been subjected to violence, discrimination, who has fought successfully to improve the workplace or, contrarily, who has been sacked or had lost family members in confrontations with the police, but who is not broken and continues to fight. Seeing all these heroic women was an important, unforgettable experience.

The second day marked the traditional demonstration in honor of the political forum. More than 700 people marched through the streets of Kassel, chanting slogans and singing revolutionary songs. After the demonstration, discussions were held, raising the issues of socialism, trade union work and discrimination.

On the final day of the forum, participants attended workshops and classes on martial arts, art, health and so on. After that, a final event was held in the main hall of the forum — the women shared their experiences, conclusions and planned further work.

Such events are undoubtedly necessary for communists: without establishing ties with comrades from other countries, it is very difficult to broadcast the ideas of internationalism. And given that all over the world women are still in discriminatory situations not only in their labour but also in their families (sometimes being in a status of property), women’s associations and forums are a significant part of the communist movement.

It is not a matter of separateness from men. On the contrary, feminists around the world are encouraging men to step back from imposed gender roles and become more actively involved in child rearing and household chores. Just as it is also time for women to overcome the idea of shifting responsibility ‘to their husbands/brothers/fathers’: to learn new professions, to fight for their class interests, to be able to stand up for themselves, and so on.

The followers of Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg do not favour confrontation with men — this is an agenda imposed by bourgeois propaganda to sow discord between the sexes, to distract both women and men from the class struggle.

It is about women’s liberation as equal members of society: access to education, the ability to freely choose a mate and life partner without the coercion of marriage, to be paid equally with men for the same work, against reproductive violence and the oppression of women on the basis of religious prejudice. Often women fall into the position of declassified elements, for one reason or another falling into economic dependence, without the opportunity to fulfil their human (creative and intellectual) potential, being kept in domestic slavery.

For many years in Russia, various activists have been fighting for the law on domestic violence, to which women are statistically the most frequently subjected. However, as Marxists we understand the price of bourgeois laws and know that the true liberation of women is possible only with the liberation from the oppression of bourgeois relations — in relations of the socialist type, which are born in the class struggle, not in the battle of the sexes. It is necessary to remember that half of the population of our planet are women, a huge number of women are workers, our class comrades, who are ready to become reliable comrades-in-arms in the struggle for socialism.

Elena Pyzhova