Some feminists in the First World argue that feminism is simply about changing the way men and women relate in "our" society — critiquing gender stereotypes in movies, for example, or having affirmative-action policies in the Australian parliament. According to some of these feminists, war has little or nothing to do with feminism.
The opposite is true: the impending war on Iraq is the key feminist issue of the moment. Opposing and ultimately defeating the war needs to be the key priority of the feminist movement here and everywhere.
This is not simply because the war will compound the oppression and suffering of Iraqi women by killing and maiming them and their families, destroying their homes, leaving them without schools, hospitals and other social necessities and leaving them with the burden of cleaning up the devastation — although war will do all of these things. Feminists should also oppose the war, however, because that struggle will advance our own.
As long as women's oppression is global, so too must be the feminist fightback. Across the world, while the way this oppression manifests itself varies, it has the same cause. It rests on the commodification, enslavement and subjugation of women in order to push them into providing for the reproduction and care of a future generation of workers, and in order to provide a cheap source of labour for profit-hungry business.
Across the world, women suffer so that profits are kept high: from the sweatshops and plantations of the Third World to the multi-million dollar plastic surgery industry in the United States. Women perform two-thirds of the world's work, and receive one-tenth of the world's pay.
The same profit-hungry elite that will make money after the invasion of Iraq also profits out of the subjugation of women. That's why, in between waging wars, US president George Bush has found time to attack abortion rights (in the US and abroad), affirmative action programs and vital welfare programs that allow women some relief from domestic drudgery.
Just as we oppose the oppression of women for profit, so we must stand with the Iraqi people against a war, with all the attendant suffering, for profit.
Feminists should also oppose the war because women's liberation is impossible while we are divided by racism and nationalism. When Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister John Howard talk about war there is little mention of the Iraqi civilians who will be killed. In 1996, the US secretary of state Madeleine Albright referred to the 500,000 Iraqi children killed as a result of sanctions an "acceptable" level of "collateral damage".
The corporate rulers would like us to think "there's plenty more malnourished, coloured Iraqi children where those 500,000 came from". Outraged? You should be. The idea is that, while every Australian or US citizen lost in a terror attack is a tragedy, every Iraqi lost in war or poverty is "necessary collaterall damage". It's not that different, really, to arguing that women should be paid less because they are "emotional" or that they like doing housework, or spending 20% of a pay packet on cosmetics.
Like sexism, racism confuses people who would be stronger if they stood together.
Muslim women wearing the hijab, easily identifiable, have also suffered acutely from the racism whipped up to support this war.
As long as racism and nationalism divide women, we cannot effectively challenge sexism. If women in Australia are conned into believing Iraqis to be the enemy, it will be harder to challenge the massive budget cuts to services planned in order to bolster defence spending.
In order for any feminist movement to be ultimately successful in its aim of liberating women, it must be committed to challenging every injustice. This means uniting with others in their own struggle for liberation — including the struggle of the Iraqi people for freedom from exploitation, domination
and war.
BY KATELYN MOUNTFORD
[The author is a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 5, 2003.
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