Two Points on Donald Trump, Due Process, and the Horror Visited Upon Women

February 12, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Excerpt from the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)

Authored by Bob Avakian
Adopted by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Eradicating the Oppression of Women.
(Article III. Section 3.)

The oppression of women emerged thousands of years ago in human history together with the splitting of society into exploiting and exploited classes, and this oppression is one of the cornerstones of all societies based on exploitation. For the same reason, the struggle to finally and fully uproot the oppression of women is of profound importance and will be a decisive driving force in carrying forward the revolution toward the final goal of communism, and the eradication of all exploitation and oppression, throughout the world. Based on this understanding, the New Socialist Republic in North America gives the highest priority not only to establishing and giving practical effect to full legal equality for women–and to basic rights and liberties that are essential for the emancipation of women, such as reproductive freedom, including the right to abortion as well as birth control–but also to the increasing, and increasingly unfettered, involvement of women, equally with men, in every sphere of society, and to propagating and popularizing the need for and importance of uprooting and overcoming all remaining expressions and manifestations of patriarchy and male supremacy, in the economic and social relations and in the realms of politics, ideology and culture, and to promote the objective of fully emancipating women and the pivotal role of the struggle for this emancipation in the overall transformation of this society and the world as a whole. This orientation, and policies and laws flowing from it, shall be applied, promoted, encouraged and supported with the full political, legal and moral force, authority and influence of the government, at all levels, in the New Socialist Republic in North America.

After two men in his administration were accused of battery and abuse against their wives, Donald Trump decried the lack of due process. On this, two points:

One: Due process for those accused but not yet convicted of crimes is indeed extremely important—so important that it must not be selectively and demagogically applied. Yet Donald Trump rushed to take out full-page ads demanding the execution of five Black and Latino teenagers (who came to be known as the “Central Park 5”) accused of the rape of a white woman in New York in 1989 well before their trial. Trump’s ugly stunt was part of one of the most notorious examples of a trial perverted into a media circus in modern times. When that trial was shown to be a travesty of justice, complete with police cover-up of the actual rapist, and the convictions were reversed—long after the men had served years in prison—Donald Trump still to this day demands their re-imprisonment. Donald Trump has blithely accused entire sections of people of crimes and openly called for police to brutalize people they arrest. Nobody should listen to a word Donald Trump says when he drapes himself in the mantle of due process. His purpose is twofold: to defend his minions; and to muddy the waters of discussion.

Two: Women who raise accusations of abuse by their husbands must be taken seriously; all too often, law enforcement and family brush these off, and lives have been lost—and many more destroyed—for this reason. In the U.S., more than 11,750 women were murdered by their current or ex male partners between 2001 and 2012; one in four women have been victims of severe physical violence by husbands or male partners in their lifetime. These stakes are too high. This does NOT mean violating due process; it MUST mean setting in motion a procedure where the woman can be protected until the facts are ascertained, while the rights of the accused are also protected.

We need a whole new society, one where women need never more fear the beatings, rape and murder—by those who claim to love them—that prevail in this society as part of a whole societal-wide effort to overcome and transcend all the ages-old inequality and oppression of women. That will take a revolution, nothing less. Right now, we need to transform the culture we live in into one in which the abuse and murder of women is NOT swept under the rug and the women who face this are NOT alone, but are afforded support; in which those accused of crimes—without regard to their “race” or nationality—are granted full rights and means to defend themselves against such accusations; and in which “trial by media” is not the way in which verdicts on anyone are dispensed.

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