{"id":39,"date":"2006-10-03T16:19:31","date_gmt":"2006-10-03T16:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=39"},"modified":"2021-02-19T18:38:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T18:38:41","slug":"equal-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/03\/equal-fights\/","title":{"rendered":"Equal Fights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we reproduce excerpts from an interview that Carolyn Leckie (SSP<\/acronym> MSP<\/acronym>) gave to Bridget Morris (published in Sunday Herald<\/cite> on 4 June 2006).<\/h2>\n

Women’s vital role in the struggle<\/h3>\n

From an early age, I considered myself a socialist, and spoke out about inequality, class and poverty. For as long as I can remember, I\u2019ve also been assertive about gender issues. I soon learned that for some people on the left, there could be tensions between these two areas.<\/p>\n

Seeing the industrial action in which my father was involved during the early 1970s, I became aware that it was usually women who had to deal with the practical repercussions of strikes. They were the ones who had to send the weans out to wait in the bread queues and make sure there was food on the table. There was almost a privileged role for the men in conducting the struggle. But while the women enabled it to happen by keeping the family going, their vital role never seemed to be properly valued, though it\u2019s now recognised that if it hadn\u2019t been for the magnificent work done by women in the miners\u2019 strike, the men wouldn\u2019t have been able to stay out as long as they did.
\n\u2026
\nThere are lots of progressive, right-on, feminist-thinking men within the SSP<\/acronym>. But a few members still seem to resent the progressive gains we\u2019ve made as women, particularly over the 50:50 issue. I was surprised by Tommy Sheridan\u2019s recent comment that we are a class-based socialist party, not a gender-obsessed discussion group<\/q>, because I understood he supported 50:50 at the time the policy was agreed, although he wasn\u2019t an active participant in the debate.<\/p>\n

You hear a lot of patriarchal, macho language within the Scottish Parliament. That kind of chest-beating appeals to some people. But to me, and other women within the SSP<\/acronym>, the important question is: how are we going to change society \u2013 by having competing strong leaders, or by empowering every single member of society so they can change it on an equal basis? \u2026<\/p>\n

\"Carolyn
Carolyn Leckie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It would be unfortunate if comments about gender obsessed discussion groups<\/q> were seen as representative of the SSP<\/acronym>\u2019s views on women\u2019s issues, because that would be inaccurate. Our party has progressive policies on gender.<\/p>\n

We have talented, committed women who are upfront and arguing on that terrain, at the same time as they are fighting on the picket lines and in their communities against hospital closures, school closures and privatisation. I don\u2019t accept that you can\u2019t do all of that while also tackling gender inequality, racism and other oppressions. \u2026<\/p>\n

White knuckle ride<\/h3>\n

How can you liberate the working class without liberating the half \u2013 or more than half \u2013 who are female? Compared with the left in general, the SSP<\/acronym> has been phenomenally successful in advancing women\u2019s issues. With progress, however, there is always a competing tension. Right now, the party is under tremendous strain, and those tensions are in unusually stark relief. The next few weeks and months are going to be a white-knuckle ride. But I am confident that we\u2019ll come out the other end intact. \u2026<\/p>\n

So we will survive, because there is a demand for a party such as ours. Because all the problems we are trying to tackle within society, are not going to go away. They may be about to get worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we reproduce excerpts from an interview that Carolyn Leckie (SSP MSP) gave to Bridget Morris (published in Sunday Herald on 4 June 2006). Women’s vital role in the struggle From an early age, I considered myself a socialist, and spoke out about inequality, class and poverty. For as long as I can remember, I\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1859,41],"tags":[8962,8961],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emancipation-liberation","category-womens-liberation","category-issue-13","tag-author-bridget-morris","tag-author-carolyn-leckie"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":4269,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17602,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/17602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}