From the Revolutionary Communist Manifesto Group (Europe):

Break the Chains!
Unleash Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

Another World Is in Birth—
We Can and Will Transform Everything!

March 15, 2021 | revcom.us

 

International Women’s Day 2021 takes the center stage on March 8 resounding a battle cry across the globe to sweep away all that enslaves women—as fundamental to the struggle for human society worldwide rising on entirely new foundations.

A mighty force of women in rebellion against patriarchal enslavement is in evidence everywhere. From inspiring examples of women’s rebellion in Iran’s streets defying the ferocious dictatorship of the Islamic fundamentalist state of the IRI even in its own dungeons and torture chambers, to the heroic women’s street battles in the heartlands of “modern” secular Europe, there is a gathering storm of women’s fury. Women embody a determined opposition in Poland to Kaczynski’s “Law and Justice” Party that has been trying to hammer in a program of religious fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship with virulent patriarchy and all the chains of traditional values, stripping away the right to abortion, to insure forced motherhood and submission of women to men and the Catholic Church.

Everywhere the militant masculinity that typifies the patriarchal fascist movements is tied with a thousand threads to aggressive reactionary patriotic nationalism—the head of the nation and the head of the household are joined in a reactionary knot that is a binding force in the capitalist-imperialist system itself. Germany’s AfD are in practice reviving the old Nazi patriarchal programme of Kinder, Kuche, Kirche and bellicose chauvinism and xenophobia which is echoing around the continent, from France’s re-branded National Front to Britain’s belligerent Brexiteers. What the outmoded Western capitalist-imperialist powers and the fascist forces hatching up in their bosoms have in common with the equally outmoded religious fundamentalist forces in the Third World—whether in power such as the IRI or other jihadist forces such as ISIS and others—is the outlook and exercise of brutal misogyny and violent subjugation and dehumanization aiming to maintain women in chains. The political campaign to free the political prisoners and imprisoned women fighters in Iran is a powerful front of struggle against the deadly reinforcing link of the worldwide enforcers of patriarchal oppression [see Burn the Cage, Free the Birds @burn_the_cage Instagram].

The electoral defeat and the failed coup attempt of the forces backing the fascist Trump/Pence regime was a sigh of relief, yet this should lull nobody to sleep, for the fascists are emboldened and ever more determined to impose their program of male supremacy, white supremacy, xenophobic patriotism, demonization of the LGBTQ people and their imperial “entitlement” to lord it over others by force, encouraging the kindred fascist forces in Europe and elsewhere. This becomes evident in the increasing threat and influence of the fascist forces swarming the political stage, infiltrating deep into the state structures, parliaments and the armed forces as conveniently revealed in Germany that claims to be the “can do” manager of the European Union gang of imperialist powers.

Resistance and rebellion is crucially important as is the indispensable role and power of the unrelenting struggle of women against the system’s patriarchal oppression and degradation. Yet as pointed out by Bob Avakian,

A profoundly different polarization must be brought about, in line with the potential for a radically different and better world, representing the actual interests of the masses of people and ultimately all of humanity. A radically different approach to understanding, and acting on, the relations and problems of society must be taken up—a thoroughly and consistently scientific method and approach.

People come out on the streets and fight courageously defying all odds and are willing to recognize the need to rely on science to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic or environmental devastation but all too often fail or even refuse the necessity to use the same type of evidence-based scientific method and approach to understanding and acting on the changes and developments of human society in dealing with its contradictions and problems. Bob Avakian, the architect of the New Communism, has brought forward a new framework for human emancipation more soundly grounded in scientific methodology and outlook for bringing about the needed revolutionary transformations of human society.

A key part of Avakian’s work includes an unsparingly scientific analysis of the transformations in different dimensions of human society wrought in recent decades by the capitalist-imperialist system. This analysis lays bare how all this is ripping apart the relations typical of the existing structures of bourgeois democracy and giving rise to the intensifying efforts to impose fascism, a different openly dictatorial form of bourgeois rule. This also includes significant transformations in the conditions of women and the re-imposition of patriarchal oppression and traditional values with a vengeance. Bob Avakian’s analyses and methodology in his New Year’s Statement, “A New Year, The Urgent Need For A Radically New World—For The Emancipation Of All Humanity,” is of great relevance worldwide:

Over the past several decades … there have been profound changes in the situation of women and the relations within the family. In only one of ten families is there the “model” situation where the husband is the “sole breadwinner” and the wife a totally dependent “homemaker.” With these economic changes have come significant changes in attitudes and expectations—and very significant strains not only on the fabric of the family but of social relations more broadly.... The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances—this is a powderkeg in the U.S. today. It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms and through extremely violent means. The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement.

Analyzing the harmful dead-end influences of liberal forces, “mainstream” institutions and reform-seeking forces peddling “identity politics” straitjacketing the struggle of the masses to limits and terms of the existing system, Avakian underlies the dangers:

…to the degree that things are maintained within the limits of this system, this will actually have the effect of furthering the horrors for humanity that are built into this system, while also reinforcing and giving further impetus to the underlying economic—and the social and political—forces that will strengthen the fascism that has already shown great strength in this country (and a number of others).

Avakian demonstrates that only by wielding the scientific method of confronting reality in its complex structure and dynamics will people be able to overcome the killing confines of the existing capitalist-imperialist system:

Only through the revolution aiming to overthrow this system—to defeat and dismantle this system of capitalism-imperialism and all its institutions of oppression and violent repression, replacing them with institutions that can serve the cause of emancipating all of humanity and enabling human beings to become fit caretakers of the earth—only in this way can each and every form of oppression, plunder and exploitation be finally ended.

Imagine what it would mean if there were a growing force of people here in Europe and around the world, engaging with this emancipating scientific approach—discussing and debating the burning questions facing humanity, from the ever more rapidly approaching environmental catastrophe to the wars for empire, from the deeply rooted white supremacy and patriarchy to the uprooting of hundreds of millions of migrants being driven out of their homes, especially in the poor, oppressed countries of the Global south. It’s way past time to break out of the shackles on our thinking—shackles that keep people hoping for the reform of this unreformable system, and liberate us to envision the radically new world that is necessary and possible—if we dare to seize it. Go to revcom.us and check out the New Communism, and write us to become part of a growing community of revolutionary emancipators of humanity!

Revolutionary Communist Manifesto Group (Europe)

Email: rcmanifestogroup@gmail.com

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Hundreds of thousands of women are taking to the streets of Warsaw and other Polish cities and towns in outraged protest against an October 22 decree by the Constitutional Tribunal banning abortion. (Photo: Twitter)