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In this issue the debate sparked off by John Ross's article on 'Capitalism, Politics and Personal Life' is continued by Margaret Coulson, an activist in the WLM and on the revoWe also open up further debates we hope will be of interest to you. Firstly on how to and how far we can combat sexism within mixed political organisations.
Then Rose Knight and Judy Watson of the National Abortion Campaign explain their position in the debate in the pro-abortion movement on what time limit for abortions, Socialist Woman has taken Zaretsky's book, Capitalism, the family and personal life as a starting point for discussion of the relationship between politics and personal life and of its significance for revolutionary politics and organisation.
I think Zaretsky's book had made two useful contributions to such a discussion. He has outlined quite an interesting historical interpretation of the development of personal life as an area of experience separated off from the rest of social life, a development associated with the impact of capitalism on the family. And he has made some of the concern of the women's and gay movements more accessible to the sect. ions of the left. For what are probably a range of complicated and contradictory reasons male heterosexual members of left groups often find it more difficult or are inhibited about relating directly to the writings from the women's and gay movements.
While acknowledging the validity of his contribution, there are a number of ways in which it is inadequate as a starting point for this discussion: Firstly because the analysis of the relationship between personal and public life within capitalism has already been developed much further and more fully in other writings, for example in the explorations of the relationship between domestic labour and wage labour, in the examination of the relationship between the family and the state, the position of women and the structuring of the welfare state; in the analysis of sexuality within capitalism and the attempts to identify the processes which construct personal (sexed) identity. It is true thaty few books bringing all these aspects together in an integrated and developed way although Ann Foreman's Feminity and Alienation, is stimulating and sharply critical attempt But to take this discussion seriously must require a recognition of the range and extent of the work on it which is already begun.
Besides this Zaretsky writes about politics and personal life as an outsider; there is a split between himself and his subject matter of an entirely traditional kind, and so he is able to preface his "first work" with the usual bourgeois dedication to "my wife and my daughter' without any apparent recognition that certain contradictions are implied by this. This sort of split has been considerably undermined within the women's and gay movements, and this has been an important (though not new) political development as I'll try to show later. SIDE-STEPPING NEW CRITIQUES.
If the critiques and contributions of feminism to revolutionary socialism are insufficiently represented in Zarestsky's book, they are even less appreciated by John Ross in his predominantly defensive response to Zaretsky. John Ross's understanding seems to be limited to a sort of charicature of the issues raised by feminism and sexual politics. Will it be "better" to be homosexual or heretosexual "after the revolution'"? John Ross reassures us that the revolutionary party will allow us to decide that for ourselves. As a challenge to the repression of gay people in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba etc. today that point is important. But to imply that in some way it resolves the relationships between personal life and revolutionary politics both evades and trivialises the questions posed by the feminist and gay liberation movements. Ross has written in defense of the revolutionary party and its primacy in political struggle. His article makes one interesting point: that the revolutionary party cannot be and is not the sole revolutionary authority on every important question. But why does Ross side step recent feminist critiques of revolutionary theory and the practice of the left, with its varieties? (To point to the weaknesses of the left as a whole in this respect is not to ignore differences between left organisations on questions of women's liberation and sexual politics, merely to note that the common weaknesses have generally been more impressive; nor is it to deny the potential which marxism may yet have as a tool in overcoming these weaknesses).
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Ross sees three distinct areas of struggle in capitalism (and continuing beyond it into socialism): the social which is the sphere of such movements as women's liberation and the gay movement (to movements of black people, oppressed national minorities etc. fit in here too?). The economic, which is the sphere of trade union organisation; and finally the political in which the revolutionary party The women's movement as a social movement concerned with social questions can therefore be allowed its autonomy from the revolutionary party. But if a social question becomes political because at some time it raises issues relating to the state, what then becomes of feminist autonomy. Presumably, according to John Ross's scheme it becomes irrelevant because at that moment the leadership of the struggle will be assumed by the revolutionary party. But how will this happen?
How will the revolutionary party come to understand the issues raised by the question of abortion, for example. Both a parasitical and elitist model of the party are implied here. The party's interest and wisdom about abortion somehow arrive when it becomes a demand to be placed upon the state; before that, apparently, the issue is not political, a concern for the women's movement not the party.
John Ross's formula blocks us off from understanding the processes involved in the development of politics. For what seems to me to be most fundamentally unacceptable in Ross's article is his method and style. These seem to have more in common with a bourgeois academic obsession with static categories and the compartmentalisation of things than with marism which I had understood to be an approach which developed and used concepts in terms of relationships and processes. Ross sets up definitions backed up by quotations from the most reversed marxist authorities and appends extraordinarily lengthy footnotes, but whatever the revelance of these they are no substitute for critical discussion and argument (unless we have moved into the realms of religious faith where the word of god (Marx/Lenin/Trotsky ...) is enough.)
I imagine that Marx was taking his distance from exactly this sort of method and style when he said that he was not a marxist. I don't think everything contained in Ross's article is necessarily wrong but the approach makes it unusable.
I now want to return to some broader implications of the analysis of personal life within capitalism for revolutionary politics, because I think it is within such a framework that any discussion of revolutionary organisation would need to be located.
REVOLUTION FOR OURSELVES A recognition of the necessary intercourse between personal life and political involvement has been important within the women's movement.
Because of the way in which the oppression of women is structured through the family into female identity, changing our conceptions of ourselves and or our personal relationships has been an inevitable part of the political development of women. The contemporary women's movement has made that process much more conscious, a process in which we become conscious participants. For white heterosexual men there has not been this same contradiction between masculine identity and revolutionary political commitment. But rather than simply seeing the implications of this as explaining why the autonomous women's movement is necessary and important for the struggle for women's liberation (which of course it is) it is also important to see that it has wider implications for the revolutionary movement as a whole. Socialist feminists have something to teach the organised left,, that is important for revolutionary politics as a whole; we insist on a recognition of the autonomy of the women's movement. but not just so that we can be left in our own little corner of struggle to get on with our own things. We are bringing together conceptions which are of general relevance about the concept of revolution, about what political commitment means, about what "human nature" is and thus about the relationship between personal change and revolutionary social change. It an understanding revolution as a continuing process in which we are engaged now both in our public political activity and in our personal lives: that process must be geared towards challenging and overthrowing the bourgeois state but it cannot be defined solely in relation to that, and it must continue beyond capitalism. It is an understanding that revolutionary politics is not something (a programme) which enlightened revolutionary outsiders take to the not yet enlightened exploited and oppressed masses apparenting as an act of benevolence: it is a process we engage in because we expect to gain from it ourselves: We expect there to be something for us in revolutionary change and changing: and our political understanding develops through discussion and experience of political activity and through exchanges with others with different backgrounds and experiences; it involves a recognition that there is much to be learnt and understood politically from those who appear to have little conscious political experience as well as from those who have years of political activism and sophisticated political analyses behind them. It involves an understanding that out personal identity is a part of and a product of the social relationships on which we work and which we are trying to transform. Gramsei discusses the concept of humanity that clarifies this point I think. He says: "So one could say that each one of us changes himself, modifies himself to the extent that he changes and modifies the complex relations of which he is the hub. In this sense the real philosopher is, and cannot be other than, the politician, the active man who modifies the environment, understanding by environment the ensemble of relations." (p.352) 2 To insist on the in portance of the continuity between personal life and political change does not mean that we want an army of revolutionary snoopers catching people out in their imperfections, revolutionary thought police pushing people into an impossible exemplary conformity, mother confessors dispensing absolution to those brave enough to admit their sins. It's not a new moralism that we're after but a more complete revolutionary politics. We want to be more effective revolutionaries: we want revolutionary change to be change for us. DEFINING SOCIALISM If patriarchal relations are structured deeply into people at the level of personal-masculine and feminine-identity; then they must be challenged at that level as well as at the level of the state, the economy etc. We won't creat non-sexist revolutionary identities for ourselves in the cramped and twisted structures
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"My intention in making this film at this particular time is the result of a number of attempts to make political films and make them politically. Political movements can be precisely read from their effects on the individual. You can identify with a person, you can learn from him or her and understand them. At this time I wanted to restrict the political message of the film to simply portrayingto the Germans-somebody who has great ten derness, who suffers and is tormented by the world in which they live, and who is incredibly brave-still sending money to relations in Turkey despite all hardships to the bitter end." (Helma Sanders, Director). of a capitalist patriarchal society, but the Struggle towards that is a valid part of the struggle in which we engage now.
If the ways in which our personal identities are constructed within capitalism continually inhibit and distort and undermine our political effectiveness, then we have to understand personal life as a terrain of struggle of some collective significance. Struggle towards greater personal autonomy and towards personal relationships that strengthen rather than undermine that; towards ways of working politically with others which are resistant to the bourgeois pull towards competitiveness and cults of leading personalities towards styles of collective work which can be more democratic; towards concepts of revolutionary discipline which depend on self discipline and mutual support rather than external authority.
The point is not to counterpose the struggles of personal life to the struggles against the state, nor necessarily to say that they have equal weight, but rather that we should be conscious of both as interdependant parts of a revolutionary proCynthia Cockburn in her study of the local state identifies the relevance of the struggles of personal life in this way: •Provided that these collective actions are a conscious part of a struggle to escape from an old ideology and to sharpen awareness of our real relation to capital and to the state they can be part of a wider political struggle. They not only strike at capitalism, they define socialism: we have to transform the relations of reproduction as part of the struggle for socialism to ensure that socialism does indeed eradicate patriarchy, at "Shirlin's Wedding" is a film which should get much wider circulation than it did-yet 1 guarantee that anyone who saw it during its brief showing at the ICA in London came out feeling battered, dejected, and totally helpless.
It's a film about a Turkish woman who is an immigrant worker in Germany, shot in black and white with a simple understating commentary from a German woman. The style brings Shirin's life as a woman and an immigrant painfully close. It spares your feelings not for one minute as it unfolds the stark reality of womanhood in her oppressive home culture and of double oppression as a woman in a foregin land Shirin leaves Turkey as a refugee from an arranged marriage and travels to Germany in search of Mahmoud, a man from her village who she loves. But this is no romantic love story. In the process Shirin has to find work-first in a factory where the price of their hostel room is automatically deducted from the immigrant women's wages, then in an office where the boss sacks her then rapes her after an office party she has to clean up after.
But the harshness of her situation is deeper even than these hard knocks. As Shirin becomes westernised she exchanges one culture which oppresses women for another. The film shows her utter fear when a man removes her headscart and reveals her hair—a sin under Moslem law. It shows her being influenced by magazines, dyeing her hair blonde, checking in the mirror that she looks "nice"
And finally it shows her working as a prostitute with a forged passport when she is under risk of deportation for being unemployed. She only half knows what is happening home and at work.' (p.182-183). I think that these are amongst the issues that have to be faced by the organised left in any attempts to understand the relationships between capitalism, politics and personal life and their implications for revolutionary socialism.
Notes:
1-Here are some highly selective examples:
Elizabeth Wilson: Women and the Welfare State.
Cynthia Cockburn: The Local State.
How do you Feel? Bristol paper to Socialist Feminist Conference 1977, Articles on domestic labour in New Left Review no.83-1974 and no.89-1975 and S. Himmelvert and S. Mohun: Domestic Labour and Capital, Cambridge Journal of Economics 1- 1(&&' Juliet Mitchell: Psychoanalysis and Feminism and some other examples:
Agnes Smedley: Daughter of Earth Alexandra Kollontai: Sexual relations and Class struggle the Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Woman Love of Worker Bees. 2-Gramsei: Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. Q. Hoare and G.N. Smith.
to her, and has no control over it at all. She finds Mahmoud in this role, and must demand money from him for fear of the pimps.
"Women are always afraid", she confides to a friend at the hostel.
The film is about her fear, her total passivity, and her inability to control even the smallest part of her life.
But it never allows the idea that she is incapable of control-she fled Turkey on her own initiative-but that she is prevented from living as an autonomous human being by the structures of society at every level.
Any rebellion is instantly squashed, even to the lengths of killing her. That is why the film is so depressing to watch.
There is no way out for Shirin, nor for many like her, at least not yet. When political activists get a leaflet into the factory where she works trying to get the workers to resists redundancies, they are confiscated by the supervisor. Control over Shirin is absolute.
It would be tempting to say that the film fails because it shows no way forward. But it is itself a weapon against the exploitation it describes. That is why it deserves wider distribution than it got in this country-it says more about the exploitation of immigrants, rape, sexist ideology and oppression in the capitalist west than a thousand leaflets. Just as strongly as films about the concentration camps in Nazi Germany, the message of this film is "Never again."
SHIRIN'S WEDDING is distributed by The Other Cinema, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ.
Tel: 734 8508/9
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Revolutionary The 1978 National Conference of the International Marxist Group had two major discussions on issues raised by the women's liberation movement. The conference adopted an extensive resolution outlining our basic positions on a strategy for women's liberation. We hope to print a summary of the main points of the resolution in a future issue.
The second discussion dealt with the specific problems facing women militants inside the IMG. This raised some very basic questions about the role of a revolutionary party; the relationship of activity in the women's movement and a revolutionary organisation; how tensions between men and women express themselves in a mixed political party and the methods and limitations of combating sexism within its ranks. This discussion revolved around the role and functioning of women's caucuses (that is meetings for all and only women members) inside the IMG. After months of often heated pre-conference discussion the conference finally adopted a resolution which we reproduce here.
The IMG is a combat organisation fighting to unite the working class and all oppressed in society to take state power and to achieve human liberation. For this we understand the necessity of organising as a Leninist democratic-centralist party. Two questions then concern us here:
How best to aid the organisation's intervention into the class struggle and participation in the movements of the oppressed? How best to build up the collective strength of the IMG? Therefore our starting point in this discussion is the collective needs and development of the whole organisation. In starting from the needs of the whole organisation, are we in some sense minimising the needs of women comrades? In the same way that we have rejected notions of 'dual loyalty' (to the IMG or to the WLM) in the WLM or NAC, we also reject similar distinctions between members of the revolutionary organisation.
As revolutionary marxist we argue that there is a unity of interests among all members of the organisation which is expressed in our commitment to the revolutionary programme. However, our programme must be more than a list of demands on a page: it must be our day to day intervention into the class struggle. The struggle against sexism within our own ranks is the counterpart of the struggle against sexism in the working class. We must fight to make the concept of unity of interests as meaningful as possible.
1-Sexism in society finds its reflection inside the IMG. It finds expression in a number of ways: (1) The lack of consciousness in the IMG as to how and why sexism operates in its own ranks. (2) A concept of cadre which can be interpreted as a sterotype of traditional male behaviour. (3) Insufficient understanding of women's educational needs. (4) A tradition of political discussion which encourages individual competitiveness and dismissiveness rather than collective dialogue. (5) Lack of confidence of women comrades induced by conditions within and without the organisation. (6) A division of labour which creates a distinction between
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(mostly male) producers of theory, and the practical activists. (7) Insufficient action to deal with the problems of childA discussion of these difficulties sheds light on many general problems of the development and integration of all comrades in the IMG-both men and women e.g. educational development, methods of discussion and debage which gencrate confidence etc.
For a revolutionary organisation to develop and synthesise the strengths, capacities and experience of all its comrades-women and men-methods must be sought to overcome some of the problems-or at least begin this task. Thus the struggle against sexism is not exclusively an area of external intervention for a revolutionary organisation.
Clearly no revolutionary party can seek to eradicate sexism from its ranks until the conditions have been created in society as a whole to achieve this task i.e. the conditions for liberation have been set by the overthrow of the bourgeois power in society.
However the revolutionary party must challenge sexism if it is to fulfill its political tasks.
Within a revolutionary organisation, there 1s an identity of interest between all its members-whatever their sex, race or area of intervention. This unity of interest flows from the concern of a revolutionary organisation to collectively develop and struggle for a revolutionary programme based on the analysis and experiences of all layers in society.
In so far as the unity of interests at a programmatic level is not developed at a practical level, it is essential for the whole organisation to fight against sexism at every revolutionary programme and the methods of organisation adequate to the understanding of women's comrades' experiences and capacities, is the collective responsibility of the whole organisation.
This must be reflected in the concerns and discussions of the collective bodies of the organisation (branch and national leaderships, aggregates, national conferences) which must take responsibility to explore solutions to the problems of involvement and development of women 3-Through their direct experience, women comrades are in a good position to identify and understand the problems specific to women members of a revolutionary organisation. Through participation and debate in the WLM, many women comrades have experiences to contribute to the organisations discussions on methods of overcoming these problems.
In a situation where women comrades are not adequately integrated into a revolutionary organisation, discussions with other women comrades will aid women to find confidence and mutual support to explore and synthesise their experiences and to highlight problems of sexism existing in the organisation. Discussion in the whole organisation on overcoming specific problems of sexism are enriched by the contributions emerging from these discussions of women comrades. Caucuses of women comrades are therefore an important element in the steps taken by the IMG as a whole to understand and adopt measures to develop the struggle against sexism within the IMG. 4. The functioning of women's caucuses is to make contributions to the collective development of the organisation The caucuses of women are therefore accountable to the collective structures of the whole organisation, which in turn has a responsibility to discuss seriously, and where there is agreement, take proposals and contributions emerging from caucus discussion.
5-This understanding of collective interests at the level of the programme between men and women within the revolutionary organisation distinguishes the operation of women's caucuses within a revolutionary organisation and the mass organisations. Whilst measures are necessary in a revoutionary organisation to check sexist practices, and whilst women' caucuses have a contribution in this, there is no need for women comrades to organise autonomously from the structures of a revolutionary organisation (ie. in "self-governing" independent structures).
However, in the Labour Movement, we understand the need for autonomous independent forms of organisation as an essential aspect of a struggle for democratising that movement, and, by challenging sexist ideology within the working class, forcing a struggle for women's liberation. Thus the autonomous organisation of women is essential in the mass organisations to ensure that the struggle on women's oppression is to proceed and the leadership of the traditional organisations is forced to take it up. 6-From this general framework we can derive guidelines for the operation of women' caucuses in a revolutionary organisation.
i) The meeting of women comrades in caucuses encourages the organisation as a whole to come to grips with the problems of sexism. Caucuses are not a solution in themselves to the problems facing women comThey play an important role in tacking the problems referred to in the 7 points in paragraph 4, on pege.
An essential foundation for tackling sexism within a revolutionary organisation is a theoretical and political understanding by all its comrades of the oppression of women in all its forms-economic, social, sexual, ideological. The education of all comrades on these questions is essential to any attempts to challenge sexism in the daily actions of revolutionary militants.
(il) Women's caucuses should be convened in a way that facilitates the fullest discussions within the collective structures about their tasks and content. They should be convened in consultation with the relevant bodies. Report backs are the crucial way that discussion held in women' caucuses can be generalised throughout the organisation.
The National Conference of the IMG must assert the need for women's caucuses. We would like to make the following concrete proposals about the organisation of women's caucuses, in order to provide a clear basis for discussion.
Women's caucuses should be called by women comrades in collaboration with branch leaderships as and when necessary. There should be no 'secret caucuses";
women comrades have a responsibility to the organisation to announce when caucuses will be held, and to ensure that all women in the branch are notified of their occurrence.
Timing: These caucuses should be timed as far as possible not to clash with other branch activities; on the other hand, branch leaderships should assist in ensuring that time is allocated for caucuses when requested by women members.
Conflicts: between branch leaderships and women com-.
rades which may arise over frequency of caususes or any other issue connected with them should be referred to higher bodies (area leaderships, if necessary, the XC);
the Women's Commission should also be notified of any such disputes.
National Women's Caucuses: Co-ordinated by the Women's Commission, National Women's Caucuses should be called as and when necessary. Local women's caucuses and fractions working on the question on women's liberation should make requests to the Women's Commission for calling of the National Caucus, and this request should then be circulated to branches to assess demand National Caucuses should only rarely be needed if local caucuses function adequately. Their tasks should be to synthesise the discussions at the local level, and to feed this discussion back through the organisation. They will also assist in establishing greater cohesiveness and support among women comrades.
Leadership Women's Caucuses: These should be called by women on the NC/PC in collaboration with these bodies as and when necessary Conjunctural Caucuses: These should be called as and when necessary on particular issues, again in conjunction
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with the relevant bodies; for example, women comrades may find it necessary to hold a caucus at national schools, at events such as the Marxism Symposium ete. in order to help women comrades with problems of contributions, or to make suggestions to the organisers of such events about organisation, facilitating participation of women and Obviously all such general proposals are subject to the general financial constraints operating on branches and other bodies of the organisation.
Caucuses should make every effort to be accessible to all women members, not just those involved in the WLM. All caucuses have an absolute duty to make the substance and the proposals from their discussions available to the local and national leadership and to the organisation as a whole. The leadership of the organisation should have a positive attitude to women's caucuses and encourage women comrades to organise such meetings. Leading women comrades can play a particular role here especially of women comrades are experiencing problems in this regard.
Discussion within women's Caucuses.
(1) Women's caucuses cannot be rigidly defined, partly because they will be experimental structures for some time to come. The authors of this resolutions do not have sufficient knowledge of the specific problems facing women individually or in a particular area, to be able to outline and identify topics for discussion arising out of the needs of women involved and their role in the IMG, (2) The function of caucuses is not to seek a common basis among women comrades on general political issues. Any discussion arising in such issues should be carried out in the existing structures of the IMG, although caucuses may make suggestions to branches etc.
about the conduct of such discussions and the role of women comrades within them.
(3) Women's caucuses should not be used to prepare contributions to the external work of the organisation.
(4) Women's caucuses should not substitute for general discussion within the organisation about women' liberation and male chauvinism, although they will obviously make an important contribution to such discussion and help where necessary to initiate them and focus on specific problems facing women comrades. They should assist, but not substitute for, the education of women and men comrades in the IMG. Neither should they substitute for the involvement of women comrades in the (5) Women's caucuses are not legislative or executive:
they are advisory. They have no independent powers to decide anything about the external work or line of the IMG, They should exist to recommend changes in the practice of the IMG on sexism in the IMG. They are also voluntary bodies and they are unelected. As such, they are unlike any other body inside the IMG.
Our experience of the problems of different branches and sections of the IMG suggests that it is very difficult to state in advance exactly the type of discussion needed in every particular circumstance but we suggest the following broad outlines for caucus discussion, pending precise definitions which can only be made after full discussion.
Consciousness-raising: Discussion of relevant personal problems; discussions of male chauvinism. Identification with the needs of women comrades with respect to education. Needs of women comrades in relation to the leadership; examing of the role of the leadership and identifying areas where women need specific help and support from the leadership, or particular types of action to be taken. Problems of the role of women comrades in the leadership. Help in integrating new women comrades into the organisation; discussions of recruitment and relationwomen's caucuses to concentrate on problems women comrades find difficult or impossible to discuss in the presence of men: political inadequacy, insecurity, male chauvinism, education, conflict between personal and political life, children, marriage relationships, political For these particular reasons (i.e. women need caucuses to identify the problems of sekism) branch or fraction a leaderships should not be entitled to the extra authority of determining agendas before the problems of sexism have been identified by women comrades themselves. Reports back will be the arena where a positive. dialogue between all comrades, male and female alike, can occur.
The debate about the distinction between "personal' and "political matters has just begun, and will continue after the Conference. We would like to point out that, although we recognise that the revolutionary organisation should not take positions on many questions regarded as personal, it may yet be essential to discuss and analyse them within the organisation. However, we are opposed to any conception of caucuses as a basis for launching personal attacks upon, or dictating to, individual comrades. Consciousness of oppression is a collective matter.
The incoming Women's Commission should make recommendations to the national Committee about a reformed educational programme, nationally and in the branches. This would obviously concentrate on the questions of the needs of women comrades and style of discussion. Local caucuses, branches, fractions could send suggestions to the Commission on this.
The Women's Commission should also request that the leadership opens a discussion of the whole question of child-care. An issue that is in no way the responsibility of women's caucuses nor the Women's Commission to solve; unfortunately it is the case that women in the organisation have to initiate the discussion on this question.
Sensitivity to comrade's individual and personal situation in e.g. personal relationships, responsibilities for children, in the structuring of comrades' work and the demands placed on them, will be assisted by the contribution of women's caucuses.
The questions raised by the debate and experiences of the WLM must be evaluated and integrated into the programme of the revolutionary organisation. This programmatic development, and the intervention in the class struggle that flows from it, are the responsibility of the bodies which collectively develop the programme and activities of the organisation. The women comrades active in the WLM will make their contribution to this evaluation and integration particularly through the discussions of the WLM fraction, but also through the other structures set up to evaluate external areas of intervention (branch and The experience of the WLM will also be reflected in the contributions women comrades make in the discussion of sexism in the organisation, both in the women's caucuses and in the collective structures. In this way experiences of the WLM can be reflected in changes made in the practice of the organisation and will also enable women comrades to participate more fully in the organisation.
Women comrades have an enormous potential contribution to make to the life and politics of the organisation. This potential is still far from being realised, despite certain advances in theory and practice made by the IMG over the past few years. Only the establishment of women's caucuses will help to realise this principle. At least, we should free ourselves from all prejudice about this issue, and try to investigate the various positions and options open to the IMG as frankly and as carefully as possible. The aim is not to ghettoise women's issues and problems, but to make them the property of the IMG as a whole, and its concern. Women's caucuses will help to stimulate a more outgoing approach by women comrades rather than a concentration among themselves on informal discussion and unresolved conflicts.
----- pull-quotes -----
lutionary left for many years. if any.
and the Party
However, this synthesis of the theoretical and the prac- tical gains of the Women's Liberation Movement with the