Message from Bangladesh Anarcho Syndicalist Federation-BASF on International Women’s DaY-2019:

A big part of Anarcho communism is the elimination of gender oppression. Women have been stomped on and trampled on by men for tens of thousands of years. In much of the world, women are treated as property. It is time to turn the tables. It’s time for total revolution. However, we have to understand gender scientifically. Just as Anarchist thinkers wrote of the “split in the working class,” there is also a split among women and oppressed genders today. Imperialism has changed the game. In general, contrary to Bourgeois World feminist dogma, bourgeois World women are now enemies of Proletarian World women. Let’s explain.

In the bourgeois World, gender is not connected as it once was to biology. Due to the high standard of living made possible through imperialism and advances in technology, Bourgeois World women are less and less confined to traditional social and reproductive roles. Women are no longer stuck in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, in the Bourgeois World. Bourgeois World women have access to a high degree of life options that are not strictly limited by reproduction. For this reason, inequalities between Bourgeois World men and Bourgeois World women should not be confused with traditional-patriarchal oppression which is centered on biology and reproduction. Rather, these remaining inequalities should be considered a residual effect from traditional-patriarchal oppression. It is likely that over time, these echoes of traditional oppression will become less pronounced in the Bourgeois World.

The status of Bourgeois World men and Bourgeois World women is maintained at the expense not only of class and national oppression of Proletarian World peoples, but also gender oppression of Proletarian World peoples. In other words, Bourgeois World women benefit from the gender oppression of Proletarian World women. How do Bourgeois World women benefit from the patriarchal oppression of Proletarian World women? How can one group of women gain by the gender oppression of another?

The end of traditional-patriarchal oppression for most Bourgeois World women has been made possible by the enormous concentrations of wealth that imperialism has generated for the Bourgeois World at the expense of the Proletarian World. Bourgeois World women have gained the ability to enter the economy and earn super wages. This gives Bourgeois World women the option of opting out of the traditional role where the woman’s survival depends on her husband as earner. Bourgeois World women have the option of living independently, without a male partner. Thus Bourgeois World women are freed from the traditional oppression connected up with their role in reproduction, i.e. motherhood. Their liberation from traditional male-centered conceptions of sexuality has also been made possible. Bourgeois World women have access to a greater range of life options open to them. Bourgeois World women are able to earn exploiter super wages alongside Bourgeois World men. Bourgeois World women are able to partake of the spoils of imperialism on a more and more equal basis with Bourgeois World men.

The increasing equality between the sexes in the Bourgeois World is a result of the capitalist-imperialist world system. A big part of maintaining the global system of oppression is the fusion of various aspects of feudalism and capitalism in some parts of the Proletarian World. Proletarian World women are some of the biggest victims of the capitalist-imperialist system. They tend to be locked into traditional, feudalistic oppression in agrarian societies. In industrialized areas, they find themselves the most exploited, working for more hours and for lower wages than their male counterparts. They increasingly find themselves enslaved, often by the global sex industry. The situation of Proletarian World women is a function of, among other things, their gender oppression. And, gender oppression in the Proletarian World aids the imperial system that channels wealth from the Proletarian to the Bourgeois World. Gender oppression in the Proletarian World props up the gender equality in the Bourgeois World. Bourgeois World equality is propped up by semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism in the Proletarian World.

Fake gender “liberation” in the Bourgeois World has meant that Bourgeois World women have increased access to the traditional privileges and lifestyles enjoyed by men in the Bourgeois World. This “liberation” has gone beyond Bourgeois World women. Bourgeois World gays, lesbians, bisexuals, queers, trans-gendered persons have more and more access to the traditional power and privileges of Bourgeois World heterosexual males. However, this social democratic opening up of Bourgeois World society is based on continued gender oppression of the Proletarian World. For this reason, there is less and less reason to consider Bourgeois World women as separate from Bourgeois World males from the standpoint of global power analysis. This also explains why traditional conceptions of “manhood” and “womanhood” are breaking down in the Bourgeois World. And, there is more and more reason to consider Bourgeois World women as separate and distinct from Proletarian World women. It is correct to see Bourgeois World men and Bourgeois World women as having more in common. This state of affairs is borne out by material analysis and the historical record. Almost all Bourgeois World people are enemies.

Revolutionary, proletarian feminism rejects the lie of the universal sisterhood. Such lies only serve imperialism at this point. This lie tells Proletarian World women that their true allies are Bourgeois World women, not the Proletarian World men fighting alongside them against imperialism or fighting alongside them for Anarcho Communism. This lie tells Proletarian World women to put their futures in the hands of benevolent pink imperialism. We need to recognize the great division between the Proletarian World and Bourgeois World affects gender too.

This doesn’t mean that sad inequalities do not remain between Bourgeois World men and Bourgeois World women. Nobody likes to see domestic violence, rape, and other cruelty that affects women disproportionately. However, on the whole, we have to use our brains here. It is obvious that Bourgeois World women as a whole are not going to support communist and anti-imperialist struggles. We need to understand this fact and deal with it. We should all seek to be egalitarian and just in our personal interactions. We should live the revolution. We should stand for right and wrong.

We should be good people. However, the only real feminism is proletarian feminism, Proletarian Worldist feminism, Anarcho Communism. Real, proletarian feminism is feminism that supports the destruction of the Bourgeois World. It does not seek alliances with the Bourgeois World so-called “working class” or Bourgeois World women. Revolutionary, proletarian feminism recognizes that the contradiction between Bourgeois World women and Proletarian World women is antagonistic. Revolutionary feminism identifies Bourgeois World men and Bourgeois World women as the enemy. Revolutionary feminism is the feminism of the Global People’s War waged by the global countryside against the global city, waged by the Proletarian World against the Bourgeois World, the Global Proletariat against the Global Bourgeoisie.

Our revolution will come from the darkest, most oppressed places. Proletarian World women and children will lead the way to a better world. Mothers. Daughters. Sons. They will play a key role. Real revolutionaries, Anarcho communist, unite with Proletarian World women. We unite with Proletarian World men and women against Bourgeois World men and women. We support the New Democratic revolution to create basic rights for women and men in the Proletarian World. We support the Global People’s War waged by women and men in the Proletarian World against the Bourgeois World. We support socialist revolution. We support true, Anarcho Communism, total liberation. Anarcho Communism is a revolutionary strategy that accounts for the real world, not the world as we imagine it. All real feminists stand with the vast majority of women in the Proletarian World. All real feminists are Anarcho Communists!