Statement of the Women's Opposition As women committed to the causes of feminism, democratic socialism, and nonviolent revolutionary action, we affirm that a Socialist movement which does not have room for a Women's Caucus or Women's Section cannot confront the patriarchal roots of oppression which the struggle for the social revolution must overcome. Therefore, as members of a Women's Opposition (Zhenshchina Oppozitsiya) if you will, we declare our resolve not to join or remain members of any socialist organization which does not recognize the central role of the struggle against sexism and the patriarchy, and enthusiastically cede to women the political space to organize among ourselves and to voice our feminist insights and interests in the socialist movement at large. Drawing on the examples of such women as Sojourner Truth, Rosa Luxemburg, Emma Goldman, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Deming, Angela Davis, Sylvia Rivera, Joyce Miller, and Dolores Huerta, we must challenge any misconception that the autonomous and militant presence of women in a Socialist movement would reduce such a movement to mere bourgeois equality concerns. Rather, we affirm that any "Socialist" movement that denies an autonomous space for women's organizing and representation risks reducing its program to the lowest common denominator of patriarchal politics. The toxic fruits of social patriotism (the downfall of the Second International) and repression and mass murder in the name of "revolution" (the downfall of Leninism and the Third International, and also of Leon Trotsky as Lenin's partner after 1917), show what can happen when patriarchy is not checked by an independent and vigorous women's community within the socialist movement. Throughout the era since the Enlightenment men have chucked the concerns of women overboard in revolutions both bourgeois and socialist. On the eve of American independence, Abigail Adams warned her husband John to be mindful of the rights of women: "I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation." Later in American history, Frederick Douglass despite being eloquent in his written support of Women's Suffrage and Women's Rights, in general, proved a poor ally to Sojourner Truth in the ongoing fight for women's and especially Black women's equality. We agree with Douglass "If there is no struggle, there is no progress....." Because "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will..." We demand the right to pursue our struggle in the way we see fit. We reject the misogynist slogan voiced by some who would later form Black Panther Party For Self Defense voiced first in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later at the last Students for a Democratic Society convention, "The only position for women in the movement is prone". We also emphasize the insights advanced and articulated by Women of Color under the name of Intersectional Feminism, a concept and approach which belongs especially to these our sisters, although the insights are there for everyone to use -- and those of us with white privilege, we might add, as a a valuable tool for constructive self-criticism. To recognize the rights of oppressed groups within a Socialist movement to organize, form autonomous spaces, and engage in the dialectic of dialogue and education with the movement at large is not to fragment the movement, but to give its unity a the depth that withstands the threats both of Capitalist repression from without and of tyranny from within. We are committed to the struggle against Patriarchy and its deadly forms of Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Interphobia (prejudice and hatred against intersex people). Like Racism, Xenophobia, and false Nationalism, these forms of hatred are cheerfully used by the ruling class to divide and conquer the working, poor, and middle classes. In this immediate struggle, we reserve the right to form coalitions with those whose other political stances a broader organization might criticize. A case in point would be unity with the late Leslie Feinberg on issues of the liberation of Women, Lesbians, and Trans-People while condemning the "Tankie" origin and practice of the Worker's World Party. Kate Millett's study of antifeminist backlashes and counterrevolutions under Capitalism and State Capitalism (also known as "communism") in _Sexual Politics_ (1970) remains a classic almost five decades later . Were we, as Socialist Feminists and nonviolent revolutionary women, to disregard our knowledge and the collective experience of our sisters and ourselves, we would be failing in our most basic political responsibilities and tasks. Thus we voice our resolve and renew our commitment to pursue socialism in communities and movements where women are free to organize independently and articulate our interests and insights in a way which enhances the struggle for justice and the preservation of our species and planet from the dual threats of nuclear war and climatic ecocide. We insist on the Socialist Feminist process, not just lip service to women's concerns. This requires at minimum arranging meetings so that women comrades speak in equal time with their brothers in the struggle. It means so much more than that. Within Confederación Nacional del Trabajo during Spanish Civil War female Anarcha Feminists launched the original Mujeres Libres (Free Women). It is from these brave companeras that we take our inspiration and the name of our caucus. In addition, we greet with enthusiasm the rise of Jinwar (Women's Land) within the Kurdish controlled region of Syria. These women, with the aid of Anarcha, Communist, and Socialist Feminists across the world, have build a self-sustaining commune free of both Capitalism and Patriarchy. We call our caucus Mujeres Libres / Free Women. We are Women for Democratic Socialism. Mujeres Libres is now taking shape as a revolutionary sisterhood of women coming from the traditions of inclusive Radical Feminism, Democratic Socialist Feminism, and Anarcha-Feminism. At this point, three themes may be especially salient. First, as was also true 50 years ago, when Women's Liberation arose as a movement challenging the male-dominated Left as well as the larger Patriarchal and Capitalist system, we need an energized Socialist Feminist community that can center women's issues, issues also central to the emancipation of humanity, of which we are the majority. Secondly, whether our perspectives grow out of Marxist-oriented feminism, or other Democratic Socialist traditions, or Anarcha-Feminism, or inclusive Radical Feminism, we need to build an inclusive women's community where Intersex and/or Trans Women will feel welcome and embraced as equal sisters, and where we can learn from each other based on feminist process and mutual nurturing. We practice self-care and mutual caring as indispensable in order to sustain ourselves and our common struggle. Third, while addressing many issues, we must confront two stark threats to the survival of humanity: the threat of nuclear war; and the threat and the accomplished reality of global climate change. Accentuating both threats is the deadly prospect of a new Cold War between the USA and Russia. Without in any way endorsing the kleptocratic Trump-Putin partnership, we caution that the alternative of Social Patriotism and a new Cold War would be yet worse. In 1914-1918, the failure of the Second International to resist and thus prevent the Great War cost millions of lives; a century later, climate change and nuclear proliferation have raised the stakes to the very survival of civilization as we know it. At this critical hour in the struggle for justice and for a peaceful and sustainable world, we invite our sisters in Democratic Socialist Feminism to join us in Mujeres Libres. 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