November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, established by the UN in 1999. Sadly, this day has become just an event in which the balance has more blood each year. Violence against women continues to be a very serious problem of the capitalist society: beyond every frontier, there is no place in the world where the violence against women is eliminated; there is no place in the world that we can say it is save for women.
The Different Faces Of Violence Against Women
The first cause of women’s death around the world is homicide by known persons. Women that were murdered just because they were women, whose fault was to violate the ideal role of the obedient woman, good mother and good wife; women who took the freedom to decide what to do with their lives, who freed themselves from the power and control of the father, partner, lover, and because of their self-determination were punished with death. The phenomena is so wide it generated the necessity of creating a new word to define it: femicide.
Raping, attempts of rape, sexual assaults and domestic violence do not diminish; on the contrary, the seriousness of it continues to grow: according a UN report, 70% of women are at least once in their life victims of violence by a man, usually the husband, father or a close relative; this means one thousand million women and girls have been beaten or raped along their lives. And then there are the girls victims of genital mutilation and forced marriages.
Violence means a very traumatic experience of devastating impact over the physical and mental health of the women and girls who are victims of such violence, with consequences that go from fractures to problematic pregnancies, through mental issues regarding compromised social relations.
Femicides and rapes are the most evident faces of the phenomena called “gender violence”, the most visible and attractive face for the media trying to increase rating. In effect, what the numbers and statistics do not say is that there is an “ordinary” violence against girls and women of dramatic proportions, including the most camouflaged, less “attractive” forms of violence, which are systematically destroying the subjectivity of women psychologically, economically and socially speaking, with highly destructive and expansive consequences.
Regarding the production sphere, with the logic of “profit at any cost”, capitalism uses women as cheap workforce according to its own necessities: when it needs them as part of the production, it launches campaigns complimenting their capacity, and when there is crisis and unemployment it pushes them to the limit they have to go back to their houses: as it does not need them anymore, they are the first ones to be fired. Despite this, women are currently half of the working class of the world, and they continue to be included as part of the social production. However, this incorporation to the labour market has developed major levels of salary inequality, low payment jobs, worse labour conditions, and many times jobs on the outside of the official labour-market.
This historical labour inequality has been deepened as a consequence of the world economic crisis. The difference of salary between men and women increased, as also the number of women who work part-time is much higher than the number of men, mainly due to the fact that women are responsible also for taking care of children, elder or sick people, which are the unproductive members of society. This makes it often impossible for women to accept a full-time job, and they have to face precariousness and flexibility during times of crisis to leave space for men. As a consequence, the pensions elder women receive are lower than men’s, and therefore there are more women than men that fall into poverty when they grow old.
Associated to this are the cuts in public costs and the privatization of services, which affect women more, as these have a direct implication over the professional fields in which there are more women employed (health, education, nursery and personal cares), and because usually these lack of services is covered by women: these lack is, in fact, covered by women individually, in accordance to a socially spread idea of “subsidiarity”, which consecrates the confinement of women into the private sphere of family care and domestic work. Specially serious in a social context in which life is already harder for women, particularly mothers, is the attack to the rights and individual freedom regarding maternity, support for pregnancy, right to abortion, contraceptive methods, sexual education. There are more than 225 million women wanting to plan their pregnancy and not succeeding because they do not use an efficient contraceptive method. The cause of this would be, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the difficulties to access contraceptives, the low quality of services to orient and accompany women, plus the cultural and political barriers. Each year, 300 thousand women around the world die due to complications related to pregnancy and delivery, so about 830 women per day. Yet, this is just an estimated number, because, as the WHO remarks, 60% of the countries do not have a statistic system to determine the number of death cases by these causes.
In most cases, this could be avoided by quality assistance and intervention of pre-natal medicine. Over 26 million women in reproductive age live under emergency situations around the world and currently need health services.
Male-chauvinist violence is sexual harassment in work and study places, as much as the propaganda showing women as sexual objects. It is also the trafficking of human beings for sexual purposes, 80% of them women: the estimate is, each year, about 800 thousand women are expatriated to be sold with this purpose.
Male-chauvinist violence is the use of the female body as a war trophy, as a symbol of the power of the conquerors and the subjection of the defeated peoples and nations. The UN agencies estimate that over 60 thousand women were raped during the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991-202), more than 40 thousand in Liberia (1989-2003), up to 60 thousand in former Yugoslavia (1992-1995), and at least 200 thousand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the 12 years of war. Plus, the current situation in Syria, which no one speaks of, or in Darfur, Sudan region in Central Africa.
Male-chauvinist violence is to deny asylum to the families and women with children after devastating and dangerous journeys that are a product of immigration forced by war, when they reach the borders of the European countries and are “compensated” with more violence and repression by the Police forces, as seen on the images of the recent crisis traveling around the world. According a WHO estimative, in the countries affected by conflicts or migratory crisis the cases of sexual violence and violence against women by their own partners is higher and growing. In this context, the traditional practices so harmful for health, such as female genital mutilation or forced marriages –including with minors- can aggravate even more. The conditions in which women and girls move made them specially vulnerable: many of them travel without documents and have low salaries or non-regulated jobs. Because of the lack of protection, they face high conditions of dependence and are often victims of rape, violence and trafficking.
To Defeat Male-Chavinism Is A Step On The Fight Against Capitalism
The increase of violence against women is a serious symptom of expansion of the male-chauvinist ideology, the believe that men are stronger and more capable than women, and therefore they should rule the world. This nefarious ideology states that, independently of the color, age, nationality, level of education or religion, women are born to be housekeepers, have children and take care of the family, as their are not apt for social production and politics; it treats women as “inferior beings”, destined to be slaves of the house, to earn less than men, and to occupy worse job positions, to deal with domestic work and to be private property of their husbands and partners. This is the perfect excuse to justify all kind of domestic violence up to the point of murder of women by their own partners. This ideology spreads socially through the family, school, religion, culture and traditions.
The UN is absolutely aware of the situation, as the data we used was diffused by its health agency (WHO); yet, it limits to promote a commemorative day to eliminate violence against women. As it is an organization that serves the capitalist governments and the world imperialism, by promoting this day following the criteria used to other matters -like human rights, children rights, maternity-leave right etc- it attempts to “legitimize” the capitalist system and prove there is a solution to oppression and male-chauvinism through the inside of the system, channeling the attention over a growing problem into just one commemorative day. Smoke on the eyes for the oppressed and exploited masses, an insignificant attempt to reduce the seriousness of it and load the responsibility of the solution to the victims themselves.
The root of violence against women is in the putrid capitalist system, using the male-chauvinist oppression to further exploit, oppress and discriminate the weaker ones, in this case women. Capitalism feeds of the differences between men and women and uses them to divide the working class and make more profit. This system cannot, and does not want to, resolve the matter of gender because it is on these differences the social control of one class over the other relies on. The wave of violence that affects the world female population is not the result of an emergency but the consequence of specific decisions, operated by the capitalist system trying to self-preserve. Thus, it is hypocritical to think the capitalist State, which contributes to increase the domestic isolation of women and the lack of economic autonomy and self-determination can actually look out for their rights. The misery and poverty conditions are the ideal ground for the violence and harm to women to run out of control.
As proletarian, oppressed and exploited women, we are called to participate of demonstrations that will be organized under this flag, and we will fight to death to defeat male-chauvinist violence against women and against all the oppressed. But at the same time we need to denounce this deceiving policy so encouraged by the UN.
It is necessary to transform this day into a journey of struggle against the concrete causes of violence, as part of a more general struggle against the capitalist system that launches wars, encourages genocide and exploitation against the peoples, making the world each time more dangerous to women, specially the poorest ones, the black, immigrant and working women all over the world; and against the governments that deceive women with policies of empowerment and wellbeing, making them believe this is the way to solve the oppression and violence they suffer while it loads on the shoulders of the workers and the poor its plans of misery and exploitation.
We need to struggle to say STOP the violence and worsening of life condition of women, which are reacting to these attacks impeding their freedom. They have been, and are, the vanguard of the working class rising in many countries against the regimes (Egypt, Tunisia, Syria), against the cut of rights (Spain, Poland), against rapes (India), against economic maneuvers (Brazil) and against violence and femicides (Argentina).
It is necessary to take a path of struggle capable of reaching all sectors of the working class, in which we are all called to participate, expressing solidarity with the condition of women; men included, because there is no freedom for humanity unless through the liberation of women. The struggle for equality of the working women in not a women struggle only; it is also an obligation of the working class men, as male-chauvinism is not only harmful as it also divides our class. And women are half of the working class. It is through the unity of the working class over the base of a common class condition, independent of the gender, race or sexual orientation – and through the struggle for the common goal of socialism, that we will defeat the preconceptions, against which socialists must fight daily. The fight for Socialism is based on the power of the working class – all workers, be them men, women, immigrants, LGBTs, black, etc. In this fight, each worker has an essential role: the victory of the working class is only possible if next to the working men there is an equal struggle by working women. This is why the conscious male workers that aim to change the world must fight male-chauvinism, including to the interior of the working class, and defend working women as their equal in the fight of our class against the bourgeoisie and the capitalist-imperialist system.
Stop male-chauvinism and exploitation! Stop violence against women! The Socialist economic system will eliminate the material bases of gender oppression, and the fight to establish socialism will defeat the male-chauvinist preconceptions, showing the equality between men and women in practice.
We need to follow the example of the Argentine women and its vanguard, the female workers, who started organizing stoppages of production together with their male coworkers, against violence and in favour of women rights.
Capitalism kills! Death to capitalism!
International Women Secretariat – IWL-FI
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Translation: Sofia Ballack.
