Women who slam patriarchy are ostracised and accused of playing into hands of capitalist oppressors, writes Phindile Kunene.
Two years ago, Cosatu made headlines for all the wrong reasons when details of sexual relations between its former general gecretary Zwelinzima Vavi, arguably one of the most powerful men in the country at the time, became national conversation.
The case exposed the extent to which political movements and trade unions are not paragons of virtue, but women and feminists missed a chance to pierce the sexist political cultures entrenched in trade unions and political parties.
Aside from some potent analyses by a few activists and commentators outside the trade union movement, the voice of women within the male dominated federation was largely muted.
The lexicon surrounding the case could not transcend moral interpretations or questioning and interrogation of the accuser. Ultimately, the conversation was divorced from power and gender relations within the organisation.
As the campaign for 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children draws to an end, it is imperative that we reflect on the experiences of women in organisations fighting injustice and oppression.
Attracting a wide array of women who joined national liberation movements - not so much to fight sexism and patriarchal domination but primarily because of the lived experience of racial domination - revolutionary political organisations are often credited with unravelling established gender norms and masculine notions of revolutionary politics. The emergence of women militants, commanders, soldiers - gun wielding and draped in military regalia - magnifies the appeal of this perspective.
Most of us who became active in politics in our teenage years were drawn to political organisations by our desire to battle systems of racial oppression and class exploitation. Inspired by sanitised versions of histories of revolutions and progressive movements, we fell in love with the idea of finding friendship and selfless love in the common struggle to liberate the people - black people, black women and black workers.
We were naively captivated by ideas of revolutionary men as torchbearers of the ideals of people’s liberation, committed to equality between the sexes and freedom from patriarchal domination.
It was not long before these idyllic notions were brutally unsettled.
The experience of women like Regina Jennings, deterred from the Black Panther Party by what she called “double standards”, sexism and abuse of power by men in leadership positions to the many untold accounts of sexual violence in the underground structures of liberation movements’ armed sections underscore how organisations supposed to provide reprieve from all forms of abuse associated with the racist and sexist capitalist system can often tolerate, justify and reproduce the same vices.
Contemporary parallels are the case of an ANCYL leader who stands accused of beating his lover and killing his partner, or that of a UCT member of the Fees Must Fall movement accused of raping a woman comrade.
Through participation in political movements, women have experienced how speaking about rape, battery and the humiliation and marginalisation of women in political structures is often equated to flirting with the capitalist system.
Women activists can testify to how condemning and challenging sexism with its attendant sexual violence invite scorn and deprecation. Women who speak out against internal abuses and sexism are frequently ostracised and accused of engineering diversions that work in service of our oppressors.
We have witnessed subtle calls to women to “hold their tongues” and understand how advancing the cause for women’s equality easily earns the wrath of those who consider feminism a sectarian project with the propensity to compromise broader liberation project.
We have also seen how, respectability politics or the idea that a woman’s worth is gauged by her ability to keep her legs crossed, is used to shame women who choose to live contrary to the dictates of such ideas. Similarly, we have observed women joining political organisations in numbers only to retreat and stop attending meetings after suffering sustained abuse, denigration and sexual harassment from male comrades who truly believe that a woman’s body is a right and a reward for men who are engaged in a battle to rid society of oppression and exploitation.
Sadly, we are sometimes party to the idea of political conspiracy as a blanket for men who have abused their powers to secure sexual favours where the line between submission and consent is blurry at best and non-existent at worst.
We have also come to accept how men conveniently regard sexual violence and physical abuse that implicates members of organisations as personal and private matters, leaving women with no recourse from their own organisations.
If recent narratives of sexism and misogyny within promising movements like the Fees Must Fall are anything to go by, the struggle is far from over.
The starting point to tackle these ills is to speak a language that is accessible, even to the newly politicised, that does not ridicule or elevate respectability politics and educates us about how silence impedes justice. It also means we must own the numerous experiences of women in political movements and their battles with sexism, successful or not, as mirrors and anthologies of our collective struggles.
Our experiences in fighting patriarchy in political organisations may appear menacingly similar to performing a Sisyphean task with no immediate gains or end in sight, but we must resist the temptation to cave in to the intimidation and silencing techniques. It is never too late to organise, act and speak in a collective voice.
*Phindile Kunene is an activist and formerly worked at Cosatu as its publications editor.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Pretoria News
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