190
SUSAN SONTAG
struggle to liberate women. The double content of modern left-revolu–
tionary politics -.:: the overnhrow of one class
by
another within a nation,
and the freeing of colonialized peoples from imperialist control- is
basically irrelevant to the struggle of women as women. Women are nei–
ther a class nor a nation. Politically radical women may well prefer to
participate in existing insurgent movements than to limit their energies,
as they see it, to the struggle of women. But in doing so they should
realize that, at the most, all that such multi-issue revolutionary politics
(like parliamentary party politics) offers women is reform.ist gains, the
promise of formal "equality."
Which level of struggle should come first? I don't see how one can
take a general position about that. The priorities of struggle vary from
nation to nation, from historical moment to historical moment - and
depend, within a given nation, on one's race and one's social class. It
seems beyond question that the liberation of women in Vietnam has to be
subordinated at the present time to the struggle for national liberation.
In the affluent countries, however, the liberation of women is a much
more immediately relevant issue - both in itself and for its usefulness
in radicalizing people for other forms of struggle. (For instance, to ex–
plore the nature of women's oppression helps one to understand the na–
ture of imperialism. And the other way ,around.)
As I see it, the main point about the relationship of the s.truggle of
women to what Marxist-oriented revolutionary movements define as ,the
central struggle, the class struggle, is nhe following. To liberate women
requires a cultural revolution that will attack attitudes and mental habits,
which otherwise could well survive the reconstruction of economic re–
lationships that is the goal of the class struggle. The position of women
could, conceivably, be scarcely affected by a chaJIlge in class relation–
ships. Because Marx and Engels were humanists, heirs of the Enlighten–
ment, they denounced the oppression of women under capitalism. But the
traditional "feminism" of Marx and his successors is not
logically
con–
nected with the Marxist analysis. (Neither, I would argue, is Freud's
coarse "antifeminism"
logically
connected with the basic ideas of psy–
choanalytic theory.) Socialism will not inevitably bring about the lib–
eration of women. Nevertheless, only in a society that one calls, for want
of a better name, socialist, would it be
possible
to invent and institution–
alize forms of life that would li,berate women. Therefore, though the
struggle to build socialism and ,uhe cause of women's liberation are hardly
identical, militant feminists do have a vested interest in the fortunes
of
a.
revolutionary socialist movement and good reason to be, if only
tacitly, allies - as they have reason to be the enemies of
all
right-revo–
lutionary (or fascist) movements, which always preaoh the reinforce–
ment of male privilege and
the
subservience of women.
