There's still a lot to do if we
are really going to fight against patriarchy within
libertarian groups. Klito, a women-only collective, sees
some problems and wants to suggest some courses of
action. We, as libertarian feminists, want to sound an
alarm. We denounce the double workday of women workers
who, once they get home, get stuck with household
chores, but also among libertarians, there is the double
struggle of women. The struggle against patriarchy
requires two times as much energy as other battles
because we must fight not only on the social front but
also within the political groups in which we work as
activists. Who puts the labels on the envelopes? Sweeps
the meeting rooms? The women, usually. Who coordinates
the demos? Who speaks louder at the meetings? The men,
usually.
Some thoughts on anti-sexism in the
libertarian movement
Translated
from French by SonofTomJoad Ottawa,
Ontario Canada
This text was received from
Klito, a women-only feminist collective.
There's
still a lot to do if we are really going to fight
against patriarchy within libertarian groups. Klito, a
women-only collective, sees some problems and wants to
suggest some courses of action. We, as libertarian
feminists, want to sound an alarm. We denounce the
double workday of women workers who, once they get home,
get stuck with household chores, but also among
libertarians, there is the double struggle of women. The
struggle against patriarchy requires two times as much
energy as other battles because we must fight not only
on the social front but also within the political groups
in which we work as activists. Who puts the labels on
the envelopes? Sweeps the meeting rooms? The women,
usually. Who coordinates the demos? Who speaks louder at
the meetings? The men, usually.
In the
libertarian groups of France, women's issues are
certainly taken into consideration but not in a very
satisfactory way. When groups mobilize for International
Women's Day or against the "right-to-lifers," we can ask
ourselves what the real place is of the anti-patriarchy
struggle in the practices and thought of libertarian
groups in France. We have no false illusions about
this—libertarians reproduce gender and sexual domination
like everyone else. Since we claim to be fighting this
domination, it would be a good idea to focus on its
presence amongst ourselves. Ignoring this phenomenon is
the best way to make it worse.
A little
history A look at history shows us that the anarchist
movement has not considered feminism one of its major
concerns. Although Bakunin, for example, advocated
complete equality between woman and men and denounced
the contradiction in many male militants who fought for
socio-economic equality and freedom while being tyrants
at home, Proudhon, on the other hand, pillar of the
libertarian movement, was a notorious misogynist. This
author of a sentences like " the woman is a pretty
animal but an animal nonetheless. She is as eager for
kisses as a goat is for salt," is still the master
thinker for many. There have always been homophobic
anarchists, as well, who argue that homosexuality
represents a "bourgeois perversion." Emma Goldman
described the obstacles against her when she raised this
issue: "Censorship came from some of my own comrades
because I was treating such 'unnatural' themes as
homosexuality," she related in 1912. The shell of the
idea of sexual liberation has often been resuscitated
but without its anti-patriarchy value. For most
militants, in 1936 as in 1970, it has meant above all
the sexual availability of women militants and feminists
for meeting male desires.
Invisible women The
problem of gender is rarely an integral part of
anti-capitalist and anti-racist discourse and struggle.
Starting with the good old sexist principle that the
male supersedes the female, the unemployed are defended
without their defenders realizing that they are WOMEN
unemployed workers, above all, and that women are twice
as exploited as men on the job. The same thing is true
in the movement to defend undocumented immigrants
(sans-papiers)—women are invisible despite the fact that
their situation is always worse than men's. Sometimes
this absence is justified by the fact that the issue of
gender comes out of a bourgeois theory praising
inter-classism. We need an exacting analytical method to
comprehend the inequalities between men and women,
between heterosexuals and others. The misunderstanding
of this issue is produced in several ways. This
invisibility of women's oppression, in particular, comes
primarily from the fact that many libertarians (men and
women) have a compartmentalized vision of struggles as
if women's issues could be reduced to one area of
struggle.
Although in the struggles against the
bosses, against poverty and economic instability, or for
freedom of movement and immigrant rights, women are the
first effected, it is rarely mentioned in political
literature, for example, to what they are subjected
because of their sex. The issue of gender runs through
ALL struggles! To believe as many do that gender issues
are reserved for women only (while saying to women, at
best, that they "support them in their struggle") allows
them to clear themselves of any charges of not
participating in the fight against patriarchy. The
"women's commissions" of some libertarian groups, like
the social-democrat parties, indeed reveal the implicit
disengagement of men. The Mujeres Libres (Free Women)
movement during the Spanish civil war was a unique
example of massive struggle by anarchist women. But
let's remember that this group of 20,000 proletarian
feminists encountered resistance from their male
counterparts, who thought that the women workers were
stealing their place as men and did not accept, in
particular, that the Free Women critiqued the
glorification of motherhood. You say there's no
hierarchy of struggle?
Patriarchy and
capitalism Paradoxically, another, more subtle way of
excluding feminism from struggles in progress is to
include the patriarchy theme as a "natural" part of the
class struggle. For some, being an anarchist
automatically makes you a feminist. To consider
patriarchy an avatar or a consequence of capitalism
alone is to refuse to see the specificity of this
gender-based system. We must remember that when we
struggle against the class system, we are struggling
against ALL domination! Capitalism is not the sum total
of oppression (our fight for a better world would much
easier if it were). The struggle against patriarchy is a
struggle in its own right. Although patriarchy and
capitalism are interwoven and reinforced by each other,
we must admit that they are two autonomous systems (some
patriarchal systems are built on non-capitalist
economies). There are thereby two struggles, at least,
which we must carry out in parallel.
Few
libertarian feminists denounce these weaknesses, without
doubt because they have internalized the same
invisibility all women have under patriarchy. There are
certainly more men than women in anarchist groups, and
while the fact that women investing little time in
politics is a social phenomenon, the violent and warlike
image associated with those who brandish the black flag
comes from somewhere, no doubt. Does keeping this
masculine "folklore" alive really make any sense?
Besides, it is difficult for many women to see
themselves as part of a group of women because they are
persuaded that they are living a social reality
identical to men's, which allows the building of
cohesive militant groups. Women who attempt to point out
these oppression issues within the group are labelled
"feminist," which means for many "habitual pain-
in-the-ass." This scorn for the issue of patriarchy
illustrates how difficult it is to confront the myths
upon which political groups depend, such as "power
issues do not exist in this group," "there's no
domination of some members by others," etc. It is time
to recognize that a militant group is not immune from
the ills of society.
Gender? Don't
know... It's a shame that the analysis of some
libertarians is limited to the status of women without
taking into account the social construction of gender.
Most libertarians do not get beyond essentialist
theories based on biological behavioural differences
that seem to explain (without justifying, of course)
male domination. However, nature alone could not have
created the categories of men and women as they exist.
We are not born as men or women; we become one or the
other. From our infancy, family, school and society in
general inculcate us with our roles according to our
biological sex. Girls are taught the value of sweetness,
understanding, submission and passivity and boys those
of violence, bravery, self-affirmation. Taking this
conditioning into account allows us to reject biological
determinism and "natural" feminine and masculine
qualities. The construction of gender that feminism has
widely appropriated, including the reformists, has not
been accepted by libertarians. It is easier to unite
based on a common exterior enemy (religion, fascists who
scoff at laws protecting women, and the bosses who
exploit women) than challenge each other individually by
grappling with the power relations that exist within
libertarian organizations. Not only do most libertarian
groups not challenge patriarchy—they feed it.
Sexuality is political This deficiency in
libertarian practice in regard to feminism produces, in
addition to discrimination against women, a negation of
lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans-sexuals (LGBT). Do
they even exist in libertarian circles? Of course they
do, just like everywhere else in society. Nevertheless,
we ask such a question because they are invisible. Under
cover of respect for individual freedom, some people
declare that the private is not political and impose a
taboo on discussions about sexuality. They refuse to
consider that sexuality is culturally constructed, an
essential fact today thanks to the struggles of the
Seventies. Refusing to talk about issues around some
sexual behaviours reveals a prudishness sometimes
bordering on puritanism. Some people decree that we can
all do what we want in our own beds, but they'd rather
not talk about it because it has nothing to do with
politics.
However, raunchy songs, sexist jokes
and lesbo-gay-bi-transphobia are still rampant among
some anarchists, reinforcing the reigning
hetero-centrism. They denigrate some sexual behaviours
and keep alive the lesbo-gay-bi-transphobic atmosphere
that depends on the idea that heterosexuality is the
only model. Today, to declare oneself lesbian, trans, bi
or gay in a libertarian organization has a risk (as much
as at work or in our families) that many don't dare to
take. This is nothing new in the history of libertarian
struggles. Feminist movements, lesbian, homo and queer
struggles have moved things forward a little, but it is
necessary to keep fighting. Nothing will evolve without
putting in place effective methods—in particular, the
creation of non-mixed groups of women and men as spaces
for political reflection on power over/under relations,
in particular men/women and heteros/LGBT.
It is
not enough to want to destroy capitalism and patriarchy
as represented by the bosses and moral order, but we
must change behaviours right her and now. In the
libertarian movement and elsewhere, nothing will change
without the mobilization of the interested parties:
women, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, the trans-gendered;
and the involvement of men and heteros is imperative if
the latter want to be consistent in their libertarian
thought.
Libertarian Women of Paris Region
mail: klito@no-log.org
