Justice for Epstein’s victims!

President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Nov. 19. The House of Representatives had passed the bill with only one vote against; the Senate vote was unanimous. 

The Act orders U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days of the signing. It limits what items can be withheld, but the Trump administration may find a loophole and redact — block out — some of the text. While what can be legally withheld is limited, no one should be surprised if Trump or Bondi act as if they are above the law.

So far nothing has been released.

Prior to the bill being signed, victims of the horrific sexual abuse perpetrated by finance capitalist Epstein publicly demanded that all the related documents be released. If these courageous survivors — many under 18 when the abuse began — had not spoken up, this bill would not have become law. The bill mandating the release of the Epstein files is a victory for the survivors.

If a substantial portion of the massive trove of emails, texts, letters, legal transcripts and more is made public, that will include names of numerous abusers who colluded with Epstein: high-ranking political figures in the U.S. and other countries, prominent academics and high-ranking finance capitalists. Previously released materials have tied JPMorgan Chase & Co., former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers and many others to Epstein. 

Who among these perpetrators will be charged with a crime? Will they all get away with having a role in what Epstein subjected these girls and young women to? The bill does not address the need to bring criminal charges against them. 

Blatant political opportunism 

Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party seek to gain a political advantage based on relationships their opponents had with Epstein. Trump’s hypocrisy is glaring. As a candidate he attacked the Democratic Party for not releasing the files. Then, as president he labeled the files a “Democratic hoax.” Now he wants to be seen as a hero for signing the Act.

Those who endured the abuse, not the big shots with unscrupulous Epstein connections, should be the center of any discussion about the files and what they reveal. But, as novelist Jennifer Weiner wrote in an opinion piece: “Though we’ve heard endless details about the predators and the men in their social circle, we have heard far too little about — and from — the victims. … 

“They are the ones that should have been front and center through all of this, starting in 2005 when [Epstein’s] predations began to come to light, through to the present, when they dominate the national conversation, and onward for the rest of the story’s no doubt very long life.” (New York Times, Nov. 19)

Weiner cites from the memoir of survivor Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life this year: “‘They lent me out to scores of wealthy, powerful people. I was habitually used and humiliated — and in some instances choked, beaten and bloodied,’ or the passage in which she describes being trafficked to a man she calls ‘a well-known prime minister,’ who she said abused her so badly that ‘for days, it hurt to breathe and to swallow.’”

Survivors have been re-victimized by the capitalist media by Epstein apologists. The right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly challenged the characterization of him as a pedophile, saying, “He was into the barely legal type, like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” not younger children. (npr.org, Nov. 18)

The nightmare is by no means over for the victims and their loved ones. Many reported receiving death threats prior to the bill’s passage. 

‘Rich and powerful’ escape scrutiny

Weiner rightly noted, “The world has never been kind to women who accuse powerful men of sex crimes.” 

Why are the rich and powerful able to sexually abuse women, girls and gender-oppressed people with impunity?

Dorothy Ballan, a founder of Workers World Party, in her groundbreaking 1971 work “Feminism and Marxism,” asked, “Is it not plain, even to the most naive, that sexism is a ‘commodity’ in a general system of commodity production based on exchange where profit is the very essence of all that exists?” 

Ballan traces the roots of patriarchy to the development of private property and ties the oppression of women to the existence of class exploitation.  (workers.org/book/feminism-marxism/) 

Ballan’s work drew on Friedrich Engels’ classic work “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.”

To put an end to systematic misogynistic abuse, such as that endured by Epstein’s victims, we have to put an end to the patriarchal capitalist system altogether.

Justice for Epstein’s victims! Smash the patriarchy!