Aug-Sept 2014 K.indd

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www.cosatu.org.za • AUG/SEPT 2014

is presented by men who automatically get trusted and believed by society even when they have openly done wrong. As this generation of women, we must rise and confront any form of abuse, harassment and undermining wherever it manifests itself. We must force society to learn to believe our side of the story and not to always have us subjected to societal cross examination to prove the truthfulness of our side of the story. Women must realise that whilst our struggle is not against men we are engaged in a battle of ideas in a society where men are trusted in advance even before they open their mouths. We need to force society to listen not just to our cries but also to our views as women. Until all men recognize all women as equals and treat them with total respect, we will not be able to say that we have transformed our society. For as long as we still exploit women as objects, we will not be a liberated society. In the declaration of COSATU’s Gender conference held in 2012 we said “The freedom we espouse is not complete and it is also under threat as long as gender relations remain unequal. The emancipation of the women means the emancipation of the men too as well as the whole society”. We want to repeat that too, often, the concept of gender and sex are used interchangeably while in essence they are quite different. The most common misunderstanding of the concept of gender is that it simply means addressing men and women’s concerns equally. This effectively ignores unequal power gender power relations, and undermines the central objective, which is the emancipation of women. We want to re-emphasise that sex refers to biological differences between

the table of negotiation. We ask for no favours in our struggle to alter gender power relations in society and inside our own organisations. This is a reminder of how comrade Samora Machel answered the cynics who were asking what the relevance of a women’s liberation movement is, when the majority of the women are totally indifferent to the question. Their conclusion being that it is an arti fi cial liberation, imposed on the women. Comrade Samoral Machel answered them and said this is a matter which “requires study and clear ideas” and he asserted forcefully and unambiguously that “the liberation of women is not an act of charity. It is not the result of a humanitarian or compassionate position. It is a fundamental necessity for the revolution, a guarantee of its continuity, and a condition for its success.” Today we need to reaf fi rm these words that as women we ask for no favours and we ask for no acts of charity however noble those can be. We want commitment to our struggle to transform and transfer power in a manner that will create our dream of a non-sexist society. As women we are called upon to stand up, unapologetically to point out the wrong things inside our organisations even if it means we become victims of vili fi cation, defamation, and slander or lose the positions of leadership. As women we need to stand up and not be apologetic to raise the plight of women in society and inside the trade union movement and the liberation movement as a whole even if it means we do not get voted into positions of power and in fl uence. If we do not stand up, we will continue to be the victims of a skewed truth that

However, this solidarity, arising from the exploitation that both men and women suffer and that binds them together historically, must not cause us to lose sight of the speci fi c reality of the woman’s situation. COSATU has also noted that the people that are trying to transform gender relations are deeply affected by sexism themselves. Political organisations are male-dominated, most of the political thinkers are men, and their perspectives are often impeded by the personal bene fi ts they derive as a result of women’s oppression, resulting in gender-blindness. Because men do ‘bene fi t’ it is often dif fi cult for them to see how their own lives have been distorted and limited by sexism. Having said this , we need to realise that the gender struggle is a struggle which like all other struggles requires bravery and clarity of mind at all material times. Che Guevara said “It is better to die standing than to die on your knees”. The gender struggle, like any struggle which intends to achieve transformation, transfer and sharing of power, requires a level of bravery and clarity on principles upon which such a struggle is predicated. Perhaps some comrades think that the gender struggle is being waged on the bases of an expectation to get favours. No comrades, we ask for no favours, we only ask to get that which is ours. We ask for our dignity, we ask for our respect , we ask for our power, we ask for equal access to our economy etc. All these require no favour from anyone. In the same way that we did not ask for favours from the apartheid regime, instead we took them toe to toe and fi nally through our struggles created no other way out but forced them into

Gender Agenda