Author: annahauschild

The Working Women and Men as the Force of the Socialist Dream

“It is only in revolutionary struggle against the capitalists of every country and only in union with the working women and men of the whole world that will achieve a new and brighter future.” (Alexandra Kollontai)

Leftist revolutionaries like Alexandra Kollontai at the start of the 20th century did state that their idealistic goal of a communist and socialist future can just be achieved if there is a new understanding of unity of the working class on a global level. Communism has to be understood as a global phenomena and is not just tied to the Soviet Union. These ideas did challenge dominant hierarchies along racial and gender lines within the exploitative system of imperialism and the capitalist economic structure that it is based on. Communist internationalism has therefore be understood as a promise for the working class all over the world to break free from the ties of the oppressive capitalist to be able to be represented in an autonomous way of self-determination.

Being part of the proletariat is seen as the only important division of society that is used in order to shape a collective identity of the workers and farmers beside their cultural, racial or geographical background or gender.

One can argue that there is an inversion of social hierarchies in the way of how the class background is portrayed as the greatest value of an individual although always in connection to the collective working class as a whole. Dada Amir Haider Khan is describing in his autobiography Chains to Lose how he as an individual, orginally from the subcontinent who has worked on ships all around the world, is experiencing for the first time a sense of recognition and dignity while studying at the University of the Peoples of the East in Moscow. A place of unique diversity of people from various backgrounds mainly from the eastern part of the Soviet Union or the colonial and semicolonial East. A place where male and female students from all over the world of all ages and all different kind of educational backgrounds are studying and learning how “to assist in their national liberation movements against the imperialist powers and to organize communist parties in their countries”. Especially while recalling his experiences in the interview before getting accepted into the university it can be noticed that every personal detail like his social origin or his lack of formal education that led in the past to him being looked down on are now the qualities that are not just appreciated but even glorified.

The global union of the working class which Alexandra Kollontine as well as Dada Amir Haider Khan are idealistically portraying is also one of the main themes of socialist realist art and literature as the official aesthetic of the soviet union. This art movement is characterized by putting a positive hero or heroine of the working class in the centre of story telling of the written word or the visual image. Often the hero is portrayed in a naturalistic idealized way as the well-muscled, youthful and healthy worker that is ready to fight the chains of capitalism and start a revolution to build a classless society in the name of communism and socialism. Even if the female heroine is not portrayed as often as the male, one can see an increasing representation and recognition of the role of women within the revolutionary narrative of the working class.

https://erlangenwladimir.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/frauentag-3.jpeg
Postcard for International Women´s day on the 8th of March



The postcard above is advertising celebrations to the International Women´s Day on the 8th of March which is acknowledging women of the working class from various backgrounds. Until today this day marks demonstrations and protests of the socialist women´s movement in 1917 as an event that represents women´s participation in the Russian Revolution. The new image of women is focusing on her identity as part of the proletariat although the narrative of women in their role as mothers of the revolution is still dominant as well. They were increasingly represented in different parts of society like educational and organizational institutions of the communist regimes and movements in place. One can argue that the society that is tried to be achieved is still a patriarchal one where women are not completely free from certain roles that they are described to because of their gender but that there is still change in how women are being given importance and are seen as part of the collective union of the working class. The aesthetics of the postcard are portraying the three women of diverse backgrounds as confident representatives of the international female proletariat. Them being positioned on the same level shows the attempt that racial or cultural divisions have no space in their unity. Their positive and happy appearance while looking into their socialist future is also an example how revolutionary individuals are characterized in socialist realist imagination. Being side by side representing their sisterhood working and fighting for the same goal is also an important image to be recognized. Although the stereotypical representation of “the asian” as well as “the african” women through accessories and the positioning of the white woman at the front does show that there is still a certain bias influencing that representation.

Communist and socialist ideology and their representation in different forms of socialist realist art are not completely free from race and gender divisions but one has to acknowledge that these hierarchies are being challenged and critized while at same time trying to focus on the collective identity that is uniting the working class as a whole.

The concept of communist internationalism allowed many people to dream of an alternative future that is restructuring society and has a new understanding of the value of every human being especially of the ones who have been through struggle in order to achieve this ideal state of liberation from the oppressive system of capitalist imperialism.

 

The Mythmaking of Australia Day

On every 26th of January cars, streets and buildings will be covered in national flags all over Australia. People will gather for barbecues, sports events and concerts to “celebrate” being Australian. Australia Day as the official national holiday of Australia is marking the day Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Port Jackson in New South Wales in 1788 and raised the British flag at Sydney Cove. This was 18 years after Captain James Cook claimed to discover the eastern half of today’s Australia in the name of the British Crown. This historical day and these two historical figures are shaping a certain understanding of the history of Australia which is putting a European perspective into the centre of story telling of what Australia is and being an Australian means. This perspective does not just neglect the existence of aboriginal history and culture before the “discovery” and settlement of Australia by the British but is also trivializing the brutal actions against the indigenous population throughout the past centuries until today.

Gananath Obeyesekere is demonstrating in The Apotheosis of Captain Cook – European Mythmaking in the Pacific that the narrative around Cook as the “true open-minded scientist without preconceptions” and therefore a humanist image of Cook is rooted in the European imagination and construction of “the self” in contrast to “the other”. Cook has often been portrayed as the idealistic representative of enlightenment who’s actions were based on rational thought and science which is put in contrasting comparison to the construction of the “irrational native” or the “prelogical savage” who is acting on the grounds of spirituality and myths. By the definition of Obeyesekere that a myth is “a sacred story about gods and founding ancestors or stories about ancestral heroes” one can argue that the image of Cook as well as Phillip as “the ancestral heroes” of today’s Australia can also be seen as a paradigmatic myth which is the basis for the symbolic performance of Australia Day today. Beside questioning the constructed rational self of the European he also states that “preliterate societies can and do act rationally in terms of their own cultural values” but that the colonial and imperial act of deciding what is considered of value stays with the oppressor.

Invasion Day: the tide is turning | Green Left Weekly
Protesters at the Invasion Day rally in Melbourne 2018

The struggle of which voices are heard and which perspectives are seen as valuable is a struggle that is not set in the past but continues and can be seen in the debate around Australia Day every year. The right of having a history that is “celebrated” stays solely with European history or one could also say with the European myth. Therefore Australia Day does not just show European mythmaking but also a crisis of representation of what is seen as “the non-European”. For the aboriginal community this day symbolizes oppression, murder and suffering and is more often referred to as Invasion Day or Survival Day to put the indigenous perspective in the centre of recalling history. Even people who argue that Australia Day is not so much focusing on the historical event it is based on but is trying to embrace the cultural diversity of the present and is therefore a day that tries to connect rather than divide are neglecting and not recognizing the painful implications that it has for the indigenous population. While trying to be well intentioned this interpretation of Australia Day is pretending that the past is isolated from the present while the aboriginal community is continuously confronted with lack of representation and recognition.

Voices of resistance have always been there but are just given more space for expression and attention within the past few years which is shown by the annually growing Invasion Day rally all over Australia. While some protesters and activists are calling for changing the date of the national holiday to a date which is inclusive and sensitive towards indigenous history, culture and experience others are questioning the concept of a national holiday as a whole.

Beside these different views everybody who is taking part in the protests from aboriginal as well as non-aboriginal communities are demanding that the 26th of January should in the future not be a day of celebration but of remembrance of loss and suffering and a reminder that the brutal past has not been acknowledged and the equal representation of indigenous perspectives has not been reached yet.