Lenin once firmly opposed the trend of feminism, which attracted some women eager for freedom to take the wrong path of struggle between the sexes. Lenin pointed out to women that the only road to liberation is the arduous struggle of the proletarian social revolution.
He further explained why the arduous path of the proletarian social revolution is the only way for women to achieve liberation. With the emergence of private ownership, women first became the property of men; as private ownership developed and society was divided into classes, women became slaves not only as wives but also as laborers, and their original freedom was wiped out. Only after the abolition of private ownership of the means of production could women live and work as fully free and equal members of society. Between these two major periods of transforming the entire social system, there exists an inherent, irreplaceable interdependence. Transforming private ownership of the means of production into proletarian social revolution by workers can and should be a task completed by the vast majority of proletarians, laborers, physical workers, and mental workers who are enslaved and exploited by capitalism. Women make up half of this group, and in some countries, even the majority. Therefore, without women, the proletarian revolution cannot succeed, and without active participation of women, the goal of the revolution—achieving socialism and communism—cannot be realized or guaranteed.
Just as men, women’s liberation through socialism should also be a task completed by women themselves. If the broad masses of women are not determined to consciously and at any cost join hands with revolutionary comrades of the same class in the fight of the proletarian revolution, women will not achieve complete freedom and equality.
Many current feminist ideas in China have a significant influence, such as ‘girls help girls.’ In one of the female restrooms in a certain school building, there was originally a small box containing sanitary pads, but it has been empty for a long time. It is probably due to a petty bourgeois female student with mutual aid ideas who set it up, with a sign that says ‘girls help girls.’ If a girl suddenly gets her period, she can use the sanitary pads in the box, but after using one, she should put it back and take another, helping each other among girls. However, this box has been empty for a long time, and it is guessed that the person who initially wanted to set up this thing was also too lazy to maintain it.
Only Marxism teaches people to help others selflessly; ‘girls help girls’ is actually based on the premise that one can benefit from it. If one does something out of selfish motives, it is difficult to persist without considering the responsibility of someone who has studied Marxism.
Lo que llaman ‘girls help girls’ no es más que un estrecho individualismo de ayuda mutua, que promueve una unión femenina superclase y simplifica los problemas de género y opresión en la sociedad basándose en las diferencias fisiológicas de género. En realidad, el individualismo de ayuda mutua se fundamenta en la pequeña propiedad de la pequeña burguesía; los individualistas de ayuda mutua simplemente quieren mantener su pequeña propiedad en una sociedad capitalista, y el resultado inevitable será su bancarrota. Porque, por un lado, el individualismo de ayuda mutua niega la propiedad privada de la burguesía, pero por otro lado, propone preservar la pequeña propiedad que continuamente genera capitalismo. Como resultado, en todos los grupos de ayuda mutua política y económica, debido al desarrollo continuo de las relaciones de propiedad privada y las ideas de propiedad, inevitablemente surgirán conflictos basados en intereses propios entre las personas, y según las diferentes fuerzas políticas y económicas de cada uno, se formarán polarizaciones. De este modo, cualquier organización de ayuda mutua se convertirá inevitablemente en una organización política o económica capitalista en la que algunos dominan a otros. Y, como organización capitalista, también tendrá que competir con otras organizaciones capitalistas y pequeños productores, consolidando aún más toda la sociedad capitalista.
Before the construction of the Soviet regime, under the planned work led by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Russian women widely participated in labor, in factories, workshops, commercial agencies, banks, and in workers’ districts. 【Such a kind of women’s numbers continued to grow: they united around the red flag inscribed with the slogan “All Power to the Soviets” to carry out resolute struggles, fighting against landlords and capitalists, striving for peace, bread, freedom, and equality. An increasing number of rural women, who expressed the same demands for satisfaction from the Soviet regime, began to unite with the spirited women in industrial centers. When Lenin issued the signal for struggle, demanding the use of revolutionary means to seize power and establish the Soviet system—an essential prerequisite for building socialism and communist society—proletarian working women rose up everywhere, standing at the forefront, fighting shoulder to shoulder with their brothers. The historic victory of October Revolution worldwide is also the result of their struggle.】
【Women’s complete liberation and equality can never be limited to allowing some outstanding women full freedom of activity. The broadest proletarian women, rural women, and working masses should serve the ever-rising proletarian liberation revolution consciously, passionately, and at any cost.】
We must now also find ways to do women’s work. Recently, I have almost forgotten the heavy task of women’s liberation due to indulging in parasitic life, and I have become numb to many news about women suffering oppression in society. When I step out of my narrow personal life, I realize I have neglected many things I should have done, such as learning the theory of women’s liberation thoroughly. I have not done as Lenin said—to serve the proletarian liberation revolution with full consciousness, enthusiasm, and at any cost. In daily life, I also fail to refute my roommate’s outrageous remarks with Marxism in a reasonable and justified manner, partly because I enjoy the harmonious atmosphere with my roommate, and partly because I am too idle and ignorant to know how to refute. Maintaining harmony with my roommate actually means condoning the spread of bourgeois ideas, which exacerbates the oppression of women in capitalist society and must be changed. Only by completely eliminating a society where people exploit and oppress each other can women live not just for household chores, but as unashamed workers, active creators of the new system, and equal members of the new society.
Now, the old-timers in bourgeois universities often say that girls just don’t like politics or history, implying that women are just idle, simple-minded people who love chasing stars and watching dramas. This fully reflects the oppression of women by patriarchal society; women in capitalist society are not allowed to participate in political and economic activities. Moreover, bourgeoisie, to numb and poison women, has created all kinds of spiritual opiates, leading many women to indulge in them and pay less attention to politics and society. In capitalist countries, many women, through repetitive daily labor, do not develop their physical and mental abilities and are forced to become less knowledgeable. However, 【the characteristic of Soviet women’s current situation is: the number of women participating in social activities is continuously increasing, which develops their physical and mental abilities, skills, and talents.】 In the Soviet Union, which established public ownership of means of production, many nurseries, kindergartens, canteens, and laundries were set up. 【Women are thus liberated from the slavery of cooking, cleaning, and countless other trivial “women’s work,” which in men’s minds is considered very low and used to prove the infamous notion that women are “despicable.” In capitalist countries, these daily household chores waste women’s precious energy and dull their eager desire, their pride, and their aspiration to soar high. In the Soviet Union, women, as socially equal, equally important, and capable members, can fully demonstrate their talents and abilities; their achievements have fully demonstrated their social significance and also herald the continued growth of women who have been liberated.】
I once had a roommate who claimed to be a liberal and said things like “prostitution should be legalized.” At that time, I didn’t know how to refute. Without the necessary knowledge, I couldn’t even speak up.
What exactly did he say
It is probably also that shameless logic of reducing prostitution to decrease sexual crimes.
Apart from the so-called reduction of sexual crimes, he also has a view that “anyway, if one is willing, one pays, so what’s wrong with that.” The latter view is to treat sex as a commodity, viewing “prostitution” as an equivalent exchange in classical economics (the “fisherman-hunter” exchange where a certain amount of fish is exchanged for a certain amount of meat). This is a very barbaric objectification.
However, at that time I also lacked ideological weapons. Using the perspective of “selling sex transmits STDs” to oppose it would instead fall into the trap of “legalization facilitates regulation and makes it easier to control STDs,” and I couldn’t clarify it in the end.
It is necessary to start from a historical perspective. Just as the social relations between people are dressed in the guise of material social relations once commodity production reaches a certain level, prostitution also appeared as a supplement to marriage under the premise of private ownership. Otherwise, it cannot explain why some are forced into prostitution, nor why some indulge in prostitution.
Without Marx’s ideological tools, faced with the widespread phenomena of prostitution and soliciting, one can only explain sex desire as an unchanging human essence, like proponents of human nature do—which also results in losing the ability to oppose prostitution and soliciting, and naturally leans towards a capitalist stance.
#Thanks to vvv for the correction, already revised
If we interpret it this way, the bourgeoisie implementing wage labor exploitation is also an equivalent exchange, because the bourgeoisie purchases the right to use the worker’s labor for a day. However, wage labor still makes workers increasingly impoverished because they lose the means of production and can only depend on capitalists to survive. Meanwhile, capitalists, by plundering the means of production, accumulate vast wealth and establish their own state machinery, which leads to even more brutal exploitation of workers. Most women who sell sex do so because of this—most prostitutes are driven into prostitution due to the exclusion of women in capitalist society. Women are regarded as secondary labor due to physiological factors like menstruation and childbirth, and because in this patriarchal society, women are often responsible for domestic chores. Since domestic labor occurs within small families and is not recognized by society, women have a lower social status than men and face discrimination, forcing them to rely on men to survive—similar to how the proletariat must depend on the bourgeoisie. Engels also said that marriage is a form of legalized prostitution. If women engaged in prostitution could have equal social status with men, they might choose to sell their bodies for money. Of course, some women are influenced by capitalist culture, but this is also caused by the bourgeoisie to satisfy their own lust. Prostitutes are essentially tools for clients to vent their desires, not living persons. In the eyes of clients, they are only sexual tools—can humans and tools be equal? Just as in wage labor, where capitalists treat workers as tools to extract surplus value, which capitalist would want workers to have equal status with themselves? In the so-called ‘fisherman-hunter’ analogy, the exchange is only of their labor results—fish and meat. As humans, they are equal. Using this analogy for clients and prostitutes is a typical misrepresentation. Prostitutes being treated as sexual tools further entrenches the idea that women are sexual tools in society, leading to increased discrimination against women and making them more dependent on men to serve as stable sexual tools. Even unwilling women may be forced into prostitution by feudal parents. Men influenced by this ideology may go from paying for sex to committing rape for free. Legalizing prostitution and soliciting sex is like legalizing wage labor to reduce abuse of workers—both are false solutions. Legalizing prostitution will deepen women’s low status, and wage labor will push workers further into poverty. Since both only serve to lower the status of women and workers, legalizing them is not about protecting their interests but about protecting the interests of clients and capitalists. To serve their interests, superficial laws that appear fair but are actually loophole-ridden can be enacted, even to the extent of making laws meaningless. Since laws that serve oppressors are meant to oppress further, there’s no need to restrict oppressors. For example, now in China, there are labor laws (fought for by workers), but do workers’ lives get better? No, capitalists often violate labor laws flagrantly, with little punishment—sometimes just paying fines. Some local tyrants still arbitrarily delay wages or refuse to pay altogether, and may insult or beat workers without any legal consequences. I believe that legalizing prostitution will lead to similar results. You can look at countries where prostitution is legal—have their rates of sexual crimes decreased? Has women’s status improved? Has the spread of STDs been effectively controlled? Probably not; we might see more cases of trafficking innocent women into forced prostitution.
This is not the case; the exchange of goods itself follows the law of value of equivalent exchange.
I suggest you show him an article by Lu Xun titled “The Evolution of Men”
Unfortunately, this was four years ago, and now I can’t get in touch with that guy.
Surely he is not the only one who believes in this set; in the future, when encountering people who advocate for the legalization of prostitution, you can debate with them.
Actually, this kind of issue was discussed during the French Revolution, but nowadays, many of the men below are even worse than the people during the French Revolution.
Bourgeois states want to invade and attack the Soviet Union, not only because of the bourgeoisie’s desire to get rich, but also because the essence and historical mission of the Soviet Union, with an irresistible force, arouse imperialists to sharpen their weapons and oppose the Soviets. The Soviet Union is the offspring of the proletarian revolution; it proves that the working people are fully capable and mature enough to overthrow capitalism with violence and to realize socialism through revolutionary means. While capitalist countries generally experience economic crises and depression, the Soviet Union remains prosperous and flourishing. The existence of socialist states and their massive construction constantly call on the exploited and enslaved peoples of the bourgeois world to follow the Soviet Union’s example and seize power in revolutions, which has elicited widespread response from people around the world. The bourgeoisie seeks revenge for the great defeat they suffered in the October Revolution of 1917 in the new world war. For them, this is a life-and-death struggle, a decisive battle between capitalism and socialism, between the few property owners enslaving and exploiting millions of proletarians and the revolutionary will of these millions to be liberated from slavery and exploitation. Capitalists plan to let their proletariat kill each other in the world war, attempting to make the proletariat lose the desire and strength to oppose capitalism and to end it.
However, at that time, many working women were under the influence of rotten petty bourgeois morality, believing that issues like the above were entirely unrelated to women, within the scope of ‘high politics.’ Some women refused and avoided discussing these issues, which not only violated their own daily interests but also contradicted the glorious goal of fully liberating women through socialism. In fact, fighting for the non-aggression of peaceful Soviet Union is a matter of vital importance for working women.
【They should fully exercise their rights to realize Lenin’s legacy, which will guide women to be liberated from their double oppression. Every working woman’s vital cause is to prevent any imperialist war calls and any world war from blurring the consciousness of the proletariat and weakening or crushing their strength. Women should defend their living and cultural demands in the struggle against capitalism and strive to replace the capitalist system with socialism.】
【The organized mobilization against imperialist war, especially involving non-party forces, requires the participation of working women, which is a necessary condition for struggle and victory. No working woman can fail to make a significant contribution to the anti-imperialist struggle. Women often do not realize their own strength and abilities; these can only be developed through work and struggle for noble purposes. We refer to those seemingly trivial daily tasks, which form the solid foundation of mass activity. This “trivial” work attracts new male and female fighters to fight for the great common cause, such as distributing leaflets and anti-imperialist books among the masses, raising funds for anti-imperialist struggles, and so on. In this most widespread work among working women, experienced, farsighted, and steel-strong fighters and leaders will emerge to oppose imperialist wars and their main culprits—the capitalism. Women who do not express opinions or make suggestions outside their family circle cannot realize how powerful they are. Only through work and struggle can women test their strength, progressing from completing small tasks to undertaking arduous and significant responsibilities.
I used to read the news (morning reports, The Paper) on the class computer, and sometimes I would search for articles or documentaries to watch. There was a girl in my class who once saw a message saying “This has nothing to do with politics” while searching for bourgeois bands, and she said to me, “See, there’s no politics here!” The harm of spiritual opium to women is too serious. Now, when I talk to girls or occasionally hear their conversations, I often hear them discussing spiritual opium (like idol dramas, light novels, romantic anime). When I first interacted with girls in my class, they would immediately ask if I had read certain novels, watched certain dramas, or played certain games—many of which I had never even heard of. As a result, I can’t really talk to the girls in my class now. The head teacher Lao Jiu keeps instilling submissive ideas. Last time I wrote a self-criticism, the girls handed in their work before evening self-study. How should I interact with them? Or should I talk to them about social news? But I haven’t said much before, and suddenly interrupting—is that okay? (Previously, classmate Y hesitated whether to directly mention the oppression of Confucian parents and the academic elite when talking about their families with her friends.)
Then go listen to what these things are, what content they include, and look for opportunities to add your own insights (without being too stiff).
If every time you speak, you say things you don’t understand, that’s definitely not good. Try to find out what they’re talking about and ask some questions.
What exactly are they talking about?
Origin of International Women’s Day:
【International Women’s Day is an important factor in uniting the revolutionary forces of working women to defend their daily interests and to achieve freedom through socialism. In 1910, at the Copenhagen International Socialist Congress of the Second International, it was decided to hold an International Proletarian Women’s Day annually. This resolution was influenced by the effective revolutionary movement in Tsarist Russia in 1905, especially by the spontaneous strength of the mass strikes and barricades in Moscow. The resolution is filled with the Marxist spirit of Lenin’s teachings on the liberation of women through socialism.
Women’s Day should be organized on the basis of the most important daily demands of the proletarian women, involving both men and women proletarians in the class struggle against the bourgeois system and its foundation—capitalism—and for socialism. According to the wishes of the initiators of International Women’s Day, demonstrations on this day should mobilize revolutionary masses to oppose the increasing imperialist oppression in the class struggle, as well as to oppose the increasingly shameless infiltration of revisionism and reformism into the workers’ movement and the disintegration of the consciousness and fighting resolve of the leadership of their parties and organizations. Demonstrations on International Women’s Day must be a new, solid link in the chain of mass strikes and mass mobilizations, which aim at overthrowing capitalism and establishing socialist revolutionary struggle.
On March 8, 1917, Petrograd held an International Women’s Day march in the street battles under the slogan “Bread, Peace, and Freedom!” faithful to its revolutionary essence. Due to the patient and meticulous preparations by the Bolsheviks in enterprises, workers’ districts, and barracks, the masses triumphed in their struggle against the Tsarist armed forces. It is evident that International Women’s Day in Russia had already become the starting point of the bourgeois democratic revolution. This bourgeois democratic revolution later developed into the October Revolution, which aimed at higher and more significant goals with greater historical importance. However, the various International Women’s Day celebrations organized by the parties and organizations of the Second International were just clumsy schemes to mislead the relatively naive masses among the workers.
In China, the bourgeoisie distorted Women’s Day into “Goddess Day” and “Queen’s Day,” and most women were completely unaware of its origin. When I was a child, I thought Women’s Day was a day to honor my mother, naively understanding it as a reminder that women are great, and that we should understand and respect women. Later, after studying Marxism, although I vaguely knew that Women’s Day was related to the movement of working women, it was only then that I truly understood the origin and great significance of Women’s Day.
The old teacher who used to teach me Chinese, self-proclaimed as a “feminist” and spoke of a so-called “Women’s Union,” but when she mentioned how Masha in “Resurrection” “smiled and leaned close” to Nekhlyudov, she openly mocked Masha for “having quite the prostitute’s professionalism,” immediately revealing her disdain and contempt for proletarian women who had suffered under the old society, as a privileged petty bourgeois intellectual.
It can be seen that a super-class women’s union does not exist, and gender has never been a standard for dividing enemies and friends.
“Close or not, class divides.” Only in the struggle for common class interests can a truly reliable women’s alliance be formed.