Ends And Odds: The Ravings Of An Old man:Chapter 11, Part Three: Feminism Didn't Bring On Socialism by Dave Jaffe

  Feminism Didn't Bring On Socialism. Part Three by Dave Jaffe.




    The great rebellions of the late 1960's nearly all failed. "In 1968, hopes more or less underground for years," writes John Berger, " were born in several places in the world. These hopes were categorically defeated." Clive Doucet, a city councilor in Ottawa came to the same conclusion as Berger did. And Rodger Garbutt, a now retired socials teacher said, "All the rebellions couldn't dislodge the old rulers."
     These observers are right. Still, on the ashes of the failed rebellions of the 1960's, a whole host of new groups suddenly appeared. Gays, lesbians, feminists, environmentalists, hippies, black power advocates, Quebec sovereigntists, First Nations and anti-war activists came into the open.
     Now no government in the western world can rule just by force. So in the 1970's and after governments in the western world did listen to the demands of these groups. Anti-war activists in the U.S. and elsewhere forced the U.S. government to give up its war in Indochina. "Peace is at hand," said the U.S. government in 1972. It took another year before the U.S. signed a peace accord with the various Vietnamese groups. Still, in 1975 all U.S. troops vanished from Indochina and communists soon ruled Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
    In 1973 the U.S. Congress abolished the draft. "I came to Canada to get away from the U.S. army," one young American told this writer. He wasn't alone. Over 50,000 young American males fled the United States and came to Canada to evade the draft. Now the draft was history.
     African American revolutionaries were often shot and killed by U.S. government forces. Yet more conservative African American politicians ran for office in many places in the 1970's and were elected. African Americans and other groups of colour ended up in high places in the American bureaucracies.
     Women around the world marched and demonstrated in the 1970's. Soon women entered medical faculties, law departments, and many other places. Women became doctors, lawyers, accountants, carpenters, bus drivers and business leaders. .In the 1950's people used to say, "Women are going to college  to meet future doctors and marry them." Now women went to university to become doctors.
      Women began to run for elected offices and many succeeded. Outside of the U.S., women became presidents and prime ministers Restrictive laws against gays and lesbians were scrapped in many countries. Gay and lesbians often ran for political office and didn't hide their sexual orientation. By 2015 many western countries hade legalized gay marriage.
   Some people objected to these changes. Yet the new groups often had their way. This was the carrot that governments gave to voters in the 1970's and later. And by and large, these changes helped defuse protest. Jackie who I mentioned at the beginning of this piece thought that capitalism couldn't survive feminism. Yet capitalism did survive the rise of feminism and the rise of many other groups. Soon some women were running huge corporations.