We have to rely on ourselves
Kamala Emanuel
Women are still facing oppression, manifest in many ways, in spite of the undisputed gains of the first and second waves of feminism. Domestic work is still carried out mostly by women, and in spite of the considerable value of all this work (80% of GDP), it is unpaid. When women are paid for their work, they still earn only two-thirds the amount that men do.
Add to economic inequality and financial dependence, sexual violence and restriction of reproductive choice, and it can be seen that Australian capitalism is a long way from solving women's problems.
The austerity drive of both Labor and Liberal governments hits women harder and sooner, and makes it impossible for women to achieve real equality. Funding cuts to women's services, tertiary fees, enterprise bargaining — all these affect women, and demonstrate a lack of commitment to women, making our full participation in society impossible.
The Democratic Socialists are convinced that the only way for women to get justice is to mobilise and struggle for it — independently of the electoral needs of any political party. We seek to help the women's liberation movement to do this.
We don't believe that it's enough to get progressive politicians into parliament, nor that being able to stick your piece of paper in a ballot box every few years is real democracy. What we want is a grassroots decision-making structure where ordinary people can exercise control. We believe that all officials, including judges and police, should be accountable and recallable and not overpaid.
As part of this approach, Democratic Socialists get involved in campaigns that are aimed at mobilising and uniting large numbers of people in the struggle for women's rights, for example International Women's Day, Reclaim the Night and the decriminalise abortion campaign.
It was when thousands marched in support of demands for women in the first and second waves of feminism that gains were made, and we believe that in order for women to win full, and not just formal, equality, we need to unite in action.
When women leave the struggle for their rights to politicians, they don't empower themselves, and their gains are only partial, no matter how progressive the person might sound or how well they use the rhetoric. This has been found in the struggle for access to abortion, where it is made worse by the major parties' conscience vote.
We believe that leaving any issue of public policy to the private consciences of politicians is undemocratic because it means that it's not a part of their platform, and ordinary people are unable to vote on it. Decisions affecting society should be made according to the wishes of the majority, not the whims of an elite few.
The emphasis in our policy is for full economic independence and equality, for our right to control our bodies and for freedom from sexual violence and exploitation. More important, however, than voting for a platform with these policies, is joining and struggling with others for the rights that are our due.
[Kamala Emanuel is the Democratic Socialist candidate for Newcastle in the NSW election. This is abridged from a talk given at the Meet the Candidates night sponsored by Women's Electoral Lobby in Newcastle on March 1.]