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In the March 2022 edition of Socialism Today, issue No.256, CHRISTINE THOMAS reviewed two books by authors coming from different feminist perspectives and asked: what strategy is needed in the struggle to end violence against women, sexism and oppression today?

Daring to Hope, by Sheila Rowbotham

Published by Verso, 2021, £20

Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation, by Julie Bindel

Published by Constable, 2021, £16.99

One effect of the Covid pandemic has been to shine a spotlight on gender inequality in capitalist society and on violence towards women in particular, one of the most extreme manifestations of women’s oppression today. Unfortunately, it is one that many women will face at some time in their lives. One in four will experience domestic abuse and one in seven will be raped. On average, two women a week are killed by a current or ex-partner. Most women don’t feel safe from violence, abuse or sexual harassment whether at home, at work or in public spaces, including on social media. A staggering 97% of women report that they have experienced sexual harassment. It is therefore no surprise that violence against women has been the catalyst for a whole number of movements recently; in Britain most notably following the murder of Sarah Everard in South London in 2021.

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In the search for a way to fight against discrimination and oppression, asserting identity can be an important first step towards the development of socialist consciousness. If it leads on to an understanding of the class nature of capitalist society and the need for united, mass struggle, argues HANNAH SELL, in a shortened version of an article first published in Socialism Today No.192, October 2015.

Over recent years there has been a growth in support for what can broadly be described as ‘identity politics’ among many mainly young people who are rightly angry about and radicalised by, their experience of sexism, racism, homophobia, prejudice against disabled people and other forms of oppression. In one sense, asserting the importance of their identity is an inevitable part of the political awakening of many members of oppressed groups within society. Recognising that you are oppressed, and that you can fight against your oppression through a common struggle with others who share the same oppression, is a vital first step.

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In a 2003 article CHRISTINE THOMAS looked back at the life and ideas of the Russian revolutionary, Alexandra Kollantai, a pioneer of the struggle for socialism and women’s liberation. The second part, focusing on the post-1917 period, was published in Socialism Today, issue No.73, March 2003. The complete article has only been available online until now.

Alexandra Kollantai is probably the best-known woman among Russian revolutionaries, the first woman elected as a full member of the Bolshevik central committee and the first female commissar (minister) elected after the October 1917 revolution.

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A selection of Socialism Today articles

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Trump is back in the White House. Much of the world is gripped by fear about what his second term will mean, as are millions in America – particularly migrants, LGBTQ+ people, and others likely to be on the sharp end of his attacks. In Britain one opinion poll reported that 54% of British people think Trump will be bad for their country, compared to only 15% who think he will be good. An even greater majority of Britons think he will be bad for world peace.

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Emotions ran high across the world at news of a ceasefire deal for Gaza. But alongside that wave of relief have been two big questions: Why did it take 15 terrible months before a deal? And will it really lead to an end to the war?

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Jubilation among big sections of the population of Syria followed the quick demise of the Basha al Assad regime in early December 2024. After twelve years of civil war that ebbed and flowed, the regime was finally ousted after a short military operation led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from its base in Idlib province. Assad’s support base had dwindled to almost nothing and his impoverished army fled or refused to fight for a bankrupt regime. 

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One million species are threatened with extinction, soils are becoming infertile, and water sources are drying up, creating the possibility of a major breakdown of the ecosystem, with famines and droughts becoming more and more widespread. This was the finding of a document prepared for a recent UN conference on halting the destruction of the natural world. Global warming was reported as being a key factor negatively affecting this process.

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Late last year the Labour government announced plans to increase university tuition fees from September 2025, by lifting the cap on full-time undergraduate fees in England from £9,250 to £9,585 per year. This won’t solve the crisis of higher education funding, argues ADAM POWELL-DAVIES, and students and campus workers need to prepare for the battles ahead.

The government’s announcement last November brings an end to an eight-year period in which tuition fees have stood still. Beginning under prime minister Theresa May, Conservative governments had steered well clear of increasing fees, seen by most Tory MPs as ‘politically toxic’.

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In the light of a recently published book that gives a glimpse of the social mores of Victorian England regarding birth control and women’s sexuality, ELEANOR DONNE looks at the historical struggle for contraception and, in particular, the role of working-class women within that struggle.

A Dirty, Filthy Book: Sex, Scandal, and One Woman’s Fight in the Victorian Trial of the Century

By Michael Meyer

Published by WH Allen, 2024, £25

A Dirty Filthy Book tells the story of the trial of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh – free thinking, radical publishers based in London – who in 1877 were prosecuted under censorship laws for printing and selling a pamphlet called The Fruits of Philosophy, written by an American doctor, Charles Knowlton. The pamphlet contained information about the ‘mechanics’ of sex, genitalia, methods of contraception, and menstruation. Knowlton had printed it in restricted numbers in a very small, ‘discreet’ format for his young married patients. But Besant and Bradlaugh abandoned ‘discretion’ and openly challenged censorship laws, even telling police and local magistrates where and when they would be selling the pamphlet.

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