argia.eus
INPRIMATU
About the need for anti-fascist feminism
Maria Colera Intxausti @bizialairaun 2018ko urriaren 24a

In a text written in 1934, the Hungarian anthropologist and economist Karl Polanyi explained that “fascism is born as a result of the incompatibilization of democracy and capitalism”, that is, when capitalism enters into crisis and liberal democracy and the rights we have workers become obstacles to keep their process of accumulation dissatisfied, the capitalist state takes the path of authoritarianism and fascism. We have been in this process for a long time.

One of the consequences of this capitalist crisis is the widespread dismantling of public services. With the demolition of these services, the social care needs do not disappear, which move from the public to the private and, with it, the women are encouraged to their homes to carry out the works that were socialized for free. This is due to the revival of family policies of recent times and the “crucible of the war against women” that aims at the discipline of women for the home.

In this context, far-right and fascist parties in western countries flourish: Tyahnybo in Ukraine, Trump in the United States, Salvini in Italy, Bolsonaro in Brazil… G

Vox wishes us women: repeal of the law of male violence, elimination of the right to abortion, automatic child care sharing...

Harvests also have women as mere objects, because fascism and the extreme right have very specific roles for each sex: a fiercely violent virility for men and a multiplier of the “house-angel” species for women. The programme of the neo-fascist party on our shore also has a marked misogynistic content. Vox wants us women: to repeal the law of male violence, eliminate the right to abortion, automatic child care sharing, no parity fees, stigmatization of the feminist struggle…

When fascism spread throughout Europe in the 1930s, members of the International Commission of Women against War and Fascism, set up in Paris by Communist women, saw that fascism posed a serious risk to women and that it was necessary to reconcile the feminist struggle and the anti-fascist struggle. Now it is also a matter of life and death to unite these two struggles, and in the manifests of the women’s strike of 8 March there are no references to anti-fascist feminism, in the face of the increasingly serious situation. In the same vein, when dealing with an evil it is necessary to make a proper diagnosis without limiting itself to the symptoms and, as we said at the beginning, we cannot forget that fascism is a tool used by capitalism when it is in distress. Therefore, in order to deal with the current neoliberal offensive of Misogynic ultra, it will be necessary, following the motto we are dealing with in the feminist demonstrations, to confront the “criminal alliance of capitalism and patriarchy” and to unite the feminist struggle and the anti-fascist struggle.