Only Left politics can challenge the fascism of BJP and RSS: U. Vasuki

Challenge BJP and RSS ideology with Left politics, socialism, and gender equality for exploitation-free society, says U. Vasuki.

The divisive ideology of the BJP and the RSS and their fascist and neo-fascist policies can be challenged only when more people align with Left politics, said U. Vasuki, CPI(M) Central Committee member and the vice-president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association here in Hosur.

Speaking on “Socialism and Women” at the party conference here in the run-up to the party’s All India Conference in Madurai, Ms. Vasuki said only when Communist parties gain power at the national level will exploitation end.

Citing examples of Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal to show what socialist policies could do for the people, Ms.Vasuki, spoke in length of how the socialist state of the erstwhile Soviet Union under the revolutionary Vladimir Lenin lent itself to break the shackles on women and freed them for the outside of the home.

According to the AIDWA leader, history has shown that even while societies changed, exploitation continued in various forms. But, when the social structure is informed by socialism, it engenders an exploitation-free society where gender equality and equity will reign supreme.

Communists have proven by example the kind of interventions and positive action under them. The Soviet Union was the first country to grant voting rights to women, long before the so-called Super Power such as the United States. Labour Rights in the management, administration, and decision-making in the factories, going beyond the production of labour, were first implemented in the Soviet Union. This was intrinsic to the socialist politics the country most needed now, Ms.Vasuki said.

CPM is the only party that has explicitly stated in its policies the need for democratisation of the family structure. The line is in the party scheme, unheard of in any party. While every other party treats family as a sacred space dismissing autonomy and agency for its women, CPM demands support service by the government for the family structure. Party members are warned against domestic violence, and the party rules call for disciplinary action against members accused of domestic violence, Ms. Vasuki said.

She called for the strengthening of trade unions and the party’s Untouchability Eradication Front membership and to push for the tangible changes that Left politics brings in.