Women's Fightback, Feminism

Last year, 2011, saw “Slutwalk” burst on to the feminist scene worldwide. The UK saw Slutwalks in Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle, Birmingham and Cardiff. Slutwalking was a response to police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, who told women at Toronto’s York University to “avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised”. Aside from perpetuating an inaccurate image of sexual assault as something which is most likely to happen when you’re drunk and walking home alone at night, Sanguinetti’s comments highlighted a broader culture, which places responsibility for rape on...

Paul Field, Mark Osborn, and Andy Forse ( Solidarity 254-7) are all, I think, asking the wrong question about the Assange case. It is not the job of AWL, or the left in general, to be an adviser to Assange. Would he be more at risk of extradition to the USA in Sweden? Maybe. We shouldn’t pretend to be legal experts who can assure him not. Is he using Sweden’s extradition bid as a way to get more resonance for the demand for assurances against extradition to the USA? Maybe, and if so good luck to him. Has he just panicked? I don’t know. Our concern is the politics. In political action, rather...

Originally published in 1989 "What is the relationship between sex and class in the oppression of women? How useful is the concept of ‘patriarchy’? How do we assess developments in feminism, and what are the prospects for women in the years to come? "This pamphlet addresses these questions and many more. Beginning with a survey of different theories of the origins of women’s oppression, it goes on to examine the history of the theory and practice of the Marxist movement in relation to women. The pamphlet then assess the [then] current dominant theories in feminism, including an analysis of the...

This is a contribution to the debate that has blown up in the student movement as a result of the ‘No apology for rape apologists’ motion going to the upcoming (26 September) NUS National Executive Council meeting; the amendments that have been proposed to it; and the surrounding discussion. (See here , motion 3 and amendments.) THE POLITICS OF THIS CONTRIBUTION In the course of this piece we will make some critical comments on the motion. So we want to begin by emphasising that – in addition to agreeing with the majority of the motion – we are strongly in solidarity with its spirit and with...

George Galloway's comments on rape, in connection with the Assange controversy, have outraged many on the left who have not paid much attention to Galloway before. That is good. They have even sparked criticism, perhaps opportunistic, from some whose general stance over the years has been to defend Galloway and promote him as a leader of the left. But what is important to understand is that Galloway's latest outbursts are not an aberration, but entirely consistent with his broader politics. In terms of economic policy, Galloway was never better than a middle-of-the-road Labour careerist. His...

The crux of this matter appears to be resting on whether Assange would be safer from extradition to the US in Sweden. His detractors claim that he would be, and claim that Assange’s defence to the contrary is a smokescreen to avoid the rape charges. Several counter arguments have been presented. The first of these notes Sweden’s unblemished human rights record and their ratification of the European Convention of Human Rights (Owen Jones, The Independent, 17 August). Jones and others have failed to mention the fierce criticism the Swedish authorities came under when in 2001 they handed over two...

The fight save the Women’s Library based at London Met is stepping up. The fate of the collection will be decided at a meeting on 13 September. Institutions have been asked to bid for the collection. That decision will be ratified by the London Met Board of Governors on 27 September. The campaign demands: 1. Keep this unique collection in its historic and purpose built home in East London 2. The collection stays intact and accessible to all 3. The library must retain its expert workers. The Women’s Library is not just an archive. It also does a huge amount of excellent community outreach...

Before I wrote the article on Julian Assange (“Assange, rape, free speech”, Solidarity 254) I had a good look at the bourgeois press. The serious mainstream papers and magazines seemed unanimous (based on legal opinions that they had solicited or examined) that the extradition of Assange to the US from Sweden was harder than from the UK to US. Of course, if this is true, Assange’s case for staying here to best avoid falling into the US state’s hands collapses. Paul Field, himself a lawyer, has a different view ( Solidarity 255). And, here-and-there, there are others who should be listened to...

Edith Lanchester (1871-1966) was a British socialist and feminist. She was born to a prosperous architect and grew up in Battersea, south London; she became a prominent activist in the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). By her mid-20s she was a schoolteacher, then worked as a secretary to Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx and a prominent activist in her own right. In 1895 Lanchester caused a storm when she announced that, in protest against Britain's patriarchal marriage laws, she was going to cohabit with her lover, an Irish factory worker, James Sullivan. Her socialist feminist...