Open Letter to the Organisations Red Guards Austin and Tjen Folket

Communists Must Oppose All Forms of the Patriarchal System Within Political Organisations and Condemn Violence Towards Women Through Self-Criticism and Exposing Its Perpetrators

Rape is one of the vilest tools available to the heterosexual patriarchal system under a bourgeois society to coerce and ‘fix’ women & non-men who do not correspond to heterosexuality and attempt to mount a resistant against the violence perpetuated against them by men.

Therefore it is one of the most sacred duties of a communist to not only directly and openly oppose this socio-economic system of violence aimed at women & non-men, but also carrying it into practice and upholding the Maoist slogan of “destroying the old world to a build new one” – ensuring full support and protection for women in their struggle against heterosexual patriarchy and their own liberation.

There can only be one answer to rape: absolute condemnation, no right for excuses, purge of the guilty individual of any political responsibilities, and more importantly ensuring that the victim is protected and the rapist is denied any form of access and is barred forever from participating within the organisation.

A comrade of Tjen Folket (Serve the People – Norway) has come forward to denounce another member of the political organisation for having engaged them in an act of non-consensual intercourse (rape). Opposed to applying the principle of investigation and combating this violent crime, Tjen Folket chose not to defend the victim but the rapist itself, resulting in the suspension of the victim from the organisation while the rapist continues to occupy a role within Tjen Folket.

Failure to isolate predators who occupy positions in Communist organizations and parties only serves patriarchy, opening women and non-men comrades up to the possibility of continued sexual violence on the part of the perpetrator. Protecting victims is not enough in situations where the perpetrator occupies a position within the Party or organization, it is imperative that sexual abusers and predators are isolated, exposed, and genuine efforts are undertaken by the organization to prevent the repetition of this and all male-chauvinistic behaviour.

The disastrous effects of this failure have manifested in many organizations, such as the New Communist Party- Liaison Committee, leading to their ultimate disintegration. Not only is this attitude anti-revolutionary and more appropriate of a bourgeois party, the evident lack of concern and respect towards a victim of rape is absolutely disgusting and unfortunately common problem within leftist organisations (regardless of ideological inclinations) due to the majority of its members being men who believe themselves above self-criticism.

But not only should Tjen Folket, as a whole, be condemned for its defence of a rapist, Red Guards Austin should also be condemned in no different manner for not positioning itself against a political organisation that had no quarrels in defending a rapist – simply put, inaction is approval. To continue to defend Tjen Folket “pending an investigation” as Red Guards Austin has done, only constitutes a reflection of bad gender practice, a failure to uphold proletarian feminism (this “pending investigation” doesn’t seem to be conducted at all, and led by male leadership of the organization). Allowing matters to slide, and anti-revolutionary actions to happen without any form of criticism is what Mao Zedong defined as “liberalism”, and it is fairly surprising how an essay written in 1937 continues to be necessary to be exercised within political organisations as if nothing has been learned ever since to combat the heterosexual patriarchal system.

The only path a genuine revolutionary communist organization can take when patriarchal violence rears its ugly head within its ranks, is expulsion. For organizations to pursue “restorative justice” campaigns, at the current level of organizing in core imperialist countries such as Norway and the United States, only reproduces liberalism and amounts to a dismissal of the victim’s lived reality. As the Center for Marxist-Leninist-Maoist studies wrote in their piece On Standards of Feminist Conduct: “Revolutionary organizations in the US are not states making decisions on punishment and rehabilitation, which would operate according to different standards. They are voluntary associations that must make a call – generally based on limited and conflicting verbal or written accounts – on how to respond to an incident, taking into consideration the need to advance the struggle for women’s emancipation, to develop women as militants and leaders, and to protect the organization’s work and reputation.”

To quote Enver Hoxha’s speech to local Party organizations in 1967: “The entire party and country should hurl into the fire and break the neck of anyone who dared trample underfoot the sacred edict of the party on the defense of women’s rights.” Or as Mao Zedong put it, “Women hold up half the sky.”

Men who carry the banner of violence and assume themselves to be above others can only be answered with revolutionary violence and the strictest, boldest opposition to their way of thinking. Rapists, sexual abusers, predators must all be met with a crushing hammer, evicted from political organisations, and be denied any form of support – there is no mercy for these people, only condemnation.

Failure to uphold a proletarian feminist line only weakens our movement, and is a major reason behind why communists of the past six to seven decades, especially in imperialist countries, have massively failed in establishing themselves in a Party, much less a Party that seriously challenges capital or the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

We may not be a political organisation of any form but the members of thesovietbroadcast stand with the victims of heterosexual patriarchy and ardently oppose political organisations that have no issue in defending rapists and not denouncing rapists for the sake of political unity and “not meddling in others’ affairs”.

Our hope is that organisations such as Red Guards Austin and Tjen Folket come to perform self-criticism and correct their extremely wrong positions, admit they committed serious anti-revolutionary errors, and provide a proper apology to the victim not only internally but in the public sphere while taking the appropriate measures to remove the rapist from the organisation and creating mechanisms so that in the future victims are protected and their attacker removed automatically. We also call for communist and proletarian feminist organizations worldwide to apply pressure to all organizations that defend, harbour, or hold a liberal and anti-revolutionary line towards rapists and sexual assault within their ranks.