Class Politics and Women

The essays in this book are written from my experiences as a political activist, socialist and feminist thinker, and teacher. All of them are theoretical and practical writings that examine Marxist-feminist questions, but always do so with an eye towards making politics. In this century, feminism has made extraordinary gains by pushing back the limits of male domination in industrial capitalist societies. Yet today the women's liberation movement faces a political dead end. Here I touch upon the necessity of clarifying the gains and limits of feminism and transforming old forms of organization into a form that deals with new problems.

I am not only addressing the confrontation of anti-capitalist thoughts and perspectives with feminism, but also the confrontation of feminism with socialist politics, and examining the relationship of capitalist class relations with race/ethnicity and gender. I examine how economic life and politics are related to family life and sexuality. I discuss creative collective, democratic and non-marginalizing forms of family and community life as central to socialism that means a radical change in labor and politics, and I emphasize the importance of imagining and discussing these alternatives, even if they are seen as unattainable.

I am from a socialist organization called Solidarity, which meets every Sunday. I sometimes joke that my organization is a church. However, the politics I adhere to is not based on the belief in an inevitable victory, a final conflict or history. Still, I believe that it is necessary to not give up and keep socialist ideas and ideals alive, to produce a libertarian and democratic policy that is as pro-working class as possible, and to be a part of this deep-rooted tradition of struggle for an egalitarian and democratic world.

What makes the essays in this book a whole are the themes that have been at the core of my intellectual and political commitments. Like Marx, I begin with capitalist models of production and their determining social arrangements. I reject functionalist arguments, that is, arguments that attempt to explain all the different institutions of capitalist societies in terms of their function to promote the interests of the capitalist class. I believe that what Marx called social relations of production, that is, class relations, constrain and shape politics, social life, culture, private life, and more.



Number of Pages: 368

Year of Printing: 2012


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Kalkedon

First Edition Year: 2012

Number of Pages: 368

Language: Turkish