Women Fight Back by Kath Ennis (Women's Voice pamphlet, 10p) terms as the fight which takes place at work against the boss. There is a complete failure to see that the important task of the revolutionary party is to find the path towards uniting the struggles of all the exploited and oppressed into one political fight against the ruling class and its state. The failure to grasp this means that there is no strategy for linking struggles outside the factory to industrial struggles (except in some vague future when everyone has joined a trade union). Indeed the only strategy put forward is to join the International Socialists.
Although the IS do not seem to have noticed this, one of the current debates within the women's liberation milieu has focused on how " community" struggles and industrial struggles are and can be related. We have been arguing that it is necessary to recognise both the lack of leverage on and against the system which leads to the relative powerlessness of all those not engaged at the point of production and the significance of such groups in the overall development of class struggle. Thus we must find means by which the struggles of housewives and others against rent and price rises, for nurseries and other facilities are taken up and supported by trade unionists in militant action; and we must actively participate in the organisation of housewives, retired people, students, the unemployed, etc. in support of workers in struggle. (The recent election of women to the action committee fighting against the steel redundancies at Shotton is one example of this.) WOMEN'S LIBERATION Tremendous confusion runs through the section of the pamphlet dealing with the women's liberation movement. The women's movement is written off as middle class and therefore " incapable of linking its campaigns with the struggle for socialism" (although for some unspecified reason it has " been a tremendous inspiration to us all"). It is undoubtedly true that the social composition of the WLM is made up predominantly of white collar workers, wives of white collar workers, students, together with some intellectuals, some unemployed women, some single mothers, etc. In a Marxist sense most of these groups would be located as part of the working class (although not the most powerful section of that class - the industrial workers); it is not true, from a Marxist point of view, that the relative advantages which some of these groups enjoy are at the expense of the working class"; nor can it automatically be assumed that these groups are the allies of the ruling class.
To make a clear assessment of the WLM we have to identify both its social composition and its political orientation and potential.
(After all the social composition of IS has been overwhelmingly 'middle class" until very recently, and it is still far from being an organization of industrial workers.) In fact the WLM is politically extremely heterogeneous, encompassing some reformists, radical feminists, anarchists, revolutionary socialists, etc. It hardly exists as a movement, except perhaps at the time of national conferences, but more as a diverse range of local groups.
Nevertheless this milieu has been affected by the upsurge in class struggle in the recent period, as the discussions and resolutions from the November conference showed;
only the narrowest and most nationalistic view of class interests can dismiss the resolutions from that conference in solidarity with the Indochinese people, and calling for the withdrawal of British troops and the defeat of imperialism in Ireland as 'only directed to the middle class'. The debate within the women's movement continues, and revolutionary socialists have an important part to play in it, helping to develop and strengthen the socialist current within it.
Finally, and more positively, it is encouraging to see that the IS are supporting the proposals, for rank and file organisation within the trade unions to fight for women's rights in the unions and in work, for which we have been arguing for some time. We hope that though our analysis and general strategy may differ from theirs, there may be areas of activity in which we will be able to work together in the future. A well known textbook of orthodox economics starts by erecting a Chinese wall between what are called "positive' and 'normative" statements. The former are judgements of fact concerning "what is or will be"; the latter are judgements of value concerning "what ought to be". According to this philosophy, "disagreements over positive statements are appropriately settled by an appeal to the facts". (Lipsey: Positive Economics). Marx is supposed to have let emotive value judgements colour his economics, denouncing the capitalist system and campaigning for a revolution. On the other hand bourgeois professors regard orthodox economics as scientific arranged on the basis of a preconceived view bacause it is based on "the facts".
BARRIERS Such an approach has in fact operated as a barrier to scientific advance and has turned social science into an apology for the facts of the capitalist system. Science cannot operate by simply focussing on "the facts". Immediate appearances by themselves do not provide us with a scientific understanding of society: as Marx pointed out: "all science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided."
Instead of arbitrarily accepting capitalism as a "fact', Marx saw it as a transitory phase in the development of human society. He then worked out his economic theories, not to explain the economy of each and every society In this sense Marxism is "biased': it is an - the bogus claim of bourgeois economists -but to explain one specific type of economy out of the multitude of different types thrown of history shows that there is no other up in history. Bourgeois economists, by I.M.G. RED FORUM-A series of introductory discussions for those in the London area on the politics of the Fourth International. Every Tuesday, 8 p.m. at the General Picton pub, Caledonian Road (five minutes walk from Kings Cross tube).
MERSEYSIDE I.M.G.—Public Meetings every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the AUEW, 46/48 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. Contact 10, Pinfold Close, Bootle 10 (tel: 428 1140).
SCOTTISH NATIONAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCESat. 24th & Sun. 25th February at Strathclyde University Union, John Street, Glasgow. Registration Fri. evening and Sat. morning. First session starts 10.30 Sat. morning. Registration fee E1-covers food/drink for both days. Accommodation available, creche provided. Ail women weicome TONY SOARES SOLIDARITY MEETING Sunday, 18 Feb. at 6.30 p.m. in Camden Studios, Camden St., London NW1. Speakers and film The Chicago Conspiracy Trial'. Admission free.
Robert Benewick and Trevor Smith have edited this George Allen & Unwin Park Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. starting out with the facts of capitalist economy and then preseeting them as facts for all time, thus present a picture of history as the gradual evolution towards the perfect capitalist system. CONCEPTS For the Marxist, the facts do not provide us with an understanding of reality. It is rather a system of concepts which conditions our view of the facts". The question is: which system of concepts should we adopt? From birth, all social groups in bourgeois society are brought up to accept the system of concepts known as "common sense": we are taught to automatically accept the concept of private property, social hierarchy, crime, punishment and individualistic competition. It is this collection of concepts which people use in everyday life to select and arrange the facts. Facts are not neutral: they are selected and of the world. Secondly, these views of the world are conditioned by the place that someone occupies within the society. The system of ideas about the world that a wage worker has is different from the world view of a banker.
Thus judgements of fact and value cannot be counter-posed. The so-called value-free statements of bourgeois economists are 'biased" because they serve to maintain the éxisting state of affairs. Marxism sees the present capitalist system from the point of view of the development of human society, past present and future. This point of view coincides with the interests of the working class, because this is the only social class that can build a new and classless society.
expression of the objective, long-term interests of the working class. But an understanding scientific viewpoint.
UNITED IRISHMAN FORUM-Co-op Hall, 129 Seve Sisters Road, London N.7. on Weds. 28th February at 8.30 p.m. Speakers: Jacqueline Kaye (Prisoners Aid Committee), Clieve Carroll (editor, Rosc Cathal, lan Mills (Clann na hEireann). These Republican speakers will discuss the current issue of the United Irishman, ISRAEL-PALESTINE SOCIALIST ACTION GROUP:
One cav seminar in extore • owares the Misde ca Revolution'. Speakers from IPSAG and Israeli and Arab revolutionarv groups, 24 Feb. in the Lindsay room, Balliol College 10.30 a.m. Details from 01-445 7511 or 1PSAG, 5 Folly Bridge, Oxford.
RED BOOKS: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. Due to building alterations, Red Books has had to close its bookshop at 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. We regret this inconvenience to our customers and hope to have new premises in the near future. In the meantime we will be operating a mail-order book service from the above address. Write for our FREE catalogu
A new National Assembly will be elected in France on March 4 and 11. The present legislature was elected in the wake of the defeat of the May movement, after the P.C.F. (French Communist Party) refused to carry the general Popular Front in 1935-36. Many parliamentary illusions have disappeared, and not only in the minds of those who have already opted for revolutionary solutions. But in the absence
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4. Is Marxist Economics Biased?
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