US feminists protest against Kavanaugh appointment

Submitted by AWL on 24 September, 2018 - 8:42 Author: Eduardo Tovar
Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee to take the recently retired Justice Anthony Kennedy’s place on the US Supreme Court, is in the eye of a media storm. Feminists in the US already had cause to regard Kavanaugh as a serious threat to women’s rights: the fate of Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion lawful until the point of viability, hangs in the balance.

Now two sexual assault allegations give us further, chilling reasons to consider Kavanaugh a danger to women. The first allegation is from Dr Christine Blasey Ford, a psychologist and professor of statistics at Palo Alto University who claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s. Her letter to Democratic Party Senator Dianne Feinstein, dated 30 July 2018 but not made public until 12 September, describes her ordeal in horrific detail.

Dr Ford has since been subject to vile abuse and harassment from people seeking to defend Kavanaugh, with many questioning her memory of the events and her motives in coming forward decades after the fact. Despite the traumatic nature of her experience, as well as the sheer unpleasantness of the media frenzy around her, Dr Ford has agreed to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the confirmation process. A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were students at Yale 35 years ago.

Here in the Boston area, these events take on a special significance because Kavanaugh holds a position at Harvard as Samuel Williston Lecturer on Law. He has reportedly earned 27,490 USD for nine days of teaching in 2018 alone. The local branch of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) has therefore called a speakout against Kavanaugh’s appointment. The speakout is scheduled for Wednesday 26 September, 6:30PM EST, in Harvard Yard.

Additionally, the student group Our Harvard Can Do Better, which campaigns against rape culture on campus, is lobbying for the university to investigate Kavanaugh fully and fairly before paying him this year, and for Kavanaugh not to continue teaching until the investigation is concluded. With the international spotlight the #MeToo movement has placed on sexual harassment and violence, it is quite possible that these protests will make a difference.

Socialists must come out strongly against the wider threat to the feminist movement’s gains that Kavanaugh and other current establishment figures represents, while rejecting liberal illusions that a bourgeois court provides a reliable means of protecting and extending these gains.

As Marxists, we are keenly aware of how capitalist society replicates class divisions through the family unit. In the US, the class-exploitative role of controlling reproduction is horrifically visible in how the state closely polices working class parenting through services ostensibly aimed at child support, and in how working class women, especially those from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds, are both sterilised and denied abortion.

It is also worth stressing the significance of the overwhelmingly private US healthcare system, since medical insurance seldom covers abortion. A 2016 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that 53% of patients in the US pay for their own abortion out of pocket.

We know from recent experiences in Ireland and Argentina that even a traditionally church-dominated society can witness a massive surge against restrictive abortion laws. We also know from the strikes called by McDonald’s workers over the handling of sexual harassment claims that feminist issues not conventionally framed in terms of workers’ rights can be brought front-and-centre in workplace organising.

The key demand that links these issues together – the right for women to exercise their bodily autonomy. Socialists should use the present opening to build a strong political will from below to defend and advance women’s rights, and explicitly link these to class struggle

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.