Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism

I see this was recomended reading for the forthcomming conference on 'Women, Socialism and Class Struggle' being organised by 'The Commune' and annoyingly I haven't been able to locate my orginal copy - not sure if more of the content is to appear here?

I did locate my orginal, fairly enthusiatic review, written in 'Solidarity for Social Revolution' in late 1979, based as it was on my experience of left groups at that time and other Solidarity members critical involvement in the womens liberation movement, (and a particular liking for some of Sheila Rowbothams historical work). But it was clear that whilst the book made some useful observations (from a feminist and libertarian viewpoint) on the organisational attitudes and practice of 'the left' that it did not move in any way towards a genuine understanding of, or commitment to, libertarian communism, being still stuck in it's own version of left wing capitalist ideology.

Somewhat harder criticism appeared in a later edition of the same magazine of both the book, and subsequent conferences inspired by the book, which correctly emphasised the participants desire to try and reform and reorganise 'the left' rather than go beyond it. Whilst I had some disagreements with that review this particular point was reinforced by my own experiences in follow up meetings in Manchester.

Is 'the left' as bad today as it was then and deserving of the same criticism from socialist feminists? - 'anarcho-feminists' would probably say it is, but I don't really know.

I do however know that 'the left' is still 'part of the problem' of capitalism rather than 'part of the solution' as Solidarity used to say.

There is at least an element of 'The Communes' currently sponsored re-examination of recent working class and left wing history that suggests it might try to do a little better this time round and actually strive to move beyond it's left wing origins - let's hope so.

Whilst it's good to see you've only posted up the "Foreword and Acknowledgements" I presume this is an unintentional mistake. However, it would be a genuine mistake to put this in the library. Basically, this is an expression of the desire of these women at the time to reform the Left rather than break with it. An attitude that seems to be present in The Commune nowadays. Spikemike's crtiticism is tame, as was Solidarity's apparent approval of it at the time.

This, from "Like a Summer With A Thousand Julys",is a far more appropriate critique:

Many of the new recruits were student 'radicals' in the late 60s who without a moments hesitation had joined moribund Trotskyist parties. From the mid '70s onwards most have begun to waken up to the utter irrelevance of vanguard parties derived from Lenin. There was even a hint of profounder insights: that working class uninterest in 'socialism' was more intelligent and egalitarian than the repentant vanguardist had previously given credit for. But to have continued in this vein may well have had disastrous (finally liberating) personal consequences raising searching questions about the State, power, the sort of job one was doing. As they had craftily slid around these thorny questions in the late '60s they were not likely to confront them in the mid to late '70s when the next installment of the mortgage was due. So they plumped for an 'independent' line which was neither one thing or the other uniting so to speak 'extra parliamentarism' with parliamentarism. Hilary Wainwright (joint author of Beyond the Fragments) has said as much in the ludicrously acclaimed 'political debate of the decade' when she and others from the 'far' left had got together with the Labour Party to thrash out their scant differences. 'The Labour Party' she said - 'lays too much emphasis on the State and on Parliament and is unable to develop extra parliamentary organizations' (The Times March 10'80).

Professional feminism is the enemy of proletarian feminism (but doesn't know it).