From: "Rebecca Peoples" <wellsfargo-AT-tinet.ie>
Subject: M-I: Violence against women
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 19:56:58 -0000




Below are my views on violence against women that came out of my thoughts on
the recent discussion on this list on this subject.

 Male violence against women within contemporary society is a form of
violence that has its source in capitalist society. It can never be
eliminated without eliminating
capitalism. Capitalism and this form of violence  necessarily go together.
Capitalist oppression is mediated or expresses itself through the violent
oppression of individual women by individual men. The inverse relation,
although
it exists, is only marginal against the extent to which it exists in former
relation.
Does this mean that gender oppression exists in which the male gender is
violent
towards the female gender? No! Because some men are violent against women it
does not logically follow that men are necessarily violent against women. In
short,
then, male violence against women is not a gendered based violence. The
violence
of  men against women is a specific form assumed by capitalism’s violent
character. The violence of working class men against working class women is
one
of the forms by which class violence against the working class is maintained
by
capitalism. Working class men who inflict violence on working class women
are
promoting the perpetuation of class violence against the working class as a
whole
and working class women specifically. Through this form of violence they are
promoting a sexist  division within the working class.
This being so the violence of working class men against working class women
is a
specific class form by which the capitalist class maintains a violent and
oppressive
relation to the working class. Violence by working class men against working
class women is a class issue. The struggle against violence by working class
men
to working class women forms an indispensable part of the class struggle
against
the capitalist class.
In short the struggle against violence by men against women forms part of
the
struggle against the bourgeoisie. This specific struggle forms a part of the
struggle
for socialism.
To attempt to conduct the struggle against male violence on a narrow gender
basis is to displace the struggle and thereby defend capitalism. To attempt
to
reduce violence by men against women to the context of gender is to suggest
that
the violence has its source in gender; in a specific gender: the male
gender.  If
male violence is gender violence then that means that it is male gender
constituted
violence. This means the male gender organises and structures its violence
against
women. This makes men as a whole and not capitalism responsible for male
violence. The source of male violence against woman begins and ends with men
as
a whole. Accordingly male violence transcends class relations and even
history
itself. This conveniently removes the real source of the violence,
capitalism, form
view. In this way feminism serves a useful (capitalist blind) bourgeois
ideological
and political function.
To promote the form of the struggle along gender lines is to promote
capitalism
and thereby undermine the interests of working class women. The struggle
against
male violence against women must be conducted on a revolutionary basis if it
is to
be a real struggle against male violence.
There is only one real way of conducting the struggle against male violence
directed at women --the revolutionary way.
To confine the struggle against male violence within gender constraints is
not to
conduct the struggle at all. By confining it to a gendered context is to
confine the
struggle to an abstract level that transcends history. It is to turn the
struggle from
a concrete class question to an abstract naturalist struggle. It is to
emancipate the
struggle from politics thereby suggesting that class relations play no
significant
part in the struggle.
If male violence against women is simply a gender issue then the only way in
which it can be extirpated is by women struggling against men to suppress
them.
It turns the relationship between men and women into a gender issue whereby
men are presented as the oppressors of women. Consequently reconciliation
can
never obtain. Instead a permanent state of conflict in one form or another
must
exist in which either gender tends to have the ascendancy --a state of
nature
situation. This perspective may provide a glimpse into the links between
feminism
and environmentalism.
The gender oriented perspective assumes that the inequality between men and
women is rooted in natural factors: different bodies and consequently a
different
relationship to nature. This natural difference assumed a historical form in
the
form of the capitalist mode of production which is a patriarchal system.
By focusing on gender difference as a difference that is common to all
historical
periods feminism is focusing on what is common to all periods instead of the
relevant specificity under capitalism. Attention must be focused on the
specific
form oppression acquires under a specific society --capitalism. To
concentrate on
what is common to all societies is to concentrate on what is in effect
natural and
above history. This is to then suggest that historical movement cannot
eliminate
these characteristics. This means that they cannot be eliminated. If this is
the case
then one must just accept them living as best one can. Consequently it is a
futile
exercise to consider these issues. They are differences that are beyond
politics.
Consequently there obtains an irresolvable contradiction in a feminism that
locates
the source of the oppressive relations between men and women in gender.
But the point is that they are wrong. Oppressive relations between men and
women are not located in gender but in historical conditions.
The point is that the capitalism, by its very nature, give out largesse even
if it
wanted to. On the other hand men can surrender largesse without it in any
way
threatening the system. In the former case there are objective conditions
explaining the character of the struggle. In the latter case only
subjectivism can be
offered to explain the struggle.
The Marxist perspective, on the other hand, is that social division between
male
and female is a product of social relations. Marxism argues that the
oppression of
women by men is caused by capitalist relations. Take ways these relations,
replacing them with socialist relations, and harmony between men and women
prevails. The source of the problem is capital not natural relations.
Women act on nature in a socially mediated way. This means that social
relations
cannot be separated from the natural context. This being so one cannot
divorce
the natural differences in men from social relations. Since men and women
work
on nature in a socially mediated way then the natural differences between
men and
women must be rooted in the character of social relations. The natural
relations
between men and women assume a social form --a historicity which means it
changes its character.

Rebecca



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