[PEN-L:6766] Brutalization Of Women

[SHAWGI TELL <v600a8e6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    The fall of the Berlin wall and collapse of the pseudo-socialist
regimes of Eastern Europe were promoted as a great advance for the people
of these countries. Instead, their struggle for progress was manipulated by
the capitalists. The people have seen an increase in all the "wonders" of
capitalism--crime, economic insecurity, dislocation, poverty, inequality.
    For women, along with discrimination of all kinds, there has been a
dramatic rise in "trafficking"--selling women into prostitution. The UN's
International Organization for Migration estimates that between
200,000-500,000 women cross borders in Europe to work as prostitutes. Most
come from Eastern Europe and work in countries of Western Europe. Most are
forced to prostitute themselves for economic reasons, others are tricked
into it. For many, the women are stripped of their passports, beaten, raped
and then forced into prostitution.
    The UN reports that "trafficking" in East European women has
dramatically overtaken that of women from the Third World--clearly
indicating the role of poverty and the trafficking, by agents of the rich,
among the poorest women. Many of the women are between 15 and 18 years old.
    In these modern times, the existence of this virtual slave-trade in
women is completely compatible with capitalism. Imperialist armies, like
those of the Japanese, Germans and Americans, are notorious for organizing
this same slave-trade in women to supply prostitutes for their troops.
Germany remains the biggest market for this human trafficking in Europe.
The horrendous levels of pornography and prostitution in the US, including
large numbers of children and teenagers, are also well-known. Evidently, in
countries where capitalism is working the best, forced prostitution of
women is at its worst.
    This brutal oppression and trading in women is compatible with
capitalism, but not with humanity. To humanize the social and natural
environment, human beings demand social relations of equality, where human
rights are respected and guaranteed. To achieve this, socialization of the
means of production is needed, so that the basis for poverty and
discrimination can be eliminated.
    Women themselves must be in the forefront of the struggle to create
such a society. When the economic basis of prostitution is eliminated and
women together stand up to affirm their rights, prostitution, pornography
and all such brutalization of women will end. Creating a new humane
society, where women and all human beings are indeed free to reach their
full potential and contribute to society reaching its full potential, is
the order of the day.


Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
V600A8E6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx