A-Infos (en) France, Paris, Alternative Libertaire, March 2005 Some thoughts on anti-sexism in the libertarian movement by Klito

[a-infos@ainfos.ca]

This text was received from Klito, a women-only feminist collective.
There's still a lot to do if we are really going to
fight against patriarchy within libertarian groups.
Klito, a women-only collective, sees some problems and
wants to suggest some courses of action. We, as
libertarian feminists, want to sound an alarm. We
denounce the double workday of women workers who, once
they get home, get stuck with household chores, but
also among libertarians, there is the double struggle
of women. The struggle against patriarchy requires two
times as much energy as other battles because we must
fight not only on the social front but also within the
political groups in which we work as activists. Who
puts the labels on the envelopes? Sweeps the meeting
rooms? The women, usually. Who coordinates the demos?
Who speaks louder at the meetings? The men, usually.

In the libertarian groups of France, women's issues
are certainly taken into consideration but not in a
very satisfactory way. When groups mobilize for
International Women's Day or against the
"right-to-lifers," we can ask ourselves what the real
place is of the anti-patriarchy struggle in the
practices and thought of libertarian groups in France.
We have no false illusions about this—libertarians
reproduce gender and sexual domination like everyone
else. Since we claim to be fighting this domination,
it would be a good idea to focus on its presence
amongst ourselves. Ignoring this phenomenon is the
best way to make it worse.

A little history
A look at history shows us that the anarchist movement
has not considered feminism one of its major concerns.
Although Bakunin, for example, advocated complete
equality between woman and men and denounced the
contradiction in many male militants who fought for
socio-economic equality and freedom while being
tyrants at home, Proudhon, on the other hand, pillar
of the libertarian movement, was a notorious
misogynist. This author of a sentences like " the
woman is a pretty animal but an animal nonetheless.
She is as eager for kisses as a goat is for salt," is
still the master thinker for many. There have always
been homophobic anarchists, as well, who argue that
homosexuality represents a "bourgeois perversion."
Emma Goldman described the obstacles against her when
she raised this issue: "Censorship came from some of
my own comrades because I was treating such
'unnatural' themes as homosexuality," she related in
1912. The shell of the idea of sexual liberation has
often been resuscitated but without its
anti-patriarchy value. For most militants, in 1936 as
in 1970, it has meant above all the sexual
availability of women militants and feminists for
meeting male desires.

Invisible women
The problem of gender is rarely an integral part of
anti-capitalist and anti-racist discourse and
struggle. Starting with the good old sexist principle
that the male supersedes the female, the unemployed
are defended without their defenders realizing that
they are WOMEN unemployed workers, above all, and that
women are twice as exploited as men on the job. The
same thing is true in the movement to defend
undocumented immigrants (sans-papiers)—women are
invisible despite the fact that their situation is
always worse than men's. Sometimes this absence is
justified by the fact that the issue of gender comes
out of a bourgeois theory praising inter-classism. We
need an exacting analytical method to comprehend the
inequalities between men and women, between
heterosexuals and others. The misunderstanding of this
issue is produced in several ways. This invisibility
of women's oppression, in particular, comes primarily
from the fact that many libertarians (men and women)
have a compartmentalized vision of struggles as if
women's issues could be reduced to one area of
struggle.

Although in the struggles against the bosses, against
poverty and economic instability, or for freedom of
movement and immigrant rights, women are the first
effected, it is rarely mentioned in political
literature, for example, to what they are subjected
because of their sex. The issue of gender runs through
ALL struggles! To believe as many do that gender
issues are reserved for women only (while saying to
women, at best, that they "support them in their
struggle") allows them to clear themselves of any
charges of not participating in the fight against
patriarchy. The "women's commissions" of some
libertarian groups, like the social-democrat parties,
indeed reveal the implicit disengagement of men. The
Mujeres Libres (Free Women) movement during the
Spanish civil war was a unique example of massive
struggle by anarchist women. But let's remember that
this group of 20,000 proletarian feminists encountered
resistance from their male counterparts, who thought
that the women workers were stealing their place as
men and did not accept, in particular, that the Free
Women critiqued the glorification of motherhood. You
say there's no hierarchy of struggle?

Patriarchy and capitalism
Paradoxically, another, more subtle way of excluding
feminism from struggles in progress is to include the
patriarchy theme as a "natural" part of the class
struggle. For some, being an anarchist automatically
makes you a feminist. To consider patriarchy an avatar
or a consequence of capitalism alone is to refuse to
see the specificity of this gender-based system. We
must remember that when we struggle against the class
system, we are struggling against ALL domination!
Capitalism is not the sum total of oppression (our
fight for a better world would much easier if it
were). The struggle against patriarchy is a struggle
in its own right. Although patriarchy and capitalism
are interwoven and reinforced by each other, we must
admit that they are two autonomous systems (some
patriarchal systems are built on non-capitalist
economies). There are thereby two struggles, at least,
which we must carry out in parallel.

Few libertarian feminists denounce these weaknesses,
without doubt because they have internalized the same
invisibility all women have under patriarchy. There
are certainly more men than women in anarchist groups,
and while the fact that women investing little time in
politics is a social phenomenon, the violent and
warlike image associated with those who brandish the
black flag comes from somewhere, no doubt. Does
keeping this masculine "folklore" alive really make
any sense? Besides, it is difficult for many women to
see themselves as part of a group of women because
they are persuaded that they are living a social
reality identical to men's, which allows the building
of cohesive militant groups. Women who attempt to
point out these oppression issues within the group are
labelled "feminist," which means for many "habitual
pain- in-the-ass." This scorn for the issue of
patriarchy illustrates how difficult it is to confront
the myths upon which political groups depend, such as
"power issues do not exist in this group," "there's no
domination of some members by others," etc. It is time
to recognize that a militant group is not immune from
the ills of society.

Gender? Don't know...
It's a shame that the analysis of some libertarians is
limited to the status of women without taking into
account the social construction of gender. Most
libertarians do not get beyond essentialist theories
based on biological behavioural differences that seem
to explain (without justifying, of course) male
domination. However, nature alone could not have
created the categories of men and women as they exist.
We are not born as men or women; we become one or the
other. From our infancy, family, school and society in
general inculcate us with our roles according to our
biological sex. Girls are taught the value of
sweetness, understanding, submission and passivity and
boys those of violence, bravery, self-affirmation.
Taking this conditioning into account allows us to
reject biological determinism and "natural" feminine
and masculine qualities. The construction of gender
that feminism has widely appropriated, including the
reformists, has not been accepted by libertarians. It
is easier to unite based on a common exterior enemy
(religion, fascists who scoff at laws protecting
women, and the bosses who exploit women) than
challenge each other individually by grappling with
the power relations that exist within libertarian
organizations. Not only do most libertarian groups not
challenge patriarchy—they feed it.

Sexuality is political
This deficiency in libertarian practice in regard to
feminism produces, in addition to discrimination
against women, a negation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals
and trans-sexuals (LGBT). Do they even exist in
libertarian circles? Of course they do, just like
everywhere else in society. Nevertheless, we ask such
a question because they are invisible. Under cover of
respect for individual freedom, some people declare
that the private is not political and impose a taboo
on discussions about sexuality. They refuse to
consider that sexuality is culturally constructed, an
essential fact today thanks to the struggles of the
Seventies. Refusing to talk about issues around some
sexual behaviours reveals a prudishness sometimes
bordering on puritanism. Some people decree that we
can all do what we want in our own beds, but they'd
rather not talk about it because it has nothing to do
with politics.

However, raunchy songs, sexist jokes and
lesbo-gay-bi-transphobia are still rampant among some
anarchists, reinforcing the reigning hetero-centrism.
They denigrate some sexual behaviours and keep alive
the lesbo-gay-bi-transphobic atmosphere that depends
on the idea that heterosexuality is the only model.
Today, to declare oneself lesbian, trans, bi or gay in
a libertarian organization has a risk (as much as at
work or in our families) that many don't dare to take.
This is nothing new in the history of libertarian
struggles. Feminist movements, lesbian, homo and queer
struggles have moved things forward a little, but it
is necessary to keep fighting. Nothing will evolve
without putting in place effective methods—in
particular, the creation of non-mixed groups of women
and men as spaces for political reflection on power
over/under relations, in particular men/women and
heteros/LGBT.

It is not enough to want to destroy capitalism and
patriarchy as represented by the bosses and moral
order, but we must change behaviours right her and
now. In the libertarian movement and elsewhere,
nothing will change without the mobilization of the
interested parties: women, lesbians, gays, bisexuals,
the trans-gendered; and the involvement of men and
heteros is imperative if the latter want to be
consistent in their libertarian thought.


Libertarian Women of Paris Region mail:
klito@no-log.org

"Pessimism of the intellect,
Optimism of the will"

Alternative Libertaire,
March 2005 issue
http://alternativelibertaire.org/index.php?dir=journal/al138&page=138_13.htm&n=1

Translated from French by SonofTomJoad
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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