First Published: Unity, Vol. 3, No. 5, February 29-March 13, 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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UNITY: What tasks do you feel Marxist-Leninists face today in taking up the struggles of women?
Karimu: There are many tasks facing Marxist-Leninists with regard to the woman question. I believe the first task is to educate Marxist-Leninists, men and women, about the history and nature of women’s oppression. Secondly, we should take up the struggles of women in very concrete ways.
Women make up half of the world, but are extremely oppressed in all but the socialist countries. Women historically have been denied basic rights. Laws, institutions and traditions keep women subordinate to men, and bound to the home. Working women must work for low wages and in hazardous conditions. The root cause of women’s oppression is capitalism.
The bourgeoisie would have it appear that women are now equal, by publishing statistics of the increasing number of women in the work force and by glorifying executive-type women in the magazines. But these are mere lies to delude women into thinking they can make it in capitalist society. While the number of women in production has increased, so have the problems of working women increased. We cannot get child care, we receive the lowest pay rates and the worst jobs.
Only socialism provides the material basis for the abolition of women’s oppression, and this underscores why we must build a single, unified Marxist-Leninist communist party, to lead the masses in the socialist revolution.
There are many concrete tasks that Marxist-Leninists should take up among women. The League is involved in some struggles of women. In many mass organizations that we work in, there are women’s committees. We have some experience in child care and work place issues involving women. But we need to do much more to take up struggles of working women, for equal wages and treatment, for equality in hiring practices, and for benefits like maternity leave.
We need to do more to take up the struggles of oppressed nationality women who suffer triple oppression, including issues like forced sterilization, which really amounts to genocide. Marxist-Leninists should also do more in the organized women’s movement, to unite with women’s groups and work around issues like abortion rights, rape and the ERA.
We need to help women overcome the obstacles that stop them from participating in political activities, like male chauvinist attitudes that say women have nothing to contribute, and that they should just stay home with the kids. We should encourage women’s participation in mass organizations, trade unions, police brutality organizations, and so on.
UNITY: How does the League take up the woman question within the organization?
Karimu: Inside the League, there has always been struggle around the woman question .... We had to struggle against incorrect ideas and attitudes of male comrades, and take up measures to enable women to participate as fully as possible in political work. We need to struggle with men to share in more of the household and family responsibilities. We have established child care systems to meet the needs of females to be able to attend mass meetings and do political work. We must encourage women to raise their ideas and not be intimidated by men; women have the right to be heard, and have many contributions to make to the development of our organization. We encourage women to be physically fit and politically conscious of the things around her.
We recognize that greater attention is needed to developing more theoretical work on the woman question and more practical work among women. We should cover more women’s issues in our newspaper. We should all do more to deepen our ties among women, especially working women.