Panagiota Materi | Revolutionary Theory Group (Greece)
WORLD ANTI-IMPERIALIST PLATFORM OF WOMEN
In the current era, particularly as the Third World War escalates, the unity of action among the forces of socialism and anti-imperialism, and of all progressive forces, is essential at both local and international levels. Imperialism, led by the USA, is becoming increasingly threatening to the entire planet due to its impasse and crisis. It has opened many fronts in various parts of the planet, such as in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and Yemen, and has destroyed countries using the principle of “divide and rule.” The primary objective of the World Anti-imperialist Platform is to help create fronts, both within each country and at the international level, to confront it. Imperialism uses fascism to subjugate and colonize countries, to transform countries and peoples into expendable forces of aggression, into “cannon fodder” for its predatory interests.
At this moment, we are witnessing the annihilation of the people of Gaza and the destruction of their cities and infrastructure with great pain. In the genocide carried out by the imperialists and their various proxy instruments—fascist, racist, Zionist, and so on—they place mainly women, children and motherhood. The very possibility of biological existence and reproduction of “hostile” populations is placed in their murderous crosshairs. The impunity of the murderers leads to situations where genocide is presented as a “normality” we must accept, while they even boast of their achievements when, for example, they kill pregnant women in Palestine!
The World Anti-imperialist Platform, in the course of its activities, founded a Youth Platform to address the problems of young people in the current era. Its next step is the founding of a World Anti-imperialist Platform of Women, as half of the planet’s population consists of women, and experience proves that the success of all revolutionary projects and liberation movements depends directly on the degree of women’s participation in them. Women, despite technological advancement, are subjected to double exploitation: on the one hand, class-based, and on the other, based on their sex. They face economic exploitation in the workplace, the persistence of social problems (e.g., domestic violence, new barriers to education), and the treatment of child-rearing and housework as their individual responsibility. According to Engels in his work The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, the oppression of women began with the emergence of class society and private property. Women were transformed into a means for the transmission of inheritance and into unpaid workers for the family.
The only path for women’s liberation from exploitation and oppression is the struggle for a different society: socialism. Socialism lays the foundations for the equality of the two sexes. The socialization of the means of production guarantees women unprecedented rights in the spheres of work, health, motherhood, and more.
Bourgeois ideology and parties perpetuate reactionary views on women’s issues, iverting women’s attention from their genuine interests. They deny the class dimension of women’s oppression, pitting men against women instead of promoting class struggle.
Contemporary feminism and the struggle for multiple “gender identities” focus on individual identity, diverting attention from class-based issues. By focusing on the individual and the cultural, these views undermine the importance of economic/class exploitation and divide the relations between men and women, creating artificial divisions that dissolve and disorient the movement at the very moment when unity is urgently necessary. Men and women are not enemies. They are the basic components of the sexual reproduction of the human species, distinct yet with organically interconnected positions and roles in the economic, social, and cultural life of society. Therefore, they have common interests. Only in unity can they demand better living conditions in the workplace and in their communities, and fight for a society without exploitation.
Therefore, alongside the main objective of establishing anti-imperialist fronts, the struggle against the ideological constructions that undermine the movement is also necessary: against the manipulation of the people and of society’s perception of the sexes, sexual reproduction, the family, and motherhood.
