Self-Determination vs. Racism & Sexism (Tommy D, Keith, X) by X.

Because Revolutionary Democracy strives for the full emancipation of all people, the revolutionary democratic movement cannot ignore historical and contemporary differences in oppression and exploitation suffered by different social groups. Communities that have been victimized by colonization directly or indirectly, that have had their land stolen, that were enslaved workers or that are descended from enslaved workers, suffer different degrees of social and political oppressions and particular types of super-exploitation. The legacy of slavery and colonialism continues in the ensemble of present day social relationships and is outwardly manifested as racism and discrimination in its various institutionalized and interpersonal forms. Revolutionary Democracy recognizes the different historical experiences of peoples and communities and their right to determine their future in relation to others, i.e. their right to practice democracy as a people and to control their resources, including the reparations they are owed for centuries of oppression and super-exploitation. In other words, Revolutionary Democracy must include the right to self-determination.

Self-determination is key to overcoming racism and racial segregation and it forms the foundation for genuine coalition-building between communities and organizations of different racial, ethnic, and/or national backgrounds. In the revolutionary democratic movement, coalition-building is based on a foundational respect for the political and cultural integrity of communities with different historically-constituted experiences of oppression and exploitation as well as resistance. The practice of revolutionary democracy is at the core of such an approach because: 1) a revolutionary democratic movement recognizes the right of each group to practice democracy and determine its own process of emancipation and, 2) the practice of self-determination allows for an increasing amount of democracy to be practiced in coalitions of groups that are traditionally segregated from one another, without ignoring the very real political and cultural inequalities that exist between such groups –inequalities that form the basis of anti-democratic power dynamics, and 3) the right to self-determination is the first step to eventually achieving the type of mass equality necessary for a truly democratic society. In this sense, working to practice Revolutionary Democracy in a multi-racial/multi-ethnic society requires self-determination, and the revolutionary democratic movement cannot succeed without it.

Women have also suffered unique forms of oppression and exploitation that are perpetuated in present day social relationships and outwardly manifested as sexism and sex/gender discrimination in its various institutionalized and interpersonal forms. Historically, women have suffered from restricted access to democracy: to the public/civil sphere of society as well as to equality of participation and equality of rights in all areas of society (in the home, workplace, universities, church, etc). In addition, women have been burdened with unequal amounts of unpaid labor (traditionally providing most if not all of the labor in the family including, most significantly, reproductive labor). Even further, women have been denied 1) the right to control their bodies (both directly, as with laws that restrict women’s reproductive freedoms, and indirectly, as with the State’s refusal to prosecute physical and sexual assaults on women), and 2) the right to control their minds (as with formal or informal injunctions on women’s education or participation in the workforce). This denial of democracy has rendered many women in the condition of second class citizens.

Unfortunately, the conditions associated with this denial of democracy have not been adequately addressed by much of the U.S. Left, leading sex/gender inequality to persist or even fester in many of its organizations. And too often women are accused of “divisiveness” when any or all of these issues are raised. Divisiveness is not caused by the struggle for equality and emancipation but by attempts to curtail the struggle. A revolutionary democratic movement must recognize the history and root causes of sex/gender inequality and understand that those conditions must themselves be addressed and overcome in the process of building actual democracy. Therefore the revolutionary democratic movement inherently recognizes the full equality of women but must also strives for full democratic participation by working to subvert the causes of sex/gender inequalities within the movement and in society at large. The strategy of dual power must involve building a revolutionary democratic movement and alternative society that recognizes women’s rights to full democratic participation in all spheres of social life and guarantees women’s rights to control their bodies and minds. Further, the revolutionary democratic movement must strive to address the foundational inequalities in reproductive and unpaid labor in society. Such efforts begin in the movement itself (for example, the movement should provide child care and elderly care that historically are left as women’s burden and responsibility.) Finally Revolutionary Democracy supports the consciousness-raising groups and women-only spaces that have been central to the feminist movement for the last four decades. Consciousness raising groups, in fact, are spaces of democracy, where previously ignored social issues are brought to the fore of attention, leading to new opportunities for the movement as a whole to address persistent inequalities.

Historically, revolutionary movements posited that racism and sexism would be overcome after the revolution, and many people rightfully rejected this formulation. Alternatively, many identity-based movements posit that revolution can not be waged until people in traditionally “privileged” social positions “overcome” their racism and sexism. Revolutionary Democracy, with a process-based approach to revolution, contends that overcoming racism and sexism are essential aspects of the revolutionary process of practicing democracy itself. The revolution is thus in large part the process of overcoming racism, sexism and all other forms of oppression and discrimination that divide people and obstruct the advance of democracy. This is not a process at the individual level; practicing “anti-racism” or “anti-sexism” isn’t centrally a process of becoming a better individual (non-racist). It is instead the process of fighting the material foundation of racism itself in society, a process that will lead to a society of increasingly non-racist and non-sexist individuals. No amount of sensitivity training workshops can end racism or sexism. Similarly, electing a token representative of an oppressed group to an organization’s governing body (or “slotting” a seat for a token representative) will not overcome racism or sexism. These unique oppressions and inequalities are not caused by “ignorant individuals,” they are rooted in material and structural inequality (police profiling, and brutality, the denial of access to quality healthcare and education, limitations placed on access to housing and credit, dual labor markets, limitations on intergenerational transfers of wealth because of legacy of slavery, etc.). The personal ignorance and interpersonal indignities of racism, sexism and homophobia are mostly symptoms of the systemic inequality that reinforce the system’s oppressive character. Racism cannot be cured at the level of the individual. The truism that “racism is taught” misses the more important point: Racism is not just a bad “idea.” Rather, our society is organized to reproduce racial inequality and it is the society itself that needs to be transformed.

Racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of systemic discrimination will not end and democracy will not blossom until the people cooperate to build a new society and, in this process, redress the brutal inequalities borne of history, repairing the foundation of the country which was incorrectly built through the denial of democracy. “Anti-racism” and “anti-sexism” must be developed in the process of establishing revolutionary democracy and through the practice of self-determination and coalition-building. There are no ready-made programs; the revolutionary democratic movement must learn by doing. And it is in the very process of uniting to transform society through a democratic and collective drive towards equality of means for the free development of all that racism, sexism, and other forms of inequality will be confronted not as some abstract wrong but as an obstacle to progress that must be overcome by all.