country came to the conference in Leeds on the family last weekend. The discussion ranged over such topics as the family during the rise of Maria did not accept the official CP position capitalism (introduced by Sheila Rowbotham and Linda Smith), the family in advanced capitalist countries (Lee Sanders and Margaret Coulson ) and the tamily in post-capitalist society, in which a discussion on the development of the family in post-revolutionary Russia was introduced by Matia Loftos:
Three main political currents emerged during the conference. the libertarian, the revolutionary sociabse (represented almost exclusively by ING members and supporters), and that of the Communist Party, The ditferent positions were most clearly evident in the discussion on the Tamily in Russia Maria Loftus, a CP mem- an institution of social control in order to ber, bepan by describing the immense gains for women produced by the Kussian Revolution and their erosion by the growth of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The Genotdel - the equivalent of the women's uberation movement - was of so-called socialism in one country have done virtually nothing to liberate women.
that the family is a natural and perfectible Institation unfortunately tainted by capitalism. Hut she attempled to explain away the 'giorious socialist family" as a product of the peculiarly Rusian mentality" of Stalin, an explanation which convinced nobody. She made no mention of one of the most significant pieces of Stalinist legislation. In the carly Thirties the Boltievik Laws severely restricting inheritance were abolished, so that the bureaucracy could perperuate thei privtleged position by keeping their wealth within the family. Stalin strengthened the family as maintaut the authorstarian social oter upon which the existence of the bureaucracy depen ded, and depends today. Maria lamely pinne her hopes for the future on the emergence of a women's hberation movement in Russia, In Sheile Rowborhan, feeire) end Limds Smilh (right). fact a strupale by women in Russia acaut their oppression at work and in the tamily would directly challenge the Sovier state and the burcaucratsed Party which controls it. The conference was a useful step towards developing an understanding of the real nature and importanos of the family. Further analysis of the international experience needs to be complemented by three campaiens that directly confront us now. The new tax credit system which will replace Family Allowances deprives women in the home of theonly direct payment they get, however paltry. The right-wing defenders of the family are mobilisine massive support for their anti-abortion lobby. And the niew Anti-Sex Discrimination Bill not only completely fails to abolish sox discrimination but opens up the dangerous possibility of women choosing to ally themselves with the bourgeois courts against the trade unions. All these questions must be taken up by socialist activists if the discussion on the family ia not to romain at a purely academic level.