The importance of winning the masses of women over to the struggle for socialist revolution cannot be over emphasized. Lenin and Stalin repeatedly spoke to this as did the Comintern in 1921 with the following:
The Third Congress of the Communist International maintains that the conquest of power by the proletariat...can be realized only with the active participation of the wide masses of the proletarian and semi-proletarian women...
Whereever the question of the conquest of power arises, the Communist Parties must consider the great danger to the revolution represented by the inert, uninformed masses of women workers, housewives, employees, peasant women, not liberated from the influence of the bourgeois church and bourgeois superstitions, and not connected in some way or other with the great liberating movement of Communism. Unless the masses of women of the East and West are drawn into this movement, they inevitably become the stronghold of the bourgeoisie and the object of counterrevolutionary propaganda. The experience of the revolution in Hungary, where the ignorance of the masses of women played such a pitiful part, should serve, in this case, as a warning for the proletariat of all other countries entering upon the road of social revolution.
On the other hand, the experience of the Soviet Republic showed in practice how important the participation of the women workers and peasants has been in the civil war in the defence of the Republic, as well as in all other activities of the Soviet construction... Thesis on Methods of Work Among the Women of the Communist Party
Since this was written, the world proletarian struggle has provided us with countless examples of its truth. Once Marxist-Leninists grasp the importance of this question, we must look to the tasks that follow. The central task of all our work now is the building of a genuine communist party. Only then can the women’s movement be put under the leadership of the working class and contribute to the full liberation of women. The woman question is one of the questions on which Marxist-Leninists in the U.S. must unite in creating such a party. In the context of building that party, COReS sees our tasks as developing a guiding line on the woman question, uniting Marxist-Leninists on this line, winning over the advanced in the course of leading the class struggle, with propaganda being the chief form of activity in this work.
The task of developing line on the woman question and giving leadership to the mass movement of women, necessarily means studying, analyzing, and exposing opportunist lines in that movement and on that question. This pamphlet mainly consists of three presentations given at a propaganda conference COReS held for forces in our area. It was an attempt to acquaint revolutionary forces with the so-called “revolutionary” lines in the women’s movement. The last article is a speech COReS gave at an International Women’s Day event in 1978.
Though Marxist-Leninist participation in the women’s movement continues to be very limited, we do see it as an important step forward to have begun to analyze those incorrect lines that presently have hegemony or hope for (CP-ML) hegemony in the women’s movement. This is necessary to be able to concretely and successfully defeat their influence.
Until Marxist-Leninists are able to take up this task in a consistent, systematic way, and are able to provide truly revolutionary leadership, we can expect these opportunist lines to flourish. Without infusing Marxism-Leninism into the women’s movement, it cannot be pulled out of the reformist path. We must keep in mind the danger of the Bourgeoisie utilizing women and the women’s movement as its reserve, particularly with the rise of fascist demagogy.
Other tasks include doing a scientific investigation of the conditions of women, a class analysis of the U.S., doing special work with women so they can develop themselves as quickly as possible as revolutionaries, doing special work with men to win them over to the struggle against male chauvinism and to supporting the struggle for women’s liberation; and to end male chauvinism and conciliation to it in our organizations.
In evaluating the progress COReS has made on these other tasks since they were first put forward in our IWD 1977 speech (as printed in the pamphlet COReS On the Woman Question), we see that in some areas we have progressed, whereas in others we have lagged. One of our strengths has been our conscientious struggle against male chauvinism within our organization and in our day to day work; also our struggle to create conditions for the development of women through providing child care, helping to resolve personal contradictions between men and women and actively encouraging women to become politically involved. The first pamphlet helped to lay a basis from which our practice could develop. In the future we intend to consolidate this good work and combat deviations from the line.
Due to the influence of small circle spirit, we have not taken up well the task of struggling with other Marxist-Leninist organizations to deepen line on this question. There was plenty of opportunity to do this – for example by responding to the “Women Hold Up Half the Sky” column in LPR’s Resistance – but we failed to take the initiative. In the future we intend to rectify this situation.
Much more must be done in exposing opportunist lines on the woman question. The line of the Workers Viewpoint Organization, the bourgeois liberal line represented by NOW, etc. must also be analyzed and exposed in a thorough way. At the same time we must consistently develop and deepen the truly revolutionary line on the question. This pamphlet is one more contribution to that work.
MOVE FORWARD THE STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN’S LIBERATION!
EXPOSE THE SO-CALLED REVOLUTIONARY LINES IN THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT!
BUILD THE GENUINE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY!!!!
COReS (MLM) 11/78