Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 17:20:18 +1000 From: rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au (Rob Schaap) Subject: M-I: War Of Scheetz Against All Bob Scheetz wrote: The "proletarianisation of women" , one of the themes of capital's increasing colonization of the family, has been mentioned. This means something quite opposite to "liberation" I think. Feminism, like the earlier "Christ'ning the heathen," does duty to euphemize this pillage and devastation. And, as with the "opening of the West", clearing it of indigenes was the essential pre-condition, so is abortion for the proletarianisation of women ... This abomination is momentous. It fairly compells address to even the minimally morally sensate. [Rob Schaap: Although I admit I'm not sure what Bob was getting at in the 'canting feminists' post, and that I found the rhetorical style vaguely disagreeable, I'd rather Bob didn't leave the list. Carrol Cox (I think it was) argued that abortion as a discussion topic should be avoided - and >from my experience, it would take us off our threads and it would inflame passions beyond the bounds of useful discourse. So, okay. But then, having closed the subject, Carrol launched a provocative diatribe! Bob's stuff is undoubtedly contentious, fraught even ... but it strikes me as an acceptable class analysis of an important issue. And I doubt the moral anguish of the pregnant has more to do with false consciousness than it does with her objective material conditions. Bits of Bob's analysis are even redolent, if memory serves, of Engels on the family. I can imagine class analyses which effectively oppose Bob's position too, but that's hardly the point. And I'm also inclined to think that in a socialist society, where all human labour is seen for its true value, where parenthood has status and material support, where parenthood does not exclude the parent from engaging in the public domain, where the practice of parenthood is not implicitly defined by gender - well, a lot of current, gender-specific, unfair, desperately pressing, and often class-specific concerns would not confront the pregnant. If this is so, Bob has a valid point, does he not? Rob] --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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