Andrei Kuznetsov
5th March 2004, 19:04
Subway Dreams on International Women's Day: Train to the Future
by Osage Bell
Revolutionary Worker #1231, March 7, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org/
New York City-- Her hands. They are dry and cracked--probably from years of washing dishes under hot water while her husband relaxed in front of the television. Her ankles are swollen. She looks relieved at finding a seat on the subway. I wonder if she is a waitress or if she does piecework like my mother used to, or is a maid in a highrise office building. She probably doesn't know International Women's Day is on March 8. Standing across from her, I wonder what she would think if she knew there is a day where the struggles and resistance of women are upheld. A holiday that shows how their daily sacrifices are an intrinsic and life-sucking part of the whole capitalist set-up--and not just reasons to "cherish" them with (always pink) Hallmark cards. This set-up needs women to work all day to support their families and then come home to care for their every daily or emotional need. A set-up that uses the love they feel to keep patriarchy running. A set-up that can and must be done away with--and cannot be done away with if we don't unleash men and women to uproot women's oppression.
With this holiday nearing, I think about all the women we will be honoring, who give us reason to celebrate. There are the women I see on the streets of my city and elsewhere who, barely a year ago, were battling with the boys in blue for their right to dissent against an unjust war. In fact, in every struggle--from police brutality to land struggles in Atenco, Mexico to the worldwide anti-globalization struggles--you see fierce and fearless women taking the frontlines. Closest in my heart, though, are my revolutionary communist sisters in Nepal, Peru, Iran, Turkey, and the Philippines--conscious proletarian women who have bucked all chains of suspicion and tradition to transform themselves and the world by taking up the liberating ideology of MLM... read more at http://www.rwor.org/a/1231/iwd-editorial.htm
by Osage Bell
Revolutionary Worker #1231, March 7, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org/
New York City-- Her hands. They are dry and cracked--probably from years of washing dishes under hot water while her husband relaxed in front of the television. Her ankles are swollen. She looks relieved at finding a seat on the subway. I wonder if she is a waitress or if she does piecework like my mother used to, or is a maid in a highrise office building. She probably doesn't know International Women's Day is on March 8. Standing across from her, I wonder what she would think if she knew there is a day where the struggles and resistance of women are upheld. A holiday that shows how their daily sacrifices are an intrinsic and life-sucking part of the whole capitalist set-up--and not just reasons to "cherish" them with (always pink) Hallmark cards. This set-up needs women to work all day to support their families and then come home to care for their every daily or emotional need. A set-up that uses the love they feel to keep patriarchy running. A set-up that can and must be done away with--and cannot be done away with if we don't unleash men and women to uproot women's oppression.
With this holiday nearing, I think about all the women we will be honoring, who give us reason to celebrate. There are the women I see on the streets of my city and elsewhere who, barely a year ago, were battling with the boys in blue for their right to dissent against an unjust war. In fact, in every struggle--from police brutality to land struggles in Atenco, Mexico to the worldwide anti-globalization struggles--you see fierce and fearless women taking the frontlines. Closest in my heart, though, are my revolutionary communist sisters in Nepal, Peru, Iran, Turkey, and the Philippines--conscious proletarian women who have bucked all chains of suspicion and tradition to transform themselves and the world by taking up the liberating ideology of MLM... read more at http://www.rwor.org/a/1231/iwd-editorial.htm