The Struggle for Democracy: A Discussion
Remarks to Women's Equality Conference
By Sam Webb, national chairman Communist Party USA
We had hoped that this conference would break some new ground, and it has. We did not expect that we would answer every theoretical and practical question with regard to the struggle for women's equality. What we did do, however, is to begin a process of retooling our concepts and work in this vital arena of struggle.
Some might argue that this conference is overdue. It has been too long since we held an organized discussion on the struggle for women's equality.
Some others might argue that the 27th convention of our Party scheduled for July 6-8 in Milwaukee motivated us to call this national meeting. Our upcoming convention and the preconvention discussion that accompanies it did figure into our thinking to initiate this national meeting on women's equality.
But the main reason, in my opinion, that we are gathering together this weekend is to be found elsewhere.
Its genesis is explained by the indisputable fact that tens of millions of women are found in every - or nearly every - arena of political, economic and social life.
Its genesis is explained by the indisputable fact that the role of women in social movements has grown enormously compared with only a few decades ago. Women are agents of progressive change.
Its genesis is explained by the indisputable fact that women are profoundly refashioning the political debate in our nation. New issues and demands arising from the fact that women combine unpaid labor in the home with underpaid labor in the workplace are reshaping our political and legislative terrain as well as mass thinking.
Choice, reproductive rights, equal pay for comparable work, living wages, parental leave, quality public education, health care, workplace safety and affirmative action are but a few of the issues that are traceable to the intervention of women in our nation's political and economic life.
Finally, the genesis of this conference is explained by the indisputable fact that the ascendancy of the ultraright and its control of all three main branches of the federal government pose new, immediate and far-reaching dangers to women's equality.
First-wave feminism won women suffrage rights in the early decades of this century. Second-wave feminism broke down the legal structure of discrimination in the workplace, secured reproductive rights and extended the boundaries of freedom for women in society. The challenge to third-wave feminism - analogous in many ways to the challenge facing the movements of the racially and nationally oppressed - is to eliminate institutionalized inequality in the workplace, home, and society and to secure full and actual equality.
The immediate barrier, of course, is the ultra-right and its right-wing, corporate, anti-democratic agenda. Not for a long time - maybe never - has the women's movement, not to mention the working class and broader democratic movements, confronted such a many-sided assault on its rights and conditions.
The dangers facing our nation at this moment eclipse the dangers that we faced during the Reagan years, not so much because Bush is more politically reactionary than Reagan. What magnifies the dangers to the democratic rights at this moment compared with 20 years ago is that the ultra-right not only has control of more levers of class power than when Reagan entered the White House, but is determined to wield its control to consolidate its position in our country and impose its reactionary program for the long term. To make matters worse, this political putsch and takeover occur in the midst of an economic crisis that is spreading across the full length of the national and global economy.
The lesson of the 2000 election campaign is that the struggle for women's equality is inextricably bound up with the broader struggles against the right-wing corporate agenda and for democracy. No movement and no section of our nation's people are in a position to go it alone.
By the same token the labor movement and its allies have to appreciate that the women's movement as an independent social force is more than a peripheral partner and that women constitute an active and leading component of every section of the broader people's movement, beginning with labor.
Indeed, given the new role of women arising from the transformation in the U.S. and global economy and the activity of women themselves, women, as a social force along with the working class and the racially and nationally oppressed, are at the strategic core of class and democratic struggles in our country.
Indeed, no fundamental challenge to the ascendancy of the ultraright is conceivable without the full measure of involvement of women as workers, child bearers, caregivers, community activists and as women.
In this regard, trade union women, and communist trade union women in particular, standing at the intersection of the working class, racially oppressed and women's movements, have an enormous role to play in the crystallization of a broad labor-led people's coalition against the extreme right.
Their multiple identities bring not only added burdens, but also a broad understanding of the interconnectedness of life, of class and democratic struggles, and capitalist exploitation.
To put it differently, trade union women are less likely to see political struggle in compartmentalized and non-class ways, thus making them especially attuned to the issues of unity and coalition building.
The struggle for women's equality is an essential aspect of a broader democratic struggle. The struggle for women's equality and democracy is not simply another way station on the road to progress, but the main and only road to higher stages of struggle, including the anti-monopoly and socialist stages.
At this moment the specific task - and no task is more important - is to check the blitzkrieg assault of the right-wing gang gathered in Washington and in corporate suites.
While broad coalitions around a range of issues are paramount, their success in forestalling the aims of the ultra-right depends on the degree of participation of the grassroots and rank-and-file action and initiative. Congressional maneuvering and combinations will not slam the door on Bush and his right-wing gang inside the Beltway.
And herein lies the significance of the April 22 emergency demonstration for the defense of reproductive rights: the demand is just and the demonstration accents what is absolutely crucial - that is militant mass action.
The emerging struggles against the extreme right and the economic crisis will bring millions of women and their allies into struggle. Some are entering the arena of struggle for the first time. Others are veterans and leaders. In any case, we welcome this development and will do everything to encourage this process, including creating an atmosphere and conditions in our Party that at once allow communist women to make their fullest theoretical and practical contributions to our Party and the broader movements and attract activist women to our ranks.
It's a big chore but this weekend we are taking an important step in that direction.