FEMINIST LETTER NO 26
To all feminists
In the past month there has been a good deal of travelling on my schedule in Europe as well as within the borders of this country. This letter will, therefore, constitute something of travel report with reflections arising from my meeting with people. .Europe
The European Social Forum, (the fourth of its kind), was held this year in Athens May 4-7th. Nearly three hundred different seminars and workshops competed for attention together with around one hundred cultural events. A broad popular movement with social- and civil rights on their agenda, trade unions, environmental organisations, aid-programmes, anti-racist, hbt- and feminist groups and networks listened and learned, open to inspiration with the aid of heroic interpreters from practically all member states. A new dimension, the world's oldest, characterised the debate, the gender-based conflict.
The European feminist Initiative(ife@efi-europa.org) were co-organisers of several seminars and during one of them, on the role of feminism in politics and democratic development in Europe, I had the opportunity of giving a full presentation of the Feminist Initiative(F!), the history behind its beginnings, the situation today and optimism for the future. It met with much enthusiasm from women from different countries and many were interested in coming here to Sweden as "observers" for the elections. -You are sure to meet considerable opposition when you openly challenge the patriarchal order on the political arena - it was generally agreed. - Ballot papers are sure to disappear "without a trace" or placed on the side, transport will "inexplicably" be delayed, etc. This was the general consensus based on the experience of various types of feminist activity, even when the issue now was Sweden, the promised land of gender equality!
If we as members of F! are able to organise the visit to Sweden of women from abroad as election observers, it would show the strong solidarity between women, but also the obvious
deficiency of the current concept of democracy that is shamelessly proclaimed as being irreproachable. While it is being debated who are allowed into the schools and who will be debating against whom in the public service media channels, democracy is equated with the current parliamentary parties. That democracy should be on a par with the current parliamentary situation, with established party politics as they are manifested today, is a dramatic devaluation of the concept of democracy that should disturb many more people than is the case. .
The doubts expressed regarding F!(a clear minority, but interesting nevertheless) comes paradoxically from some women organised in left parties. Women who have no difficulty in seeing that society, of course, does not consist merely of a number of separate individuals doing their own thing, but that there are structures, patterns and groups with different interests as well. Women who well understand that there naturally are conflicts between different groups and that the bottom line is that it is a question of power. Women who are used to perceiving society as structured into classes, with conflicting interests and therefore represented by different leaders. Hence criticism comes from women who are radical in relation to class based politics, politics concerned with fair (economic) distribution, concentrating on the conflict between labour and capital or wealth and poverty. Women who want change and therefore belong to radical groups to the left in class based politics. Women who are convinced that gender power structures certainly do exist, but that they are so inextricably linked with the capitalist order that the liberation of women can only be achieved by the liberation of the whole of society (from capitalism). And so they say - no gender struggle without class struggle and, moreover,- it is through "the class struggle" that the "gender struggle" must be pursued. Possibly the two can be pursued simultaneously, but never gender before class. What in practice comes first is reflected in political priorities and political action, as is always the case.
Sweden
The discussions in Athens bring me to the discussions at home, those that have been in focus during the fortnight long pre-election tour that I have just completed. From the north to the south, from the east to the west, in small towns, at public meetings indoors and out, at all sorts of schools, I have answered questions and explained. Interest has been overwhelming. Practically everywhere (the record being taken by Karlskrona where one Friday evening extra chairs had to be brought into the library hall which was filled to the last place) I have noticed the need for information to balance and to widen the reporting of the media. Once in a while there were only a dozen or so attending the meeting (Friday evening in Västervik with mild barbecue weather outside)but those who were there were really anxious to learn more. And when they had learnt that F! is not in favour of bigamy, that we do not wish to forbid people to marry, that not everyone in F! is lesbian, that we do not hate men, etc, they were keen to join. Actively. From zero to a dozen members in one particular community is a big step forward for a recently created organisation.
But to return to the focal points of criticism and the widespread understanding that politics always can (and should) be defined in terms of left and right. This understanding is important to discuss since F! throughout the election campaign will be criticised from all sides on this particular issue. Right wing parties in Sweden that can agree that there is a structural subordination and a systematic discrimination of women, such as the Liberals, are keen to challenge F! on the grounds that we are "in actual fact" left wing, and refuse to see the individual. Hence, not to be taken seriously. The left, Social Democrats and Left Party people, are suspicious of us for not being left wing and for being incapable of understanding that working class women require other solutions to their problems than middle class and upper class women.
In a historical perspective being on the left means being radical, to want to change the established order. The "right" wish to maintain the established order and are therefore termed conservative. All this in relation to the current /economic) power system. But what is the picture when the dimension of the other, much older and more fundamental power system, the patriarchal order, is introduced? In other words where do radicalism and conservatism stand in relation to gender power structures and patriarchy, an order that has existed for several thousands of years and hitherto survived every political revolution, continuing as the self-evident base to every economic system, sustaining every fundamentalist religious movement? Who is then radical and who conservative? What is left and what is right?
The concept of the equal value of every human being lies at the base of the abolition of the gender based order of power. This concept was not introduced by the poor. They had another agenda -survival. The idea of equal human value requires a certain amount of background knowledge to grasp, at least as much as to understand that inequality cannot be defended on scientific grounds. Far from everyone has through history been able to acquire such knowledge, especially as the counter propaganda has been very strong. The view of women in the working class movement has always been a view of "their own" women and their place has traditionally been in the home. The wife and children waiting with the dinner on the table after a day's hard work has been the ideal. The worker is the man, the provider. Opposition against child care centres was strong in union circles. And yet working class women have always worked unnoticed and unpaid, have accepted a male head of the household, provider and not infrequently family tyrant. For many a strategy of survival. As paid work outside the household more frequently occurred, the demand for equal treatment increased, but still within the framework of the existing gender power structures. Men's demands for higher wages, secure employment, improved working conditions and longer holidays have always been given priority over women's demands for sufficient pay, sufficient number of working hours, more secure conditions of employment and shorter working hours on a daily basis.
However, a higher level of education, increased knowledge through better channels of information, increased consciousness of human rights and violations against them, have made women more radical. More than men, which is perfectly natural, since women as a subordinated group constitute a reserve of talent. The increasingly stereotyped roles set by society for men and for women feel to be chafing more and more, while at the same time awareness as to the consequences these roles can have both in the labour market and in the home( also for children), an awareness also of how interdependent the roles in the home and in the workplace generally are, this leads to many women's patience running out. Yet in the world of politics with its significant patriarchal heritage they meet massive opposition from men. Both from conservative and radical men, united in their desperate grip on what they have to hold on to - their sex, the patriarchal power order.
It surprises me that it should be so difficult to shift the focus in politics from a single power perspective(class) to an appreciation of diversity, (gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, physical disability) and that it is so difficult for so many people to dare to let go of their political comfort blanket(left or right) and launch into a more historical and knowledge based interpretation of contemporary politics.
This is of course an enormous challenge in the field of public education. Patriarchy is fundamental to our society. It is the power base that more than anything else shapes our everyday lives and our personal identity from the cradle to the grave. Patriarchal concepts are part and parcel of our sexual identity, from the time when we were tiny with pink and pale blue labels on our hospital cribs up until such time as we feel gender-related injustices under our skin - as beatings in a close relationships, as a wrong diagnosis in medical care, or as experience within the sphere of care of the elderly, so sadly lacking in gender perspective. How the hell can one expect quality caring, when those who are doing the job have unworthy wages and unworthy working conditions!? Even on the gravestones the women come second, irrespective of when they died.
A journey across class borders is something many of us have made in society and many will do so in the future. A journey in new gender country is just being put on the market , by a newcomer in the field, F! You can download their brochure from www.feministisktinitiativ.se. Activities from www.femi.se.
Feminist greetings
Gudrun
Tillbaka till Tidigare Feministbrev
