[WORKING class women are doubly oppressed: they are…]

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WORKING class women are doubly oppressed: they are oppressed as workers and as women. A socialist society will liberate the working class but will socialism necessarily liberate women?

Certainly socialism will create the conditions necessary for women's liberation - socialised housework and childcare; the end of being forced to stay in the family for economic and practical reasons.

We won't get socialism, though, unless we involve the mass of women. We might get to see a revolution, but. without the involvement of women, the society it produces will still be sexist, and so not socialist.

Women's involvement means more than just women participating in the present labour movement. It means developing the labour movement's understanding of women's oppression beyond just calling for creches and abortion rights. All men have power over women. Any man could rape any woman and all men are brought up to be dominant. All men expect to be treated as independent -all women are taught to be and are expected to be dependent on men.

Implications

The implications of trying to change this are enormous. Women must be able to organise inde pendently of mess Women need to convince the labour movement that the relationships between men and women are political, they are

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YBER-48D JOHN HARRIS Gay