Women in Struggle/Mujeres en Lucha and Struggle-La Lucha received the following letter from a Latine sister after reports of sexual abuse by former United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez appeared in the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets:
Hearing that one of our organizing heroes did not live up to the perfect image I had imagined was soul-crushing at first. I was in disbelief and reasoned that this must have been made up.
Then I turned to anger at how this was covered up for so long and how over and over those of us that have a deep connection to the matriarchy get the worst end of the stick. And anger at the fact that the most vulnerable in our communities are being treated worse than animals, and how the Murdochs, Bezoses and Sulzbergers of the world are hoping this will serve as the last blow to our movements.
I’m all for calling out the abusers and rapists, but I question the intent of corporate media to call this out in such a coordinated effort when there are so many immediate attacks on the human condition they can report on that actually matter for our existence as a species.
Do they really care about protecting women, or is this an attempt to discredit a whole movement? Are they really interested in airing the sexist, chauvinistic, rapist culture that is so engrained in capitalist society, ranging from small towns to the highest political offices?
Will this lead to a call for removing all rapists, racists, and pedophiles from positions of power? Is this an attempt to build spaces that honor the matriarchy and women’s role in society? Will they invest in women’s access to education, living wage jobs, ending toxic masculinity?
The fact is that, yes, our organizing spaces are not exempt from the perils of toxic capitalist culture. We are in the belly of the beast, after all. Despite our best efforts to create socialist spaces where women can truly make decisions over their own bodies, who they want as a partner, what they wear, when and if they want to be mothers, we do not live in a bubble, and the patriarchy seeps in.
This is a reminder that as long as patriarchal systems are prevalent, those of us practicing matriarchal systems of care will not be safe. And capitalism is the biggest patriarchal system of them all — a system that exploits not just women, but any human healthy enough to be exploited. In the words of bell hooks, “feminist movement to end sexist oppression can be successful only if we are committed to revolution, to the establishment of a new social order.”
We will not be able to truly begin healing from the patriarchy until capitalism completely falls and with it, patriarchal culture. In the meantime, we keep struggling to birth community spaces that work towards matriarchal organizations that will make a transition to socialism a smoother process.
For a deeper appreciation of Aquino’s letter, the following brief explanation of key terms is included.
Matriarchy, Matrilineal: Earlier communal societies where ancestry was traced through the mother’s family. The wealth produced — shelter and sustenance — was shared for the survival of all.
Patriarchy, Patrilineal: Societies generally formed after the development of agriculture. Social wealth and resources became private property. Ancestry was traced through the father’s family with inherited wealth and property. The rise of the patriarchy ushered in the stratification of society into classes.
Socialism: A society whose economy is controlled and organized by the working class for the common good.
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