1 WAS appalled by the Communist Party women's "Reply" to Cath Cirket and Val Coultas article on the CP and the women's liberation movement. Is consisient misrepresentation of the International Marxist Geoup women's stated positions would suggest thatthey did not even bother to read the original article but preferred to manufacture fantasies of what they imugine the IMG position to be.
In many cases they attributed to the IMG a position which the ING women have actually CP for! For Campbell er al summarise the IMG position as tollows: "The basis of women's oppression is material, Te. the sexual division of labour Cirket and Val Coultas argued that it was the dufamily as an institution, isolated and privatised. which was the primary source of women's They also roundly criticised the C.P.' sexual division of labour within the family preciscly because it is not enough for men to share the washing up and take the kids out for a walk — it is the isolation of these tasks within the nuclear family unit that oppresses women. The solution lies in the socialisation of chese functions, not in sharing them with a man.
The CP - make BLACE inaccurate assertions — e.c. that the IMG has no theory of autonomy'. This is untrue. The 1 CAr Inal 11 sees organisational mutonomy DI the womens #beration movement (WLM) as essential, but hope that politically the WLM will become part of the strugale for socintism.
The CP women's so-called reply' does not attempt.to answer any of the specific chailenges a made by the IMG women on the CP's strategy in practice: L) will the CP leadership — not just this or that individual CP woman - condemn the policies of Eastern European Governments: In relation to women? 2) Will they adopt the six demands of the WI_M into their programme? 3) why has the Italian Communist Party viciously attached women's abortion rights? We could do with some real answers.
Debate oh the women's movement and revolutionary stralegy has not been advanced hy this muddled, elf-righteous, hypocricial, manipulative and slanderous article. I hope a fully reply to it will be printed as soon as possible, although this would not have been necessary if Bea Campbell, Jane Roberts and Caroline Rowan had engaged in a clear and honest debate based on fact not fiction. Sue Aspinali (N. London| the Roundhouse staff worked ampaid. NAC is debt, and we rely eatirely on tundraising and donatons in keen Roundhouse gig brought in £2000 Yes. NAC resence. This reflects partly on the fact that wo 1ad altost boling lo do win ornanisme th pie — although we should have unan crot: the banner and bookstall were missing through a Tast minute mistake, not through policy.
But would salls and banners really have challenged the phesomenal sexism of the example. Bea Roundhouse audience? How should a sig that wornen's movement and the left be organised so that it will convey our politics to the putters? - Cath We'd welcome discussion on these questions SHE VEE Sisters From NAC Steering Committee 118 nunibers "anti-fascist" sentiments should have had more of a Instead, -and partly on socialism. understanding of the crisis and of racism and fascism. It places first its own desire to increase 100 TIC 085L DE shared commitment to abstract class struggle und revolutionaries must train wanguard with a clear Marxist analysis which can show that the divisions in the working class are forms of expression of the fundamental conflier within bourgenis society — the conflict belween capital and labour. The development sustam the of such a vanguard is essential as the political basis for uniting the working class around a revolutionary programme in the struggle for The most practical contribution that revolutionaries can make to the disputes which arise today is propaganda which exposes the and keep poing. The stare refused this demand, ana the cascina was compelled to close. Anyone in the movement in entirled to debare and concise our specie ams and oBE way o struggling to realise them. Hut this article does so in under to back the state's refusal of money. Quate: TOC should have ensured that the project would sustain BFl scrutiny in the event of a request for money.
Should car workers ensure tea projen can scrutiny of Ford management? Should the EGA workers ensure their project sustains the scratiny" of the NHS? This article crosses class line».
PAUL MARRIS. (Former programmer of The Other Cinema, in a personal capucity).