How women on the Left turned upon their brothers

It was strangely apparent to me back in those early years of The Woman's Liberation Movement how, once left-wing women had turned upon their brothers, the Left in England simply fell apart.

The gender war that we see today actually began in the late 1960's when the women who had been fighting alongside their brothers against capitalism held a series of meetings in the US (mainly in Washington) and, with the aim of finding a new platform on which to fight, declared that it was men who were the real enemy. The ferocity of those attacks that were orchestrated against men blinded those early women warriers to the consequences that might follow.

At the same time war was being declared on the male gender in the US, we in England were battling to establish a unified attack upon the stranglehold that the so called "caring agencies" had over so many peoples lives here. We were fighting to establish refuges for victims of domestic violence. Those of us who were political activists wanted to protect the coal mines from closure and the railways from privatisation. We came from all walks of life and we held all kinds of beliefs, but we were all united in the dream of creating a fairer and more compassionate society.

Then, as radical feminism began to spread from Washington and men in my country began to be persecuted also, I could see the pseudo war between men and women replace the real battles we were fighting. The men on the Left simply started to drift away from political activism, and this is why I believe Tony Blair was able to remove Clause IV from the Labour Party Constitution and break the back of the Labour Party for ever. This, I believe, also made possible the long reign of Margaret Thatcher—our first Women Prime Minister. (I wrote to her after she first came to power and asked what she was going to do about domestic violence. I recall that one of her minions answered to say that Margaret Thatcher was not interested in women's issues.)

Now, in 2013, the damage that the gender war has done, not only to men and boys, but also to ourselves has to be recognised and acknowledged. Something like peace and reconciliation must hapen between the sexes. We have to learn to live togther with our children. If we can't do that, there will indeed be no such thing as society.