In my trawls to the vaults, I stumbled on an interesting article about the Militant Tendency. This was contained in an old issue of Tribune. I copy the first two paragraphs below:
Why Militant is wary of women
Jane Saren
Tribune, February 14, 1986, p.10.
Talk to any member of Militant about their position on women and you’ll soon find them speaking about “working-class women.” They’re uneasy talking about women in general, women as women, because the notion of all women belonging to an oppressed group doesn’t fit into their simplistic Marxist world view: class is the distinction in our society.
Rape, sexual harassment and violence towards women “reflect backward and abusive attitudes towards women in capitalist society.” Fair enough. The problem is that we are supposed to take it as read that such attitudes wouldn’t exist in a socialist society. Do they disappear on Day One of the Revolution, or are they just going to wither away, as the state is meant to?
If you have any opinion on Ms. Saren’s question, please comment below.
