How the feminist movement lost touch with the exploited, part 2 of 3 with Youri Smouter

“On the Barricades” s06e35

In this week’s release of “On the Barricades,” we welcome back our monthly guest Youri Smouter of 1+1, with us to discuss with host, Romanian feminist and media critic, Maria Cernat. Youri and Maria are delving into the problem of the current state of the feminist movement– divorced from socialism as it is– in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. How did we get here and what is the way forward for feminism, in Eastern Europe and globally?

In the second segment we hear from Maria on the gains made and then lost in conditions for women in Romania during the socialist era and following period, which have been drastically under-studied or discussed, especially as to the brutal abortion ban years in which 10,000 women died in back-alley abortion attempts. Also on why she defends radical feminism; on accusations of “class reductionism” against socialist feminists; and the problems of the so-called sexual liberation movement, which has mainly served men at the expense of women.