In China, women were a powerful force in overturning all the old social relations, helping to knock down patriarchy as well as feudalism, capitalism and imperialism. The peasants themselves divided up the land in meetings where everyone in the village had their say. The deeds were given to every single person, men, women and children, not just to the husband. Chinese women organised themselves into associations, learning to hold their own at work, at home and in the community. In comparison, women in many European countries were still not allowed to vote. In 1950, divorce was difficult for women to obtain in almost every other country of the world, birth control was unavailable and abortion illegal.

In the 1970s struggle against the US-backed dictatorship of Somoza, Nicaraguan women not only fought in the mountains but also in the streets, in the workplace, in the barrios. Without the mass participation of women the overthrow of the old regime would not have been possible. And once the yoke of oppression was lifted, women were at the forefront of the on-going revolutionary process - literacy teaching, health brigades, workplace organisation and community defence. Legislation was passed in the early 1980s, to safeguard and promote women's rights. This included the Law of Lactation - which gave working mothers an extra hour's break each day to breastfeed their new babies.

Unfortunately it seems that only in Cuba have revolutionary gains been sustainable. Why is that? One reason is that there has to be a critical mass of women to avoid slipping back into the old status quo. For example, in Eritrea, the female combattants were expected to return to domestic roles - or become social outcasts. The second reason is, well, the same old story...

In Nicaragua, the US trade embargo, US propaganda and US-backed counter-revolutionary war diverted the process. As the Sandinista government concentrated money and effort on defence and crisis management, women were told their needs had to wait... The population, in despair, voted for a right-wing government, hoping the war would stop and the US would financially support the new regime. Women now work as wage slaves in the maquilas in the 'free' trade zones.

In China, capitalists staged a military coup and the new ruling class undid everything. They broke up the People's Communes. "Modernization" has meant the employment of cheap Chinese labor under the boot of foreign capital and often for the foreign market. Corruption and inequality are rife. Female infanticide and foeticide is well documented. Prostitution and drug addiction are rampant. There is nothing at all communist about the Chinese Communist Party anymore.

In Cuba the population lives free from hunger, ignorance and crime. No, there's not a lot of money, but why should we equate money with freedom?