Dear comrades and friends,

In this Lenin year, the information-board at the Rode Morgen stand often had a picture of Lenin on it. That led to quite a bit of discussion. For example, I gave a woman an appeal for International Women's Day and she asked: 'What does that have to do with Lenin?'

A lively discussion ensued.

Because Lenin, the great revolutionary, wrote and spoke a lot about the struggle for the liberation of women. This is inextricably linked to the entire struggle for the workers' cause and the struggle for socialism.

“We say that the liberation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves, and in the same way the emancipation of working women must be the work of working women themselves... And of course not through soothing paternalism. No, of course not, but as revolutionaries, who call on women as equals.”

In a speech in 1919, Lenin said: “For a long time the representatives of the liberation movements in Western Europe, in the course of not only decades but even centuries, have been demanding the abolition of these obsolete laws and the equality of men and women under the law, but not one of the democratic European states and not one of the most advanced republics has succeeded in achieving this, because where... the dictatorship of capital is preserved, the privileges continue to rest with men. In Russia this has been achieved only because workers’ power was established here since October 1917... And we can now say, filled with pride and without the slightest exaggeration, that outside Soviet Russia there is not a single country in the world where women have full equality of rights and where women are not placed in a humiliating position, which is so keenly felt in everyday family life. That was one of our first and most important tasks.”

In 1920 Lenin spoke several times with Clara Zetkin (German communist and leader of the revolutionary women’s movement) about the role, tasks and situation of women in Soviet Russia and other countries. He said: “I know the life of the workers — and not only from books. Our communist work among the masses of women and our political work include a considerable part of educational work among men. We must eradicate the old slave-owning attitude root and branch — in the Party and among the masses. This is part of our political task, as is the urgently needed training of a staff of comrades, women and men, who, thoroughly trained in theory and practice, will carry out Party work among working women.”

In Soviet Russia, complete legal equality between men and women was immediately introduced. In all spheres of life there was a sincere effort to implement this equality. Women were involved in the work of the Soviet economy, in the administrative bodies, in legislation and in government work. The doors were opened to them to all courses and educational institutions for improving their professional and social training. Collective canteens and dining rooms were established, as were laundries and repair shops, nurseries, kindergartens, children's homes and all kinds of educational institutions. Serious work was done to implement the programme of transferring the domestic and educational functions of the individual household to the community. This freed women from domestic slavery and freed them from dependence on men.

Clara Zetkin was given the task by Lenin to write theses on communist work among women for agitation and propaganda. The theses must firmly connect the women's struggle with the proletarian class struggle and the revolution. “We must draw millions of working women from cities and countryside into our struggle and especially into the cause of the communist reconstruction of society. Without women there can be no real mass movement.”

What does all this mean for our struggle now?

The present imperialist world system is leading an ever-increasing part of the world’s population into existential crises. This mobilizes millions of people, with women often in the front line. Women's struggle is an indispensable link between the various social movements and the society-changing struggle for real socialism. This is only possible if we conduct this struggle from the standpoint of the working class. From there, we must connect with the petty bourgeoisie and not the other way around. Because bourgeois and petty bourgeois feminism works exactly opposite. Its path is that of the individual gender struggle or a women's movement that is only focused on equal rights within capitalism.

One of the most important lies in capitalist society is that equal rights for women are possible in capitalism. It is true that there is and a hard struggle for formal-legal equality and that formal equality can be an enormous step forward. But with the right-wing and fascist development in many countries, we see that this formal equality immediately disappears and women's rights are restricted, such as the right to abortion. Even in the most progressive bourgeois democracies, there is still a large gap between the text of the law and reality. This is not a fluke, but will always be the case in the capitalist system, because capitalist society can only function in this way.

Proletarian women must form the core of the revolutionary women's movement - for real social change.

The task of the revolutionary women's movement is to take petty-bourgeois feminism in tow and to point it in a positive direction. The struggle for the emancipation of women must not be limited to the special position of women, but must expose the entire system of exploitation and oppression in capitalism in all its aspects.

As Lenin showed, the struggle for the liberation of women cannot be completed within capitalism, but is a necessary part of the struggle against this system. The struggle for socialism is therefore paramount. The struggle for a world without war and a world in which women, children ... and yes, men as well ... can develop and everyone can work for the benefit of everyone. Not for profit and not for the wealth of a few.

In this, the women-comrades themselves must get a grip. “Don’t mumble like good old aunts, but speak loudly and clearly like fighters!”, said Lenin: “A congress is not a salon where women should shine with their charm, as it is written in novels. It is a battlefield where we fight for the knowledge necessary for revolutionary action. Prove that you can fight! First of all against the enemies, but also in the party, if necessary.”

Lenin in 1920: “We cannot achieve the proletarian dictatorship without the millions of women, without them we cannot carry out communist construction. We must find the way to reach them, we must study hard for it; and we must try out many things in order to find the right way.”

We can now discuss this further.