The attempt to cover up decades of systemic abuse and exploitation of women and children by some of the richest and most powerful members of the capitalist class amounts to what a UN special panel of experts has called “crimes against humanity.” Yet, this issue has not galvanized the feminist movement to demand a genuine investigation into the allegations presented in the documents, justice for the victims, opposition to systemic violence against women, the reclamation of reproductive rights, or even the removal of those implicated in the Epstein files from positions of power. In fact, it is rarely framed as a feminist issue at all. Bipartisan efforts in Congress to release the files have yielded minimal accountability for those who either facilitated Epstein’s operations or allegedly participated in crimes themselves. Public hearings have merely created the illusion of a serious investigation while protecting the reputations of Epstein’s associates, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton (at least formally). Bill Gates’s impending testimony is likely to follow a similar script.

It is no coincidence that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure — implicitly linked to her handling of the Epstein files — occurred shortly after over 8 million people took to the streets across the country against the Trump administration during the March 28 No Kings protest. While the main slogans of the march were “No ICE, No War, No Kings,” signs connecting Trump and his allies to the Epstein affair were visible at every demonstration. Similar sentiments were expressed in other No Kings events and even in the massive marches in Minneapolis against ICE. Bondi left Capitol Hill closely behind former DHS secretary Kristi Noem, demonstrating that even loyalty to Trump offers limited protection.

Nevertheless, Bondi’s ouster (along with several high-profile resignations by former government officials, intellectuals, and other figures in the United States) signifies more damage control from above than a concession to an organized movement. Even though 53 percent of people in the United States believe Trump is “trying to cover up Epstein’s crimes,” outrage over the Epstein files has yet to produce an organized and sustained resistance from below.

The limited political impact of the Epstein files — in contrast to the scope of the scandal and the real outrage from below that is reflected both in national days of mobilization against the Trump administration and in polling across the political spectrum on this issue — is of course the result of the dominant class closing ranks to protect itself. But this would not be possible without the decades-long process of containment and pacification of the feminist movement in the United States, which was ground through the gears of the Democratic Party and NGOs with their brand of liberal feminism and spit out the other side. The Epstein affair underscores the inability of liberal feminism to effectively combat systemic gender violence and oppression, hindering its ability to protect, let alone expand, the rights of women. Indeed, the revelations in the files emerge at a moment of deep crisis for liberal feminism as it struggles to generate consensus around a vision of women’s liberation that relies on greater incorporation into the capitalist system.

Achieving justice for the survivors of Epstein and his circle of accomplices necessitates moving beyond an individual or psychological explanation for these crimes, which frames the perpetrators as exceptions rather than as products of a system reinforced by patriarchy and gender violence. It entails challenging the very system that made their abuse possible. Liberal feminism has already demonstrated its incapacity to undertake this task; only a socialist, internationalist feminism that aims to uproot capitalism can rebuild the feminist movement in the United States.

What the “Epstein Class” Tells Us about Capitalism and Patriarchy

Coverage of the Epstein scandal has often emphasized how Epstein and his circle targeted “vulnerable” women and girls, drawing them into their orbit. But such coverage rarely specifies the particular sources of that vulnerability or the extent of its prevalence in our society. As detailed by Epstein and Maxwell’s associates and the survivors themselves, in many, if not most, cases, these young women and girls came from poor families. They were working (sometimes directly for Epstein), contemplating how to pay for college, and sometimes escaping abuse. Some were immigrants.

What gave Epstein power and influence over his victims was the promise of a home, a job, a degree, or even a visa. Conversely, there was the threat of taking those things away if they did not comply. Epstein wasn’t just a master at identifying vulnerabilities; he and many others were adept at exploiting how capitalism, as an economic and social system, reinforces and is supported by patriarchy and other forms of oppression. These young women and children were targeted because we live in a system in which the vast majority of the world’s population must sell their labor to make a living, and where that labor is devalued to generate profits for a few. Within this division of classes, patriarchy becomes one way that capitalism sustains itself — justifying the uneven devaluation of labor (whether in the workplace or the home, paid or unpaid) for half the world’s population. This disparity underlies further expressions of sexism that intersect with other forms of oppression, such as xenophobia and racism. It is a vicious circle that ensnares women across classes but particularly squeezes working-class and poor women.

This key component is missing from the outrage splashed across the pages of major news outlets. There is (rightful) shock and horror at the sex trafficking of minors, but few question the fact that we live in a society where a 14-year-old girl is forced to work to make ends meet for herself and her family, and where someone like Epstein can mask his abuse by providing her a paycheck. This creates the conditions for the normalization of multilayered exploitation and oppression of women and girls, allowing Epstein and other members of the capitalist class to feel entitled to use their influence without fear of reprisal.

A term has emerged to describe Epstein’s circle of acquaintances and those implicated in horrific crimes: the “Epstein class.” From California Representative Ro Khanna to Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, this epithet is the latest iteration of “the Swamp” or the “Billionaire class,” used to describe the “bad elite” who abuse their power. It is yet another way to describe social inequality in U.S. society (and obfuscate its true nature).

So let’s talk about class. It’s true that a layer of those mentioned in the millions of released documents represents the 1 percent of the 1 percent of the wealthy and powerful. But it’s not wealth and power in the abstract that enabled the systemic and prolonged abuse of at least hundreds of women and children. It is the direct result of the positions that Epstein and the rich and powerful occupy in capitalist society, as the people who own and control the means of survival.

No one believes that Epstein was uniquely adept at hiding his abuses, living one life in broad daylight and another behind closed doors — the files reveal this much at least. Epstein rubbed elbows, engaged in business deals, and exchanged information with those who profit most from this system. That’s why he and his associates could carry out these abuses for decades and why the capitalist class closed ranks to protect itself from the fallout of the scandal, which touches every corner of global capitalist society. What emerges from the heavily redacted Epstein files is a portrait of how capitalism sustains its exploitation and oppression along various axes.

It’s not just the exchanges between Epstein and public figures that reveal their shared sexism and hatred of women. University heads allowed Epstein to influence admissions decisions in exchange for donations; intellectuals were sympathetic to his misogynistic and racist views in return for research funding; heads of media outlets attempted to bury damning stories about Epstein when survivors came forward; officials and business leaders turned a blind eye to his crimes because they had stakes in his financial endeavors; politicians and government officials from both sides of the aisle accepted donations from him; heads of state maintained close personal ties with him; officials passed sensitive information to him; and, of course, the government of the most powerful nation in the world is now obstructing any real investigation into Epstein’s crimes and those of his accomplices.

In this way, the Epstein debacle is a uniquely capitalist affair that exposes the deep connections between capitalism and patriarchy, exploitation and oppression, gender and class. Capitalism has continuously created new ways of institutionalizing this abuse, integrating it into the system, and even profiting from it. There is no distinct “Epstein class,” no good capitalists and bad capitalists, but rather a single system built on exploitation and oppression.

A Global Capitalist Network

Epstein positioned himself at the center of international business and geopolitics. His social circle — and those who benefited from and shared in the abuse of hundreds of young women and girls — comprised none other than the heads of state, political and cultural figures, and capitalists from the most powerful countries in the world, along with their allies or potential partners. More than friends, they were business partners.

A key revelation from the released files is the extent of Epstein’s connections to the state of Israel and its genocidal project in Palestine. For decades, he acted as a power broker, mediating the economic and political relationship between U.S. imperialism and Israel. Emails between Epstein and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak show Epstein negotiating defense contracts for Israel in Africa and the Middle East while promoting unrest in the region to benefit transnational companies. Other records reveal his ties to various Zionist organizations, fundraising for and supporting Israel’s genocidal ambitions in Palestine, including Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Jewish National Fund.1DropSite News and Novara Media have both published extensive reporting on Epstein’s ties to Israel. Epstein helped to fund the same army that has perpetrated systemic abuse, rape, and assault of thousands of Palestinian women, children, and men in Israeli prisons.

Putting to one side interpretations that Epstein had official ties to Israeli intelligence services, it is evident that his political and business connections in Israel enabled him to conduct decades of systemic abuse with relative impunity, exemplified by the notorious “sweetheart deal” overseen by former U.S. attorney Alex Acosta. Not only does this show the ways in which bourgeois law is applied unevenly for the capitalist class and working people, but it tells us something important about the strategic relationship between the United States and Israel. Ultimately it served as cover for Epstein’s crimes — one based on its integral importance to the functioning of U.S. imperialism, an aspect of Epstein’s position that is obscured by far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The fallout from the release of the Epstein files supports this perspective from another angle. Former Prince Andrew was stripped of his titles, and he is under investigation for suspected misconduct in public office. Peter Mandelson, former UK ambassador to the United States, was arrested for allegedly leaking information to Epstein. Former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been charged with “aggravated corruption” for accepting gifts and money from Epstein. The capitalist class may tolerate the rape and sexual exploitation of young women and girls, but it will not accept anything that could destabilize the imperialist world order or disrupt the flow of capital across borders.

Viewed from this perspective, the Epstein files serve as a field guide to the capitalist class and the functioning of the global economy during the decline of neoliberalism. It is no coincidence that Epstein represented the imperialist interests of the most powerful country in the world at a time when its status as a global hegemon was increasingly challenged.

Oppression and Exploitation across Borders

The Epstein files shed light on how patriarchal oppression operates in capitalist society today: it is fundamentally international and shaped by the degeneration of neoliberal imperialism, creating new modes of exploitation across borders and further fragmenting the working class.

This is expressed in the fact that immigrant women and girls were particularly targeted by Epstein and his associates. The most notable example is Epstein’s dealings with French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who collaborated with Epstein to facilitate the trafficking of young women and girls from Latin America and eastern Europe. Brunel and other so-called agents used the promise of modeling opportunities to lure young people — including girls younger than 16 — to the United States and directly into Epstein’s control. These women and girls had no control over their visas, finances, or movements.

When Brunel was arrested in 2020 and charged with sexual harassment and rape of minors, the criminal investigation revealed a complex international web of sexual trafficking in the modeling industry that implicated companies in the United States, Brazil, and beyond. It also exposed the cruel face of imperialism, which creates the conditions for trafficking and forced immigration. The immigrant women and girls who were sexually exploited by Epstein and his associates, including Brunel, came from countries ravaged by U.S. imperialism in various forms. Immigration laws and regulations were weaponized to exploit and oppress these working-class and poor young women and girls.

These cases are not isolated. Tens of millions of people are trafficked worldwide each year. According to a United Nations report, cases of human trafficking have risen annually since the pandemic, including in the United States. Women and girls are overrepresented in these cases, particularly in instances of sex trafficking. And the numbers only increase for immigrants; the 2022 World Migration Report estimated that 45 percent of all trafficking victims cross international borders, where they are thrown into a life devoid of rights and protections.

This is not a fluke of immigration regulation that can be fixed with cosmetic changes or increased oversight. Whether within or outside the bounds of bourgeois legality, human trafficking represents a significant portion of the global capitalist economy, as does the hyperexploitation of immigrant labor. Imperialism creates the conditions for forced immigration and profits from the precarious labor of immigrants who function without rights. Until the root causes of imperialist oppression abroad are addressed, the conditions for this type of exploitation and oppression will leave women and girls particularly vulnerable.

#MeToo, the Epstein Files, and the Limits of Liberal Feminism

The crimes documented in the Epstein files occurred decades ago; Epstein himself was convicted before his apparent suicide in 2019. But the files remain a fixture in the American political landscape because the majority of the people named in them remain firmly at the top of the world order, protecting a system under strain at a time when more people than ever are questioning capitalism.

The absence of a meaningful feminist response from the Left has resulted in the complete sidelining of issues related to gender oppression and the fight for women’s liberation. This is not a new development but rather the culmination of a longer process of institutionalization and containment of the feminist movement in the United States, which reached a critical point during Trump’s first term.

As Andrea d’Atri explains in Bread and Roses, the neoliberal offensive at the end of the 20th century successfully co-opted the radical energy of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including feminism.

[The] “integration” [of worker and social organizations into the capitalist state] that established a “new pact” between the classes was made possible by the incorporation, albeit in a degraded form, of many of the democratic demands put forward by social movements, including feminism. An ideological offensive, summarized in the idea of the “end of history and ideologies,” provided the context for the transformation of the feminist movement: from insubordination to institutionalization […] Feminism was incorporated into battles for “recognition” waged within the framework of the “democratic state,” or trapped in self-imposed marginalization.

As liberal feminism emerged as the dominant ideology within the women’s liberation movement — integrating the legacy of the civil rights movement — representation and equality within the system became the movement’s ultimate horizon. Emphasizing individualism as a guiding principle, it abandoned collective struggle in favor of gradual reforms within the confines of capitalist democracy.

But this institutional feminism came under scrutiny, and a more combative feminist movement began to take shape with Trump’s political ascent, the eruption of the #MeToo movement in 2017, and the protests against Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 2018. Fueled by broader shifts in consciousness resulting from the economic crisis of 2008, many women began to question a system that proclaimed complete equality while allowing a man with multiple accusations of sexual misconduct — who openly displayed his misogyny and aligned himself with the anti-abortion movement — to become president. Yet, as we know, Hillary Clinton could not provide a solution for millions of people across the country; she represented a different kind of cognitive dissonance prevalent in capitalist society, one in which a woman could compete for the presidency while millions of other women struggled under the weight of capitalist exploitation and oppression, a politician who built her career on the devastation of bomb-struck cities in the Middle East and crumbling neighborhoods in Haiti.

This created an opportunity for outrage to spill into the streets in response to Trump’s ascent. The most vibrant expression of this was the millions of people who took to the streets during the Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration.

At this point, the Democratic Party was poised to capitalize on the outrage, deploying its vast resources and long-established connections with NGOs to dismantle that energy and redirect it toward the ballot box. The co-optation of the #MeToo movement solidified this process, transforming collective revelations of exploitation and sexual abuse across various industries into individual, punitive solutions. This shift limited our perspective to merely climbing the capitalist corporate ladder, with the only political expression reduced to voting for the Democratic Party to remove “bad” politicians from office. What began as a movement led by Black and brown women against workplace sexual harassment became fuel for the Democratic Party’s electoral machine.

In other words, the institutions of liberal feminism mobilized their strategic reserves to contain class struggle and played a crucial role in staving off the deep crisis afflicting the Democratic Party. This effort contributed to the blue wave in the 2018 midterms and Joe Biden’s eventual presidential victory in 2020, a victory that was driven by women across demographic groups hoping to prevent the spread of anti-abortion legislation nationwide.

As we know, that lesser evil vote was rewarded with the greatest rollback of reproductive rights in U.S. history, coupled with a massive assault on trans rights. The Dobbs decision clearly indicated the limitations of the Democratic Party — and liberal feminism — in challenging the system to defend reproductive rights (and, by extension, against other attacks by the Right) if it risked igniting class struggle with a Democrat in the White House. Instead, NGOs and Democratic politicians organized days of collective grief, printed new bumper stickers, and urged voters to prepare to vote blue no matter who. This was coupled with the party’s shift to the right and its rejection of so-called woke politics, adopting not just the rhetoric but also the policies of the Right to attack the rights of trans people and facilitate the return of the Right to the White House and Congress.

Indeed, the Epstein debacle illustrates the limitations of the legal reforms stemming from the #MeToo movement; while extended statutes of limitation and policing reform made systemic oppression more visible for some, it remained no less prevalent, especially for working-class and poor women. This brings us back to today, when there is an ongoing effort to cover up decades of abuse of young women and girls by the elite of the elite — and where liberal feminism has not only disarmed the feminist movement but is also implicated in the scandal itself.

A Dead-End Strategy Creates Opportunities for the Right

The Epstein files have haunted Biden and the Democrats for years, thanks to Epstein’s ties to the party. But Trump’s own association with the sex trafficker created an opportunity for the Democrats to capitalize on the political winds and push for the release of the files alongside MAGA outsiders like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Recognizing an opening in Trump’s vacillation, Democrats are attempting to sidestep decades of connections with and donations from Epstein by positioning themselves at the forefront of calls for accountability. The peak of this “opposition” was the Epstein Files Transparency Act in 2025, which resulted in nothing more than the release of millions of heavily redacted files and the exposure of several victims’ identities. Now, Senate Democrats are trying to pass legislation that would allow for the prosecution of the Trump administration over the release of Epstein-related records.

But these “efforts” have shed no further light on the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and those involved. The system that tolerated these abuses for years cannot be trusted to adjudicate those crimes now.

The desiccated husk of liberal feminism limits the horizon of women’s liberation and creates a vacuum that risks being filled by more reactionary forces. Without a strong feminist movement that fights exploitation and oppression in all their forms, opposition to the Epstein scandal can be politicized by the Right. Indeed, as the Democratic Party defends the status quo, the Right is poised to take advantage of “anti-elite” sentiment, directing anger at the exploitation and abuses of Epstein and the capitalist class into antisemitic-tinged quests to “protect” women and girls from the evils of the “woke” elite.

We see this logic deployed to justify a host of reactionary policies embraced by the MAGA sector. During the 2024 vice presidential debates, JD Vance deftly weaponized populist arguments about addressing underlying economic hardship to justify anti-abortion laws. Trump regularly invokes women’s “safety” to rationalize his immigration offensive. This rationale is also at the heart of the Right’s assault on trans rights.

While liberal feminists have little more to offer than scoffing at trad wives, the Right presents its own solutions to the problems facing working women in capitalist society — proposing a reactionary, white supremacist rejuvenation of the nuclear family and “traditional” gender roles as a balm for exploitation and alienation.

The Movement We Need Must Be Socialist Feminist

Plenty of outrage — though not as much as you might expect — can be found scattered across op-eds and the front pages of the bourgeois press. These days, pens that could be used for virtually anything else are more focused on what the Epstein files don’t prove than on what they do.

For the rest of us — for young women, for working and poor women — our outrage is not on display. It’s quotidian, folded into our everyday lives, expressed in our fears as we confront increasing economic precarity and enjoy fewer rights than our mothers.

The question has shifted from “Where is the feminist movement?” to “How do we build the feminist movement we need?” How can we transform our anger into a collective force capable of dismantling the foundations of a system that enabled the abuses documented in the Epstein files, as well as countless others that remain hidden?

The Epstein affair has vividly illustrated the realities of class society, exposing an international capitalist class that prioritizes its own interests over those of the vast majority. Their newspapers, universities, and governments have hidden the abuse of hundreds of young people.

Liberal feminism teaches us to adapt to this central antagonism. It takes for granted that imperialism — particularly neoliberalism — divides the working class across borders, race, sectors, and gender. In doing so, it justifies genocide and imperialist war. It glorifies individualism while undermining solidarity among those who make society run.

Rejecting these constraints is the only viable path forward. Socialist feminism must confront capitalism and patriarchy together, fighting to overthrow a system that thrives on exploitation and oppression. It’s not a matter of getting rid of every Epstein, but about upending the social order that produced him and many others who continue to occupy the highest offices in government and business. The only way we can build a force capable of this task is by uniting the working class against exploitation and oppression.

The fight against ICE that erupted across the country in response to Trump’s attacks, particularly in Minneapolis this year, showcased a dazzling display of working-class solidarity. It offered a glimpse of how we can build this fight and confront the class responsible for the horrific crimes outlined in the Epstein files. For months, tens of thousands of Minnesotans came together to support their immigrant neighbors, defying Trump’s xenophobic policies and the divisions that capitalism establishes between documented and undocumented people. Armed with whistles and phone cameras, they took on ICE and organized to take charge of their communities, protecting the most vulnerable among them. In January, after ICE agents murdered Renee Good in cold blood as they yelled misogynistic slurs at her, Minnesotans shut down the city for an entire day, organizing in their workplaces and schools. Any hope of rebuilding a fighting — socialist — feminist movement necessitates embracing these methods.

We can do that by uniting our struggles, not fracturing them. If the Epstein Files showed us how patriarchy thrives in a capitalist system, it also teaches us who our enemies are. Advocating for the full publication of all files related to Epstein’s case and for an independent investigation free from the capitalist class that covered up these crimes means fighting the same government that has orchestrated the incarceration and abuse of millions of immigrants. It means organizing in our workplaces, schools, and communities to fight for trans rights and to reconquer our reproductive rights, linking that fight to universal healthcare and against the attacks of the bosses in each and every workplace. And it means opposing imperialist wars that exploit women in Iran as a cover for U.S. and Israeli bombs and denouncing the genocide in Palestine that seeks to squash millions of women and children under the boot of colonial occupation.

A feminist movement that merges bread-and-butter demands with the fight against oppression is essential for fostering genuine resistance to the cruelties of capitalism. It is within the intensity of this struggle that we can envision a society where everyone is free to thrive.

Notes[+]

Notes

The post The Crimes of the “Epstein Class” Are Rooted in Patriarchy and Capitalism: The Answer Is Socialist Feminism appeared first on Left Voice.

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