identity politics
Identity politics
There is no permanent necessity for oppression of woman, or oppression based on colour of the skin. There are causes to these and others forms of oppression. These relations enforce other relations in this system. Being aware, philosophically, that not all the things and phenomena rely on a final cause, or have purpose, is part of what have to be understood; but is not enough. Some people in feminist movements can understand that the traditional roles can be chalenged. But, without a scientific understanding they impose to themselves a new and "invented" role, a role that usually have not to do with an actual path to emancipation. It is wrong to "transform" the role that one have in the society without transform the society (social relations, economic relations, class differences, ideas). The ones that want to impose an "invented" role to the reality of social relations or want a different social construction in a wayward way, will fail sooner or later.
Comment on oppression of women or based on color of skin:
In reply to Identity politics by Anonymous
Your comments are thoughtful, and we thought it helpful to point you to the following from Bob Avakian, in Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism—A Basic Summary:
Ultimately, the mode of production sets the foundation and the limits of change, in terms of how you address any social problem, such as the oppression of women, or the oppression of Black people or Latinos, or the contradiction between mental work and manual work, or the situation with the environment, or the situation of immigrants, and so on. While all those things have reality and dynamics in their own right, and aren’t reducible to the economic system, they all take place within the framework and within the fundamental dynamics of that economic system; and that economic system, that mode of production, sets the foundation and the ultimate limits of change in regard to all those social questions. So, if you want to get rid of all these different forms of oppression, you have to address them in their own right, but you also have to fundamentally change the economic system to give you the ability to be able to carry through those changes in fundamental terms. To put it another way: You have to have an economic system that doesn’t prevent you from making those changes, and instead not only allows but provides a favorable foundation for making those changes.
We also highly encourage our readers to check out the following:
Break ALL the Chains! Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution
Bob Avakian on The Oppression of Black People & the Revolutionary Struggle to End All Oppression
And to get an idea of the whole process needed to get BEYOND all of this oppression and exploitation, as part of a worldwide process—and what it could look like once you have state power that gives this backing, and an economic system that doesn’t prevent you from making the changes needed—see the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal), authored by Bob Avakian. All this aims at getting beyond the 4Alls—beyond ALL class relations, ALL underlying exploitative production relations, and ALL oppressive social relations and ideas—as part of a worldwide process.
Identity politics
I'm responding to the comment submitted on june 10 at 5pm, in which the commentator says that it is "wrong" to "transform" the role that one have in society without transforming the social and economic relations as well as the class diferences and the ideas that underlyne such roles. I Disagree with that. I think it is wrong for conscieous elements to only advocate for that kind of individual transformation if they know that at large it can't really be dealt with unless the underlying conditions for such a roles are transformed. Yes that would be wrong, but I think that bringing forward a different culture where people actually transform themselves and struggle against those roles, can actually contribute to advance a movement to finally eliminate those oppressive roles from the root. That's the whole point of the Points of Attention for the Revolution, principles that we can live by NOW as part of fighting to bring into being a world where those values are part of what the society is. Even as right now we still haven't gotten to that point in which the social and economic relations and ideas are transformed as a whole in society.
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