March 27 2006
"I was once considered a good person myself. But I often held the minority position among feminists on most issues and was never a true-blue Marxist-Leninist."--Phyllis Chesler(1)
"Nothing could have saved us from our own Chinese Cultural Revolution in feminist America."--Phyllis Chesler(2)
"Most feminist magazines, newspapers, and spokeswomen . . . have taken the left-Stalinist position in favor of the PLO."--Phyllis Chesler(3)
"We need our intellectuals, including feminist intellectuals at the ready. In Terror and Liberalism, Berman called for a non-cynical 'third force' in foreign policy. He envisioned this as a 'force devoted to a politics of human rights and especially women's rights, across the Muslim world'"--Phyllis Chesler referring favorably to another Liberal warmonger of the Zionist culture war sort(4)
"We Support the Resistance of Iranian Women
Revolution #040, March 26, 2006, posted at revcom.us
The following is an excerpt from a statement prepared by Mary Lou Greenberg, representing the RCP,USA, for the march in Europe against anti-women repression in Iran.
"We do not accept these alternatives--the brutality and horrors of either Western-style democracy OR the Islamic state." (5)--RCP=U$A echoing Chesler and Berman on a "third force" and floating midair above classes and the principal contradiction for the benefit of petty-bourgeois zombies, in coordination with the Bush regime for a third week running
"Feminists, as well as women, have some terrifying external enemies. For example, Islamists oppose the ideals of dignity and equality for women by their practice of gender apartheid. This is a system which includes some, if not all, of the following human-rights violations: female genital mutilation, veiling and hijab, purdah, normalized daughter- and wife-beating, arranged (child) marriage, often to first cousins, polygamy, honor murder, the imprisonment, torture, beheading, stoning to death, and hanging of rape victims, suspected prostitutes, and feminist dissidents; especially in Iran today."--Phyllis Chesler, International Wimmin's Day 2006 in leading imperialist intellectual journal most-favored by the White House, "National Review"--a statement echoed nearly word-for-word by RCP=U$A the very same day
The real author of "Revolutionary Communist Party - USA" (RCP=U$A)'s line on International Wimmin's Day 2006 was Phyllis Chesler, the pseudo-feminist who is both pro-choice and pro-White House. Chesler voted for Bush in 2004 and made that endorsement public. There was no difference between Chesler and RCP=U$A this International Wimmin's Day. We challenge anyone to look at Chesler's statement above and see what the RCP=U$A said that was any different. It goes beyond having a united front with Chesler to the point of doing the bidding of the White House.
MIM gave the RCP=U$A four days advance warning to cancel their counterrevolutionary, pseudo-feminist warmongering demonstrations against Iran on International Wimmin's Day. They didn't. They insisted and still insist on lining up with the Pentagon pseudo-feminists.
We have told the world before about the RCP=U$A's backward gender line, but backward is not really the right word for people actively releasing CIA documents and working with the White House so closely.
How many times has MIM said it: that they snipe at MIM's all-out revolutionary feminist attack on Liberalism, but when we look at their overall gender line it is a product of the worst of dogshit pseudo-feminists--15 positive mentions for a CIA agent Gloria Steinem, active links going back years to Phyllis Chesler, multiple props to attorneys doing work to protect pornography in court-- and not a word about Catharine MacKinnon--the one the pornographers called "Stalinist." Say something about feminism in the united $tates we Marxist-Leninist-Maoists must, but we have to know what's what. MIM has done its homework and now it's time for an international break with the RCP=U$A. We cannot afford this kind of "communist" in the belly-of-the-beast.
The negative example of the RCP=U$A should be a warning to the whole international communist movement. If you find that you have turned International Wimmin's Day into something that could go on a Hallmark greeting card, do not be surprised when Bush does co-opt you. As in any other question, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist line on gender has to be sharp, and not pleasing to all.
Originally, the RCP=U$A tried to justify its line by saying it was counter-attacking Bush's attack on "choice" in the united $tates and saying that Bush was not going to help in Iran either, thanks to his record on "choice." MIM will translate: "Give us choice and we'll send our boyfriends to Tehran." We can be sure Hillary Clinton is listening attentively, especially since the focus of the rally was a massive attack on Iran.
As it turns out, "choice" was not a big focus of the counterrevolutionary warmongering rallies of the RCP=U$A. It would not matter anyway. Phyllis Chesler is also for "choice." RCP=U$A copied Bush voter and propagandist Chesler to even that extent. MIM has told RCP=U$A zombie followers for years that their gender line is Liberalism. "Choice" did absolutely nothing to demarcate from the warmongers going after Iran. That should be a clue for the clueless here in the united $tates and internationally.
The RCP=U$A claims to be against the Bush regime and has lately dovetailed its line to count Democrats as the "masses." Yet we've seen this two-shell game before and it has never prevented Democrats from turning into Republicans and vice-versa. The difference was always insignificant.
Even though Phyllis Chesler is working with ideological leader of Republican Party shock troops, David Horowitz, "my esteemed colleague,"(6) did RCP=U$A refuse to jump into bed with Chesler? Not. In 2003, Chesler appeared on Pat Robertson's 700 Club show.(7) Did that stop RCP=U$A from marching to the tune of Phyllis Chesler and Azar Nafisi on International Wimmin's Day 2006? Not.
Over and over, everywhere she goes, Chesler makes it clear that Stalin and Mao are her real targets. She knows that MIM and like-minded people stand in her way. When Phyllis Chesler said,
I mourn the Stalinization and Palestinianization of the feminist postcolonial and postmodern academy and media.(8)the RCP=U$A jumped right into bed, because the RCP=U$A shares Chesler's view of the national question. Together they believe they can do more for Iran from just outside the Pentagon than the combined wimmin of the world can do for themselves against the Pentagon--how convenient.
Chesler quoted another writer on the need for a Trotskyist approach that says Amerikans should march in New York as if they were in Tehran or working on simultaneous global revolution:
"Why are so many Westerners, living in mature democracies, ready to march against the toppling of a despot in Iraq but unwilling to take to the streets in support of the democratic movement in the Middle East?"(9)Here MIM will only add that the stupid followers of Trotsky, Wang Ming and Negri/Hardt globally are doing the bidding of the imperialists in getting Amerikkkans to demonstrate on anything except imperialism. It's one more example of how Trotskyism leads to neo-conservatism. That is also true for self-centered Third World people who want to talk about their issues everywhere all the time in the same manner without taking into account the conditions in each country. These would-be lackeys of the united $tates take this approach, because it is the perspective of the u.$. imperialists and their global power. There are many Third World lackeys available waiting for Uncle $am to implement his kind of simultaneous revolution to put new lackeys in power.
We should be talking about Iran in the united $tates too, but we cannot do it the same way as they would in Tehran. The classes we are speaking to are NOT the same. The peoples inside U.$. and Iranian borders can hear the same exact words and take them two totally different ways. The typical Iranian may yet think "slut" when the Liberal version of International Wimmin's Day comes up, so at least real gender issues are being thought about, but the typical Amerikan thinks "bomb them" when International Wimmin's Day comes up in connection to Iran.
Chesler made it crystal clear that she was carrying the banner for imperialist war. She did it openly. That did not stop the RCP=U$A from following her. It's long past overdue for the international communist movement to draw firm conclusions about the RCP=U$A's imperialist pig activity.
Notes:
1. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p.
22. see also attack on Stalin, p. 63.
2. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p.
67.
3. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p.
105.
4. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp.
199-200.
5.
See also this rally call by the RCP=U$A:
"Call to Join the Great Walk Against Anti-Women Punitive Laws in Iran's Islamic Republic on March 8th 2006!
If you are against death by stoning!
If you are against forced veiling!
If you are against prosecution and imprisonment of women!
If you are against lashing a woman's body!
If you are against any form of patriarchy!
If you are against all the medieval laws of Iran's Islamic Republic of Iran imposing inequality against women!
Join the great walk against anti women laws in Iran's Islamic Republic on March 8th 2006!
For over 25 years one of the most anti women governments of the world has ruled Iran. A government whose fundamental existence is based upon oppressive laws securing domination of women.
For over 25 years Iranian women have struggled and resisted against poverty and injustice in the political, cultural and economical aspects of life . Women have endured being lashed, stoned to death , jailed, tortured and executed, but they have not surrendered to the medieval laws of Iran’s Islamic Republic.
March 8th 2006 is a time to show, once more our solidarity with the relentless struggles of Iranian women. We should make this day, a day for expressing exciting and magnificent exhibitions of solidarity against the anti- woman system of Iran's Islamic Republic."
6. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p.
19.
7. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 47.
8. Phyllis Chesler in the "National Review," International Wimmin's Day 2006
9. Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p.
37.