Thursday, November 8, 2007

Why we fight



SCUM Manifesto

REDSTOCKINGS MANIFESTO (1969)

I. After centuries of individual and preliminary political struggle, women are united to achieve their final liberation from male supremacy. Redstockings is dedicated to building this unity and winning our freedom.

II. Women are an oppressed class. Our oppression is total, affecting every facet of our lives. We are exploited as sex objects, breeders, domestic servants, and cheap labor. We are considered inferior beings, whose only purpose is to enhance men's lives. Our humanity is denied. Our prescribed behavior is enforced by the threat of physical violence.

Because we have lived so intimately with our oppressors, in isolation from each other, we have been kept from seeing our personal suffering as a political condition. This creates the illusion that a woman's relationship with her man is a matter interplay between two unique personalities, and can be worked out individually. In reality, every such relationship is a class relationship, and the conflicts between individual men and women are political conflicts that can only be solved collectively.

III. We identify the agents of our oppression as men. Male supremacy is the oldest, most basic form of domination. All other forms of exploitation and oppression (racism, capitalism, imperialism, etc.) are extensions of male supremacy: men dominate women, a few men dominate the rest. All power structures throughout history have been male-dominated and male-oriented. Men have controlled all political, economic and cultural institutions and backed up this control with physical force. They have used their power to keep women in an inferior position. All men receive economic, sexual, and psychological benefits from male supremacy. All men have oppressed women.

IV. Attempts have been made to shift the burden of responsibility from men to institutions or to women themselves. We condemn these arguments as evasions. Institutions alone do not oppress; they are merely tools of the oppressor. To blame institutions implies that men and women are equally victimized, obscures the fact that men benefit from the subordination of women, and gives men the excuse that they are forced to be oppressors. On the contrary, any man is free to renounce his superior position provided that he is willing to be treated like a woman by other men.

We also reject the idea that women consent to or are to blame for their own oppression. Women's submission is not the result of brainwashing, stupidity, or mental illness but of continual, daily pressure from men. We do not need to change our-selves, but to change men.

The most slanderous evasion of all is that women can oppress men. The basis for this illusion is the isolation of individual relationships from their political context and the tendency of men to see any legitimate challenge to their privileges as persecution.

V. We regard our personal experience, and our feelings about that experience, as the basis for an analysis of our common situation. We cannot rely on existing ideologies as they are all products of male supremacist culture. We question every generalization and accept none that are not confirmed by our experience.

Our chief task at present is to develop female class consciousness through sharing experience and publicly exposing the sexist foundation of all our institutions. Consciousness-raising is not "therapy", which implies the existence of individual solutions and falsely assumes that the male-female relationship is purely personal, but the only method by which we can ensure that our program for liberation is based on the concrete realities of our lives.

The first requirement for raising class consciousness is honesty, in private and in public, with ourselves and other women.

VI. We identify with all women. We define our best interest as that of the poorest, most brutally exploited woman.

We repudiate all economic, racial, educational or status privileges that divide us from other women. We are determined to recognize and eliminate any prejudices we may hold against other women.

We are committed to achieving internal democracy. We will do whatever is necessary to ensue that every woman in our movement has an equal chance to participate, assume responsibility, and develop her political potential.

VII. We call on all our sisters to unite with us in struggle.

We call on all men to give up their male privileges and support women's liberation in the interest of our humanity and their own.

In fighting for our liberation we will always take the side of women against their oppressors. We will not ask what is "revolutionary" or "reformist", only what is good for women.

The time for individual skirmishes has passed. This time we are going all the way.

Redstockings manifesto

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We should embrace our supposed position as opressors and start opressing women and girls.

--MikeeUSA--
Death To women's Rights.
Viva Men's Liberty.

Masculist Man said...

That's what I'm thinking they want.

Bob said...

As long as they believe that men are oppressors, we should say, "You better believe it, bitch! Bend over."

Anonymous said...

THE DEMISE OF THE AMERICAN MALE AND ITS EFFECT ON NATIONAL SECURITY

As this essay begins, one should be at once grieved and saddened by the state of affairs for Men in the United States of America. For the reality of the situation is this - the American Male is under attack: psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually, by the very people whom he was created to protect - American Women.

American Women are constantly overheard to talk about "why there are no more good Men left," or "why don't Men commit," or "why do Men lie and then leave," or even "why are Men so irresponsible?"

It didn't use to be like this - but for the past 50 or so years, Feminist legislation and liberal dogma has completely ruined this country. America's enemies have invested trillions of dollars in Feminist groups and legislators which make it very easy to destroy, defame, and emasculate the American Male.

Our educational system supports this agenda.

Every single admirable quality of the American Male is now suspect - responsibility means inflexibility, strength of character equates to stubborness, standing one's ground equals abusiveness, courage and fearlessness is now insanity.

If a Man exhibits any of these qualities to his wife or girlfriend, she can easily destroy him by lying about abuse, rape, verbal haranguing, anything, and he can be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted of a crime.

Even if she is lying, and has a pattern of lying, because the "system" does not want to take any chances.

What Man is crazy enough to risk that? What Man would put himself in that position of trust, when he should know that the only thing standing between him and a jail cell is the fickle whim of a Woman who just might get angry one day (whether justified or not)?

Men are forced to live in one of two ways - either as a coward by avoiding relationships with Women completely, or as an emotional thief, stealing sex and love on the sly, and then leaving when the relationship gets too intense and meaningful. The only types of Men who have nothing to worry about are the effeminate ones that lack any Manly traits whatsover, and these are the Men that Women are forced to marry.

The relationship for Men has become similar to sticking one's head into the lion's mouth, with the possibility of never being able to escape, if the jaws suddenly snap shut.

In the current state of the law, Men can and will, with just an allegation, lose all of their money, their kids, their house, their job, their respect, their self-respect, their friends, their self-esteem, their standing in their community, their families, and above all, their souls if a Woman simply decides, one day, in one minute, to snap and cast him into the abyss of hell by calling 911 and lying.

No Police Officer called to the scene will ever take the chance of not arresting someone in a domestic dispute, and unfortunately, the statistics point out that it is overwhelmingly the Man in the relationship who is arrested, and not the Woman.

Does this mean that there are no Women out there who beat, abuse, or harass Men in relationships? Of course not. But that is unfortunately proof positive that the system is not working well.

Is it really worth the risk for Men to get into a relationship?

It is a basic cornerstone that the building blocks of a healthy, successful, prosperous, and strong nation are, in this order: (1) healthy individuals which make up (2) healthy relationships which in turn create (3) healthy families which beget (4) healthy communities which forge (5) healthy towns which in turn generate (6) healthy cities creating (7) healthy states which ultimately make a (8) healthy nation or country.

How easy is it for our enemies, both foreign and domestic, to destroy our entire country's entire strength, health, longevity, self-reliance, morale, and confidence, when all they have to do is pit this nation's Women against its Men through horribly unfair legislation, unbalanced favoritism of the legal system in favor of its Women against Men, castigating all of the valuable characteristics of Men that were once and formally prized, as now border-line criminal conduct, and striking at the very roots of the tree of this country?

This problem has therefore become a National Security issue, and should be treated as such by our Government.

Our country's lives are at stake. No wonder every single foreign war we have entered into over the past 50 years has progressively been less and less effective, where our foreign enemies have consistently made mince-meat out of our Armed Forces, and we can no longer win a difficult war with decisiveness and efficiency. The Men of our Armed Forces are no match psychologically, emotionally, or spiritually for most Men of foreign countries, who have never had to deal with or be emasculated by this scurrilous baggage. No wonder that Men from foreign countries routinely laugh at the effeminate nature of American Men who have been degraded out of fear, obedience, and the shame of being Men from our Women, who have made us feel guilty for just being Men. Metrosexual Men have become de rigeur, and flagrant homosexuality and feminine behavior in heterosexual Men is welcomed, nourished, safe, and politically correct in American society and in the eyes of the law. Manly behavior is not.

No one supports abuse by Men, or by anyone.

But the system is totally broken, and good Men are getting destroyed. Too many Men are getting ruined by a system run amok, where even the most base, lying, evil, insecure, mercenary, violent, money-hungry, and selfish Women, some of whom have been officially proven to be so, can easily destroy a Man of proven great character, strength, reputation, honor, and respect.

It happens thousands of times a day in this country. With regards to any type of allegation of Domestic Violence (what these types of cases are called), any Police Officer, Prosecutor, or Lawyer will tell you that a Woman's word is 100 times stronger than a Man's, even in the absence of any evidence to substantiate this. And the Police Officer will blindly arrest, and the Prosecutor will doggedly pursue, that Man.

The question is why?

And when will we as a young nation recognize that even Ancient Rome fell because of this type of internal moral and spiritual decay of the qualities that made Men strong, their families strong, and ultimately, their nation, strong.

Raphael de Plume
New York, New York
September 11, 2007