First paragraph (Teaser):

Volume 1, No. 5, July 2000

Fight Against Patriarchal, Male Chauvinist Tendencies !
Build A Powerful Revolutionary Women’s Movement !!

{The guerrillas of the CPI(ML)[People’s War] held a March 8 International Women’s Day meeting some where in the battlefront. We are giving below the speech to the guerrillas delivered on that occasion by Com. Ganapathi, Secretary of Central Committee (provisional), CPI (ML)[PW]}

— Translated from Telugu

Rest of the text:

Volume 1, No. 5, July 2000

Fight Against Patriarchal, Male Chauvinist Tendencies !

Build A Powerful Revolutionary Women’s Movement !!

{The guerrillas of the CPI(ML)[People’s War] held a March 8 International Women’s Day meeting some where in the battlefront. We are giving below the speech to the guerrillas delivered on that occasion by Com. Ganapathi, Secretary of Central Committee (provisional), CPI (ML)[PW]}

— Translated from Telugu

Comrades !

Today is March 8, International Working Women’s struggle day. We are here to celebrate International Working Women’s struggle day which is the first women’s day of this new century. On this day we must pledge to mould this 21st century as a century of liberation, as a century of building a new world, in which there will be no male-female disparities, no exploitation and no oppression.

We, women-men communists and people’s guerrillas, have gathered here to achieve a specific aim. We would like to celebrate this World Working Women’s Day amongst hundreds, thousands and lakhs of people. But in view of the fascist repression, this Day is being celebrated here only with a few people.

Today, the Working Women’s Day for us has a specific significance. A cruel people’s enemy, a human-faced demon, the state minister Madhava Reddy, who was responsible for killing scores of communist women guerrillas in the last five years, who was responsible for killing, through his mercenary murder gangs, Comrade Belli Lalitha, who had inspired the Telangana rural people with her song and dance (by cutting her body into 17 pieces), who was responsible for the destruction of lakhs of poor women’s lives, was annihilated by our heroic people’s guerrillas at 11 pm on the 7th. It is with this action that the first Working Women’s Day of this new century has been ushered in. On this occasion, we, as the representatives of the working class, send revolutionary greetings to our heroic guerrilla fighters who annihilated this protector of patriarchy and the exploitative system, Madhava Reddy.

Several revolutionary womens’ organisations, thousands of women labourers and people’s guerrillas of different states in all corners of our country under our Party’s leadership, are celebrating this Women’s Day with great zest and enthusiasm. All revolutionary organisations, millions of working women, the masses of people and the people’s liberation army guerrillas, under the leadership of revolutionary communist parties in all countries and continents, celebrate this Women’s Day with a new vigour and vitality. We pay red homage to those heroic women fighters and working women of our country and elsewhere in the world who have laid down their lives in this struggle for the liberation of mankind from class exploitation. We pledge to fulfil the great tasks of our women martyrs with clenched fists.

Comrades !

The labouring women of Peru, Philippines, Turkey, Nepal and under our Party’s leadership in our country, are fighting in several ways to liberate themselves, as well as the whole of society. They are fighting with indomitable courage and sacrifice. In class struggle, in the economic, political and ideological struggles, in the legal and illegal mass organisations, in the revolutionary cooperative movement, in literary-cultural activities, in the Party, in the guerrilla forces, in technical fields and in several other spheres, the labouring and middle class women of different ranks, are fulfilling their duties.

The women’s movement and organisations of labouring women are developing and strengthening each day under the leadership of our Party. The role of women has been enormous in taking our Party and the revolutionary movement to its present stage. In AP, North Telangana and the Dandakaranya regions, where class struggle is intense, the role of women is indeed commendable. Today even in those regions where the revolutionary movement is relatively weak, the percentage of women working in our Party is 20-25 per cent. Nevertheless, these successes of our Party in the sphere of the women’s movement are not sufficient. The successes we have attained upto now are not sufficient to destroy the Indian semi-feudal and semi-colonial system through a New Democratic Revolution and to build a new democratic system. We must recognise that our effort in this sphere is only at its preliminary stage, only a first attempt. Only by recognising this can we correctly spot our weaknesses which hinder the development of the revolutionary and womens’ movement, and retard the speedy attainment of social liberation. It is only by recognising this, can we correctly determine our programmes, and how it should be handled. Only through this, can we increase our efforts to develop women politically, ideologically, organisationally and in military affairs, not only in numbers but also in leadership capabilities at all levels of the Party. On this occasion, I want to put forward an important problem our Party is facing, which has become an obstacle for the development of women comrades and the women’s movement.

Patriarchal and male chauvinist ideologies still prevail in our Party, movement and guerrilla forces. They have become serious obstacles for the development of the revolutionary women’s movement and for the progress of women in our Party and guerrilla armed forces. When we say that patriarchal, male chauvinist thinking prevails in our Party, it is nowhere else, but mainly amongst the male comrades of our Party. This is one aspect of this problem, the main aspect. In addition, this ideology is prevalent in women, in the form of submissiveness. This is another face of the problem, a secondary and lesser aspect.

Patriarchal ideology is widespread in society as a whole, because our system is patriarchal. This influences both women and men. Hence, chauvinism in men and submissiveness in women prevails. These two thinkings (i.e., the two faces of patriarchy) and specifically the male chauvinist thinking, seriously hinders the revolutionary movement as well as the progress of women. This may reflect, in the extent of women’s participation in the mass organisations, or, while recruiting them into the Party and guerrilla squads or in the course of work. In essence it is these two types of thinking, particularly that of male chauvinism, which seriously hinders the revolutionary movement.

Several male comrades with patriarchal ideas, express these views, on different occasions, in various ways. For example, they may say that women cannot equal men in the level of work in the Party. Or, they may say that in the guerrilla squads they are inferior to men in all aspects. They also say that they have come to these opinions, based on facts faced in practice. Our women comrades have protested in different ways, if they noticed such type of comments from the male comrades. The majority of these types of male comrades do not think that by saying this they are humiliating women comrades or causing pain to them. They do not realise that such comments results in the growth of submissiveness in women and in strengthening male chauvinism in the Party. They do not grasp the inherent ideas behind such views expressed unconsciously and casually. They are unable to understand that these views are the result of chauvinism, a competitive nature in men, and are the product of feudal and capitalist values. Hence, it is their outlook and thinking that is wrong.

According to a communist outlook and communist values every communist, every revolutionary people’s guerrilla should have an approach that they should voluntarily and totally submit themselves for the fulfilment of the collective tasks, for building a new society, for the completion of revolution, and work sincerely by using all their abilities and energies. The Party will observe whether all comrades are trying to use their manual and mental capabilities fully or not. In accordance with that, to help them at every step is the responsibility of the Party, particularly that of the leadership. But in this, they will not compare whether men and women are working equally or not. Various forms of class and social oppression prevail in the existing semi-colonial, semi-feudal conditions. In order to serve the exploiting classes many man-made inequalities exist. In such a framework, though both men and women have joined together for a great ideal and work freely as communist Party members or guerrilla fighters (under its leadership), how can we expect that both should work with equal capacity ?

Immediately, after communist ideology and politics have enlightened people’s minds, though people may have broken the chains of slavery of thousands of years of oppression and turned the world upside down, though they may have broken the artificial and stunted inequalities between human beings of an exploitative society, disparities will continue to exist in the consciousness and the abilities of individuals of a revolutionary organisation, because of the weight of past exploitation. We can reduce these disparities, to some extent, during the revolutionary period, and to a greater extent after the revolution. Nevertheless, even in a communist society disparities will continue to exist, both manual and mental, between men and women, and also amongst men and amongst women, due to biological and geo-environmental causes. But these disparities are qualitatively different from those now in existence. Those disparities though they continue to exist, cannot be seen as inequalities. Those differences and inequalities would not be dependent on human knowledge.

The whole Party, and particularly male comrades should understand the historical causes for the relative backwardness of many women comrades. Instead of treating them as inequals and wrongly commenting and falsely criticising them, the male comrades should consider how they and the whole Party can help women comrades enhance their manual and mental abilities. This wrong trend, is like giving a solution for an unrelated problem. Like what people say "the ailment is one, but the medicine given is another." This type of wrong medical treatment incurs losses for the revolutionary movement. Women have been subjected to patriarchal oppression, in addition to class oppression, since more than two thousand years. Only those persons who do not consider this fact and have a male chauvinist approach would treat women comrades as unequals.

In the economic system, which is based on the private ownership of the means of production, (i.e., capitalist ownership) all work done by wage-slave workers, is only of use to the owners. Here, such work can be considered as unimportant for the interests of the workers or for society at large. In capitalist society, competition between capitalists are for individual profits and monopoly, and as a result of a lack of jobs, competition exists amongst the unemployed workers. In such an atmosphere, competitiveness and the approach of seeking work for mere personal gain, and other such tendencies are growing. Under the influence of such capitalist thinking developing in the society, male comrades utilise this competitive approach, to compare their work with that of women. Though, on the whole, they are concerned about the collective interests, unconsciously they put the work of male comrades in competition to that of female comrades. In essence, patriarchal ideology persists in the Party resulting in male chauvinism and competitiveness, having a negative impact on the revolutionary movement.

Due to a lack in the study of new democratic and socialist culture, and, as well as due to a lack of a deep study of the experiences and conditions in our day to day movement, there has been no thorough education in our Party on this subject. New elements who join our Party, bring with them, from the society, feudal and bourgeois culture/ideology. Thus, this feudal and bourgeois influence is somewhat more in this sphere of the Party.

Every member of the communist Party should work for the advancement of class struggle, should give importance to the people’s and collective interest, and should mould themselves as communists. Only if we recognise the importance of this, then alone can we correctly understand the necessity of the above qualities for the revolutionary movement. Only then can we correctly assess the work of women comrades or that of relatively less capable comrades. To understand this, let us take an example. One comrade walks 6 kms in an hour. Another comrade, in the same terrain, in the same duration, with the same weight on her/his shoulder, walks only 4 kms. We should not deprecate the comrade who walked only 4 kms. Instead, we should observe her/his manual and mental conditions. If we think that the comrade has not applied her/his manual and mental abilities fully, she/he should be helped to rectify the defects, by assisting the person to strengthen her/his manual abilities and political understanding. Positive criticism is also a part of this help.

This method also applies to the realm of ideas and ideology. With regard to theoretical and political wrong tendencies, sincere criticism and self-criticism is necessary, together with rectification campaigns and also through correctly conducting inner-Party struggle. This method is applicable not only inside the Party, but also amongst the people. The only difference is that, within the Party, we will try and implement this method more consciously and energetically. It is only through this method that every Party member becomes more politically conscious, develops enormous abilities and creativity, and works freely and wholeheartedly ..... achieving more than normal. It is only by applying this method in China, under the leadership of Com. Mao, during the period of socialist construction and specifically during the cultural revolution, that women in China achieved wonders, never witnessed by humanity before. If we implement this method with conviction, I firmly believe that women can achieve wonders in this revolution.

Many female comrades suffer due to negative comments made by some male comrades in our Party. We must oppose these wrong tendencies of the male comrades. Yet, merely suffering is of no use. Here, the real issue is how women comrades can use their manual and mental abilities in the best possible way, and what they can do to develop them. They should think along these lines and not think of competing with men.

Competition, ofcourse, does exist amongst communists. But it is totally opposite to bourgeois competition. Every person, whether female of male, should compete with others to use their abilities selflessly and totally, for the sake of the people. We should take as ideals those who are advanced in work, and should compete for the collective interest and in order to serve the people better. This type of competition will not lead to individualism, nor to the widening of disparities among comrades, nor to the wastage of human and material resources — but, instead will help enormously the growth of collectivity, to reduce disparities amongst comrades, and to use human and material resources in an orderly manner. Both, success in the revolution and also big leaps in socialist construction after the revolution, are only possible with such conscious efforts.

As a result, mental and physical abilities, as also the consciousness of human beings, will develop enormously, leading to the creation of new women/men and the establishment of communist society. In that communist society, every individual works according to her/his ability (mental and manual) and receives according to her/his needs. Everyone in our Party should work with this spirit. Only by studying Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and applying it to the concrete conditions of our country, and by participating fully in the class struggle and ideologically in the struggle against wrong trends, can we defeat the thinking that deprecates women, and can help them increase their mental assertiveness.

Yet, this patriarchal and male chauvinist wrong trend, which, of course, retards the building of the women’s movement, as also the Party and guerrilla forces, is not the same as other wrong trends developing in the Party. If we do not correctly understand the historical causes and the specificity of this patriarchal ideology, we cannot wage a proper struggle against it. Instead, it may take a wrong turn, and inflict losses on the revolutionary movement. Therefore, in order to remove patriarchal ideology, specifically male chauvinism, and also submissiveness amongst women, we must chiefly take up education and rectification. For this purpose, we must review this problem even more deeply.

The policies of the feudals, the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the imperialists are interwoven with all spheres of their economic, political, ideological, cultural, etc., activities — i.e., are in all spheres of the base and the superstructure. The above two trends of patriarchy are nurtured through the influence of feudalism. Depending on the existing feudal ideology and culture, the rulers superimpose on people’s heads the culture of the comprador bourgeoisie and imperialists, under the guise of democratic ideology and culture. To counter this, we should propagate real democratic ideas and culture amongst the people (working class, peasantry, urban middle class, national bourgeoisie), the Party and the people’s armed forces.

We will also expand socialist ideas and culture within the Party and the advanced sections of the people’s armed forces and masses. In this stage of revolution, for social progress, socialist ideas will lead in both the above spheres.

In India, patriarchal ideology and culture in its crude form, often, utilising a democratic mask, is viciously attacking democratic and socialist ideas. Therefore, in addition to the political struggle being waged against feudalism, comprador bureaucrat capitalism and imperialism, it is necessary to intensify the struggle in the theoretical, ideological and cultural spheres. On the occasion of this International Working Women’s Day, let us recognise the necessity for conducting an education and rectification programme using socialist ideology and culture to fight patriarchal ideology internally, in order to thereby strengthen the Party ideologically, and also all the other revolutionary structures of the people.

Comrades,

Today, in our Party and guerrilla forces there are a considerable number of women. Though this is just the first, the primary step, it is a base from which to strengthen and develop. If we correctly utilise this, and if we rectify our weaknesses in the theoretical and organisational spheres, our revolutionary women’s movement will develop more and more.

India is a vast country with a huge population and extensive natural resources in which people’s war is being conducted under the leadership of our Party. Hence, our revolutionary movement will have an impact on the world revolutionary movements. So also, the working women’s movement in India which is developing as part of our revolutionary movement, will have a similar impact on the world’s revolutionary women’s movement. As our revolution is developing against world imperialism and its lackeys in our country, as it is developing as part of the world socialist revolution, it will learn from the experiences of the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat and people of the whole world, and will also have an impact on the world revolutionary struggles.

Today, in our country, as well as in the world as a whole, a minute number of imperialists, together with their lackeys, are most inhumanly and cruelly attacking millions of the world’s proletarian and oppressed masses, in the name of globalisation, privatisation and restructuring. But, for repulsing this attack, the situation is more favourable than during the days of the 1848 Communist Manifesto, or the days of the great Paris Commune, or the days of the great revolutions of Russia and China, or the turbulent days of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or even the days of the great Naxalbari Peasant Armed Uprising. This objective revolutionary situation is getting more and more favourable each day. This is a period of revolution, in which preparations have begun where contingents of millions of the proletariat and oppressed masses stand in the battle front, to wage the final war against the decadent army of world capitalism and imperialism. As part of this, this is also a period, for revolutionary women’s liberation, where millions of proletarian and oppressed women, are making war preparations. It is within this growing objective revolutionary situation, that there lies a bright future for the revolutionary women’s movement of our country.

Comrades,

On the occasion of this International Working Women’s Day, we should pledge to mould this new century into a century of the world socialist revolution and for women’s liberation. We should pledge once more, on this International Working Women’s Day, to fight with all our might to mould this century, into a century for total class liberation, women’s liberation and liberation from patriarchy.

We, once again pay red homage to the proletarian revolutionaries who laid down their lives fighting against the world capitalist system and patriarchy.

Comrades, Red Salutes !