1. The women question is a revolutionary question. Full equality for women will be achieved only after the proletariat and its allies have overthrown the bourgeois state and replaced it with the dictatorship of the proletariat.
2. Although the women question can be resolved only within the proletarian state, the struggles for women’s equality continues long after the proletariat seizes state power. This is true because the ideological superstructure which stems from the material basis of women’s oppression (in today’s world, imperialism), the remnants of bourgeois ideology, like the bourgeoisie itself, does not disappear after the fall of imperialism. Class struggle continues after the establishment of the proletarian state, and part of the class struggle is the struggle against incorrect ideas.
3. Even though full equality for women will be achieved only after the demise of capitalism, we support and participate in the struggle of women for democratic rights and full equality under capitalism. We support such struggles that objectively weaken the bourgeois state because they increase the fighting capacity of women, they improve (albeit not sufficiently) the plight of women under capitalism, and also because these struggles enable communists to win the most advanced women to communism. In addition, these struggles enable communists to provide leadership to the movement, and in so doing afford us the opportunity to win the masses of women away from the reformist leadership that now dominates the women’s movement.
4. The oppression of women cuts across class lines. It is rooted not only in the system of imperialism, but also in each of the socio-economic systems which historically preceded capitalism.
5. Women of all classes suffer a special type of oppression in this society. This oppression manifests itself in the sexual objectification of women, violence against women, inequality for women built into the bourgeois legal system and many other forms of oppression which cut across class boundaries. It is spread through the continuous propagation of male chauvinist ideology, which preaches that women are inferior and fit only for serving the needs of the male. The manifestation of male chauvinist ideology in practice takes the form of sexism. Male chauvinist ideology predates the development of capitalism and has roots in the Judeo-Christian “tradition”. Capitalism has been able to build upon this ideology, using it. Thus, the oppression of women has taken on a particular class character while continuing to manifest aspects that are cross-class in nature.
6. Since the earliest stages of capitalism women have historically been responsible for the maintenance of the family unit. This work has taken the form of raising the children, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining the male worker in the family. This unpaid labor is isolating to women for it removes them from socialized production. Yet it is of great value to the continuation of the capitalist system. For the millions of women who because of the crisis of capitalism have been entering the job market to work outside the home as well, their special oppression as women adds to the oppression these women face as workers under capitalism.
7. Women in the working class are the key to our strategy for work within the women’s movement, as they can provide a bridge to uniting the worker’s and women’s movements. Historically women in the working class have only been allowed the worst jobs the lowest paying, non-union positions. They constitute part of the reserve army of the unemployed, so that in times of war or other capitalist crisis greater numbers have been brought into the workplace, only to be the “first fired” when the crisis has passed. The existence of this reserve army is utilized by the bourgeoisie to drive down wages and working conditions, and to therefore pit different sectors of the class against each other. These women in the workforce also continue in their unpaid jobs at home; caring for the male workers (present and future) and maintaining the home. Today, this oppression continues. There have been genuine gains won through the struggle of the women’s movement. Women appear in greater numbers in the class, and in some of the better proletarian jobs. However, there has been no qualitative change in the character of their oppression.
8. Oppressed nationality women suffer double oppression under capitalism. They are oppressed as women, and suffer from national oppression. Those women from the oppressed nationalities who are also part of the working class suffer triple oppression.
9. We must pay special attention to the oppression of national minority women. Work among national minority women against their oppression as women, as members of national minorities and as workers will move forward the struggles of the women’s movement, the struggle of national minorities and the class struggle. Thus such work should be viewed as a strategic focus.
10. Bourgeois feminism is the dominant ideology of the leadership of the women’s movement today. Their line serves the bourgeoisie in that it targets men and not the capitalist system as the source of women’s oppression. Thus, the leadership of the women’s movement lets the bourgeoisie off the hook, and buries the revolutionary essence of the struggle, by targeting men, instead of capitalism, and by calling for a bigger piece of the pie instead of the destruction of capitalism as the solution. However, there are many different lines within the women’s movement. Many feminists have a long history of militant struggle for union organizing, in support of the ERA, abortion, childcare and other democratic issues. We must take a unity-struggle approach to feminists in seeking to win them to our positions: uniting with their militant actions in support of women, and struggling against their incorrect political line.
11. For the communist movement to exert leadership within the women’s movement, it must purge itself of carryovers of bourgeois ideology within its own ranks and set an example in the struggle against male chauvinist ideology. We must take positive steps to insure that women are recruited and developed as communists, and to insure that women are present at all organizational levels as cadre, theoreticians and leaders. Such women will exert leadership within organizations not on the basis of fulfilling “quotas” but because the communist movement will have made special efforts in this regard. Thus there will be substantial numbers of well qualified women comrades in our movement.
12. The women question is in essence a class question. When we say this, we mean that it is only class struggle which will lead to a resolution of the oppression which women face in this society. The oppression of women is fundamentally rooted in the class system which we live under in this capitalist state. Thus, only the merger of the women’s movement into the struggle for socialism led by the proletariat can provide a correct political line for the struggle to end women’s oppression. Only the success of that struggle for socialism will provide the basis for ending, once and for all, the special oppression of women.
13. Our strategy for work in the women’s movement is the united front. Thus we unite all who can be united against the acts of the bourgeoisie which oppress women. This strategy requires that our work cross lines so that we may provide correct revolutionary leadership that will win the masses of women away from a reformist line and to the fight for socialism. To win over the masses of women requires that we cannot be satisfied with slogan mongering, but that we actively participate in the struggles which best lend themselves to that end. In the course of work in the women’s movement we must not lose sight of our party-building tasks. We must seek the greatest unity with other ML’s present in the struggle and seek out the advanced and attempt to win them over. Thus in our united front work we place particular emphasis on the struggle against the oppression of working class women.
14. Since women living under imperialism suffer from alack of full democratic rights and full equality, as communists we must support demands for reforms. We must actively take part in struggles which advance the interests of women, which expose the role of the state in oppressing women, which make it possible to link the woman question to the class struggle, and which make it possible to link the special demands and struggles of women to those of oppressed nationalities.
15. The current crisis of imperialism, coupled with and linked to the rise of the reactionary right, has jeopardized the gains won by the militant struggles waged by the women’s movement. We must join with all those who are willing to fight to protect and expand these gains. Among those which are now coming under the heaviest attacks are abortion reform, daycare and the ERA.
16. Forced sterilization is an issue that raises the double and triple oppression of national minority women and others. It is they who have suffered most from this barbaric practice and as communists we understand that this struggle is a key link in uniting the struggle of women, oppressed nationalities and the work class.
17. We support the ERA. We do not support it because we see it as a “super” reform, or one that is going to provide a panacea to women’s employment problems. Rather, we support the ERA because it is a reform that grew out of the militant struggle of masses of women, because it will provide women with more access to jobs (thereby increasing the possibilities of communists and communist ideas taking root among these women), and because, as a successful reform struggle, it both weakens the state and over time will demonstrate the incomplete nature of reforms under capitalism.
18. We support the right of people to non-oppressive relationships. We therefore oppose attacks by the state on homosexuals and support their struggle for full democratic rights. We also oppose attacks on homosexuals by fascists and other reactionaries who attempt to play on the fears and prejudices which bourgeois ideology promotes in people regarding sexuality and sexual preference. All such attacks are designed to create contradictions among the people. We unite with people on the basis of their political line and practice, not on the basis of their personal relationships.
19. Our work in the women’s movement must focus on the struggle of working women, as those struggles serve to merge the class struggle with the struggles of women. However, we must understand that the class is divided along national and sex lines. Although national divisions are deeper, the sexual divisions within the class are nonetheless considerable. Our strategy and tactics for work in the class must take these divisions into account and must enable us to overcome the divisions to build overall class unity.
20. Our overall goal in our work in the women’s movement is to develop anti-imperialist, revolutionary content to the struggle and thus bring the women’s movement into the united front against imperialism. Due to the diverse base and reformist leadership of this movement, this task will not be accomplished easily or quickly. Thus, we must prepare to wage a protracted struggle within the women’s movement against reformism and for this movement. The establishment of a true vanguard party will greatly aide us to carry out this task, but we must understand that this event will not qualitatively change the women’s movement. Changes in objective conditions combined with changes in subjective conditions will move the struggle forward, but not in and of themselves. We will have the same tasks of winning the advanced and providing communist leadership to the movement long after we have a true vanguard party, even though the concept of the vanguard party encompasses the existence of a number of advanced who have been won to communism.