Future revolutions

: " Some form of managed Capitalism and a rather diluted - not very participatory - liberal democracy, is what history has in store for mankind, and that is that… dreams of a leap into some radically new world have to be abandoned." {Alan Ryan, Warden of New College, Oxford, "Whatever happened to the Left" The New York Review of Books, Oct. 17, 1996. p. 42) . Most people accepted this view.

In other words - the collapse of USSR's BG indicates that the socialized economy has failed. Hence from now on humanity is doomed to live forever in BB economies in multi-party states. Big government has failed and humanity is doomed to be dominated forever by big business. Many accept this conclusion.

Paraphrasing Heraclites we reply:"Darkness falls only on those who allow themselves to fall into darkness, for those who do not - a new sun rises every morning".

Under today's new sun the most participatory direct democracy (DD) is possible by using mobile phones, the Internet, TV and magnetic cards. When enough people realize this and are decided to set up a system where every citizen can vote on every issue of society the 21st Century will be very different from a " rather diluted, not very participatory liberal democracy” Today - unlike in 1968 - a leap into the most radical new world in history is possible. DD is not utopia whereas rule by representatives of BB or BG has become dystopia.

The time - and the possibility - has arrived to replace RR, BB, and BG by DD.

11. Women's Liberation

Marx's prediction that revolutions of technology will cause revolutions in society, mentality, and politics, were confirmed on a massive scale by the modern women's movements. The new textile factories of the industrial revolution attracted many young women who left farms to work in factories. Industrial work and disputes with their employers over wages and working conditions united them. They began to demand the same pay and rights as men. Women from the upper and middle classes led the struggle for women's right to vote ("suffrage") but the masses of the movement were the factory workers. Most men at first opposed women's demands, arguing that their work was inferior to men's. In WW1 men left factories to serve as soldiers and the arms industry had to employ women. After WW1 their demands could no longer be ignored and they won voting rights in most European countries.

In the 20^th Century more women were involved in struggles for equal rights than ever before and they won more than in all previous history. The Israeli scholar Professor Yeshayau Leibovitz (1903-1994) said in 1992:” Until the second half of the 19^th century no woman had a foothold in a university, and this was the norm. A little over a century ago there was no woman lawyer, doctor, or professor, anywhere. In all great political revolutions, starting with the two English revolutions in the 17^th century, the American Revolution in the 18^th century and the French revolution at the end of the 18^th century, it never occurred to revolutionaries to give women political rights. In the second half of the 19^th century, something happened that I consider as the greatest revolution in human history from the Palaeolithic age to our times - namely, that the domains of intellectual, spiritual and political life, ceased to be male affairs and became human affairs.” (see www.leibowitz.co.il)

This change was due to industrialization and successes of the women’s struggles for equal rights. These struggles - and their achievements - were not spectacular like wars or revolutions therefore many History books ignore them. Any description of history that ignores struggles concerning half of humanity is profoundly flawed.

Successful liberation struggles liberate not only the oppressed but also the oppressors. Liberation of women from domination by men liberates men from their obsession with domination. Liberation of women redefines roles of men and women in society superseding their biological functions. Each society defines these roles in its way. Social roles are not imposed on humanity - or on animals - by Nature. Biology does not define social roles. Sex differences exist in baboons and in elephants but gender roles amongst baboons are totally different from gender roles amongst elephants. If biological differences determine gender roles in society why are these roles in Islamic society different from those in Danish society? Gender roles are imposed by society, not by biology. They can be re-defined by society. In computer terms we can say roles are defined by society’s software not by nature’s hardware.

To get an idea of the women’s liberation struggles in the 20^th Century readers are advised to consult the Internet. This book gives only a brief overview of these profoundly important struggles to enable readers to view the overall process.

In the 20^th Century women's struggles passed through three stages. The first began already in the 19^th century during the industrial revolution in Europe and USA when women demanded equal pay and rights at work as men, and the right to vote to Parliament. Voting rights were won after WW1. In the UK in 1918, in USA - 1920, in France - 1944, in Switzerland - 1971. Equal pay has still not been won everywhere

The next stage began in Europe after WW1. It aimed to legalize abortion. The invention of the birth-control pill in 1957 was a great improvement. For the first time women could enjoy sexual relations without fear of pregnancy. "The Pill" reduced the urgency of the abortion issue but the struggle to legalize abortion is far from over. The third stage began in the 1960s when women workers, lesbians, and single-parent, demanded the same social and legal rights, benefits, and opportunities that heterosexual men are entitled to. It has achieved many of its demands, but not all. Religious rulers refuse to give women the same rights as men opposing all equality.

Most history books on women's liberation written in Europe and USA ignore the great contribution of the Russian women's struggles. In February 1917 a demonstration of 80,000 women textile workers demanding Peace and Bread started the Russian revolution. In his study "Class struggle and Women's Liberation" (see the Internet) Tony Cliff writes in Chapter 9:

" The first conference of women convened by the Bolsheviks after the October revolution took place on 19 November 1917 (a fortnight after the revolution. A.O.) 500 delegates representing 80,000 women from factories, workshops, trade unions and party organizations attended. The conference was called specifically for mobilizing support for the Bolsheviks in the elections to the Constituent Assembly.

A year later, on 16 November 1918, the Bolshevik Party convened the first all-Russian Congress of Working Women. It was organized by a commission which included Inessa Armand, Alexandra Kollontai, Klavdiia Nikolaeva and Yakov Sverdlov (secretary of the Bolshevik Party), who sent agitators to the provinces to arrange for the local election of delegates.

In the Kremlin Hall of Unions there gathered 1,147 women, including workers and peasant women from distant regions of the country. The programme presented to the congress was impressive: to win the support of women for Soviet power; to involve women in the party, government and trade unions; to combat domestic slavery and a double standard of morality; to establish communal living accommodation in order to release women from household drudgery; to protect women’s labour and maternity; to end prostitution; to refashion women as members of the future communist society. Nikolaeva chaired the congress. Sverdlov welcomed the delegates. The main speeches were delivered by Kollontai and Inessa Armand. Lenin addressed the congress on its fourth day. After outlining the measures already taken by the Soviet government to improve women’s conditions, he called on women to play a more active political role. “ The experience of all liberation movements has shown that the success of a revolution depends on how much the women take part in it .”

The congress led to the creation of Commissions for Agitation and Propaganda among Working Women. Their special methods of political work were elaborated by Kollontai at the Eighth Congress of the party in March 1919. She explained that because most women were politically backward, the party had really not had much success in trying to approach and recruit them on the basis of general political appeals. Furthermore, she argued that it was women’s oppression which led to their lack of involvement in political life; the cares and concerns of the family and the household robbed the woman worker of her time and energy and prevented her from becoming involved in broader political and social pursuits. Kollontai proposed that the way to attract women to Bolshevism was to draw them into socially useful projects, such as day nurseries, public dining rooms and maternity homes, which would serve to liberate women in their everyday lives.

We have to conduct a struggle against conditions oppressing woman, to emancipate her as a housewife, as a mother. And this is the best approach toward women - this is agitation not only by words, but also by the deed.

This principle of political organization, which became known as “agitation by the deed”, was the distinctive feature of the activities of the Bolshevik women’s organization in this early period. (see the Internet)

The USSR legal system was the first to give equal rights of marriage and divorce to men and women, simplifying these procedures. It was the first to legalize abortion.

" A Decree on the Legalization of Abortions was issued in November 1920. Soviet Russia thus became the first country in the world to legalize abortion. To protect the health of women the decree stipulated: “... such operations will be performed freely and without any charge in Soviet hospitals, where conditions are assured of minimizing the harm of the operation.”

But the laws alone were far from enough to gain women real equality. The economic foundation of the traditional family had to be assaulted. This was attempted in a set of decrees abolishing the right of inheritance and transferring the property of the deceased to the state, which was to take over “women’s work” through its communal institutions: maternity homes, nurseries, kindergartens, schools, communal dining rooms, communal laundries, mending centres and so on. Lenin explained:

" Notwithstanding all the laws emancipating woman, she continues to be a domestic slave, because petty housework crushes, strangles, stultifies and degrades her, chains her to the kitchen and the nursery, and she wastes her labour on barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve-racking, stultifying and crushing drudgery. The real emancipation of women, real communism, will begin only where and when an all-out struggle begins (led by the proletariat wielding the state power) against this petty housekeeping, or rather when its wholesale transformation into a large-scale socialist economy begins". ("Class struggle and women's liberation" by Tony Cliff, on the Internet)

In the USSR all jobs were open to women, (including that of fighter-pilots in the air force) and the principle of equal pay for equal work was maintained.

One of the greatest achievements of the State-owned economy was the policy on women giving birth. In 1989 USSR law extended maternity leave to three years on full pay paid for by the State (!) at the end of which the mother could return to her former job. This law was in force until the USSR was dismantled.

All USSR factories and offices maintained child-care nurseries for their employees with full board from morning till night at a low cost. This enabled every woman with infants below school age to work. During Stalin's reign (1924-1953) there was a setback in marital law. Some earlier progressive rights were withdrawn even in 2007 and new laws - strengthening the nuclear family - were introduced.

"In 1936 legal abortion was abolished, except where life or health was endangered or a serious disease might be inherited. The laws of l935-6 also provided some sanctions against divorce: fees of 50, 150 and 300 roubles for the first, second and subsequent divorces. Probably more important, it required entry of the fact of divorce in the personal documents of those involved. Sexual freedom was virulently attacked and Puritanism extolled." ("Class struggle and women's liberation" on the Internet) Most regulations of Stalin's era were revoked after his death.

One contribution of the women's struggles in the 1970s to liberation struggles generally merits special mention. In the 1970s women in European-Left groups formed "women's consciousness-raising groups" to discuss women's problems without the presence of men. This was criticized by men who supported the women's struggles. The women explained that the presence of men inhibits many women who lack the assertiveness of men. Many women find it easier to overcome their inhibition to express themselves in public when no man is present. When women in these groups began to describe their problems they suddenly realized that what each believed to be her private problem was shared by many other women. Before such discussions each woman thought her problems were hers alone, and her fault. On realizing that many other women had the same problems they realized it wasn't their fault but the fault of a social norm in their society. This created an awareness that what seems like a personal problem often derives from a tradition, a law, or a custom, of society. This insight was summed up in the formula: "The personal is political" meaning that often what looks like a personal problem is widespread and is therefore a problem of society as a whole, not of the particular individual. Today this may seem obvious, but in the 1970s it came as a revelation to most women - and men.

Many women outside Europe and North America do not enjoy the achievements of the women's liberation movements. Much effort is still needed till all women, everywhere, enjoy rights that many women in Europe and North America have won.

The gap between the legal rights of men and women in any society is a measure of that society's quality. All three stages of women's liberation struggles demanded equality with men. Women demanded the same rights, roles, and incomes, as men. Lesbians and gays demanded the same rights - and opportunities - as heterosexuals. Single parent mothers demanded the same rights as ordinary families. However, a demand for equality ignores the quality of what one wants to equalize. When Ms. Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister in the UK she did not change the role of Prime Minister nor the condition of women. Her policy of privatisation made the conditions of most working men and women much worse. Women did not benefit from the fact that the UK's PM was a woman. The Conservatives' views of the role of women in society (the traditional medieval view: "Children, Kitchen, Church,") crushes women's liberation. The fact that a British woman became a Prime Minister did not improve the lot of women in Britain - or the role of Prime Minister. Equal right to perform a man's role does not change the nature of that role.

In this respect one can say about women seeking equal rights to men what W.E.B. DuBois said about the blacks in the USA seeking equal rights to whites: " They are like people trying to catch a bus without asking themselves: where is this bus going? "

Equality does not change the quality of what is being equalized.

When future struggles for women's liberation develop beyond demands for gender equality in existing roles and strive to create new modes of human behaviour, they will elevate their struggle from "women's liberation" to "human liberation", from demands for equality to the creation of new human qualities.

12. Imperialism transformed

From the 16^th century onwards European rulers of BB economies, motivated by greed, sent armed expeditions around the globe to find gold, spices, slaves, and territories to plunder and to colonize. This was done by the Vikings, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British. Plundering and colonizing tribal societies reached its peak in the 19^th century. Modern weapons enabled tiny groups of European colonizers to defeat big tribal armies and conquer vast tracts of land. The first use of the Maxim machine gun was by British soldiers in the First Matabele War in 1893-1894. In one battle, 50 British soldiers ("The thin red-line") with just four Maxim guns defeated 5,000 tribal warriors. The Maxim gun played a big role in the European colonization of Africa in the late 19th century. Its lethal efficiency destroyed tribal armies lured into battle in open terrain. Hilaire Belloc boasted in a famous jingle: "Whatever happens we have got, the Maxim gun, and they have not. "

By the end of the 19^th century most of Asia and Africa were colonies of Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, or Portugal. WW2 was Hitler's attempt to turn the USSR into a colony of Germany. After WW2, impoverished Britain, ruling the largest colonial empire, France, Holland and Belgium, could no longer afford the cost of policing the colonized. Many colonized people began to fight for their independence. The following table lists the success of the various struggles for independence.

De-colonization time line

Year	Colonizer	Event
1945	Japan	Korea is independeKorea wins independence after 40 years of Japanese rule, but splits then rule and splits into communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea
	Japan	Taiwan returns to the rule of Republic of China.
1946	USA	USA recognizes sovereignty of the Philippines.
	Britain	The former emirate of Trans-Jordan (present-day Jordan) becomes an independent Hashemite kingdom.
1947	Britain	India and Pakistan (including Bangladesh) win independence
1948	Britain	In the Far East, Burma and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) win independence. In the Middle East. Israel wins independence.
1949	France	Laos becomes independent.
	Holland	UN recognizes independence of Indonesia which becomes the Republic of Indonesia led by Sukarno
1951	Italy	Libya becomes an independent kingdom.
1952	USA	Puerto Rico in the Antilles becomes self governing
1953	France	France recognizes Cambodia's independence.
1954	France	Vietnam's independence recognized, but is partitioned like Korea.. Pondicherry enclave is incorporated into India. Beginning of the Algerian War of Independence against France
	Britain	Britain leaves last part of Egypt: the Suez Canal zone.
1956	Britain	Anglo-Egyptian Sudan becomes independent.
	France	Tunisia and Morocco win independence.
1957	Britain	Ghana wins independence. Decolonization of sub-Saharan Africa starts.
	Britain	The Federation of Malaya wins independence.
1958	France	Guinea on the coast of West-Africa wins independence.
	USA	Signing of the Alaska Statehood Act by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
	Britain	Britain withdraws from Iraq, which becomes independent
1960	Britain	Nigeria, British Somaliland (present-day Somalia), and most of Cyprus win independence.
	France	Benin Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso), Cameroon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mali and Senegal), Mauritania, Niger, Togo and the Central African Republic and Madagascar win independence.
	Belgium	Belgian Congo becomes Democratic Republic of Congo,
1961	Britain	Tanganyika , Tanzania ,the island of Zanzibar, and Sierra Leone, Kuwait and British Cameroon win independence. South Africa declares independence.
	Portugal	Portugese colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu become part of India.
1962	Britain	Uganda in Africa, and Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, win independence.
	France	End of Algerian War , Algeria wins independence.
	Belgium	Rwanda and Burundi (then Urundi) attain independence through the ending of the Belgian trusteeship.
	New Zealand	The South Sea UN trusteeship over the Polynesian kingdom of Western Samoa is relinquished.
1963	Britain	Kenya wins independence.
	Britain	Singapore, together with Sarawak and Sabah on North Borneo join the independent Federation of Malaya.
1964	Britain	Northern Rhodesia declares independence. Zambia and Malawi, formerly Nyasaland do the same. The Mediterranean island of Malta becomes independent.
1965	Britain	Southern Rhodesia (present Zimbabwe) declares independence as Rhodesia, an Apartheid regime, but is not recognized. Gambia is recognized as independent. The British rule of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean ends.
1966	Britain	Barbados and Guyana; and in Africa, Botswana (then Bechuanaland) and Lesotho become independent.
1967	Britain	Aden colony wins independence as South Yemen, to be united with North Yemen in 1990-1991.
1968	Britain	Mauritius and Swaziland achieve independence.
	Portugal	After nine years of organized guerilla resistance, most of Guinea-Bissau wins independence.
	Spain	Equatorial Guinea (then Rio Muni) is made independent.
	Australia	Relinquishes UN trusteeship (nominally shared by the Britain and New Zealand) of Nauru in the South Sea.
1971	Britain	Fiji and Tonga in the South Sea are given independence.
	Britain	Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and six Trucial States (federating as United Arab Emirates become independent monarchies in the Persian Gulf..
1973	Britain	The Bahamas are granted independence.
	Portugal	Guerillas unilaterally declare independence in the Southeastern regions of Guinea-Bissau.
1974	Britain	Grenada in the Caribbean becomes independent.
	Portugal	Guinea-Bissau on the coast of West-Africa is recognized as independent by Portugal.
1975	France	The Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa is granted independence.
	Portugal	Angola, Mozambique and the island groups of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, all in Africa, win independence. East Timor is annexed by Indonesia. Vietnam re-unified..
	Holland	Surinam (former Dutch Guiana) becomes independent.
	Australia	Papua New Guinea gains independence.
1976	Britain	Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the African coast becomes independent.
	Spain	The Spanish colonial rule de facto terminated over the Western Sahara. Mauritania Morocco annexed the entire territory in 1979
1977	France	French Somaliland, (Djibouti) wins independence.
1978	Britain	Dominica in the Caribbean and the Solomon Islands, as well as Tuvalu all in the South Sea, become independent.
1979	USA	Returns the Panama Canal Zone (held under a regime sui generic since 1903) to the republic of Panama.
	Britain	The Gilbert Islands (present-day Kiribati) in the South Sea and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia in the Caribbean become independent.
1980	Britain	Zimbabwe (then [Southern] Rhodesia), already independent de facto, becomes formally independent. The joint Anglo-French colony of the New Hebrides becomes the independent island republic of Vanuatu.
1981	Britain	Belize (then British Honduras) and Antigua & Barbuda become independent.
1983	Britain	Saint Kitts and Nevis becomes independent.
1984	Britain	Brunei sultanate on Borneo becomes independent.
1990	South Africa	Namibia becomes independent from South Africa.
	USA	Independence of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, having been a colony of Japan.
1991	USA	U.S. forces withdraw from Subic Bay and Clark Air Base in the Philippines after a century of U.S. military presence..
1994	USA	Palau becomes independent from USA, having been a mandate of Japan
1997	Britain	The sovereignty of Hong Kong is transferred to China.
1999	Portugal	Macau is transferred to China. Last in a series of coastal enclaves that British and Portuguese powers had forced the Chinese Empire to grant. Like Hong Kong, it is a quasi-autonomous territory within the People's Republic of China.
2002	Indonesia	East Timor wins independence after UN administration ends military occupation by Indonesia.