Long Live The Revolutionary Tradition of Women The World Over!

The great revolutionary teachers have always regarded the question of women's emancipation as an important question and a component part of the emancipation of the proletariat. Marx, for example, pointed out that the degree of freedom in any society can be measured by the degree of freedom enjoyed by women in that society. Lenin, who led the great October Socialist Revolution, summed up the experience of struggle throughout history by saying that "The experience of all liberation movements has shown that the success of a revolution depends on the extent to which women participate in it." 

The beloved Chairman Mao Tsetung, who inherited and defended this communist tradition, paid great attention to the important role of women in the struggle, pointing out: ''Women constitute half of the population. The economic status of working women and the fact that they are particularly oppressed prove not only that women urgently need the revolution, but also that they are a decisive force in the success or failure of the revolution." In order to understand the past, we must understand the past so that we can better deduce the future.

It is extremely important for the women's movement to be imbued with the historical lessons written in blood by our martyrs, especially since the founding of the Paris Commune in 1871 until today. What they confirm, as the following facts will show, is the profound truth that the destiny of women in any country is intimately linked to that of the entire nation and people. As such, the emancipation of women is a component part of the cause of the liberation of the proletariat, and it would be out of the question without the victory of the proletarian revolution, just as the proletarian revolution requires the participation of women in it. The rebellion of the Parisian workers, who occupied Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871 and founded the Paris Commune, is an immortal landmark in the history of the working and oppressed people of the world. However, this fact is very much hidden from the people. It was the first time in history that the broad masses of workers took up arms and established their own political power.

The women worked hard and fought devotedly at the barricades with their fellow workers against the reactionary French and Prussian troops sent to suppress them. The sight of women fighting sent the ruling classes of Europe into a frenzy. The Times of Britain said in horror: "If the French nation were made up entirely of women, what a terrible nation it would be!" Marx, on the other hand, hailed the Communard women and paid them glowing tribute in the following words: "The real Parisian women have once again come to the surface - heroic, noble and devoted, like the women of antiquity" (i.e. like the warriors of ancient times). An outstanding representative and capable leader of the Paris Commune was Louis Michel, a member of the First International led by Marx. Another heroine was Elizabeth Dmitrieff. William Foster, an American revolutionary, said of her: "Behind the barricades, in the bloody struggle, and in the spectacular political trials that followed [the Paris Commune], the women Communards above all covered themselves with glory. Louis Michel and Elizabeth Dmitrieff were but two of thousands of heroines." In court, Michel proudly declared, "I belong entirely to the Revolution and I wish to take responsibility for all my deeds."

Convicted, she spent ten years in exile. Although the Paris Commune was short-lived, its important lessons were summarized by Marx to arm the international proletariat. Profoundly guided by this, Lenin led the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 and successfully established the workers and peasants state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. The working men and women rallied in their thousands and millions behind the leadership of the Bolshevik Party and threw themselves into the thick of the struggle to seize power, the ensuing civil war waged by the European bourgeoisie, and the armed intervention of 14 countries into Soviet Russia. Lenin highly valued the role of Russian women during this crucial period, saying: "In Petrograd, in Moscow and in other cities and industrial centers, Russian women performed magnificently during the revolution. Without them we would not have won, or hardly won. What courage they showed, and how brave they still are! Imagine the suffering and hardship they endure. But they persevere because they want to defend the Soviets, because they want freedom and communism. Yes, our working women are magnificent class fighters. They deserve admiration and love."

In the period leading up to and during World War II, as the fascist hordes of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo reared their ugly heads, Comrade Stalin called on the people of the world to wage an anti-fascist patriotic war to defeat the fascists. This international united front, led by Comrade Stalin and the then socialist Soviet Union, was supported by the mighty Soviet Red Army, together with partisan and guerrilla forces in countries such as France, Greece, Italy, Albania, Eastern Europe, etc., as well as by the peoples of China, Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaya, Indonesia, Burma, Ethiopia and so on. Hundreds of millions of men and women, old and young, turned their sorrow over the atrocities of the fascists1 into bitter hatred for fascism and made tremendous contributions to the defeat of the "mighty" fascist forces, showing the invincibility of the people, men and women, led by the communists.

The Chinese revolution followed the road of the October revolution. From 1921, with the birth of the Communist Party of China under the leadership of the beloved Chairman Mao Zedong, to liberation in 1949, the protracted people's war took a most tortuous and glorious path without parallel in history. The Long March itself is an amazing feat of endurance and human willpower that overcame all difficulties. The sagas of the Chinese revolution are indeed awe-inspiring and immortal. In the Chinese people's struggle against the U.S.-backed Chiang Kai-shek clique and the Japanese fascists, Chinese women rose to their feet and made an indelible mark on the revolutionary history of China and the world through their devoted contributions. In the course of the struggle, many of them shed their blood, sacrificed their loved ones and gave up their own lives when necessary for the sake of the dignity and liberation of their motherland.

Comrade Teng Ying-chao (widow of Chou En-lai) was an outstanding example of a woman comrade who had been actively involved in revolutionary struggles since she was a student at the beginning of that century. She was a deputy to the National People's Congress and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Of particular importance was the inspiring and exemplary role of Comrade Yang Kai-hui (Chairman Mao's wife), who heroically gave up her young life in 1930 in the prison of the fascist criminals of Chiang Kai-shek. Under the conditions of Chiang Kai-shek's white terror, she had carried out underground activities to organize the people at the risk of her life and the lives of her three children and her mother, while Chairman Mao had gone to Ching-Kangshan with the revolutionary army to establish the first revolutionary base area in the countryside. In prison, under severe torture, she refused to renounce Chairman Mao or reveal any secrets, and with full confidence in the correct leadership of Chairman Mao and the ultimate triumph of the revolution, she gave up her life. Although Chiang Ching, one of the "Gang of Four" in China, tried to cover up her heroic deeds, Comrade Yang Kai-hui remained immortal forever.

In the post-World War II period, we witnessed the fierce independence and national liberation movements in the former colonies of Asia, Africa and Latin America; various countries won their independence. Some of them, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, had already won national liberation, while others, such as Malaya, Palestine, Dhofar, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Chile, Bolivia, etc., were still continuing their heroic struggles. The world's attention was particularly focused on the national liberation movement of the Vietnamese people, who had been fighting against imperialist aggression for many years: they had fought against the Japanese fascists in World War II, they defeated the French colonialists in 1954, then they defeated the U.S. aggressors in Cambodia and Laos in 1997 in unity with the other Indo-Chinese people. A small and weak Vietnamese nation vividly demonstrated the invincibility of the people's war. The ordinary people—workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, old and young, men and women—delivered a crushing defeat to the U.S. that broke the back of the U.S. economy and the morale of the U.S. troops. It also woke up the whole world to the evil crimes of U.S. imperialism. Vietnamese women could be seen on all fronts of the struggle: in the regular army, in local guerrilla units, on the agricultural and industrial fronts, in hospitals, schools, and even in road and bridge construction. Some of the heroines were: Nguyen Thi Dinh, deputy commander-in-chief of the South Vietnamese National Liberation Army; Nguyen Thi Binh, foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam; Ta Thi Que, outstanding guerrilla fighter.

In May 1948, the Anglo-American imperialists and their Zionist stooges usurped Palestine and created the Zionist Israeli state in its place, denying the national rights of the Palestinian Arabs and turning two million of them into refugees. The Palestinian refugees have refused to be intimidated and have continued their efforts to regain their homeland. Many Palestinian women and girls have abandoned their traditional feudal customs and joined the guerrilla units operating under the nose of the Zionists. Elderly mothers who lost their husbands in the revolution sent their sons and daughters to continue the struggle. Such an ardent spirit to regain their national dignity deserves all our respect and applause. One of the women martyrs is Shadia AbuGhazala, a 19-year-old guerrilla fighter who was killed in action in 1968. Inspired by her example, many Palestinian girls proclaimed while carrying her coffin in Nablus: "We are all Shadias! We are all Shadias!" Shadia was one of the refugees who settled in Nablus. When Nablus also became occupied territory, she could not bear to continue her studies and left the university in Cairo to join "Al Fatah", the Palestinian National Liberation Front.

There were many others to sing the praises of: Maimunand Zahura in the Malayan people's national liberation war against Great Britain, which was entering its 30th year that year; Nirmala Krishnamurthy and Sampurna in the armed agrarian revolution in India since 1967; Josina Machel in the struggle of the Mozambican people against the Portuguese colonialists, and many others from Asia, Africa and Latin America. What they all had in common was the role of the toiling and oppressed people, including women, in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism and feudalism to achieve genuine national liberation and build socialism, in order to create even better conditions for the emancipation of the people, especially women. However, this revolutionary tradition of women all over the world was totally underestimated by the bourgeois feminist organizations in the imperialist countries like Britain. They peddled a class anti-men line that did no service to the question of the real emancipation of the vast majority of the people, including women. They made no distinction between who were our friends and who were the enemies.

In the 1960s and especially in the 1970s, we saw the development of powerful student movements in Western Europe and North America, coupled with tens of millions of working people taking militant action against the old world of capitalist/imperialist exploitation and oppression. This was also the case in Britain. Men and women, whether they were students, workers, civil servants, hospital workers, teachers, national minorities or pensioners, were all involved in a massive, unparalleled and spontaneous upsurge to resist the onslaught of the monopoly capitalist class, which was shifting the burden of the final and devastating crisis of the entire imperialist system onto the broad masses of people, who made up some 95% of the population. The militant 18-month strike of the Grunwick workers, most of whom were women, and the massive solidarity activities of the broad masses of the people was a good example of this. The occupation of Hounslow Hospital and the determination of the hospital workers to resist all the terror tactics of the fascist state authorities was another demonstration of the militant struggle of the people.

The women are also demanding equality in all aspects of society. In particular, today they are vehemently protesting against the abuse of women as sexual commodities, which is at the heart of the bourgeois fascist culture, as was clearly shown in the militant demonstrations all over Britain last November. They oppose the abuse of women in the name of selling their bodies, minds and souls to the highest bidder for money.

The women comrades of the Workers’ Institute proudly upheld the heroic revolutionary tradition of women throughout the world, including Britain. A number of our women comrades had been imprisoned by the British fascist state (an integral part of the U.S.-led NATO) in the course of our militant struggles to build the new world of socialism. This was our honor. We were deeply inspired by the example of Eleanor Marx, a fine daughter of the great Karl Marx, who had integrated herself into the poor working class community of the East End of London in the 1880s and 90s and devoted her whole life to organizing the unskilled poorer workers. Engels had credited Eleanor Marx with the "epoch-making" event of the first May Day demonstrations and rally in London in 1890, when 200,000 workers, half of them poorer workers, took part. He had also said: "I consider it the most important and magnificent of all May Days that on May 4, 1890, the English proletariat, awakening from 40 years of slumber, rejoined the movement of its class."

Since 1974, we in the Workers’ Institute had also been engaged in the arduous task of integrating ourselves with the working class community in and around Brixton, learning from the oppressed working people and spreading revolutionary politics among them. Holding high the banner of beloved Chairman Mao, taking the international class struggle as the key link and implementing the instructions of beloved Chairman Hua, we were engaged in building the Communist Party in the course of struggle, in the midst of the masses—i.e., in the historic task of building a revolutionary stable base area in the oldest home of the working class: Britain. The powerful spontaneous mass upsurge of the broad masses in the imperialist heartlands had merged with the struggle for national liberation and the establishment of the new international economic order in the Third World and with the socialist revolutionary movement in countries like China. These three powerful revolutionary currents in the world, led and influenced by socialist China, were hitting the main enemy of humanity, the two hegemonic superpowers, the United States and the social-imperialist Soviet Union, which were being exposed and isolated more and more by the people of the world every day. There were then 360 million unemployed people in the world, resulting in 700 million people living in poverty. These people were mainly in the Third World.

Hence, since April-May 1974, more than 120 countries of the world, especially of the Third World, have been insistently demanding the establishment of the New International Economic Order in the sessions of the United Nations and other conferences. That is, they demand the abolition of the old imperialist world economic order based on the super-exploitation of the raw material producing countries of the Third World. To achieve this, it is necessary to dismantle the two superpowers, especially the United States and NATO, and to establish in their place the new world political order, i.e., the INTERNATIONAL DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with the People's Liberation Army of China as the main pillar and with the support of the International United Front of the People of the Whole World. As Chairman Hua has pointed out, the first victory was won in 1977 and the great victory will be won in three years* to achieve this goal. This is the only way to consolidate and expand the achievements of the world-shaking Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, which had a profound impact on the liberation of women.

History is moving in a direction favorable to the people of the world and unfavorable to the enemies of the people. The future of mankind is indeed very bright. It is the glorious revolutionary tradition of the struggle of mankind that inspires us to stand up against the enemy and carry out our revolutionary tasks. We cannot afford to ignore the historical lessons written in blood. March 8, the International Women's Day, serves as a reminder and a call to follow the path blazed by our predecessors. Let us hold aloft the crimson banner stained with the blood of the martyrs and pledge ourselves to carry on the unfinished task of the revolutionaries and build the bright new world of socialization and communism*. Only through this can women win their final emancipation!