| The Left and Feminism |
[07 Jun 2007|06:24pm] |
I became involved in leftist politics in my second year of uni. I had joined the Queer Collective and the Women’s Collective. The first march I ever went on was a Reclaim the Night march in 2001. It changed my life. The feeling I got that night of being completely at one with all of those strong, angry women on that street. I believed that night that we could change the world.
My life from that moment disappears into a flurry of activism. Going to leftist meetings and film nights and lots and lots of protests. Over these years I changed the way I dressed and consumed. I made most of these decisions for ecofeminist reasons. I stopped shaving because it was wasteful and patriarchal. I stopped buying new clothes because it was wasteful and patriarchal. Actually I try as much as possible not to buy anything new that I can get second hand. I started eating organic food because male methods of farming are wasteful and patriarchal. etc etc. I was already a vegetarian (thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dragort) and still have vegan intentions (I know, I know I should be vegan already). I also try to avoid buying any chocolate, coffee and tea products (ie cash crop produce) that is not fair trade. Occassionally I break and buy a bar of Cadbury chocolate or chocolate ice-cream but for the most part my consumption choices are fairly ethical. I have to note that it is relatively easy for me to access cheap, organic and fair trade products because of the local food co-op. The food co-op also makes cutting down on household waste really easy as almost none of the food in the shop is pre-packaged. You have to bring your own bags, jars and containers. Anyway the point is that my ethical decisions and my lifestyle changed dramatically as I learnt more about the world that I was living in. I am not perfect but I really do try. And I would not have known even half of what I know now had I not participated in leftist activism. However, a bit over a year ago I kind of said my own version of Robin Morgan’s Goodbye to All That to the leftist movement and to activism. I still go to the odd protest but for the most part my activism involves my personal consumption choices, volunteering at the Women’s Library and working with kids with special needs.
I sometimes regret my decision. I look back at activism and I remember how it was vibrant, alive and life-changing. But by the same token the Absence hampered my full commitment to leftist radicalism. That Absence still does. The Absence is of course feminism.
At first it was something that I could not put into words. Just a general unease with socialism and anarchism and in general with leftism. It was slow the process of recognising the absence of women in leftist documentaries, the process of recognising why I was uncomfortable with being called a comrade, the process of recognising that the raised fist as a symbol of struggle has nothing in common with my feminist belief in non-violence. Why is it that in all my years in activism I had never been to a meeting on sex-trafficking? or pornography? or prostitution? or rape? or domestic violence? It wasn’t until I began reading the words of feminist women with leftist histories (Robin Morgan, Andrea Dworkin) that I began to have an understanding of why leftist politics could not live up to my idea of a revolution. Quite simply, it isn’t the revolution of the female majority of the planet.
So. I know what it is that I want to do with my life. The problem is knowing what it is that I have to do in order to do what it is that I want to do with my life. How do I participate in a Women’s Movement that has seemingly run out of steam? Reclaim the Night and International Women’s Day (in Sydney) are pretty much apolitical and unattended even so. In all my years of activism I have only met a handful of radical feminists and most of them are older. The young women I met in activism were all too happy to worship the old and new male gods of the left: Marx, Che Guevara, Mao, Hugo Chavez, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky ect. Sorry, but when I left patriarchal religion behind I left all patriarchal religion behind. And though I admire some of the things that some of these men have done they ain’t got nothing on my Positively Revolting Hags: Sojourner Truth, Ntozake Shange, Vandana Shiva, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nawal El Saadawi, Audre Lorde, Eva Johnson, Aunty Shirley, Jaqueline Xtreme, Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, Farida Ahkter, Nora Castaneda, Robin Morgan, Andrea Dworkin, Mary Daly, Marilyn Waring, Susan Hawthorne, Catharine MacKinnon, the Chipko women… Honestly I could go on and on and on.
I think the Feminist Collective is a good place to start. Getting women together who want to be active feminists and supporting each other to be active in whatever way we can is definitely a step in the right direction. I think a major problem is the fact that I still feel guilty for not being able to participate more fully in activism. I feel like I’m not making the world a better place because I am not being active. Maybe I should be going to protests and leftist meetings as well as doing my feminist collective. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve got any energy left for leftist activism. If I could I would pour all of my time and energy into feminism but I don’t know how or what to do.
On the weekend after my first Feminist Collective meeting (which went well, by the way, but all of the women who came felt a bit the same as me, as in they knew what was wrong with the world and what they were unhappy about but didn’t know what we should be doing to change it) a woman from the collective invited me to the launch of this thing called the Activist Map. She told me it would be a great idea for the collective to be on it. I agreed and came along and met the woman organizing the Map and agreed to do a short speech about the Collective. I ended up pretty much pouring out all of my anger and angst about the left and activism onto this poor group of stunned activists almost all of whom were complete strangers to me. It was stupid of me. If I want women to come along to the Collective the last thing I should be doing is alienating women in the left. Oh well. I really think I am absolutely the wrong person to start this Collective. I have no idea really what it is I’m doing, I’m shit at public speaking, I get emotional at the wrong times and completely screw things up. The problem is that I’m it. There is no one else that I know of who is in Sydney and running a Feminist Collective other than the Women’s Collectives in various Universities.
Anyway, I know I’m doing the right thing and I have some thoughts about what I think the Feminist Collective can do. I just wish that things were clearer.
Recently I wrote: The word feminist is not solely descriptive or identity based. Feminist is a title that has to be earnt and while the cost is sometimes high the alternative of inaction is unthinkable. Feminism is a promise. Feminism is a future. If we fail we fail more than just ourselves.
I still believe this and slowly but surely I am starting to believe in myself. We'll see where that gets me.
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