BY FELICITY COGGAN
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Suburban police physically removed a 34-year-old man from the home he shared with his 20-year-old partner here October 21, without the woman's prior knowledge or consent. The police were for the first time using powers now available to them under a Domestic Violence Act that came into effect July 1.
The cops alleged that the young woman was in danger of serious physical assault, even death, from her partner after a long history of sexual and physical abuse during the 18-month relationship. The man had previously faced four separate charges for assaulting women and in August received a suspended prison sentence for an assault on this young woman.
Under the new act, police, relatives, or friends can apply to the courts for protection or other measures on behalf of adults or children whose safety they allege is at risk. Such orders are then permanent and can only be reversed by decision of the Family Court. They replace the previously used nonmolestation orders, which lapsed if there was any liaison between partners. Breach of the new orders carries a NZ$5,000 (US$3,900) fine or a six-month jail sentence, rising to two years for repeated breaches.
The act also widens the definition of relationships for which such orders can be served, and of the type of violence covered, to include psychological abuse and threats of violence.
The young woman had in fact laid charges against her partner but her third court hearing was delayed several months. Her father, who supported the police action, said the court system had been too slow and "failed to put him behind bars where he belongs."
A police spokesperson claimed the action had to be taken on the woman's behalf because she was under such severe mental pressure that she was unable to seek the court order herself.
These events have provoked a discussion about domestic violence and how to deal with it. Some, supporting the police action, have echoed the cop arguments, reviving the so-called "battered woman syndrome."
Janet Lake, manager of Auckland's Domestic Violence Center,
said, "It's good to see the police responding so well and in
such a fit and proper manner because there is no doubt some
women are too frightened to do anything. They get into states of
such gross fear and intimidation and they simply cannot act for
themselves." The vice president of the Auckland Council of Civil
Liberties, Barry Wilson, welcomed the new act. Maureen
Southwick, a senior Family Court lawyer, also backed the police,
saying, "Sometimes you reach the stage when you think, what
other answer is there?"
Looking to cops is deadly for workers
But looking to the police is exactly the wrong answer to
solving the problem of domestic or other violence against women.
The police actions should be roundly condemned, along with the
powers of the new Act and the "battered woman syndrome"
arguments used to justify them.
Concern about the provisions of the new law was voiced by a spokesperson for the National Collective of Women's Refuges, Maria Bradshaw. She said the police action could "set a precedent for people to say they know better than these women about how to run their lives. It's not unusual for battered women to be told they are not able to make good decisions.... but often women are biding their time until they can leave safely."
Violence against women is so rooted in the oppression of women as a sex, that the capitalist system reproduces and fosters it, along with racism, to divide and better exploit working people. Along with rape and prostitution, it is a manifestation of women's continued second-class status.
And, while such violence remains all too prevalent, it is also true that important gains have been made in measures to deal with this question. This includes the existence of women's refuges. It also includes the availability of economic assistance, such as the government Domestic Purposes Benefit, paid to women bringing up children alone. Advances in consciousness as a result of gains registered in the fight for women's liberation and other working-class struggles mean more women and men, regard such violence as unacceptable. While many women do remain in violent relationships for long periods, a great number of such women today are able to leave and lead independent lives.
Such advances have been and will continue to be made as part of the broader fight for women's equality - a fight that is part of the broader struggle to unify the working class across sex, nationality, or race. This progress strengthens the hand of all working people to resist the attacks by the bosses and to overthrow the social and economic system of capitalism from which the oppression and degradation of women flows.
The very real progress that women have made in recent decades has been made precisely because women are not, and refuse to be treated like, powerless victims of circumstance as some supposed supporters of women's rights portray them. Working people should reject the concept of "battered woman syndrome," which has been used in a number of legal defenses of women, including that of New Zealand woman Gaye Oakes, convicted of murdering her husband in April 1995.
Any idea that women, for whatever reason, can become so
traumatized as to be unable to take responsibility for their
actions simply downgrades women to little more than children or
animals, incapable of controlling their daily lives - let alone
leading a fight for their liberation or to reorganize society.
Such arguments are music to the ears of reactionary and anti-
women forces who like to portray all working people this way.
Don't sign rights over to police
The gains women have made came because women acted as
conscious fighters, used their political power and human
capacities to the full, and in doing so led an advance for all
humanity.
These gains have not, and will not, come from signing over our democratic rights to the state to intervene in our lives. The extension of the powers of the police and the courts that the new law entails are a dangerous new probe against the rights of all working people. They are part of preparations by the rulers and their governments for the stepped up repressive powers they will need to use against labor resistance to cutbacks of social programs and wages, redundancies (layoffs), and worsening working conditions.
Using the widespread concern about violence against women to get us to accept the cops' right to snoop on and step into our private lives, is part of the rulers' probes to gut democratic rights.
Encouraging women to look to the cops to solve the problem of domestic violence fosters dangerous illusions for all working people about the role of the police in capitalist society. The cops protect and serve the interests and property of the wealthy ruling families, not women's rights.
Working people should uphold the legal right of women to use provisions against violence from their partners, and insist the police act to protect this right. At the same time, labor should reject any attempt by the cops, among the most notorious brutalizers of women, to unilaterally pose as defenders of women's rights. This simply blurs the fact that the police are bodies of armed men and women serving the class enemy of all working people - the capitalist rulers.
Felicity Coggan is a member of the Engineers Union in Auckland, New Zealand.