March-April  1999

The late 1960s and 1970s witnessed a vast upsurge of women’s liberation movements in the capitalist countries, which was led by the petti-bourgeoisie. This movement had a strong impact on middle class women. It was part of the widespread anti-US imperialist movements that swept these countries in the decade of the 1970s. But in the 1980s this movement retreated and the bulk of the activists got drawn towards the various bourgeois feminist trends. At the same time, since the latter half of the 1980s, with the new growth of the national liberation and working-class movements, large numbers of women were activated. And with this, two clear-cut trends developed in the women’s movement — a bourgeois trend and a proletarian trend. This was clearly visible in both the capitalist countries as well as the oppressed countries. The bourgeois trend isolated itself more and more from the masses and delinked the gender question from social transformation. On the other hand, around the proletarian trend, vast sections of the working-class and peasant women have got mobilised.... And it is through these movements that they are establishing an identity of their own and demanding freedom from patriarchal and social oppression. While the former gets regular publicity from the establishment media, the latter is systematically ignored. Today, the real movements for the emancipation of women are to be seen, primarily, growing out of the on-going revolutionary and national liberation movements around the world.

In this article we shall particularly focus on three examples — one, of a Maoist movement in an underdeveloped country; another, of a national liberation movement; and, a third of a women’s movement in a capitalist country — which will give a general picture of the major types of revolutionary movements developing in the world. This article is based on documents and reports produced by the respective movements themselves incorporating their theoretical understanding of it.

The Andes of Latin America, the mountains and valleys of Peru, have become an important centre of revolutionary people’s war. Since 1980, when the Peru Communist Party (PCP) launched armed struggle, it has now spread to 19 of the 24 departments (provinces) of Peru. One specific feature of the people’s war in Peru is the large number of women who have participated in, and built the revolutionary movement. In 1988, at the (reconstituted) PCP’s first Congress, over half the central committee members elected were women. Since then the central committee has always had at least half its members as women. From this it is clear that in the people’s war for establishing a new democratic society in Peru, women are playing an important leading role. We now outline a brief history of the development and growth of the women’s movement in Peru and their contribution to the on-going revolution.

In 1964, a handful of female workers and university students (mostly from peasant origin) set up, under the leadership of the PCP, the women’s section of the Students’ Revolutionary Front (FER). Most of them were from Ayacucho, situated deep in the Andes mountains. This women’s front clearly stated, at the very start, that their aim was to "retake Mariategui’s road" by drawing a clear line of demarcation between the bourgeois feminism of the petti-bourgeoisie and the proletarian revolutionary standpoint.

At that time, few seriously believed that this understanding of the Communists would bear fruit. But, four years later, the women’s movement of Ayacucho made a public declaration of their principles and plan of action. This success, was the fruits of the struggle against revisionism during the 1960s, led by the ‘red fraction’, headed by Com. Gonzalo, who reclaimed Mariategui’s thesis on the women’s question and developed it further. A number of leading women had participated in this original struggle. An example is that of Com. Augusta La Torre (alias Norah) who was a founding member of the red fraction, and an implacable fighter against revisionism, and who, until her death in combat in 1988, was an outstanding member of the party’s central committee.

Mariategui, the founder of the PCP in the 1920s, analysed the women’s movement as consisting of three tendencies: bourgeois feminism, petti-bourgeois feminism and proletarian feminism. He called on the party to pay special attention to work amongst women in universities and trade unions.

In 1973 the Popular Women’s Movement (MFP) was founded, basing itself on Mariategui’s understanding. The majority of the MFP members, including its leadership, went on to develop their activities, particularly in the rural areas, to spread the ideology of the proletariat and to enlighten the female peasants on the importance of women’s participation in the revolutionary process.

In 1975 the MFP, planned to spread its organisation outside Ayacucho, throughout the country. In that year the MFP staged its first National Conference for coordinating its activities and outlining its plans for the immediate future. Soon after this meeting a manifesto was published. Its slogan and title was "Marching Under the Banner of Mariategui, Let’s Develop the Popular Women’s Movement". The national conference led to the unification of all women’s organisations upholding the class line. From this conference there arose a National Coordination Committee with the fundamental political objective of encouraging women to go into the production process, familiarising them with trade union experience and getting them acquainted with the party of the proletariat. They followed Com. Mao’s understanding, saying that : "In the semi-feudal, semi-colonial societies, the woman is subject to fourfold oppression — political oppression, clan oppression, religious and marital oppression" (from Hunan Report).

The struggling masses rallied behind the communist women in large numbers. In a little time MFP grew rapidly. And with the understanding that women’s liberation is only possible through the establishment of a new order by destroying the existing social system, the MFP also participated in the preparations for the launching of the armed struggle.

With the initiation of people’s war in 1980, the women’s movement also took on a new dimension. Women too participated in the guerilla war. They took part in the tough life of the guerillas, and even, on occasions, gave leadership. In the beginning, most of the women guerillas were from petti-bourgeois backgrounds. But since 1982, after the people’s committees were formed in the countryside, peasant women also joined the fighting forces. Through the peasant committees, the entire village, including the women, have been given training in the use of arms. Women were encouraged to actively participate in the decision-making process of the committees.

Together with this, depending on the situation, mass organisations have been built on the specific needs and demands of women. In the cities women have been encouraged to participate and assist the struggles of the working-class. While in the slums women have been activated to take a leading role in the struggles on issues facing them. Women have been seen in the forefront of battles against slum eviction and in the struggles for their basic necessities.

The class conscious men and women workers have been organised into the "Movement of class-conscious Workers and Labourers", while the most advanced part of the population in the shanty towns have been organised into the "Neighbourhood Class-conscious Movement." In 1990 "People’s Struggle Committees" were developed in some shanty towns. They were formed in places where the majority of the population supported the revolution and they constitute the embryonic form of New Power in the city.

In the slums, women participate with the same rights and duties as men, and have formed organisations for collective survival. In some, like the ‘Peoples Cafeteria’ or the ‘Glass or Milk Committees’, initially founded by the revisionist parties, class conscious men and women have assumed leadership and they do not "humbly" accept the handouts of the state; rather they demand it as a right of the people. Through such activities the oppressed women have gained political and organisational experience.

Through all these battles hundreds of women have been imprisoned by the enemy. But even here, whatever struggles take place, women have played an important part. Many have been killed by the armed forces and rape of ordinary women by the government forces has become a common occurrence. Yet, inspite of this military terror, women are not cowed down .... they continue to resist.

Behind all these efforts lies Mao’s basic principle "keep politics in command." According to the PCP, whether it is a question of leadership, or whether it is a question of allocation of responsibilities, this principle is always creatively applied. Whether it is a question of committee leadership or that of giving responsibilities, always the cadre’s ideological and political level is considered, not his/her social connections or specific capabilities. No women or male comrade is rejected merely because they do not have specific knowledge or skills. If this approach had been maintained, women would never have been able to be raised above their traditional responsibilities. If any job is to be successfully achieved it can only be done by implementing the political line and by relying on the masses. It is only in this way that women comrades in the PCP developed their capabilities and reached leadership committees.

In Peru’s revolutionary movement it was only by linking the women’s movement with the struggle of the oppressed masses, that women could transform their secondary status into equal, self-confident fighters, and thereby contribute their maximum capacities for the revolution. Peru is a backward country where feudal and Christian values are deep-rooted, and where women are mostly illiterate and consider family responsibilities as their chief aim in life. Yet, inspite of these backward ideas and conditions, Peruvian women, through their courage and struggle, have gained an important place in the revolution in Peru. Their movement has been a source of inspiration to, not only the people of Latin America and the USA, but also to people around the globe.

Kurdistan, strategically located in the heart of West Asia, has been divided up between four countries. The major part lies in South East Turkey and North East Iraq, while a small part lies in Syria and Iran. Deprived of a homeland, they have been treated as second-class citizens. In Turkey the Kurd language has been banned, and they have not even been allowed to observe their traditional customs and practices. And, as the Kurdish people began to raise their voice against national oppression an America-backed fascist dictatorship was imposed on Turkey in 1980. With this, national oppression was intensified. Military pogroms were unleashed on the Kurds and even listening to Kurdish songs was treated as an offence. But, with the establishment of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and the launching of the armed struggle in 1982, the national liberation struggle of the Kurdish people took a new turn.

In this civil war Kurdish women have played an important role right from the beginning. Large numbers of women were arrested, tortured, humiliated (stripped naked, etc) and raped by the Turkish forces. But, instead of getting cowed down by this terror, they learnt to resist. A women folk who had suffered centuries of humiliation due to feudal-Islamic customs now boldly came forth in the struggle.

With thousands of nationalist fighters thrown into jails, their womenfolk came forward to assist. At the jail gates, meeting fellow women suffering similar conditions, they gained courage and fought many a battle against the arbitrary and oppressive behaviour of the jail authorities. They took part in hunger strikes and fasts unto death. As a ‘Kurdistan Solidarity Committee’ publication excellently put it : "They proved their political convictions by standing trial on political charges and became persons of individual conscience. Previously, they had been Kurdish females unable to speak even a word against their husbands, now they stood trial in colonial courts, sentenced according to colonial laws, stepping outside the framework of historical judgment. Women who had always been subject to history’s judgment, their hands tied, began to judge for themselves as they were tried and sentenced."

In the very first battles after the 1980 September 12th coup, a large number of women gave their lives for the freedom of the Kurdish people. Noteworthy amongst these martyrs were Besey Anus, Tukan Derin and Azime Demirtas.

And when the armed struggle was launched in 1982, right from the start women joined the guerilla forces. First, it was the students who joined, and later peasant women. And, as they learnt how to exercise, to wield the gun, lay the mines and acquire political knowledge, they gained a new self-confidence and with a change in their self-image a new individuality grew. Some women became commanders. Many fell to the bullets of the enemy. But as the guerilla war intensified in the mountains of South East Turkey, hundreds of women joined the struggle. Besides mixed squads of both men and women, many all-women squads also developed. Roughly 10% of the fighters are women.

The struggle had an immense impact on traditionally enslaved Kurdish women. Kurdish women were at the very bottom of the social order. Till recently they were bought for money or exchanged for goods and regarded as objects to serve men, bear children and see their children enslaved. Within both society and the family, women had neither a right to self-expression or any authority. They formed their own women’s organisation — the YJWK — Patriotic Women’s Association of Kurdistan in 1987. According to YJWK, the reason for this state of affairs is that social structures are still based on feudalism and colonialism. Hence, the struggle to smash these structures is at the same time the struggle for a free Kurdistan and women’s liberation. The movement spread deep among peasant women. Guerilla women are also members of YJWK.

Speaking about the Party’s approach to women and women guerillas, a YJWK member, Com. Medya, states : "the foundation of the YJWK was the result of discussions of women activists who participated in the Third PKK Congress... There was still the idea that women participating in the armed struggle could cause problems, say for example, not being able to run very fast. So it was necessary to show that this traditional view of women was incorrect and that it had to be changed. And we proved that it could be changed."

The women’s movement also spread to the urban areas, where, in 1991, organisations like the YKD (Women’s Patriotic Organisation) were established. The YKD has sought to draw women into the social and cultural life of the people from which they were excluded. It has also taken up issues of education and language, health problems, and propagating against the atrocities of the police and the army. They also help jailed women and their families.

In addition the women’s movement has even spread amongst the lakhs of Kurdish people, who live as refugees in Europe. Here too, the women have organised themselves ... to celebrate March 8, partake in demonstrations, gather funds and render other forms of assistance to the PKK.

The women’s movement, as part of the national liberation movement of the Kurdish people, has had an enormous impact on the traditional feudal-islamic structures that exist. It has resulted in an all-round democratisation of society, a reduced impact of religion, greater equality between men and women and greater mutual respect. They stand out as a shining example in West Asia, challenging the patriarchal culture imposed by the fundamentalist (pro-US) regimes.

Amongst the developed countries, the working women’s movement of Norway is a good example. Influenced by a proletarian party, the AKP (Workers Communist Party, Norway), the women’s movement has had a wide impact on Norwegian society. Of course, this is not only restricted to Norway as throughout Europe and America there has been a growing movement of working women. The objective basis for this lies in the fact that since the 1970s there has been a big growth of women’s participation in the labour force. Today for example in West European countries, the number of women in the labour force has increased from 18% to 38%.

In Norway, during the 1970s and 1980s there was a massive increase in the number of women in the labour force. Today, of the adult female population about one-third are employed full-time, another one-third work part-time and one-third comprise the balance of the unemployed, students, housewives and pensioners. In Norway most women work in offices, shops, hotels, education and health services, etc and only 20% of the industrial proletariat are women.

Norway’s largest women’s organisation, the ‘Women’s Front’ (WF) was established in 1972 primarily by Marxist-Leninist women who also played an active role in the establishment of the AKP (M-L) in 1973. The WF grew as a big force in Norway mobilising women, not only on women’s issues but also on general question as well.

In the decade of the 1970s it took up mass women’s issues, like the demand for kindergartens and creches, loans to poor women for education, right to abortion (till today this is a major issue of struggle in many countries of Europe and America, with the fascists/fundamentalists in the US not only opposing it but attacking and killing doctors conducting abortions)... it won all these demands. It also built extensive solidarity campaigns with national liberation movements (like Vietnam, Palestine, Eritrea etc), and, most important, it mobilised women on a big scale to vote against entry into the EU in the 1972 referendum. Politically, the WF drew a clear line of demarcation with the bourgeois feminists — while the WF supported all the struggles of the working class and national liberation movements, the bourgeois feminists supported only the women within these movements.

In the decade of the 1980s the WF took a nationwide campaign against pornography and prostitution. The campaign was so effective, that it is only recently that pornography is once again raising its head in Norway. It also played an active role in the trade union’s major demand for a 6-hour working day. This got wide support from women due to their double burden. The struggle achieved some reduction in the work-day, from a 40 hours week to a 37a hours week.

In the 1990s the WF has made a major intervention in the trade union movement of Norway by initiating what is known as the ‘Women Across.’ In 1993, the WF, together with seven different trade unions, from both the public and private sector, initiated a ‘Women and Trade Union’ Conference at Oslo. Since then there have been conferences all over the country drawing in more and more trade unions. The 1997 conference was initiated by 20 different organisations. In ‘Women Across’ the WF has initiated the ‘women’s wage negotiation campaign’ with the slogan "We want a wage to live on and a working day to live with." The impact of ‘Women Across’ has not only been in activating women within trade unions, but it has also been successful in effecting closer rank- and-file coordination amongst unions and thereby enabled a better exposure of the social-democratic leadership. It has also more effectively put forward the demand for equal wages amongst men and women.

Throughout a major part of this period the WF has developed ‘self-assertiveness’ courses to train women develop with a greater sense of confidence. So far, roughly ten thousand women have been through these courses.

With these rich and varied experiences, spread over three decades, the WF have thrown up many activists who have also played a leading role in the AKP. Often, the leader of the party has been a woman, one of whom Com. Kjersti Ericsson, has written the well-known study ‘Sister, Comrades.’ In the process they have also worked out a theoretical framework for the women’s question, which briefly states :

First, that women in the working class are oppressed both as workers and women, and this double oppression is a basis for building a movement for which the necessary organisational forms must be devised to unleash the power to fight both. Second, capitalism is based on the family system, in which the wife has a secondary role. Household work is an indirect form of exploitation by capital of women’s labour power. Third, capitalism has inherited oppression of women from earlier societies ... and has developed it in such a way that it has become an inseparable part of the capitalist system. Therefore, the women’s liberation movement is a revolutionary force for the overthrow of the capitalist system. Finally, they conclude that the women’s movement is a revolutionary force in its own right, and that now there are two leading forces in the working class — the industrial proletariat (i.e. those in the industries, mines, etc) and women workers. Women workers, they say, are developing as another leading force, because of their double oppression.

The above examples give a picture of three main types of revolutionary women’s movements going on in the world. Today, wherever the revolutionary forces are growing, the women’s movement inevitably grows as a part of it. In the capitalist countries this can particularly be seen in countries like Germany where the women’s organisation ‘Courage’ has been developing, and where the proletarian party, MLPD (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany) emphasises the importance of building revolutionary consciousness amongst women, particularly working-class women. This importance is reflected in the fact that 34% of the Central Committee members are women, many from proletarian background.

But the main force and growth of the women’s movement lies in the third world countries, particularly in those leading a people’s war, as in the Philippines, Nepal, Turkey and, of course, India.

Take the Philippines. Women have, since the very inception of the armed struggle in 1970, been playing an active role in the revolutionary movement and also organising against patriarchy and other forms of feudal and imperialist oppression. This is reflected both within the party—the CPP (Communist Party of Philippines), and the people’s army — The NPA (New People’s Army). In the higher committees of the party anything from 10% to 20% are women. Even in the politburo of five, there has always been one to two women members. In the NPA about 10% of squad leaders are women. In addition, under the leadership of the CPP vast women organisations have been built. Since the ’60s, the CPP has been consciously advocating and struggling for the liberation of women. It has unleashed the revolutionary initiative of women in various spheres of work, whether in the line of armed struggle and the agrarian revolution in the countryside or the democratic protest movement in the cities.

The underground women’s organisation, ‘Makibaka’ is active in the rural areas and guerilla fronts and is a part of the NDF (National Democratic Front). In the guerilla areas, health work amongst the people, which is second in importance after the land question, is done mostly by women. In the urban areas there exists a large, open women’s federation, ‘Gabriella’ (named after a woman martyr who died fighting the Spanish). ‘Gabriella’ is a part of a broad democratic anti-imperialist front ‘Bayan’. They have taken mass campaign on issues ranging from sex trafficking, abuse of migrant women to opposition to US bases and the Gulf War. For example, 9000 women in Manila alone protested against the Gulf War in 1992.

The revolutionary women’s movement in the Philippines is clear that the national-democratic movement with a socialist perspective is the road to Filipino women's emancipation. As a result there was a massive sweep of the women’s movement throughout the Philippines, which gained international repute. But this advance was halted due to errors in the political line that affected the entire revolutionary movement in the ’80s and early ’90s. Disorientation of the movement’s strategy and tactics opened the floodgates for the entry of bourgeois ideas and influences. Ideas of bourgeois feminism masquerading as "socialist feminism" resulted in, bourgeois women taking over the leadership over the masses of working women, and in allying with government agencies and NGOs, which helped create the illusion that the reactionary state was "gender-sensitive". Overcoming these errors in the course of the rectification movement since 1992 the women’s mass organisations have again been strengthened.

In Nepal it is not even three years since the people’s war has been launched by the CPN (M) [Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)], but already thousands of women have been drawn towards the revolutionary movement, from amongst the students and also the peasantry. In the very first phase of the people’s war seven women became martyrs. Later, in 1997 the martyrdom of Com. Kamala Bhatt, a district secretary of the All Nepal Women’s Organisation (Revolutionary) led to countrywide protests. The spread of the movement has been so wide, that in the district conferences of the women’s organisation 3000 to 5000 women have participated. A significant number of women have joined the guerilla squads, some of which are all-women, and there are even women commanders.

In Turkey, besides the PKK movement, it is the TKP/ML that has been leading the armed struggle for a New Democratic revolution. The TKP/ML, also functioning under conditions of Islamic-feudalism and fascist dictatorships, has drawn thousands of women into the revolutionary movement, not only in Turkey, but also amongst immigrants in Europe.

And on this March 8, International Women’s Day, it would be a fitting tribute, to remember that Swiss girl, who, with a great internationalist spirit, died fighting, together with the TKP/ML guerillas in the mountains of Turkey. In late January 1993 Barbara Anna Kistler, was killed in the Dersim mountains of Turkish Kurdistan. Earlier, after working amongst immigrants in Switzerland, she visited Peru in mid-1980’s and interviewed the top leaders of the PCP. In 1988, she went to Turkey and joined the guerillas of the TKP/ML. When she was arrested by the fascist regime and imprisoned for eight months, she boldly defended the armed struggle in the bourgeois courts. She rejoined the guerillas in June ’92, and on January 21, ’93 amidst an intense military action, six guerillas, caught in a snowstorm, were martyred, including Com. Barbara Kistler.

Finally, in India as well, under the impact of people’s war, peasant and tribal women, have been aroused to break the tyranny of centuries of oppression and join the struggle for a new democratic society and also for their own emancipation. The KAMS, Mahila Vimukti, Nari Mukti Sangharsh Samiti, Nari Mukti Sangh are the organised expression of this force that has awakened into revolutionary struggle under the leadership of the CPI (ML) [People’s War] and MCC. The revolutionary women’s movement is also reflected in the numerous women’s groups that have emerged in the various towns and cities and in the spontaneous struggles of working class women.

Thus, around the world, a revolutionary women’s movement is developing, that sees its own emancipation inextricably linked to the smashing of imperialism, feudalism and all reaction, and is standing at the front of the battle-lines. With its determination and militancy, their sacrifice and valour, it will undoubtedly grow into a mighty force that will sweep away patriarchal oppression from the face of this earth and gain their rightful place in society.

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