DSA 2001 Convention Women's Caucus Statement

The Women’s Caucus of DSA was convened on an emergency basis on November 11, 2001 as a response to the significant concern of sexism and male domination in DSA that has affected women members’ abilities to participate on a particular political question in the organization. The reporting committee that was entrusted with bringing the main motion concerning DSA’s position on the war in Afghanistan has been a space in which the voices of women have been disregarded, silenced, and treated with a level of disrespect inappropriate to a socialist organization that claims to encompass feminist principles.

In order to bring the political perspective of DSA women to the committee of the whole, the convention, on the question of military intervention in Afghanistan, we have organized amongst ourselves to resolve the following:

(1) That we oppose military intervention in Afghanistan. Even assuming that an intervention carefully targeted against elements of the Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan – and against the military forces of the Taliban government that has supported them – was possible and could have been effective, it is clear by now that this is not what is happening. Instead a month-long bombing campaign has already resulted directly in the loss of possibly thousands of lives in “collateral damage”. This war has shown that it will not bring justice to the victims of September 11, prevent future acts of terrorism, bring peace and stability to the Middle East, nor promote economic or social equality.

(2) That while we condemn terrorism and the attacks of September 11 as vicious crimes, we reject a “just war” paradigm as a framework for analysis. We affirm our feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and socialist analysis that is rooted in historical and geographic specificity and is the foundation of the ideals of our organization.

(3) That we assert that DSA must, in good faith, be active in the anti-war movement that is still taking shape around America, for the purpose of supporting feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and socialist analysis within that movement.

(4) That, as feminists, we see the humanitarian crisis (and the bombing of Afghanistan) as a situation that will disproportionately affect the women and children, who have already greatly suffered under the Taliban regime, as demonstrated by the bombing and sanctions in Iraq.

(5) That we staunchly oppose the US government’s program of nation-building that would seem to be directed at replacing one misogynist, fundamentalist, and unelected regime in Afghanistan with another, in the interests of our imperialist government, and, to some extent, under the pretense of the liberation of the women of Afghanistan.

(6) That we see US foreign policy and global capitalism as significant causes of this instance of terrorism. We therefore assert that the only legitimate means for preventing future acts of a similar nature is to address the inequities that these policies have created in the Middle East.

Therefore, the Women’s Caucus supports the Steering Committee motion as the only motion on the table that can serve as an appropriate starting place – but only a starting place - for beginning a dialogue around immediate action and analysis to constructing a socialist response to the war in Afghanistan.

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