WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL, CA #328: FEMINISTS! Women's struggles, class struggle - Suzy Rojtman (Dir). Editions Syllepsis. 11-2022 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This book is timely at a time when feminism is on the rise through multiple
collectives, also giving rise to numerous and sometimes heated debates. So here
is a well-thought-out title that goes straight to the point: yes, feminism and
the class struggle go together very well! ---- History of a movement and a
current ---- Back to an essential aspect of the history of the abundant movement
of women born after 1968, in 1970 with the MLF, in France and overseas until 'to
our day, but so little written and thought. What is also interesting about this
story, which is both concrete and analytical, is its collective form, since Suzy
Rojtman has called on some thirty feminist contributors to the so-called "class
struggle" current, engaged since 1970 in the field of corporate struggles and of
all feminist causes, some academic, known or not, and most still there!,
"Invaluable sources" according to Suzy.
This book is also based on three conferences organized in 2010 and 2018 by the
National Collective for Women's Rights, of which Suzy is the spokesperson. The
last symposium addressed: "where are we with class struggle and anti-racist
feminism, consubstantiality, intersectionality, and the return to origins".
The first three parts of the book are chronological: the 1970s, the class
struggle trend from 1981 to 1995, then from 1995 to the present day, this allows
us to situate ourselves in time, to discover neighborhood and business women's
groups , the strikes in particular in the banks, at Renault, at the postal
checks, at Lip, at the hospital with the nurses, in immigration, among the
colonized or ex-colonized populations.
The story obviously returns to the formidable united struggle for the fundamental
right to abortion with the MLAC from 1972 (until its reimbursement in December
1982) particularly in companies, but also on other important issues such as the
Collective against racism, the Collectif féministe contre le rape, the rights of
lesbians who have been ostracized for too long - despite the group Les Gouines
rouges and the writings of Monique Wittig from 1969 -, significant initiatives
such as the Maison des femmes in Paris, the Estates General on women in the
workplace, the fight against the extreme right.
We also rediscover different coordinations on these themes, the complex place of
unions and parties, some of which will take some time to take the measure of the
essential feminism, then the institutional hollow of Mitterrand's two seven years
during which the movement struggles to classes ensured the continuity of the
struggles.
Let's not forget the flourishing feminist press, often at the initiative of
certain far-left organizations involved in the movement (including the LCR,
Révolution! Le PSU): Le Torchon brule, Les Cahiers du féminisme, Questions
féministes (launched by Christine Delphy) and others.
The book also takes us back to the social movement of winter 1995 against a
pension reform with very important feminist processions, against a backdrop of
paralysis of transport and sorting centers (wink of the news!). And it was the
birth of the CNDF (Collectif National pour les Droits des Femmes) in January
1996, with national meetings in early 1997 bringing together 2,000 women to
establish a very comprehensive protest platform. An important chapter of the book
relates its different positions and actions without concealing the differences,
particularly concerning the veil, or the system of prostitution. Since 1997,
women's inter-union days have been created each year from the joint work of the
CNDF and the unions (especially CGT and Groupe des Dix then Solidaires). The
World March of Women initiated in Quebec in 1998 will have a strong impact in
France and Europe from 2000. Closer to home, the struggles of school life
assistants and those of Yellow Vest women are also recounted.

Debates tackled head-on
The fourth part of the book, after having addressed the influence of the feminist
movement in the United States, addresses the thorny, complex and recurring
questions in the feminist movement, including those of intersectionality opposed
to universalist feminism with another possible angle of view, notably that of
Danièle Kergoat. The author reflects on the relevance of the notion of "class
struggle" to reclaim the concept of universalist feminism and that of
consubstantiality: by taking into account in a central way the social relations
of sex intertwined with social relations of class for a real emancipation,
because simply "adding" the dominations does not allow us to think about the
revolts of the dominated.
Another chapter questions in a relevant and precise way "the claim of feminist
pornography, subversion or submission to male domination?   with the gaze of
universalist feminism questioning the shift from pornography to feminist
pornography. This would be a means of modifying a degrading vision, violent
sexuality, as a social norm among young people, while presenting it as a question
of equality and the empowerment of women in order to promote sexual liberation,
falling within a libertarian register. But for the universalist feminism that
constitutes the guiding thread of this book, "feminist pornography contributes to
the extension of the industry on which it depends" and questions the illusory
capacity of "this pornography to promote an egalitarian and altruistic sexuality ".

As a pre-conclusion, should we "reduce the issues of feminism to a demand for
individual freedom, individual choices, even if it means renouncing a project of
social emancipation and an overall reduction of inequalities?»
The principle of equality is a prerequisite for freedom and as an ideal for
universalist feminism, while relativist feminism posits the principle of
individual freedom as a prerequisite and ideal. Yet inequalities are built by the
economic and cultural system, maintained by social classes, privileges,
stereotypes and make individual freedom illusory in this context.

Conclusion
The general conclusion of the book returns to the beginnings of the movement with
a form of self-criticism of certain illusions following 1968, a questioning of a
void in Marxist theory concerning the place of women, a void that has since been
largely filled, because the class struggle feminists have largely evolved, have
shaken up their organizations. And despite the difficulties, victories have been
won in particular on abortion, the construction of unitary and lasting feminist
collectives, the unveiling of gender-based violence, the consideration and
defense of fights for the rights of women at work. Note, however, the lack of
investment in ecology.
Today, a new wave of young feminist forces is recomposing the feminist movement:
#MeToo, #BalanceTonPorc, Noustoutes, new local groups, the Colleuses,
particularly on the issue of violence at the forefront of feminist struggles, but
struggling to get concrete effective, revealing the immense weight of patriarchal
ideology within the judiciary. Even if the patriarchy is widely pointed out at
many levels, mobilizations are more difficult at work, social concerns are rarely
a priority in the movement in general, division not helping anything. The
international feminist strike of March 8 (at salaried work and at home) initially
proposed by the unitary movement We Stop All and involving the unions, has
struggled to take since 2016 but could arise as in Spain on the occasion of the
umpteenth pension counter-reform of 2023.

fab

Suzy Rojtman (Dir). Editions Syllepsis. 11-2022- 358 pages including 12 of
documents and photos.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article3635
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