bourgeoisie and the proletariat
enjoy equal political rights. But they
are not equal in class status: one
class, the capitalists, own the
means of production and live on the
unpaid labour of the workers. The
other classes, the wage-workers,
the proletariat, own no means of
production and live by selling their
labour-power in the market.
The abolition of classes means
placing all citizens on an equal
footing with regard to the means
of production belonging to society
as a whole. It means giving all
citizens equal opportunities of
working on the publicly-owned
means of production, on the publicly-owned land, at the publicly
-owned factories, and so forth.
This explanation of socialism
has been necessary to enlighten
our learned liberal professor, Mr.
Tugan, who may, if he tries hard,
now grasp the fact that it is absurd
to expect equality of strength and
abilities in socialist society.
In brief, when socialists speak
of equality they always mean social
equality, equality of social status,
and not by any means the physical
and mental equality of individuals.
The puzzled reader may ask:
how could a learned liberal
professor have forgotten these
elementary axioms familiar to
anybody who has read any exposition of the views of
socialism? The answer is simple:
the personal qualities of present-
day professors are such that we
may find among them even
exceptionally stupid people like
Tugan. But the social status of
professors in bourgeois society is
such that only those are allowed
to hold such posts who sell science
to serve the interests of capital,
and agree to utter the most fatuous
nonsense, the most unscrupulous
drive and twaddle against the
socialists. The bourgeoisie will
forgive the professors all this as
long as they go on “abolishing”
socialism.
March 11, 1914
contd from page 6 men and women cannot be
scientific. Even in the women
there are varied in their classes
with varied class interests. There
is no ground of reality to the
independent women movement
that intends to collect all the
women under one umbrella. There
is no economic and social basis
to take forward such a movement
and, in the end, it only limits to the
interests of the women of the elite
classes.
These sorts of trends are
being propagated in India mainly
by NGO organisations. These
organisations are debating only
about the forms of patriarchal
oppression widely, but not
expressing or propagating the fact
that individual property is the basis for patriarchal ideology. Their
silence about the liberation of
toiling women, who are oppressed
under the semi -feudal and semi -
colonial system, will ultimately
lead to protecting the interests of
the exploiting classes.
Therefore the liberation of
women is linked with the liberation
of majority of toiling masses
without any doubt. So the
movements of the toiling women
shall be inter- linked and
intertwined with the movements
for the change of society.
While fighting against wrong
tendencies on a proper basis, the
CPI (M-L) is striving to build the
movement for the liberation of
women from the system of
exploitation and oppression.
reproduction belongs to the bodies
of the women, and ignoring the
societal angle of the issue.
The male hegemonic society
considers the childbirth as an
animal activity even today. On the
other hand, it created the ideology
that motherhood creates a higher
status to the woman. The objective
of this ideology is to hand over
pious heirs to the male. Even today
the system of exploitation is having
the reproduction activity. Toiling
man and woman are a matter of
no importance in these activities.
Exploiting class itself decides as
to how many children have to give
birth in future by the workers and
decides the future labour power to
be given birth according to its profit
making requirements. At the
individual level the decision is
doubtlessly taken by the male.
Under such conditions, to talk
about the freedom of reproduction
is meaningless.
In the background of the
inequalities between women and
men in India, people are divided in
society on the lines of classes,
castes and nationalities. Without
talking about these inequalities,
talking only about the equalities of
8
C.P.I(ML) Publication
Centenary of
Great October Socialist Revolution
Seminar Papers
For Details:
P.Jaswantha Rao, Secretary,
T.N.Memorial Trust, 32-13-26/1,
M.R.Puram, Vijayawada, pin-520 010.
Class Struggle