This
may not be sound Marxian theory; but it is the manner in which it is
popularly accepted. It is the popular belief, wherever the Marxian
influence is strong. This I found especially in England and Scotland. In
speaking to groups of dockworkers on strike in Glasgow, and before the
communist and co-operative guilds throughout England, I discovered
a prevailing opposition to the recognition of sex as a factor in the
perpetuation of poverty. The leaders and theorists were immovable in
their opposition. But when once I succeeded in breaking through the
surface opposition of the rank and file of the workers, I found that
they were willing to recognize the power of this neglected factor in
their lives.
So central, so fundamental in the life of every man and woman is this
problem that they need be taught no elaborate or imposing theory to
explain their troubles. To approach their problems by the avenue of sex
and reproduction is to reveal at once their fundamental relations to the
whole economic and biological structure of society. Their interest is
immediately and completely awakened. But always, as I soon discovered,
the ideas and habits of thought of these submerged masses have been
formed through the Press, the Church, through political institutions,
all of which had built up a conspiracy of silence around a subject
that is of no less vital importance than that of Hunger. A great wall
separates the masses from those imperative truths that must be known
and flung wide if civilization is to be saved.
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