Socialist Women V_ Feminists

)a group of women active in revolutionary cialist politics and womens liberation oups in Northern Ireland, there can be » doubt that the experiences of the under members led them to establishing e S.W.G. Experiences on the one hand the terrible-backwardness of the ain political forces they were/are in ntact with, Le, extreme reaction against bmens rights; the Republicans who see mtraception as a British plot and the iplementation of the 1967 Abortion ct as mass murder” and on the other the itronising lip-service paid to womens eration by the “machismo” maleft who fought on the barricades and never 1estioned why their companions/wives ould be at home and maintaining rtain functions, Of course it is a two-way ocess, the absence of a strong womens ovement also saw to it that the functions ‘the household were never examined and clalised as were many other community nections in the embryonic dual power tuation that was “Free Derry”.

For Their Triumphs and For Their Tears. Women in apartheid South Africa. by Hilda Bernstein, Internationagainst their oppression in Northern Ireland have problems to deal with and all those are set against a background of a struggle against imperialist oppression and for basic democratic rights.

Firstly in their manifesto the SWG say “the formation of the SWG represented a break with the feminist oriented polictes of the womens liberation movement and a recognition of the need fo analyse the economic and sexual opprestion of women from a clast-based viewpoint”. The needs for analysis we agree with but why break from the womens movement to do so and why “break™ from feminism. Feminism is a response against male supremacy and womens oppression, and a5 socialits we are all initially feminists. The womens movement struggling against oppression are asking all the questions of analysis. §o why put ourselves outside the movement to answer them. Many women come to Socialism through a series of struggles and experiences; not through merely coping with a set of ideas, It is sectarian to insist that women struggling against oppression should define themselves at this point in time as socialists, It is our responsibility to try to win the movement to struggle on a class-basis and to be part of that. be a socialist?

SOUTH~- AFRICAN involved, Women in Britain attempted to set up Socialist womens groups and found themselves outside the mainstream of womens struggles, Haippily they correct this course and it is by their intervention that the womens movement is now beginning to fight on a class basis. For whether we like it or not women will join together to struggle as women and we can chose Secondly, there does not seem to be any clear perspective on how to deal with the anti-imperialist struggle and the fact that the two communities are basically divided on the role of Britain in Ireland, Objectively there are huge barriers against the unity of workers in Northern [reland but the SWG raises demands on equal pay, creches, contraception, in the efforts of mobilising and uniting (7) Women on these demands, Then why put another barrier in that path — that one has to All of these main demands can be found in the Charter of Irish Women United which draws all kinds of women to struggle on demands — who take up class-based positions in these fights. Being a socialist immediately defines a particular position on the National Strugele and could cut off many Para = - Sky. let ee ing children (ie. the next gtheration of workers) is forced onto the backs of women in the ‘reserves’. But Bernstein's objections are that this causes ‘illegitimacy’ and “provides fertile-ground for faithiess-