Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollontai, translated with an introduction and commentaries by Alix Holt, review by DEB CONNERTY
This book gives the reader a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the writer Alexandra Kollontai, her move into politics and her desire to fight for a better world for both women and men.
The struggles Kollontai faced as a revolutionary agitator are both moving and insightful.
Her works on "Social Democracy and the Woman Question," give an extremely clear analysis of why working class women, often women who work long hours in textile factories in the early 1900s, have had difficulty relating to the women's movement.
Kollontai shows clearly how women suffer from sexism and a double burden of work and caring for their husbands and children at home. She identifies this issue and the limiting effects the family has on women's lives. She documents the difficulties women have meeting and dealing with the demands of factory work and home life.
But she explains that working women have long understood that fighting sexism alone cannot lead to liberation. Fighting sexism inside the working class is necessary, not as a battle against working class men, but as a battle to build unity between working class men and working class women in the fight against their common enemy, the capitalist.
Working class men suffer from the same low pay and lousy working conditions faced by working class women.
She clearly identifies that true freedom from oppression cannot be won when women fight against men. Instead true freedom from the double burden on women's lives can only be won when women and men fight back together to beat the boss.
Kollontai shows that there are two women's movements -- and that they have little in common with rich woman fighting for equality, rich women who often are part of the ruling class. The changes that they desire are often of little significance to the lives of working class women.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about issues related to working women and the women's movement. Alexandra Kollontai is a revolutionary whose writings should not be overlooked.