Win Magazine Volume 14 Number 9

I

\
March 9,19781 4Ol

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN 5 DAY

t

ters
The news from Denmark is bad, though
not unexpected. On Feb. 2 the Supreme

a

but to the best of my knowledge still
stands. This policy should be recon-

sidered at the first opportunity. '
I became interested in the "social experiment" Christiania several years
ago-at first through reading and cor-

evacuated, and to use police and military
force to carry out such an order.
That is not the end! The Christianites
and their friends are preparing for an
active and massive defense ofthe free
town, which will be based on the principles ofnonviolence and openness. A

respondence, but also through a personal visit there last summer when I met
many Christianites and learned more
about their town. It seems obvious to me
that Christiania is a valuable and unique
asset for Denmark. The reasons include
the opportunity it offers for "social
Iosers" to lead independent lives outside
ofinstitutions and sïate supervision, the
work done in Christiania to rehabilitate
drug addicts and young delinquents, the
exciting theater group Solvognen which
has enriched Danish life, and the way in
which Christiania has created
employment and enterprise in a time of
economic recession. And it is an asset
not only for Denmark, but providess
instruction and inspiration for people in

better.
The best use ofthese preparations, of
course, is to dsúor an attack, and to help
the government see reasons. Some
'foreign pressure can help I I think letters
from Americans to the Danish embassy
,in VÍashington will be a valuable conrtribution which we can make. I'm enclosing a copy of my letter, and I hope lots of
ïVIN's readerswill join me.
The issue is no longer a legal one, but
concerns a social and political choice:
¡hould Christiania be destroyed? I
strongly believe it should not be; there
are good things there in Denmark, and
for us to learn from as well. Please helpl

-JOHI{IÁMPERII
Norwlch;Yt.
Ambassador Otto R. Borch
Embassyof Denmark
3200 Whitehaven St. N.\{.
VVashington, D.C. 20008

DcarMr. Borch:
Your country has many friends in the
United States, and for good reasons. I
count myself among them. Although I do
not heve femily roots in Denmark, I have
long been interested in its history, language and customs. I have visited
Denmark several times, and in 1972-73
was guest professor at Aarhus University wherel had a mostpleasant and
orofitable vear,

'

Iamwriiingtoyou atthis time

,because I am very disturbed to see Denmark's government making what I
believe tobe a tragic and avoidable
mistake. As you know, it was decided in
1976

thatthe community of Christiania

should be forcibly closed "without un-'
necessarv delav. " The decision has been
postponed bec¿iuse of court pioceedihgs
2WlN March 9, 1978

çoffee and donuts. The terror and
madness of this world forces people

cause ofpeace,

not something done out ofchoice. They
are done out of necessitj. At some point
in people's iives the choice between
slavery or peaceful dissent becomes no
choice at all. Death or violent revolution
are the only alternatives.
We must understand the Marxist
materialist concept that existence
determines consciousness. To a comfortable, middle cláss, college student or
freelance writer, the idea ofa peaceful
revolution, even if it takes decades,
sounds reasonable. To a 13 year old
Korean girl, forced to work 12 hours a
day in a factory, it sounds ridiculous. She
will pick up a gun and fight at the first
opportunity. A,nd all the idealistic
preachings ofall the peace-mongers in
the world will not stop her.
The role of the pacifïst-revolutionary
must not be to condemn this natural

It seems to me that a publication like
should give puþlicity to this item,
and urge its readers to point out in the
organizations of women with which they
have ties, that funds for implementing
the important goals ofjobs, child care,
education, health, etc. can only be found
by cutting military expenditures. The
forthcoming U.N. Special Session on
Disarmament, May 23-June 28, offers an
opportunity for all ofus who understand
the importance of changing national

l{IN

Court pronounced a "negative"
judgement in the Christiania case (see
WIN 4 / I / 76). The Defense Ministry now
has the legal right to order Christiania

former NATO general has written that
their mobilization plan, now must discussed in the Danish press, is
"extremely clever and strategically well
tought-out, " It sounds quite a bit like
May Day, 1971 in Washington-but

take the lead in urging all nuclear powers
to start phasing out their nuclear
arsenals rather than escalating weapons
development and deploymentland .
should develop initiatives to advance the

other lands as well.
For these reasons, and others, it is
hard forme to sympathize with the
intention to destroy Christiania. Fortunately there is still every opportunity
to avoid this calamity, even ifthe
Supreme Court's ruling goes against the
free town. I hope you will be willing to
report to your government that there are

friends of Denmark inthis countrywho
earnestly hope that the forcible, and
possibly bloody, evacuation of Christiania is avoided at all costs, and that
value ofChristiania as a unique and
exciting social experiment is recognized
and continued.
lYith best wishes,

Johnlampertl
I'm very pleased with the McReynolds
review of my Wtnerdng füo Scventles
book (IVIN 2/ L6/781. I'm embarrassed
by his point-all too valid-that the
booli's price of $12.95" . . . is notthe kind
of odd change WIN readers carry on
their persons. " At any rate, the Newsletterhas made a quantity purchase from
Horizon Press which allows us to offer
the book at special price to WIN readers:
$9.50. Mailed anywhere in US no extra
charge. Outside US add 50d. Make
checks payable tci THE NE\YSLETTER,
5 Beekman Street,NYC 10038,

:SIDNEYBERNARI)
Thanks for another goodyear ofvaluable
information. I depend on IVIN more than
ever since I moved out of Boston.

I especially appreciated Philip
Zwerling's article "Gay Rights and the

New Witch-hunt" (WIN 2/16178). It's
about time that heterosexuals began to
deal with the homophobia that pervades
this society and themselves. He makes
the point quite well that the silence oflhe
majority ofheterosexuals on the issue of
gay rights contributes to repressionjust
as surely as the hateful ravings ofright-

wing reactionaries. I hope that other
heterosexuals will acceþt the responsibility of dealing with their prejudices and
of confronting the repressive attitudes
around them.
Here's my renewal for another year of
IVIN. I agree with Catharine Lowe in
wanting to see more feminist
consciousness in the magazine, but I
want to be reading it as that happens.

_SUSANBRACE

¡e¿¡lenntngúon, yt.
I'm happy to read the article on gay
rights by Philip Zwerling (WIN

2/16/78).It

is eloquent & moving. But at

the same time I'm keeping myfingers
crossed that this isn't going to be your
one gay article for the year. I hope WIN
will ihôlude writing on gay issues by lesbians & gay men, not merely by radical

heterosexual clersvmen.

-MANKMORRIS
It distresses me that in neither of the two
articles WIN has had ori the I\{Y
Women's meetine in Houston has there
been anv mention-ofthe fact that the
agenda ädopted contains a plank on
"Peace and Disarmament."
The Women's International League
fotPeace and Freedom, forone, worked
hard to eet this issue included in the
agendafThe wording is (exerptfrom our
national publication):
Peace and Dlsa¡m¡nont Recolutlon
The President and the Congress should

intensifu efforts to:

a) buiid, in cooperation with other
nations, an international ftamework
within which serious disarmament nego'
tiations can occur;
b) reduce militarY sPending and
foreien militarv sales, convert excessive
*eap"ons manúfacturing capacity to producdion for meeting human needs;
c) suoport peace education in schools
and a¿uänceå study in the fïelds of
conflict resolution and peace keeping.
To this end the United States should

(and international) priorities to preç for
steps to start this process. As long as '
such a major part of the world's resources are dev evetywhere are short changed. Letters
to the President and the State Deoartment (Cyrus Vance, Secretary of^State,
\{ashington, D.C. 20520) should urge
US initiatives at the Special Session ior
the Zero Nuclear Weapôns goal Jimmy
talked about in his campaign and a cut in
over-all arms spending.
The zip codes you gave Anne Lousky
(WlN2/23/78) were incomplete. The
White House zip is 20500. ABC zip is
10019; CBS is 10019; NBCis 10020.
Foi nuclear powêr, she should write

Envitonmental Protection Agency, 401
M St. S\ry, D.C..20460. Senators,
20510. House of Sêpresentatives, 20515.

_ELEA¡TORFOWLER
YardleyrPenn.

Since John Lauritsen (letters,

WIN

2/9/78) capitalizes the words "Truth"
and "Censorship" perhaps he should
also capitalize ''The Enemy. "
. Butthe world is not quite so simple.
lVe are placed in increasingly crowded
theatres with many new ways of shouting "Fire !-and unless we can fïnd
democratic new wavs of encourasins or
discouraging the flów ofvarious [inìfs of
information, this world will socin become

quite uninhabitable for all, including
would-be libertariatrs.
SEEGER
-PETE
BeaconrN.Y.
Ann Morrissett Davidonls description of
"The Revolutionary Temperament"
gave the typical pacifist's attitude
toward revolution, Because she does not
like the way revolutions are,she changes
the definition of the word.'Her new definition of revolution is similar to what
use to be called a cocktail party. The
guests arrive, argue about their ideas
and ideals, embrace one another, and
then go home for the night. How
pleasant and wonderful is this
illusionary world of Ms. Davidon.
Unfortunately, outside of Ms.
Davidon's dream world, there is a world
filled with pain and degradation; a world
whete exploitation; brutality, and
torture are as common place as morning'

to

.

use violence.
it does no good to moralistically point
a finger at violent revolutions. They are

revolutionary violence as anti-revolutionary. Ifthey do so, they are taking the
side ofthe oppressor. Instead, the true

pacifist-revolutionary will shout to the
heavens that it is the state that has
started the violènce. He or she will be the
first at the barricades, demanding the
disarming of the police; the army, and
the other thugs ofthe state. They will
yell and write letters and march, not
just when it is popular, but every minute
of every day. Theywill realize that if they
fail to stop oppression through peaceful
methods, the oppressed will resort to
violence to free themselves. And the true
pacifist-revolutionaty will not blame
them, but will blame her or himself for
not stopping the oppression

intiff͡r**

NewYorkrN.Y.

March 9,"197g"/ vol. XlV, No.'9''
4. lntroduction : lnternational
Women's Day
5. Marketing Malnutrition in the

Third World

Heaven /SandraAdickes
10. Lesbian Mothers and Custody

/ J ulie Schwartzberg &
Trudy Rudnick
13. Pauline Newman: An OrganRights

izer'sStoty / editedby
Susan Beadle
20. Readingson Feminism and
Nonviolence / Vicki Rovere
24. Changes
25. Prison Notes / Larry Cara
27. Reviews / Wendy Schwartz &
Diane Spaugh
:

Cover: Drawing by Toni Truesdale

STAFF

. Robert Ellsberg
Patrick Lacefield o Laur.i Lowell
Susan Pines o Murray Rosenblith

Susan Beadle

503
Patricia Mische is so right in reviewing
the movie "Star Wars" (WIN 2/3/78). It
is poisonous fare.
Do not drop your kid offatthis movie:
go with him or her, and comment aloud
throughout. Adult reaction is much
needed to bring it into focus forjuvenile
repeaters.
In addition to what Mische says, the
movie is also anti-human. Onlythe
robots are lovable: humans are colorless,
meaningless, and very few.
_LOT'ISET. ROBINSON
Worthlngûon, Ohlo
Enclosed please find a money order to
cover my subscrþtion to WIN Magazine.
I've read \{'IN periodically over the past

severalyears, andfinally decidedto,
send in this subscription so we'd have it
coming regularly into the houset
Looking forward to receiving future
issues, wishing you sftength and peace

inyourwork,

_SI{ELIAMcFADæAN
Reglne, S¡skstohewah

/ Becky Cantwell

7. For Our Mother Who Art in

Atlantic Avc. / 5th Floor

Brooklyn,

NYf1217

.

Telephone : (21 2)624.83 ?7, 6244195

UNIND¡CTED
CO.CONSPIRATORS
SandraAdickes

.

pegAvefill.

. ,ônB.ffy.

Lrn¿a

Eelville ¡ MarisCakar¡' r 5u3¡¡Ç¡þ73. o lêrry
Çoffin r LynneShatzkinColfin . AnnO¡v¡don o Ruth
Dear r Ralph DiSia' o W¡ll¡amDoutha¡d' o f)rililht
Ernest' . Ruth¡nh Evanoff' r Ç|¡uck pa3er r Jim
Forest ¡ lirryGara ¡ EdHedemannr r Gr¡ce
Hedemann' . MartyJezcr. Par¡lJohnson. John
Kyp€r . Ell¡ot L¡nzer' . Jacksontvl¡clow.r David
McReynolds! t MaryMeyo o Devidlvlolr¡s . M..¡
À'lorr¡t . J im Peck r lgal Roodenko' o Vkki Rovcre'

Wendy Schwartir . MarthaThomasca o
Susan Wilkins . Beverly Wood*.rd

AñW¡slôw

'Member of WtN Editorial Bo¡rd

WIN is published every.Thur¡day cxcept for'the first
week in I anuary, the fourth week in À¡lar¡h. the seßond
week in June, the last two weeks ín Au3ust, the ti?st tfifo
weeks. irt Seþtember and the. last week in Decernber by

W.l.N. Magazine, lnc. with the support of the War
Resislers Leaßue. Subscriptions are t15. pcr yc¡r.

Second clais postage paid at Nery York, NY lml ¡nd
.additional mailing offices. lndividual wr¡têrt aru

responsíbleforopinions cxpreseed and accuracy of factr

given..Sorry-manuscripts cannot be retur¡ed

.unless

accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelopc.
Pr¡ntcd in USA

-

March 9, 1978 WIN 3

¡i

.t

ln this isst¡e for lnternational Women's Day, WIN commemorates women's particular
traditions of activism in the movement for social change. From the sweatshofs oiÑà*
York's Lower East Side to community health clinics iÑhe ltal¡an countrysidË,Ìior if," U"¿rooms to the boardrooms to the courtrooms, women have organized to ¿ämand control
over
our work, our bodies, our h.omes-uu"ry urþ".t of our l¡ues ñhere thã ¿ãriñi""ãlp"ü¡:'"'
archy and corporate capitalism has been asserted.
ln every sphere of life where our natural inclination s toward healthf ul and humane living
.have
been obstructed, we are gathering o.ur common strength, sharing o;r;o;;;; experience, and rising up in outrage. Through this process *e unõrgit" and ievitalizu
other;
ourvisionforhumanitybecomesreal. Forlniernational Worñen'sDayweofferthese
"u.Á
perspectives on that vision to all our comrades in the Movement.
These articles represent just a few of the issues women are facing today. Lesbian women
are f ighting for jobs, health care, housing-but nowhere is the battJe roi" Urutuiunj
tn"
priceof defeat more dearthan forchild custody. Corporate imperialism tuuu"iiii ,giv
rurt
again in the insidious peddling of infant formuia in the Third World. Sandra À¿i.t
óft".t
her perspective in an essay onlhe need for a feminist theology to counter
"i
the woman-demean ing gospel of the patriarchal Church. Vicki Rovere prouiães a bibliograpf'v
ãi ârti.lut
and books on feminism and nonviolence. An interviewwith Pauline N"*rîun-'go-yáatold
"'"
orsan
70 years' experience in the unions, the Sociali.si earty, and the
,uff ¡.ugä ,
izer ¡"vith
movementis an inspiration to us all.
. With this special issue, we usher in another year of regular coverage of activities and
developments, ideas and controve.rsies, of the women""ròuur"nt. Óoming up are ãrticles
on sterilization abuse., thecontinuing abortion fight, women,itr'áuiuiã;;pr;;w;;icoast
feminism and nonviolence project and always mõre reviews.
We'd like to take th is occasion to thank oir readesfoiyoul. continuing support and feedback on our handling of fem in ist issues. we encouragu irr'oiã oi
vo, *t'o"uiðããtiul-¡"ì6"
many aspects of the women's movement to submit mãnuscripts fo. our consideratián so
that
we may better ref lect your work,.your concerns. WIN tries to cover thã many iü"t
ifr"
Movement- sometimes contradictory, sometimes fragmented- in the Uàt¡bt if'ãi "i
ári of
that diversity will come an integrated whole whose breä¿ttr wiLl be ¡ts sirengìfr.

ln sisterhood and solidarity,

1

Drawing by Peg

Averill/LNS

:Jillïillïi,1"'
vr rç
ì )ldl
I

L¡

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II

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Lower r, and susan pi nes

Marketing Maln utrition
ln the Third World
by Becky Cantwell

pediatric wards of hospitals throughout
World thousands of babies lie
weakened from severe malnutrition. What manyof
them have in common is thatïhey have been botile
fed with artif icial infant formula. These infants are
sick from what some pediatricians call "commercíogen ic maln utrition .'' They suffer and
sometimes die while a handfulof multinational corporations prof it handsomely.
Most of us were bottle fed and grew up healthy,
so what's the problem?
Safe bottle feeding requires things we take for
granted money to buy the powder, literacy to
fol low com pl icated m i x i n g i n structions, clean
water, enough fuel to sterilize a bottle several

occurs and the longer it lasts, the greater the
dangerof permanent brain damage.

times a day, refrigeration to store mixed formula
in, and so on.
For millions of people in Third World countries,
these basic requirements do not exist. ln many
places, enough infant formula to nourish a baby
costs over 5Oo/o of a poor iamiiy's income. That
means the diet of the rest of the family suffers, and
formula is diluted. A recent studyfrom Barbados
showed 82o/o of parents surveyed di I uted the formula to make a four day supply last anywhere from
f ive days to three weeks. Some people believed the

and development" is wasted. Among other
benef its, breast feeding allows a motherto pass on
her immunities to many local diseases to the baby.
And breast feeding contributes to wider spacing
between births. This contraceptive effect leads to

n the

I the Third

bottle itself has medicinal properties and filled it
with water.
Literacy rates, especially among women, are low
in most of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. And
mixing instructions are frequently not printed in
the languages of the people who are sold the
colorf ul tins. Uncontaminated water and accessible
fuel are often luxuries.
Under unsterile conditions, bottled formula '
becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. lnfants
contract infections and get severe diarrhea,
thereby losing their abilityto absorb nutrients. The
result is malnutrition and greatly increased susceptibilityto infection. lf untreated, the infants
often die.
A particularly grim aspectof malnutrition among
tiny babies is that the earlier the malnutrition

Bottle Feeding on the Rise
Despite this tragedy, the trend toward bottle
feeding continues in many Third World countries.
ln Singapore, between 1951 and 1960, the
percentage of ch i ldren in low-income fam i I ies
breast-fed at least three months dropped fromTlo/o
to 42o/o . By 1971, on ly f ive percent of babies were
still breastfed at the age of three months. ln the
Phi I ippi nes, 31 o/o Íewer mothers nursed their
babies in 1968 than had a decade earlier.

Meanwhile breast milk-the only classless food,
perfected through millions of years of "research

-

slower population growth.
The great body of medical research indicates
that normal women can supply milk sufficient for
an infant's nutritional needs in thefirstfourto six
months of life, and as a significant protein supplement for at least a year thereafter. Even malnourished women can supply milkof surprisingly
high quantity and quality. Those who can't usually
need supplementation ol their own diets. Nutritionists have found that mothers are about 90olo
efficient in converting the food they eat into breast
milk- lactating women need about 500 additional
calories a day. lt is obviously preferable for a
woman to spend available f unds feeding herself
rather than purchasing formula. For the rare cases
whereformula is needed, a locally-made, non-commercial formula could be produced for a fraction of .,
the cost.
Onlyoneto five percent of women can't breast
feed for medical reasons. And a recent review of 11
studies of Third World women found that, on the
average, only six percent of women surveyed said
they weaned their infants because of their need to
go to work.

Becky Cantwell is the I nfant Formula Campaign

Director for Clergy and Laity Concerned, a member

organization of the lnfant Formula Action Coalition. She is a/so the editor of CALC REPORT,
CALC's iournal.

The economic drain is also significant: an
estimated billion dollars a year are being spent in
Third World countries on an expensive, highly processed, and largely unnecessary product.
The switch from breast to bottle feeding is

4WlN March 9, 1978
March 9, 1978WlN 5

analogous to sh unn ing f ree air in order to purchase
expensive containers of inferior air to breåthe; or
corrvincing lvotììen that the ,,normal,, way to g ive
bifth is through Caesarian section

Promot

uct

Behind it all are those masters of artif icial need
c.reat.ion (euphem istical ly cal led market
development), the multinattonal corporations.
.ln industríalizecl countries, the rate of growth for
infant fornrula sales has stagnatecl in corËlation to
cleclining birth rates and thõfact that mor:e women
are choosing to nurse. But opposite trends are
occuring in Third World countries, making them
fertile ground for the massive promotional
campaigns successfully undertaken by formula
manufacturers.

,

Rad.io

jingles, TV spots and newspaper ads for

tormula
{epict glamorous mothers with healthy,
contented babies. ln clinics and hosoitals
calendars, posters, ana narne tãc;ãir. b"úi wards
Doast ptctures of company products.

Qistribution of free samples is widespread. This
practice is particularly insidious since ä mothei;s'milk s.upply is regulated bythe baby,s sucking and
may dry up within as little as three áays if not

demanded.

'

Based on their investigation of nine ctinics and
hospitals in Manila and ruralareas on føindanào,
researchers in the philippines last summerfouná
.

that:

a

Apparently virtually every inf ant born in a clinic
or hospital in the phitippines ls taken from its
mother and given infai,nìt Íormula for the first two or
three days of life . . . . ln every clinicor hospital we

vislted we Íound evidence of active pro^o,tion by

th e m u I t i n at

io n a

I co r:po r at

io n

s wh o' m a n uÍ actu r'e

infant formula. . . most of theposters showed
Caucasian babies and motheiswho looked hàatthy
and upper c/ass, thus associating formula with a
better life.
- The corporations also use an even more blatant
form of promotion. Nurses are hired away from the
already scarce reserves of health workers in Th ird
World countries at big pay raises to become ,,milk.
nurses" or "mothercraft personnel.,, They, and
sometimes non-nurses, are dressed in nurse,s uni_
.

forms and paid by the companies to visit new

mothers in hospitals and at home distributing free
samplesof cgmpany products and doing othe"r
"educational" work.
. The.implied medical endorsement resulting
from the cozy relationship between huge
corporations and the under-staffed, unãer_
equipped hospitals and clinics of the Third World
apparently succeeds. ln one study, 95%o ofthe
Nigerian mothers who combined.breast and bottle
feeding believed they had been advised to do; bt
medical personnel, primari ly m idwives or nurses,
The result of these massive promotionat cam_

paigns: women have been sucked into giving up
a
6WlN March 9, 1978

basic human right. They are persuaded that their
own,milk (and by extension, their very selves) is

inadequate. Anewclassof consumers is born:
women convinced that they need the gadgetry sold
by male-dom inated corporations.
on every parent,s desire to do what is
.bestPreying
for her or his ch ild, corporate promotion
sug gests to_parents that i f they rea I I y carefor the
heatth and tuture of their child, they,ll buv the
newest improved formula. Think of how vou would
feel about yourself if , having sacrif iced tó do ,,the
bes!, " you had to then watch your infant grow thin
and sickly, not understanding why
Bottle feeding is associateð with class status,
western technology, scientif ic advance, and
glamour. As Third World women become
resocial ized th rough the development process,
they learn that their breasts are'suppoied to bó sex
objects, not sourcesof maternal srri"nun.u.
Showing one's breasts in public becomes órimitive
and backward. And at how many places oi employ_
ment in this country or in any other, are creches
and nursing breaks provided mothers?
In responsetoyearsof criticism, someof the
corporations have curtailed their more blatant
forms of promotion and cleverly re-packaeed their
message. Nowthe formulas are intended to supple_

mentmother'smilk,,,when itfails,,, andthe''
phrase beginning "Breast milk is best, but. . . ,,
now adorns some advertising. But becâuse a
woman's confidènce in herabilityto produce milk

is recognized as a key factor in succeisful lactation,

the.new line of promotion convinces many women

of the inadequacyof theirown milk.
. As stated by US Nestle,s consumer affairs
director Stephen Korsen in an interview irlthe
Ph i ladel ph ia T r i b u ne,,, These people
¡f Àird World
womenl must have supplements. Theii breast size
is smaller than women in th is country, and their

lactation period is shorter.,,

Ban on Bottles
The Third World countries which have begun a
variety of efforts to curtail the promotionaì prac_
tices of corporations, and to encourage breast
feeding, apparently disagree with Kõrsen. papua
New Guinea recently declared baby bottles a Ëealth
hazard, and banned their sale without a doctor,s
prescription. A fine equaling $250will be imposed

for breach of the new regulaiion. J amaica has
revoked hospital visiting privileges for representa_
tives of commercial mi lk compan¡es. Zambia has
nationalized much of the milk formula industry and
urges mothers to breast feed on the labels of
formula cans.
Campaígns to promote breast feeding and to

curtail promotion within Third World cõuntries
unfortunately have very skimpy budgets compared
to the public relations and advertising-budgets of
Nestle, Bristol Myers, Ross-Abbott, Ãmerìcan
IoT" Products, and other multinational giants.
And many government health care systems still

believe they need the often lavish gifts offered by
companies.
The campaigns in Western Europe and the US
focus on the unethical promotional activities.
Efforts and interest in the US have intensified in
the past few months.

Boycott Nestle
The lnfant Formula Action Coalition (INFACT) was
formed in J anuary 1977 and held a national conference in November. At that time a national boycott
of all Nestle products was affirmed as INFACT's
primary strategy. Nestle is the largest seller of
infant formulas in Third Wprld countries and has
engaged in someof the most"widespread promotional activities. Because it is a Swiss-based corporation, it hasn't been subjected to the shareholder resolution actions directed with some
success towards US-based companies. The
domestic wholly-owned subsidiary of Nestle does
not produce infant formulas.
The boycott's demand is immediately stop all
promotion of inÍantformulas: 'l) an end todirect
adv.ertising of formula to consumers; 2) an end to
distribution of free samp/es to hospitals, clinics,
and homes of newborns; 3) an end to the use of
company " milk nurses; " 4) an end to promotion
to the health professions and through health care

institutions.
Nestle is responding to the boycott with slick
public relations documents and a beautiful fullcolor booklet called, " lnfant Nutrition in the
Developing Countries: Some Considerations on the
Contributions of Nestle." An infant foods specialist has come over f rom Swiss headquarters twice in
the past f ive months to meet with critics. He was
unable to counter satisfactorily criticism that
Nestle's recent marketing policy changes are
cosmetic and show more interest in public relations
than in solving the problem.
Nestle products include: Taster's Choice,
Nescafe, Nestle's Quik, Nestle's Crunch, Nestea,
Libby, McNeill and Libby products, Souptime,
Decaf , Nestle's milk flavorings, Stoeffer products,
Crosse and Blackwell products, Maggi products,
. Swiss Knight and all J arlsberg cheeses, and Deer
Park Mountain Spring water. People who boycott
are asked to write letters to Nestle Company lnc.,
100 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, New York,
10605.
ln addition to the boycott; INFACT is working to
get Congressional hearings on this scandal, and
mobi I izi n g support for shareholder resol utions
directed this year at Carnation and American

Home Products.
For more information about the campaign,
contact the National I N FACT Cl eari n ghou se, 17 01
University Ave., SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55414;
Clergy and Laity Concerned, 198 Broadway, N.Y.,
NY 10038; or ICCR, 475 Riverside Drive, N.Y., NY
10027.

For Our Mother
Who
Art in Heaven

by Sandra Adickes

tl

/hat has been the strongest infl uence on your
A woman I Ènowwho is afeminist
historian asked methis question in the past year,

VY pol¡tics?"

and my response was moreof a revelation to me
than to her, for I confronted atruth that I had not
previo u s y acknowl äd_g_ed .
"Religion," I replied. "My politics were shaped
by my early rel i gious experience. " Since the time I
made that discovery, I have been thinking through
the nature of my childhood religious experience
I

Sandra Adickes is the director of Proiect Chance, a
program for re-entering adultwomen at Brooklyn
Collegeof theCity University of NewYork.
March 9, 1978 WIN 7

women who were primarily conce4ned with a basic
struggle for survival . The ballot, after all ,-was of
oart¡cular value to privileged women. Of far more
sien if icance to working class women was the 19th
Añrendment ratif ied in 1919. Prohibition was the
major ach ievement of the Women's Christian
Temperance Union, organized by Em.ma Willard in
1874'inorder to prevent hard-pressed working men

and analyzing the relationship of that experience to
my adult life. I have found, in the process, that my
concern with the transcendent aspects of my politicalvalues coincides with the interests of a significantnumberof women, andthat lam, in fact, being
drawn into an important areaof concern in the

women's movement.
When I was a child, I loved Jesus. Hewas, to
begin with, recognizableon myown levelof
experience. As a child, I celebrated his birth and
was honored in return becauseof his miraculous
birth. Like many people in my community, he was
the child of a worker who became an apprentice in
his father's trade. However, the men in the
community in which I grew up socialized with each
other in bars; J esus had much broader social contacts. Hè was different from men I knew in otherand to me, preferable-ways. He liked children
more than they did, and he liked women, too; particularly bright women like Maryof Bethany, who
preferred (as I did, contraryto community mores)
the pursu it of i ntel lectual i nterests to the housekeeping chores which absorbed her sister Martha
(and my mother, along with every other adult
woman I knew). Yet what I loved about Jesus were
the qualities I instinctively recognized as womanly:
he was a healer, ateacher, a nurturer; he believed

in communal meals and was concerned for the comfortof others. Theimageof himthat lcarried,
which came to me through the glossy, four-page,
color-i I I ustrated Sunday schoolpamþh lets
containing stories of his life, was of a man unlike
any I knew: long-haired, bearded, gentle-faced,
and sensual. He stirred my imagination
powerf ully, and I learned from his teaching that
every human being is the equal of every other
human being, that people must be honest with one
another, that we must be concerned with each
other's well-being, and that, when necessary, we
must speak truth to power. The social vision I
acquired as a child has remained essentially the
same all my lífe.
Jesus inspired me, but Cod was anotherexperience entirely. He was the consummate patriarchal
authority f igure: omniscient, omniþotent, remote,
unforgiving, and wrathful. I could not believe that
Cod was J esus' father; J esus was a social being,
but Cod was an isolate. Women, it seemed, were
not allowed in Heaven. Where, I used to wonder as
we prayed or sang hymns to our heavenly father,
was my mother in heaven. As an idealisticteenager, I became increasingly alienated f rom a form
of worship basedon intimidation. I believedthat
people should be encouraged to love virtue for its
own sake, not be manipulatedthrough fearof
punishment. When I was a child, the world was in
turmoil because of the ambitions of dictators; Cod
resembled these men too much for me to sustain
my faith in him, and before I left adolescence, I
withdrew belief
I am interested now in altering this pattern in my
own life, and reestablishing aconnection with my

t

.

I

u*t*

March 9, 1978

early religious experience. My motivation arises
not from a response to the current nostalgia for
My pattern, I believe, is similartothatof other
Protestant women who f ind themselves alienated
froni the received theology and f rom the organized
Church which toooften has seemedto usto represent privilege and inequality-the antithesis of the
Christian values we learned to cherish as children.
We leaveour homes and communities; we become
urban and cosmopolitan; wefind political avenues
for expressing our values; we turn from cold,
unsensual Protestant men and seek warmth and
intimacy in relationships with people our co-religionists have too often rejected.

"roots,'t orfrom having been "born again"-for

I

have not modif ied essentially the decijiort I made
when I was sixteen. But rather it is because the
church-based opposition to the women's movement has made me realize how large a role the

various Protestant denominations still play in
American society and that the departure of women
like me from the organized churches has left a
vacuum that is being f illed by the conservative
branches.

Most of the movers and shakers of the nineteenth century-the Grimke sisters, Mary Baker
Eddy, Harriet Tubman, Lydia Maria Child, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Lucretia
Mott, Emma Willard, and countless other less
wel l-known soci al-reformers
- were prom pted to
take action by their passionate religious convictíon.
Many of these women encountered opposition from
co-religion ists, but they sustained comm itment to
their causes in a religious context, and established
thereby a tradition of activist faith which other
women might pursue.
With the growth of the suffrage movement,
however, the opposition of the churches intensif ied. Femin ists were obl iged to move more into
the secular world in order to serve their cause, and
here the class differences divided the early
reformers f rom the later groups of immigrant

from squandering theirown and/ortheir wives'
earn ings on liquor, leaving families without money
for fooð, clothing, or shelter. Perhaps not since
that time have the concerns of religious women
connected with the broader feminist concerns.
The departureof strong women who
transformed their society accbrding to a religiously-rooted vision has resulted in an enlargement of
oatriarchal i sm i n Americali Protestanti sm. And
ihe modern ideal of female piety is similartothe
patient Criselda ideal that emerged in thetwelfth
lentury, when Church authority was centralized
and bureaucratized and women no longer occupied
the positions of leadership they had formerly held.
lntellectually gifted women once f locked to the
convents; when these were closed or brought directly under the control of male priests, women
turned their attention from divine love to earthly
love. One is tempted to make a similar connection
in our own time between the lack of a sphere of
influence for visionary women in the church and
theobsessive preoccupation otwomen with romantic love.
I havecometo recognizethe need fororacular
women be'cause of the intensity of the opposition to
thewomen's movement among religious women. I
do not think my Marxist friends have [ecognized
how very much Americans reject a materialistic
interpretation of the world: how much they yearn
for transcendent experience. The civil rights
movement in the early Sixties won much of its
support, I believe, because it addressedthis need.
But since that time there has not been a perceptible
recognition of this need among progressive political people. The conservative, patriarchal religions have responded to this need for transcendence, and the growth of their inf luence is having a
concern with the transcendent aspects of my politifeminist advocates have for so long lacked visibility
in American Protestanti sm, the women's
movement is perceived as a hostile, secular force;
at the meanest level, it is viewed as a veh icle for the
advancementof "pushy" women like Betty
Friedan and Cloria Steinem. lf thetradition of religious fem in ists had been a contin uing one, perhaps

easy task in thç self ish Seventies. I believe that l
m ight be able to ach ieve th is goal if my daughter

could seethevaluesystem I uphold as partofacon-

tinuing tradit¡on. Butthe structure and contentof
religion in its present state cannot assist me. My
daughter and I are not comfortable in even the most
progressive churches, for the hymns we are
asked to sing and the prayers we are asked to
speak-f illed with phrases referring to the fatherhood of Cod and the brotherhood of Man - are as
sexist and exclusionary as those that troubled me
as a chiId. The Iiturgy ref lects feudalistic theological concepts of "the kingdom of Heaven" and of
" J esus Christ our Lord." "' I don't feel holy, " is my
daughter's way of expressing her discomfort and
her sense that she does not belong in church.
Therefore, I am planning my reentryto my religious heritage through another route. I want to join
with other women with similar concerns to create
theology which celebrates the divinity of woman-

:

hood, wh ich celebrates the d ivi n ity of every one.
The Reformation I am descri.bing involves the f inal
overth row of the wh ite, patri archal, heterosexual
male Cod. This process of "theolo gizing"
differs from traditional theology in
that it is not rooted in an authoritarian system but
in human experience; it deals with futures and possibilities ratherthan with any divine decree, creed,
or system atic theolog ical treati se. Shei Ia Col I i ns
def ines this process in A Dilferent Heaven and

Earth:
Women see themse/vesengaged in acommunal
process in which women with theological degrees
as well as women without them are exploring
together mutual ground. The essence of the
women' s theological movement is that of a shared
seaich f or tr an sce n de n ce. t t i s se I l -conscious/y
communal in style and in purpose, as all deviant'
world views must be in order to survive and win

credibility.
The body of cognition and feeling,

theworld

iiew being developed by women, runs counter tò

that set of as sumptions, priorities, methods, and
experiences which has dominated the J udeo-Christian world since the time of the early patriarchs. ln
this sensè, the movement is anti-Christian, though
it is profoundly religious. ln order to geton with our
business however, we have found it necessary to
exorcise this patiarchaldemon from our midst.

Resources

we would not be witnessing the present convulsion

within the Episcopal church.
Apart from my political motivation for urging
feminist women to return to the churches and to
capture them from within, I have a personal
motivation for seeking to establish a connection
with thefaith of our mothers. I wantto passon my
value system to my daughter, and this is not an

ln addition to the above-mentioned work, I have
read or am planning to read Mary Daly's Beyond
Cod the Father: Toward a Philosophy oÍ Women's
Liberation, Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born,

Merlin Stone's WhenCodWasa Woman, Rosemary Rueth er's Liberation Theology, along with
other works that I discover.
March9, 1978W|N9

by Julie Schwartzberg and Trudy Rudnick

with drawings by Jacky English

ô
)

,

t,i,

tevye Clostreschiu is a legal workerwho lives in
a small New York City apartment with two of
herchildren. Up until last December, Stevye's
ohone was a "hotline" and her home a "crisiS cenier" for lesbian mothers in the New York metropolitan area. Each week for several years she
received phone calls from frightened lesbian
mothers: some seeking advice about custody
battles; some expressing fear that they couldn't be
"good mothers" and lesbians too; and others crying that they had already lost their children.

"l often gottwenty-f ivetothirty phonecalls a
week," she says. "sometimes the calls came in the
middle of the night, from women fearf ul of being
'exposed' and losing their children. One night
about 4 am a woman called saying that she had
gone out of her house for the evening, and when
she returned home she found the locks changed
and she couldn't get in. "
Over the last several years, some lesbian mothers seeking advice knew to call the Lesbian
Switchboard, the Cay Switchboard, orthe National
Cay Task Force to f ind out about keeping their children. These lucky ones had found a route to the
" undergound. " They were referred to the Custody
Committee of Dykes and Tykes, a local support
group for lesbian mothers and their children,
formed in1972. CaroleMorton, another lesbian
mother and memberof the Custody Committee and
a founder of Dykes and Tykes, also ran a crisis
center out of her home. Soon , by word of mouth,
she and Stevye became the f irst New York City ex-

\

perts on lesbian custody.
Many lesbian mothers were not fortunate
enough to have found advice-and gave up their
children without realizing that there were other
options. There was a great need for education and
support if tragedies like these were to be prevented
i

n the

future

When Clostreschiu started running workshops
on lesbian custody in1972, peoplecould notcom-

Jaclqf 6¡.Ulr¡tt

Trudy Rudnick is a counse//or atthe Dykes and
Tykes Legal Custody Center. J ulie Schwartzberg is
a member of Dykes and Tykes.

prehend the notion of a ''lesbian mother. " After
all, people thought lesbians are all single and
childless. Most who had children stayed in the
closet, fearf ul of the consequences of exposure-of
losing jobs, housing and theirchildren. Although it
is estimated thatthere areover 1.5 million lesbian
mothers in the United States, most, until recently,
remained invisible.
With the support of the feminist and gay liberation movements, lesbian mothers are making
themselves visible, smashing the myth that lesbians don't have children, More and more women
are affirming their lifestyles, exposing their
" secret," and forcing the public to deal with their
rights as mothers.
One of the greatest fears a lesbian mother has
when she comes out is that she will face a custody
battlefor herchildren thatwill be basedon the
fallacythat her lesbianism makes her "unfit."
"Only two percent of lesbian mothers who go
through court action get to keep their kids,"
Clostreschiu reports. "We think the besþ strategy a
woman can use is to try to settle out of coþrt. This
means she might have to make some corhpromises,
like acceptiríg reduced alimony or child support;
but the odds are against

a

woman who has to go

through the courts."
Most women never getto court; some are able to
settle and keep their children, as Clostreschiu
advises. But manyfeel compelled to give uptheir
children, not knowing that alternatives exist. What
they do know is thatthey cannot afford legal costs,
nor can they afford to support their children,
because they do not earn a man's wage.
Those-who do go to court f ind themselves face tb
face with a judge who is empowered to use his
"sole discretion," which usually leaves the
decision open to his whims and prejudices. Under
the New York State Domestic Relations act, which
governs custody in this state, an individual judge is
to make his determination in accordance with the
"best interestsof thechildren." This is avague
standard, applied in most states, which assumes
that both parents are equally entitled to custody.
And most courts will consider virtually any information concerning the child's "environment" relevant. When a mother's lesbianism becomes part of
that consideration, the results are fairly
predictable.
"l do not knowof onecase in which a judge has
actually shown a mother's lesbianism to be harmf ul
tb herchildren," argues Clostreschiu. "Often a
mother is judged'immoral' by implication, despite
the fact that she provides a warm loving home and

herchidren wantto bewith her. Manycourts say
that a parent's homosexuality is harmf ulto the

children, butthey never haveone shred of evidence
to prove it. "
A1973 Tacoma, Washington case, Koop v. Koop,
substantiates this assertion. AlIthree Koop children expressed a preference for living with their

10WlN March 9, 1978
March 9, 1978 WIN

11

¡

mother. After the father was given custody of two
of thechildren, they run a*ay-from his home
severaltimes. When they stated in courtthatthey

would under no circumstances return to live with'
their father, the court p/a ced them in afoster home
stating that "the living arrangement of the mother
is abnormal and not a stableone. ltwould be highly
detrimental to the girls. " The court cited no prõof '

of any "harm" thatmightcometothechildren. To
the contrary, a psychiatrist, psychologist and a juvenile court caseworker each testif ied that the
mother should have custody.

ttt, I
It I r{
l¡t¡ I

\,,

c:

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TS
¡¡rnfi frII

nilil

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rr

redetermination of custody at any time. This means
that if a woman's lesbianism is not initially brought
up in court, it can be raised at anytimethereaftei
as a "material changeof circumstance,,, as can any
change in-her living situation. Although it may not
be too awf ul for a woman to stay ,,in th1 closetr,
during a custody suit, the prospect of remaining
there until the children are grown is a dismal and
painf ulone.
Emotionally and f inancially the process of a custody battle is long and demoralizing; it is often
fraught with painful choices. Hiring a lawyer,
taking time off f rom work, and payinC baby sítters
during court appearances cost alot of money which
most women do not have. And the emotionalioll ishigh.
. Becauseof these problems, groups areforming
throughout the country to provide ald and support
for lesbian mothers. Lesbian mothers, defense
funds have been organized in several cities to raise
money for court costs and to publicize cases.
Lesbian mothers across the country like Stevye
Clostreschiuand Carole Morton, who could not
single handedly keep up with a weekly barrage of
callers, sought alternative ways to provide leibian
mothers with adequate legal and counseling
.

Pouline
Newmqn3

An

I

Orgqnizer s
Story

ti

edited by Susan Beadle

Photograph f rom ILGWU/LNS

services.

)
\
à,4þf,ú,
ln a few rare cases, trial courts have awarded
custody to the lesbian mother, but only after imposing severe, inhuman limitations based on antigay prejudice, and certainly not in the "best interests of the ch i I dren . " A 197 2 Calilorn ia case i s
typical of these decisions. The court awarded custody to the mother, only on condition she not live
with her female lover, and only if she agreed to see
her lover when the children were in school or with
their father. ln another case, a lesbian mother was
awarded visitation rights, but her child could not
visit her when any homosexuals were present, nor
couldthechild betaken any placeoutsidethe home
where homosexuals would be present. Thus, a lesbian mother is forced to make the painf ul choice
between living with her lover and seeing her
friends, or having custody of her ch i ldren; a decision no one should have to make.
Even if a lesbian mother does win custody of her
chlidren, she can never be certain that shewill be
able to keep them. The determination can be
reversed under a legal concept known as "material
change of circumstance. A parent can ask for a
12WlN March 9,

1978

Soin1976, Clostreschiu dreamed up a legal custody center for lesbian mothers with the heþ of the
National Lawyers Cuild and under the auspices of
Dykes and Tykes. ln December of 1977,the dream
became a reality. Three nights a week, the Oykes
and Tykes Legal Custody Center operates oui of a
tiny office on E. 23rd Street, where trained lesbian
counsel lors are avai lable to help lesbian'mothers
explore the legal and emotional questions concerning custody.
"Most are advised to try to stay out of court,,
says Clostresch i u. "We know that no s i gn if icant
change wi ll occur if we conf ine our battlès to the
courtroom. Even if the law changed tomorrow and
the issue of lesbianism could not be raised in court,
we still m ight lose our kids. A major determinant in
any custody suit is income, and given that women
earn 57o/o of what men earn, we wouldn't stand a
chance.

" ln addition to f ighting discrimination against
lesbian mothers in court, we have to f ight fõr other
things thatour families need to survive-decent
jobs at decent wages, adequate childcare and
healthcare, and welfare payments that we can survive on. lf we don't f ight for these things along with
other women, I esbian fam i I ies wi I I go u-nder.,,
Establishing the Custody Centerìs onlyone part
of" solving the problem. But it's a good beginn ing.
The cases mentioned in this article were cited by
Nan D. Hunter and Nancy D. polikoff, in ,,Custody
Rights of Lesbian Mothers, " Buffalo Law Review.
For more information: Dykes and Tykes Legal
Custody Center, 110 E. 23rd St., Newyork, Ny
10010.

Who builtthe gates oÍ Thebes?
The books are f illed with names of kings.
Was it kings who hauled the craggY blocks of
stone ?
And Babylon, so manY times destroyed,
Who buittthe city up each time? In which of Lima's
houses,
T h at city g! itter i n g w ith gol d, I ived those who b u i lt

it?

ln the evening when the Chinese Wallwas Íinished
Where did the masons go?
- Bertolt Brecht
f rom "A Worker Reads HistorY"
Oralhistories allow usto answer these questions.
aboutthe builders, the weavers, the homemakers
and theminers of the 20th centurY, whose stories
would otherwise go unrecorded and untold' fhese
histories not only inform us of what liÍe was Iike for
those who were not statesmen, military heroes or
f amous artists, but also provide insights into how
people survived admidst often unimaginable difÍi'cutiies
and how they responded to and tr¡ed to
ge these condif ions.
ch
Thls oral report is by a woman who worked in
an

New York City's garment sweatshops, and became
an organizer of women workers in the garment
induitrv and in other industries, too, as she was
needed. She worked with the Women's Trade
lJnion League, and was the first woman organizer

of the I ntelnational Ladies's Carment Workers'
LJnion-she stillworks in their health center and
education Program todaY '

Nearly ninetY years old, Pauline Newrnan
remembers a very long and important segmentof
the history of American working people. The inter'
viewer, BarbaraWertheimer, was herself an
organizer and is now on the f aculty of Cornell
LJniversity's Schoolof lndustrial and Labor Relations. Her book,WeWereThere, The Storyof
Working Women in America, lPantheon Books

New Yoik

/

1977lprovides a comprehensive

history of the events whîch are only touched upon
here. t would like to thank the 20th CenturY
American Working Women's Oral History Proiect

l
llJniversity of Michigan at Ann Arborlfor
þermission to use the transcripts.
t had access to over a hundred pages oÍ transcripts f rom the interviews-itwas delightf ulto read
and difÍicult to se/ect which portions to use. For
example, when Pauline speaks of the other women
she worked with-speakers /ike Rose Schneiderman, Mary Drier, LeonoraO'Reilly, and othersshe revea /s a str on g com m u n ity of f r i e nd s wor ki n g,
toward common goals, and the value oÍ such a
communty in building a movement fhe passages /
chose gi've an idea of how Pauline Newman and
many other organizers Iived and worked, and of
whai they worked for. l've focused on her work with
the unions, the suÍfrage movement, and the
Socialist Party, from the early't900's to the'1930's.
:

-Susan

Beadle

n g at th e T r i an g I e
starting
w¡th
since'190'l
,
Shirtwaist Company

PauIin

e Newrna n h ad bee n wor ki

ñl.rrclì !ì, 1q;tì WIN

1

ì

wages for a child of nine oi ten years at $'l .50 for
seven d¿ys oÍ work, and a 5i01, increase each year
thereafter lWertheimer, p. 2941. Conditions in the
tenement hornes were much the sa.rne as in the f actories where she worked-no ventilation, light or
heat. She was sharing atwo-room apartmentwith
her mother and two slste rs in'1907 when she led her
first
B.

strike.

-S.

Around 1907 I livedon Madison Street in one
among manytenements, tenements without facilities. The on ly facilities were heating and cooking,
the stove came with the apartment. But no bathing
facilities, no bathroom, notoilet, this was in the
yard. . . And one day, the landlord came and
asked for an increase in rent. We didn't pay very
much as I recall, we had two rooms, we paid $10 a
month. But then there was nothing meaningf ul for
thetenant. And so I spoketo som" of my neì-ghbors
in myown buílding, andthey suggestedthatwe
speak to the neighbors in the next building, so we
wouldn't be alone. And we did that, Finallywe got
togetheron the sidewalks. Thankfully, itwas
summertime. And we decided that we won't give
any increase unless he installs a toilet at leasiin the
hall, if not in the f lat, and a window in the bedroom,
which at that time was windowless. And we
selected a committee, and they made me chairman
to see the landlord. I said let him come. Why shou ld
I goto him? And hewantedthe rent, so hecame. I
told him, we won't pay any increase unless he does
whatwe askof him. Well, to make a long story
short, we as tenants had an interest in meeting, we
discussed the situation, and we def initely decided

\

not to give any, not a penny more, than what we
were paying. So he didn't get any increase, and we
didn't get any facil ities, and that was the end of the
strike. But my picture appeared on the front page
of the Evening Journal! CIRL LEADS STRIKE.
That's quite a story. That's symbolicof whatyou
were gonnadofor the restoÍ your Iife. You were

veryyoungthen. .
I worked in thefactory atthattime. We d¡d it all in
.

the

evenings.

II

That same year, or soon after, Pauline joined the
Socia/ist Party. ln thefollowingfew selections she
descrlbes some of the things she did with the Party.

I

i

I

I

Atthe time she joined, the Party wasdoing support
workfor Bill Haywood, Ceorge Pettibone, and
Charles Moyer. The three union activists for the
Western Federation of Miners were arrested on a
trame-up charge for conspiring to assassinate the
former governor of tdaho in 1907. They were deÍended by Clarence Darrow and acquitted. Haywoodwasa
charismaticspeaker and strong leader. lJpon his
release, he accepted an invitation to the Socialist
Ballandthere "Big Bill" Haywood asked Pauline
Newrnan

todance.

Why did you decide to ¡oin the Socia/ist Party?
14WlN March 9, 1978

-S.8.

Itwas around19O7, I think. I may have been too
young to be admitted as a member but I was
already known as a publ ic speaker and so I was
admitted. I became quite active; in the f irst place,
most of the people who were from the slums were
more or less socialistically inclined. lf theywere not
mem bers, they su pported th i s party pol itical ly.
They came to meetings- in those days, the
Socialist Party held lectures educating the people
on what socialism would mean, So they came to
meetings, and it wasn't anything newto see men
and women at those meetings. Some were active,
some were less active, depending upon the amount
of interest you had, the ability to represent your
district, the ability to speak on street corners; and
as I look back, I seem to have possessed all those
qualities. You see, there was no way else to reach
the public. No radio, TV, meetings in halls costs
money wh ich the Party didn't have. And so the only
way to reach numbers of people, was to get an
American f lag and a soapbox, and go f rom corner to
corner; some corners were more popular than
others, and you invited questions. And we had a lot
of f un too. Because after meetings, which usually
lasted till long after m idn ight
-they were held on
Saturday night, so if you didn't have to work the
next day you'd have an evening-we'd go to Central
Park and watch the moon arrive; sometimes to
watch the sun arrive. We had a lot of f un.

Did you sing?

Oh yes. What we sang, sometimes, when we were a
group, ratherthan twoorthree, was the lnternationale. You know that. We I ike the Marsei I les,
we sang that. There was the song Charlotte Perkins
Cilman wrotetothetuneof Tannenbaum, Asrd
when Haywood, Pettibone and Moyer were
arrested, of course we were interested; we did what
we could to help them out, pay for lawyers and

things like that. And when they were released, the
Party, with the Socialist Literary Society, decided
to welcome him and have a ball at the same time.
fhe Red Specialwas Deb's campaign train, right?'
Yes, and the Socialist Party decided it would bea
good idea if they could afford to get atrain just for

kind'
Whatwas he Iike? t've heard hewas very

very- in his appearance- a very tall
talked from the
oärslï Vliv euntl". Èu"n when he
going out to you'
heart
his
feel
you
ðould
ãiáitort
be qual if ied
He was

Ëä;; ; ;i."t

tunt speaker' He could

great.impression even
ur u Jtuut otator. He made a
with him, because
agree
didn't
*ho
i"otitftot"
his hopes forthe
and
sincerity
his
felt
ãi"inon"
through socialism' Hewas ahumble
He reãl ly didn't th i nk of h imself more than
ñã would have anyone else' We need somebody

frt"lu,

;;r";.

like that todaY'

Do vou know of anYone?

Ñã.'Ãna there were quite

a

few in those days'

ill

Later thatyear, Pauline and seyer.alwomen she'd
met in the Socia/ist Party escapeö the tenernents
'ioi
tne
-s'B'

summer.

The Palisades-that story was really pari of the
economic days of those years. lt was.1907, it was
sort of a depression. lt wasn't entirely a panic, you
[no*, but ii was a depression, and.a.lot of factories
were closed in New YorkCity. And the question
was a job, and paying rent. And there were a
numbôr of socialist women who were able to get a
tent f rom some municipal agency and put it up at
anv place in the Palisades and live there without
óáí¡'ne rent. I think you paid $2 for the renting of
it',é t"ñt. And those few women f rom the Socialist
Partv. and lwasoneof them, spentthe summerat
tnã Éálisades. And thosewho had jobs would bring
us food. They would come on Sundays and bring
bread and cake and beans-ooh, beans, beans,
beans. One woman had a little boy all of 5, 6 years
old. She was divorced from her husband. And
every morning hewould say, Momma, do.l haveto
eat b'eans again? But, we ignored him and our
friends werã good enough to see that we don't lack
anything all summer.
/t sbundl like a co-operative community , sort oÍ '
IV

Workers in the garment industry began to organize
¡nlagobutd¡d notmake substa ntial gainsfor many
years. For example, aÍter an industry-wide six
890, th e co ntr act th at w as wo n

Debs and his colleagues, they could stop f rom
place to place as Truman did. Whistlestops. And I
think this was the f irst whistlestop in the history of

mo nth

Was that for theNew York State part of the
campaign?
And Pennsylvania , too. We didn't go allthe way,

families.
ln 1909, women attheTriangle ShirtwaistCom'
pa ny m et with tfre I nte r n ati o n al Lad i es' C ar m e nt
'Worker's lJnion (ILCWU), which had been
founded nine yeaìrs earlier and was sti// quite weak'
The women weretricked by a Triangle manager
into telling the f irm the names of the 150women
ino *^ntáA to ioin the union; and they all were laid
ofÍ that nisht. ltwas a long, diff icultand violent
strike, and became a rnass strike involving garmentof
iort ers all over the city ' (For a complete account
pp.
Wertheimer's
book,
1909,
see
of
tie strike

pol itical campaigning.

because, afterall, Marthaand Henryand lwere
working, and we couldn't take more time than the
employer would allow us. But it was an experience.
And with the experience goes a little story- Debs
got a cold, he was conf ined to bed, and among those
present was his brother, who looks like Eugene
Debs. Anyone who didn't know Debs couldn't
tell the difference. And so when we had to stop and
have Debs'make a speech, his brother madethe
speech and the people never knew the difference.

w

al k-out' i n

1

speciÍically excluded women em.ployees from
lou"rrg".'lÍ some unian did strike, ithad a.lmostno
moneiat alt for the support of strikers and their

297-317.)

For the Triangle workers, it was not successful'
When they retuined towork in February they still
had no contract, nor did they have saÍe fire
;;;ñ;;", thé doorsto thó exitwavs were sti//
'(ept
toct<äd. On March 25, 1g't't, a disastrousfire broke
out and'l 46 women died from llames or from
desperate leaps out of windows on the seventh,
eishth and ninth f loors of the modern and supposed Iy f i r eprool bu i ld i n g.
Pauline had been working for the ILCWU and
theWom en's T r ade U n ion League (WT U L) d u r i n g
the longstrike. She was given asuitcase and oneway ti{ketto Buff alototravelto localtrade union
chapters and to ladies' clubs throughout New
York state to get money for the union and the
strikers. AÍter the strike, she conti nued with
tLCWIJ as the lirstwoman hired to organize.
ln 191 2she was assigned toorganize the boycott .
a
oÍ cor set comp an y i nk al am azoo, M ich i ga n, wh ich
h,ad refused to'renew a contract and had

bãst known activists. Many womenwere
on the picketline.

fired the

arrest"jr.r.

We decided to boycottthem. Theowner just
ignored the mayor from Kalamazoo, and. he
i[nored the mayor f rom Crand Rapids who were
n'ice enough to come and help. He ignored the
priest in Kllamazoo who was very eagerto help; he
iust would not have anything to do with the u¡i91.
3o, the general off ice here in New York decided if
that's tñe case, we'll boycott. And we did' And I
was chosen to do the boycotting. So I travelled from
Michigan to Chicago to St, Louis, St. Louis to lndianafol is, and we f inal ly succeeded. He went out
of business.
How long did thattake? Tillthe boycott really had
an effect?

didn't last long because I reallywas quite successful in getting the women. You see, we had to
It

concentrate on women - no use speaking to men
about corsets. At union meetings I would ask them
second hand. What
get
directly to women
to
talk
wanted to do was to
who buy corsets. And so you have to get in touch

totelltheirwives, butthat's

I

with clubs, women/s clubs. Therewas a socialist
woman not far f rom I ndianapol is, the I ittle town
was called Kokomo. She was a socialist' I got in touch
with her, and she produced a listof women's clubs,
And that was a godsend. The f irst club I attempted
to speakto was an lndianapolis women/s poetry
club. Andthat pleased mevery much; I was no
stranger to poetry, but how to get to them ? Well
anywãy, I had the time of their meeting, the place
of their meeting, and thiswoman told me howto
gettothat hall.l d¡d. And I went uponeflightof
itairs, anotherflightof stairs, awoman was sitting
on a chair in f rontãf the door, and she said', what do
you want, are you looking for somebody, and I said,

i'd like to come and speakto you women atthis

meeting. Oh I she said, I don't know. I said, will you
please f ind out. So she went in, and took quite a
white; I was sitting, waiting. They must have discussed the pros and cons to let me in. Finally a
March 9, 1978WlN 15

't

.f

woman cameout, a fair-headed woman, goodlooking. She looked at me, pointing to what we
would call the sar.geant at arms, said she said you
would liketo speakto us. I said yes, l'd very much
like to. Well what about? So I told her, I said I can
tell you the whole story in front of everyone, but
this is the subject that l'd like women to know
about. She kept quiet, and suddenly, sheturnedto
me: Do you líke poetry? Oh ! I said, I do, very much.
She said, well who's your favorite poet? I said,

well, thereareanumberof them I likeverymuch,
and among them is Shelley. I like Keats, I like
Byron, I like Tennyson. She looked me up and
down, thinking, is it possiblethatthis creature
would knowall this? And she said, well, I guess you
can come in. Well I came in and told them the story
of the girls and the corsets, and they really were
very nice. They passed a resolution asking each
member not to buy corsets made in Kalamazoo,

Michigan.
Thatwasfantastic. .
ln thefirst place, lwas readytotalktothem about
the poets, too, if they wanted me to.
.

ølwf u t

and t LCWU,
out' I to or ganize for
other unions, and did a lot of traveling in New York,
n add ition to wor ki n g
Pau I i ne wou ld be " loaned
t

Pennsylvania and the Midwest, Thefollowing passages give a n idea of whatthat tife wàs like, tiavel-

\

ing, speaking for other unions, and trying to help
outwhen groups of workers tried to join existing
unions. Although Pauline Newman downplays the
subject here, the loneliness of a woman organizer
was probably as great asthe fulfillment it provided.
(See Wertheimer, pp.257-2Sg).

-S.8.

When you were traveling to all those dÌfferent
cities to talkaboutthe boycott, whatwas itlike?
What was it like when you got to a strange city ?
Where would you stay?
Well, the union had no money for meto use cabs
when necessary, or a sleeper; we were poor, you
know. So you used the trains. They were not as
comfortable as they are today, not in the class I
rode. Maybe in firstclass itwasallright, butthat
was notfor me. Well, when l'd getto atown my
tirst contact was the Central Trade and Labor
Council, and they would direct me either to a hotel,
or most of the time, the YW. They had me meet
women or wives of men who knew something about
y.omel'l clubs, and I got along with them allright.
They did as much as they could for me, and thelest
was up to me.
Were you ever lonely?
Oh yes. Out of loneliness . . . there was always reading todo, and I didn'tmindthat. Occasionaliy you
thought it would be nice if you could have someone
else to travelwith you, but that was just a passing
mood.'l'll tell you frankly, when I loót Uack I thin'Í< it
took courage to travel through pennsylvaniaor
some places in lllinois, because peopÍe, they didn,t
have any money to put you in a hbtei, and wÉen I
16WlN March 9, 1978

was loaned to the suffrage movement and to the
Socialist Party, they didn't have any money either.
So you'd stay with people who were poor, and in
some cases, believe me, I didn't sleep nights
because I wouldn't sleep in those beds. Therf had
an easy chair in their parlor, and that was the best
you could do without insulting them. One winter, I

think it was Belleville, lllinois, a miners,
village-theywanted a lady speaker sothat they
could interest their wives, and the National party of
lllinois asked whether I would gothereto speak.'l
said, well, I must have afewdays leavefrom the
union, l'll go. I gotoff thetrain in little Belleville
village, noonewas there. I thinkthetrain was early
andthe miners didn't quit likethey do.now, they
worked longer hours. Well, the miners, wives canie
with thei r h usbands. Sociai i sm. They wanted thei r
wives to know what socialism would do and in those
days they believed socialism would do quite a lot.
When the meeting was over, I said to the chairman,
where do I stay? Well, there wasn,t anything in thii
village. So Mrs. So-and-so said, well, I guesi you,ll
have to stay with us. So I went with them. lt was a
miner's house andtheonlywarm room wasthe kitchen. We ate in the kitchen. And the guest got the
parlor. And the parlor was like an icicle. lt was a
miner's house, and I really slept in my coat. I could
never connect- he was a miner and yet had not coal
to heat his house. Of coursethewages atthattime
were $3 a day. So you had this kind of experience
that you don't forget. Even outside of your own
union-it's all partof the movement.
philadelphia
.l had one experience with a union in
which I won't forgive and won't forget. There were
a group of candymakers i n Ph i ladeph ia who wanted
a union. Well, that was wonderful-- people coming
to us to beorganized! So we gottogether, and we had, I think, about 40 girls, enougñ to warrant a
charter f rom the National Un ion . The Natiqnal was
known as the National Bakery and Confectionary
Workers Union. So, they paidtheir initiation fee,
deposited the money in a Philadelphia bank. The
next day we wrote to the lnternational and told
them that forty girls joined, and we want a charter.
And they answered thattheywere not really
pleased to have any women members. lf wetake
them in, they will get half of whatever benefits the
men had. And they wouldn't be ableto paythe
whole dues, they wouldonly pay half dues, they,d
be a half a member. Oh, it was terrible. So I wrote
him a letter that I don't th ink he'l/ ever forget.
Maybe going otf the sub ject a little bit, do you think
there's a difÍerence today i n the way people care
about the union label than there was'thenl Do you
th i n k.th.ey

r

shou I d b u y

ea

II

ing several mil I ion dol lars a year a{vertising. ln
1910, I was theonlyone! But I thinkthe people
would listen to me notonly becausèof the label, but
becauseof what the label stood for. I thinkthey'
were interested. Andthe newnessof thething': . . I
was quite satisf ied with the attention they paid.
Today you have it on the radio, and you have it on

television, in the buses, you have it everywhere.
Because, as I say, they spend acoupleof miilion
dollars on this. Now how much attention most
women payto that, I question.
What l'd liketotalkabout next, and itwasvery
important in your life, is the Joint Board of Sanitary
Control.
Well, as t recall it, the Joint Boardof Sanitary
Control, was the f irst such a.ddition to any union
agreement in the entire labdrmovement. There
wasn't anything like it, and I don't knowof
T.Vthing like it in anyother union, even today.
Wasthat'1912?
Nineteen eleven. One of the reasons was that the
factories that people worked in were filthy. Very
little ventilation, very bad light, a menaceto the
health of the workers. And Dr. Joyce reallv convinced the union leadership as well as the Êmployer's Association that they'd be better workers if
their health were known, and if the place were kept
sanitary. And they f inally agreed that both the
employers and the union would f inance, if Dr.

IV0flIENdH()MD
VOTES AND POVERTY

broughtth.e results, heclassifiedthem. A,B,C. A:
fairly goodconditions; B: needs a lot of correction;
C: very bad, Naturally enough, we concentrated on
Cto get the.employers to sweepthe factories daily,
to remove the rubbish, to see that the toilets f uncj
tioned properly and to change headjets to electric
lights with shades. Some of them had electric I ight,
butwitþut shade, which is badforyoureyei. ùy
role in it was inspector.
TheJ oi nt Board of San nf,ly conrrol conducted
inspections and, until, 1924, when mostof the
factories were moved from the Lower East Side to
more modern buildings uptown, arranged fire

drills. ln'1926, the board wasdisso/ved. Pauline
Newman continued her workas a speaker and
organizer . She a/so cam paigned for women's suff rage, and was in specla/ de mand to convince
working-class rnen and women that itwas to their
benef it to have women voting for legislators
according to how wellthose rnen supported legislation that protected workers. She herself also ran
for Congress on the Socialist ballot and got more
votes than the party t¡cket(Wertheimei p. 252).

B

-S.

You started totell me aboutwhen you first got
active in the suÍf rage movements, campaigning for
women's suffrage. Could you talk a little about

r

that?
o@@E@ÞÉa-¡.
gÞÞÊéL-¡È

iEEÞ6ñ.-!:
EEgEE@æ

Ltolers

Proteclion

lnllucnce

for Uomen
und Children

l-egl stal t tr!i
tta:r¿JriH
ErÞÞÞ6t:!t:

a:l

r:t r'.:

PAUI.$E()l M,
\1.\\ \(ìl{h.

I0ilI¡

0a

IAIÎ0Hü

WHICH FOR WOMEN?

y I i ste n to the messa ge th at th ey
-m ade prod ucts toâ ay ?

u n i on

I think our appeal is probably mo re, should be more
impressive., and people who buy clothes are likely
to pay a little bit more attention than they did in
1910. ln the f irst place we didn't do anything I ike
what they're doing today. I think both the
manufacturers and the unions together are spend.

oyce would establish, what he called the J oint
Board of Sanitary Control. " )oint,, because both
f inanced it, and the board was to control the sanitation and the conditions.
One of the f irst things he did was to employ a
number of people, some of our own, retired inspectors, to investigate the factories. And when they
J

SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT
ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER 2
\\

.

' 'L rr B¡¡'... irrllt lr¡r ltxl
¡F.'. ¡s
b

St,rtt st¡llr.r*c [,'¡ 11,'¡¡¡¡¡ rr'.¡s ,'¡r Ihc l',rll,'t in l\'n¡r.tlr'.¡ni,r in ¡,¡¡ ¡
.r¡t,l r,t¡n{ l),r¡tlrnt \errrrr.rrr \\'.t\ .¡ l.ì\,,n1( l\r,, }ullr,ri( l.rl",r rl¡.rl..r

I lm trying to think of the year, I think it was', 17, or
beforethat. Mrs. Cattwas in chargeof the
Women's Suffrage Party, which was later changed
tothe Leagueof Women Voters. ln the beginning
Mrs. Catt was in charge and she would appoint
people to cam pai gn for suff rage, and she cat led on
meone dayto come and see her. And allthose who
were campaigning prior to that were college
women, wealthywomen, a good numberof them
from Vassar, and they were all doing an excellent
job,,we thought. But then she called me, she said
that she had a suggestion from some people to have
labor women speakto labor men and Rose Schneiderman recommended me. And having known
before that Mrs. Catt and the othe. peõpl", her col- ''
leagues, were on the conservative side, I said Mrs.
Catt, I want you to know that l'm a socialist. And she
said, who isn't? So, anyway, she decided to let me go
f irst to Buffalo.
I was there about three weeks, campaigning
every night on the street corners or in halls or at
luncheons, wherever I was asked, I was there. But
mychief occupation was, as Mrs. Catt said, to get
the labor men. There was a lot of opposition among
the labor men, even among'thetrade union men.
And you atthattime, andthe League, were not in

March 9, 1978WlN 17

,

favor of the EqualRlghts Amendment?
All of the labor groups, beginning with the American Federation of Labor, ancl including almost
every local, ancl every international union, were
opposed to it.

\

whv?
Why were they opposed? lt was the same reason
that, why we of the Women's Trade Union League
wereopposed. Needless totell you, that the women
who were aff iliated with the Women's Trade Union
League weren't opposed to equality. I think we
were probably advocating equality long before the
equal rights people came onboard. And when they
did, and introduced that amendment, Mrs.
Robbins, of the Women's Trade Union League,
invited them to a meeting which she had in Washi n gtort to di scuss it. Because we were quite wi I I i n g
to introduce legislation provided it would not hurt
legislation we had worked for and established for
improving conditions of working women. They did
reply, and did not accept the invitation. All those
who were against it are now for it. And I don't
remember whether I told you or not, I had the
f inest collection of documents from emminent lawyers pointing out that in its píêsent form, the Equal
Rights Amendment is not desirable. And oh,
people like Russell Pound at Harvard University,
Dean Acheson, andoh, acollectionof peoplewho
thought so. And if I am not mistaken, lthink J udge
Brandeis was on our side. But I thinkthe people
who are for the amendment, either they don't
remember, or they are not interested. Oh, everybody now is for women, why not, let 'em go. I don't
believe that the people who changed their minds
gave it a thought or remembered that they were
opposed, why they were opposed.
/s one reason because there are more women in
unions today that are covered by contracts w¡th
a minimum wage law and a maximum hours law,
time and,half Íor overtime, and a lotof the laws the
League Íought for so hard are really in eflect now?
Ah not because of the Amendment.
No. Because of the New Deal, and because of

the. .
The question then, I don't know now, but in the
20's, and the 30's, and even in the 40's, the
question was: if the amendment had passed, what
would have happened to the legislation we worked
.

for? We don't know. The lawyers told us that our

legislation would have no effect anymore. And that
we didn'twantto seel We worked so hard for it; for
what it meant for the organized and the unorganized; especially for the unorgan ized women. lt's a
different world today. lt's possibleto include what
wewantedthen and now. Thechange, lthink,
came about because of the general demand on the
part of women to be everything and be everywhere.
An'd many of them make good. The impression
among other people now, I suppose, is well, they
can do what they do just as well as other people,
why not givethem a chance? They

didn'tthink

so in

1920; they didn't think so in 1930. But l'm sure
when you take the papers and get it from your
friends, they're everywhere, doing everything. I
don't think we were in favorof having women work
in the mines, but some of them are doing it now.

ThewTIJL had begun,l][otwith the support
(verbal if not Íinancial) oÍ Samuel Compers oÍ the
AFL. Itconcentrated its energy on organizing
woimen, unti I economic and pol itical conditions in
the' 20's d i scou raged di rect or gan izi n g. M any
wor ker s' ed u cati on p rog, r am s we r e establ i sh ed
through the league. Often, well-educated and
fairly aÍfluentwomen were behind League activities, sometimes in acharitableway, sometimes
providing experience and ability to dealwith legislators. The secretary oÍ the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor once said thattheWTULwas "atthe
heart of the trade union movement," Certainly we
see here how many difÍerent unions had to be contacted and mobilized to support the women
workers. The following passages concern Pauline
Newman's part in expanding the League's mernbership in

Philadelphia.

-S.

B.

They asked the ILC if they would loan me at least
half timeto the League. I was working forthe Joint
Board of Sanitary Control at that time. And Dr.
Price said, well, it's upto you. Do what you wantto
do. You can always come back if you don't like it.
But he was the kind of a man who realized. . . he
was a great believer in thetrade union movement.
I got there, I made contact with an AFL representatívewhowas stationed in Philadelphia. And lgot
the labor people to not only contribute money,
which they never had before, I got people, trade ¡
unions to contribute who had no women members.
I got the machinists, I got engineers, and they all
gave us a monthly contribution. And moreover; for
the f irst time, the Central Trade Union Labor Council agreed to accept us and send delegates. That
was a great achievement. Let's see, from '18to'23
you had the women who worked during the war had
to give back the jobs to the men who came back and
it was quite a job for the unions to see justice done
to the women.
What did the League do?
We went to theofficers of the union. Because after
all , they were in charge. And what we tried to do
was . . . well, they had a legitimate answer. The
boys who came back are entitled to the jobs , All we
could do is to try to f ind jobs for the girls, too.
Coing back to the World War I period and the
period just after the war-because ol the
Esp i on age Act th at the gover n me nt passed, the
government used to atta ck the IWW and to raid
their off ices.
Theyattacked people likethe Presidqntof the
Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, Cene Morrow.
They refused him a passportto goto England, and
Cene wanted to go. Finally somebody interceded
and told [Attorney Ceneral] Palmer he was a fool to

deny Cene Morrow a passport, one of the outstanding people. Well arryway, he f inally got a
passport, but the IWW were not the on ly ones

whetherthey don't reallyfeel like it, orwhether
they are not used to speaking before so many
people, I don't know. I only knowthat very few
women participate in deliberations of-the

That'swhat t wanted to askyou about. Because I
had also read thatthe Women's Trade IJnion
League suffered'during that period. tt was harder
Íor them to organize, and some of their off ices were

convention, and that's disappointing.

whom Palmer-

IX
The tI CWU and the Amalgated Clothing and
Textile Workers' Union (ACTWU) have not only
survived the f luctuations of the economy and the

investigated. Do you remember that?
remember one thing. Someone was going to be
appointed to, I th ink, the Women's Bureau, or the
Children's Bureau, I can't rememberwhich, oneof
these. And the FBI wanted to know about that
person. And the FBI came to see me about it. And I
told them I would stake my lifç on her patriotism.
Butthe:t920's really began avðry bad period tor
unions and for the League . . , why was that?
l.don't remember, but it was a sort of depression,
the'1920's, an awf ul lot of unemployment. And
those who worked, worked for low wages. lt was a
bad time for everybody as I recall. I was in Philadelphia at that time and ! remember very well the
unemployment situation

movementof women in and outof theworkforce;
they are active and substantial organizations of
women, although very different in structure and
character from the unions atthetimewhen Pauline
Newrnan was an organizer. Although much has
been won since the great strike of 1909, workers,
women workers especially, are still f ighting Íor
humane working conditions, for decent homes and
healthcare, for the righttoorganize, for justice. lt's
a political struggle and an economicone, tochange
immediate and concrete conditions and at the same
time to prepare Íor an envisioned f uture; Pauline's
involvementwith both the unions and the Socia/ist

I

How did people handle unemployment then when
there was no compensation ?
You know, they did whatorlr people used to do
around 1902, '3, or '4, when they were out of work
and there was nothing to help them. They were
trusted by the butcher, they were trusted by the grocer, they knew they would pay them when they
start working, and help a relative if possible, help a

friend, that's howyou gotalong. And lthinkthat's

how people got along in 1920. Relatives always
helped, and friends helped when they could
because there was noth ing else to do. ln 1920 they
suffered as unemployed suffered before we had the
unemployment insurance. And lthinkthat now
people get someth ing like $95 a week f rom
unemployment insurance. And when I thinkof the
time they got noth ing I J ust nothing, except for the
help from friends and relatives, and help from the
people you dealt with.

Even those unions*l,orY',11"rn tbers areprincipally

women haue been headed all along, by men. ln the
early part of the century it was assumed by almost
all that men would take the management posi tions,
Now, though attitudes toward women in positions
of power are diÍferent,

pos¡tions.

stillfewwomen

are in those

-S. B
Some women are regional directors, and the
delegates to the ILC are mostly women. Few men.

And the disappointing thing to me, always was,
and is, that there's no participation on their part to
discuss questions, ask questions. They attend.
Their attendance is very well. Theyrreon time.
They like to be on time. But to speak-very few. At
the last convention I encountered, lthinkonly
about a dozen womentookthe floor. That's very
disappointing. Whether they don't know much, or

ty r eÍ I ects th is i n te r - d e pe n de nt a p p r oach .
Sometimes progress is made by going through the
Par

.

big unions, sometirnes not, butworkers must
always beorganizing, again and again, among

thernse/yes.

,-S. B.

What happened after the war with the tLC? Was
there a period of cutback and recession ? Did the
industry boom becausetherewas more material
available and people wanted to buy women's
c/othes again?
Yes, that's one thing. One of the chief reasons for
the ILC coming to lifeagain was simplythe legislation that was passed under Roosevelt. Collective
bargaining and unionization was madethe lawof
the land. And people were no longer af raid to be
f ired if they joined the union. They couldn't be f ired
underthe law. Andthatwas atremendous inducement for the people who formerly wanted to join the

union but were af raid of being f ired; they f looded
the organ ization and left the union very pleased.
Then the collective bargaining law passed. And
eventually the other legisf ation, social security and
all that, an inducement to workers to join the union.
Well, organizing still wenton, becauseyou see,
the South was our problem. lt was the problem of
the textile workers, and the Amalgamated, and every
body else. And all the people who could do
organ izing were really sent to the South and the
Middle West. We still haven't succeeded in
organizing the South, neither hasthe Amalgamated.
That's stillthe problem, forthese unions anyway.
But I suppose they've made progress.
/ guess not nearly as much as they would wantto.
No. You see, at the last general executive board the
ILC decided to spend all it can, send the most capable organizers to the South and see what can be
done. And as I understood it, the Amalgamated has

.

donethe samething.

Well, we'll have to wait and see.

18WlN March 9, 1978
March 9, 1978 WIN 19

Reqdings on
Feminism

Anon: Report of the Womenf s Session on Feminism and Nonviolence in Silver. Springs, MD, May
31-J une 10,1977 , convened bywomen of Jonah
and Advaita Houses in Baltimore , Peacemaker,

iept.2,1977.

Anon: "Women Destroy Draft Files," WOMEN: A

)ournalof Liberation, Winter 1970, reprinted in
Voices f rom Women's Liberation, Leslie B.

ond
Nonviolence
Compiled by Vicki Rovere

Tanner, Ed., Mentor paperback.
Arvio, Cynthia: "A Last Resort," Friends Journal,
Feb. 15, 1978 (on abortion).

Averill, Peg: "Heads and Tales," WlN,Jan. 16,
1975.
Bacon, Margaret: "Yeastof a New Bread Rising,"
VV/N, Mar. 3,1977 (on training women in nonviolent di rect action).
Barnet, Margot: "Thoughts on Womenf s Conference," letterto Peacemaker, J une 20,1974.

Bedard, Rachel : "Moreon Feminism," letterto
Peacemaker, Sept. 12,1976(oneof several long
letters on this topic, responding to something in
the J uly 1'lth issue).
Bedard-Parker, Rachel and Celia Castle: "Sexism
Theory Paper" availablefrom MNS.
Blair, Gwenda Linda: "standing on the Cor-

ner. . . ," Liberation, )uly/Aug.1974.

Boulding, Elise:

\

J
I

his bibliography was prepared as part of a
packet on feminism and nonviolence put together by the War Resisters League Task Force on
Feminism and Nonviolence. I had a hard time deciding where to draw the line between feminism
and women's activism; between nonviolence and
constructive, un-violentwork. I decided to erron
the side of inclusiveness-thus the books on the
suffragists, an anti-wife-beating project, etc.
Women who responded to the f irst draft I sent out
suggested a number of books dealing with violence
done to women and a number of theoretical pieces
that f it their nonviolent vision although the authors
may not consider themselves pacif ists or nonviolent activists. Many of the comments in parentheses are from the women who suggested those
pieces.
Not included here is a section on the men's

movement (feminism isn't justforwomen!)
Further information is available fr:om the
Feminism and Nonviolence Task Force, c/o Helen
Michalowsk¡, WRL,'1360 Howard St., San Fran.
.

cisco, CA 94103.

Anon: "lnternational Women's Cathering
News, Aug.20,1976.

,'i

Vicki Rovere is a member of the Feminism and
Nonviolence Task Force of the War Resisters
League.

Pç,ace

"Women and Social Violence," prepared as a
chapter in "Violence and its Causes: Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Recent Research on Violence," published by UNESCO,
Paris,1977 (a 28-page paper available for cost
of Xeroxing from Vicki Rovere).
Women in the Twentieth Century World,Unlversity of Colorado ( Boulder), Sage Publ ications and Halsted Press, 1977 (contains chapters on "Women and Peace Work," 1'Alternatives to Hierarchy in Women's NCO's," and
"The Coming of the Gentle Society").
T he U nderside of Hi story : A V iew of Women
Through firne, Westview Press, 1898 Flatiron
Ct., Boulder, CO80301, $24.75; paper, $10
(deals with thethemeof militarism and how
women coped with it through history).
Bromley, Marion:
"Feminism and Nonviolent Revolution," Peacemaker , May B, J une '12 and J uly 11 ,1976, or
available as a 19-page paper from her for $'l
"The Women's Movement and Human
Liberation," from her for 50y'.
Brownmiller, Susan: Against Our Will, Bantam.
Caton, Mandy: "A Woman Without a Man is Like a
Fish Without a Bicycle," Peace News, Aug. 1,
1975 (report on Women's Week at Laurieston).
Cavanagh, Joan: "Feminism and Nonviolence"
(f rom a talk at Towson State University), B-page
paper available for cost of Xeroxing f rom her.
32 Stevens St., New Haven, CT06519.
Chandler, Richard: "Dealing Nonviolentlywith
Rape," 2B-page paper available from him at44B
Pleasant St., Crand Rapids, Ml 49503 for a con.

tribution.
Chesler, Phyllis; Women and Madnes.s, Avon.
Chesney-Lind, Meda: " Nonviolence and
Feminism," available from AFSC, 2426Oahu
Ayg., Iglolulu, Ht 96822.Appeared, possibly
with a different title, in Woma.n AIive,'lug. lgZø.
--Clai borne, Sybil : "What i s Total Èrã"4ãr a;7 i n
"Heads and Tales" column, WlN, Oct. 23,1g7S
(on child-rearing).

Daly, Mary: Beyond.C.od the Father, Beacon (ex_
tends our vision of the possibilityof nonvioÈnt

community).
Davidon, Ann Morrissett:
"An lnternational Cathering of Wom en,,, WlN,
5ept.23,1976. r l
"Feminism, Nohviolence ahd the peace Movement, " W I N, ) uly 22, 1976. Reprint available
from WRl,5y'.
" Foundin g Mothers, " W t N, ) uly 26, 1973
(about Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon).
"Macho Obstaclesto Peace,,, from WRl, 10C.

"WhiteMan's Leavings," WtN, Apr. 12:,,1973.
"Women jn the Middle: The New Feminísts,,,
avai lable from Fel lowsh ip publications, .Bôx
271, Nyack, NY 10960 for 30C.

Davis, Elizabeth Could: Ihe Flrst Sex, penguin
(traces the roots of matriarchy as non-vioient).
D'Eaubonne, Francoise: "Feminism and Ecology,,

(an interview), Peace News, Nov. 19, 1976.
De Beauvoir, Simone: Ihe SecondSex.
Demeter, Anna: Legal Kidnapping, with an introduction byAdrienne Rich, Beacõn press.

_

Deming, Barbara:

"Love Has Been Exploited Labor" in ,,Women
and Revolution: A Dialogue" (wiih Arthur
Kinoy), Peoples Party pamphlet.
"On Anger, " Liberation, November lgZl.

Prison Notes, Beacon paperback.
"Remembering Who WeAre," Quest, Summer
1977.

Revolution and Equilibrium, Cross man, 1971,
$8.95.

"To CrackOur Single Selves" (with Brad
Lyttle), W/N, Part l:Oct. 10,1974, Part lt:Oct.
30,1975.
We éannot Live WithoutOur Lives,Crossman,
$8.95 (the only one of her books that deals explicitlywith feminism, butthat didn't seem to
be a reason to omit the others).
"Two Perspectives on Women's Struggle, "
Liberation, )une1973.
Dorsey, Mary: "Mary's Myths," National Catholic
Reporter, Dec. 197 5 . Avai lable f rom I FOR, 51, tçgether with Traxler , " Mary'sYeat."
Dworkin, Andrea;
"An Open Letter to Leah Fritz," WlN, Nov. 21,
,

1974.
Our Blood, Harper & Row (includes "Redef ining

Nonviolence," "Renouncing Sexual'Equaliand " Remembering the Witches,,),
"Redefining Nonviolence," WIN, )ul. 17,'1975.

ty"'

i, WIN, Feb. 20,
1975.
"R_gnouncing Sexual,Equality,,,, WIN, Oct.
"R_e_qr_embering the Witches

17,1974.

Woman Hating, Dutton, $6.95.

Egan, Eileen: 'lWgmen andthe peaceMessageof
Jesus," availablefrom IFOR, 15/ (reorinteã
f rom the Cathol i c Worker).
Feminisrn and Nonviolence Study Croup: ,,Femin ism and Nonviolence ,'' 1-page paper for National Womenls Liberation Confàrénce, Creat
Britain. Available from them.
Firestone, Shulamith: The Dialecticof Sex,
Bantam (speaks some harsh words about radical
pacifists but really sets forth a radical pacifist
analysis).
,Foitik, Kathleen M. : "Wife Beating: How to Develop a Wife Assault Task Force and project,,,
Women Against Violence Against
Women,/NOW Domestic Violence Project, I nc.,
1917WashtenawAve., Ann Arbor, M148104 (a
handbookof howtoorganize a nonviolent project).

Fritz, Leah:

"41

Open Letter to Chuck Fager,,' W/N, J une
12,1975 (on abortion).
"Daisy, Colby, Sophie and Leo: An Open Let- ,
,terto Andrea Dworkin et a|.,, WlN, Nov. 7,
1974.
"tf l've Said itOnce, l've Said it a Hundred
Times . . . :' WlN, July 19,1974.
"Thinking Likea Woman: An lnsight for Radical
Ven," WlN, Dec, 13,1973.

Thinking Like aWoman,with an afterward by
Barbara Deming, WIN Books, 1g75,$3.25'(includes n'lf 1'vesaid ltOnce," ,tTh¡nk¡ng Li'ke
aWoman: An lnsight,,, and,,Women and
Violence").
"Women and Violence. . . and Nonviolence,,,
Majority. Report, )une27 ,1g74.
Cay'Iheory Work Croup of MNS :,,Cay Oppression and Liberation" (working draftj, from MNS,
$2.50 + 35y' postage. (A littleoff theiopic, but
. important, and at least someof it relates direct-.
lv.)
Ce-dde_s, Maggie: "Draft File RipOff,,, W,N, Sept.
1,1969.
Cinnychild, S,ojourner: "A Family Story,,, W/N,
Feb.21,1974.
Cluck, Sherna, editor: From parlor io prison: Five
American Suffragists Talk About Their LivesAn
Oral History, Vintage paperback.
_
Could, James:
"One Hundred Women Leaders in Nonviolence" and
"More Women Leaders in Nonviotence,,, from
him at Scripps College, 1011 Berkeley, Ctaremont, CA91711or from Peace Studies Division, AFSC- Pacific Southwest Regional Office,9B0 North FairOaks Ave., pasádena, CA
91101.

Creanleaf , J ackie: "Wages for Housewo rk,,'

WlN,

20WlN March 9, 1978
March9, 1978WlN

21

Sexual.Pditics, Avon (very much
sion).

a

pacifist vi_

Morgan, Robin: Coing Too Far(Morgan,s not a
pacif ist, but writes óf ,,the ¡ns¡steñce of mosl
women of finding a way to better the world wlth
a
minimum of violence. . . aferocious refusal to.'.
:
become the very enemy we claim to be f ight_

ing").

Mullaney, Anthony, O. S. B. :,,The Women,s
Movement and Nonviolence,,, the Catho/L
Worker, June1974.
Negrin, Su: Begin at Start: Some Thoughts on
Þer.
sonal Liberation and World Chansei¡rnã, ' -'
Change Press, 1972,53.2ivtNot fTom a
nonviolent perspective but añ anarch i st/fem i_
nist/gayone.
Oneof myfavorite books).
..
Nonviolent Techniques Against Rape: ,,-tiape
and
Resistance: A NonvipleñtApproàch,,, fråm Box 1001, patoÁlto, CÁ g$o2.
^.I!T^R,p.O.
O'
Nei I l, Wi I I iam L. : Eve,ryone was' B rl ave,Ã'ij
¡ rtorv
of Feminism in America, New york Times
.

Books.

Prior, Jerilyn: "Violence, Childcareand Sexism:
_ Dr. Spock lnterviewed,,, WlN, feb. Zl, lgZq.
Rich, Adrienne; Of Woman Born, Bantãm.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford :
"Women's Liberation, Ecology and Social Revo_

'19, 1926.
_. Peace News, Nove.
Skjonsbe_rg, Else: "Does lmperialism Begin at

Home?" Edited version from WRl, 15y'1
Ste,rnhall, Carol: "The Women are Talking About
Anger," Mother J ones, Feb./Mar. 192õ (anti_
rape groups, including some nonviolent

Drawing by Toni Truesdale

)uly 3,1975.
Cuerreño, Amanda: "Women and Liberation in
Latin America, " reprint translated lrom Paz y
J usticia. From IFOR, 10y'. Also available in
Spanish.

Heriz, Deborah: "A Letterfrom Your Sister in Berlin," WlN, Nov. 27, 1975.
Hite, Shere: The Hite Report, Dell (a good look at
the violence done to our sexuality by patriarchy).
Jay, Karla: "Refusingto beaVictim," WlN,Oct.
23, 1975(not at all nonviolent in approach, but
thought-provoking, especial ly consideri n g the
context of its publ ication).
Johanna, Betty: "An lnternational Gathering of
Women," W/N, Sept. 23,1976.
Jones, Cay:
"Ref using to Play the Came," Peace News, Oct.

18,1974.
22

"ln

Defence of Separateness," PeaceNews,
May 16,1975.
Keay, Hilary: "Abortion:A Personal Comment,"
Peace News, July 5,1974.
Kinchy, Sue: "The Militarization of Women," trom

WRl. Free.
Lakey, Elerit: "Meeting Facilitation: The No-Magic
Method," from IFOR, 10y'. Also available in
French and Cerman. (lncluded in "Women in
the Nonviolent Movement. "

)

Lynd, Alice and Staughton, eds. : Rank and File:
Personal Histories by Working Class Organizers, Beacon Press, 1973,$1t.gs(women using

nonviolent tactics).

Martin, Del: BatteredWives, Pocket Books.
Millet, Kate:
Flying, Ballantine (talks about "coming out"
a pacifist).

approaches).
Stone, Merlin : When Cod Was a Woman, Dial
(helps make plain the great violence paîriarchat
religions
have done to women).
_
Taylor, Phyllis: "The Journ ey,,; Friends Journal,
Feb. 15, 1978 (onabortion).
Traxler, S¡ f4grgaret Ellen: ',Mary,syear,,, National Catholic Reporte,r ¡ Dec. 1975. From IFOR,

5y' together with Dorsey,,' Mary,sMyths.,,
"Women and Nonviolence,,, AFSC Naiionwide
{9m9n's Program, 1501 Cherry St., phifadel_
phia, PA 19102. $2. Contains Dóminþ,s,,On
Lnqqr, P*orki n,s,, Red_ef i n i n g Noñviolence,,,
Blair's "fanding on the Corner. . . ,,, Mul_
laney's "The Women,s Movement and Nonvio_
lence". plus other material. They,re almost out of
these, but might reprint if there are ,uny .e.
1 1

guests.

as

"Women in the Nonviolent Movement,, (report on
I FOR-WRl lnternational Women,s Caihering.

Magazines and Special lssues

And How DoWe Begin Again. ., Jonah House,
_ 1?33 ParkAve., Baltimore, M D21217.
Fellowshìp special issue on wom en, ulylAug.
.

J

1975.

"

[r1

9ndlv,{oT

gn, "

jpggal

i

ssue ) une/

) uly

Joint publication of AFSC and Ny Ouakers.

197 6.

I nte r n a t i o n â I F e m i n

i s m a n d N o nv i o le-rrcã ñews letter. Plans for this are in the works;6;pñ;;;-'
times ayear, for $3.50 (airmail). Éor in?årmation
write to Feminism and Nqnviolence Study . - Croup.
Netwo_rking, West Coast Women and Nonviolence,
_ AFSC, 4312SEStark, portland, ORg7215.
Pea-ceNews, Women,s Centrestíjsues, May 16,

Shrew., special issueon feminism and nonviolence,

out by ) uly 1979. From Feminism ánd ñonviolence Study Croup.

.

\

2sl.

Woolf , Virgin ia: T he T hree Cu i neas.Harcourt
Brace. J ovanovich (a femin ist ,"ióônrã
to th"
question "How are we to preven íwar?,,
).

1975.

lution," WN, Oct. 4,19ß:'
"Working Women and the Male Workday,,,

C\r i stian ity and Cr isi s, F eb. 7, 1977
Russell, Dianaand NicoleVan deV'en: ,,The pro_
ceedings of the tnternational Tribunal onôriÃu,
Against Women,,, Les Femmes.
Sjoo, Monica: "The Witches are Returning,,l

uly 13-18, lZTg,avaitablefrom tFOR, $2. Also
in French and German.
Woodward, Beverly: ,,peace Studies and the
F_eminist Challenge,,, edited vÀri¡on fiom Wnl,
J

Friendly Wóman, ä¿¡t"d by Women,s Rights
Committee of Ny yearly Meeting, c/o powell
RD 1, Box 101, Old Chathãm, Ny 12.136.
. . .llg!ru,
W/N Special lssues:
"Women," 1an1,1970.
"How Radicals Raise Their Children,,, Feb. 21,
The

'

1974.

"Women : 1975," Feb. 20, 1975.

"Lesbian Culture,,, J une 26, 197 5.
"lnternational Women, sDay,,' March 3, 1977
" I nternational Women, s Day',,, March g', 1g7 B.

.

Addresses

Marion Brom |ey,.10208 Sylvan Ave., Cincinnati,
oH45241. Back copies of Peacemaker are in hãr
barn.
Feminism and Nonviotônce Study C roup, c/o .
Jenny J acobs and Lesley Merryfinch, j Mentor
St,, Longsight, Manchester -13, Englánd.
_
Feminism and Nonviolence Task'F orle, c/o Helen
Michalowski, WRL, '1360 Howard St., ian Fran_

cisco, CA 94103.
lFpR,, Hoj van Sonoy, Veerstraat 1, Alkmaar, The

Netherlands.
MNS, 4722 Baltimore Ave., philadelphia, pA
19143.

Vicki Rovere, c/o WRL, 339 Lafayette St., New
York, NY 10012.
WRl, 35 rue van Elewyck, 1050 Bruxeltes,
Belgium.

WIN March 9, 1978
March 9, 1978 WIN 23

.i

"Women Organizing the Office: A
Historical and Pol itical Analysis"
wih NancyWiegersmaon
Thursday, March 16,7:30 pm, at
Bread and Roses Coffeehouse,426
E. 31st St. Sponsored by The Balti-

a

more School.

ñ--)

BOSTON,

JATLTERMS FOR TWO TROJAN
OCCUP¡ERS
Two members of the Trojan
Decomm ission i n g Al liance
charged with criminaltrespass for
participating in the occupation of
the Tr:ojan nuclear power plant
Nov. 25 were found guilty in
Columbia County District Court on
Tuesday J anuary 10.
J udge J ames Mason imposed
the maximum sentence of 30 days
in jail and a $250 fine on John

\

Williams, Seattle, and J ohnny
Baranski, Portland. Mason suspended 20 of the 30 days in jail and
placed the two men on a two-year
probation with the condition that
they not return to the Trojan site.
Earlier in the day J udge Mason
had revoked J ohn William's bond
when he ref used to comply with
the bail restriction that he not
return to Trojan until the matter
was litigated. Williams, who preferred not to wait in jail until the
other November occupiers were
tried, requested an immediate
trial . I n support of Williams and
"in the interest of not legitimizing
the American injustice system,"
Baranski also asked to be tried
along with Williams.
Both men opted to represent
themselves, read statements
opposing Trojan and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and were
sentenced in less than an hour.
Williams of the Seattle Catholic
Worker and Baranski with the
Portland Cathol ic Worker
ity were the f irst to be
found guilty and do jail time of
more than 200 members of the
Alliance arrested at the Trojan
plant during the Aug. 6 and Nov.
Com m

25

un

occupations.
Ninety-six occupiers were found

not guilty of criminal trespass on
24WlN March 9.

Nov. '16 after aColumbia County
J ail concluded District Attorney
Martin Sel ls failed to prive that
Trojan officials had authorization

from Burlington Northern Railroad
to evict the occupiers from tracks
that border the Nuke.
- Trojan Decommissìoning

been very lackadaisical here in
Susan Allen, ãñèw
Orleans activist who came to

theirefiorts,"

Cleveland to help rebuild the
clinic, reported in a telephone
interview.

"For instance yesterday, I was a
at the clinic and there was an anti-

abortion demonstrator out front.
Now this is three days after the
clinic
was f irebombed and he is out
CLEVELAND ABORTION CTINIC
there carrying an inflammatory
FIREBOMBED
sign. Theownerof the building
ln the.recent upsurge of right wing that the clinic is
housed went down
anti-abortion activities, legal
to talk to him and said that he was
initiatives, sit-ins and disruption of glad that the clinic was f ireabortions have given way toa.new
bombed, that it was'unfortunate'
tactic from the forces purporting to that the woman had bêen injured,
champion the "rightto life,,: a
and that the Lord had sent him and
series of violent attacks on
the wrath of Cod would be brought
abortion clinics.
on women who had abortions."
I n the latest of these attacks, the
Concerned Women's Clinic in
ln Minneapolis, Minnesota, a
Cleveland, Ohio was completely
police investigation of a f irebombdestroyed by a f irebomb on
ing of a Planned Parenthood clinic
February 18. While abortions were over a year ago has yet to produce
being performed, a man entered
any results. Women who gothere
the clinic under the pretense of a
are still met by anti-abortion forces
delivering a package. He threw a
who maintain a daily I hour picket

chemical into the face of

woman
worker, temporarily blinding her,
and then f irebpmbed the clinic. A
a

target of vandalism previously, the
clinic had only reopened a few days
earlier.
This is the sixth f irebombing to

occur in the past six months atã

mid-western abortion clinic-4 in
Ohio and the others in Omaha,
Nebraska and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ohio police off icials claim they are
investigating the possible links
between the Cleveland f ire and
two others at clinics in Columbus
and Cincinnati. But many

women/s rights activists have their
doubts about the alleged investi-

gations.

"The police department has

outside the clinic.

-

Liberation News Service

MA-Reverend

Christoph Shmauch will sPeakon
"Human Rights: East and West"
on Sunday, March 12,11 am at
Morse Auditorium, 602
Commonwealth Avenue.
Sponsored by The Communit4.
Church of Boston.

CAMBRIDcE, MA- Ralph Fasanellawill speakon "Art and Politics" on Friday, March 17,8pm, at
MlT, 105 Massachusetts Avenue,
Building 9, Room 150. Sponsored
by the Black Rose Leèture Series.
DEERFIELD, MA-Woolman Hill
Wi nter Workshop : " Nonviolence:

Our Survival?" with Wally Nelson

ATLANTA, GA

-

Th ird Annual

entertainment. For registration
forms and additional information,
write: Conference Community,
P.O. Box 5319, Atlanta, C430307

BAITIMORE, MD

-

Thursday

Evening Political Forum

:

tarian BookClub.

777-2s28.

- Barbara Ehrenreich wi I I
speakon "Between Labor and
Capital : The Professional-Managerial Class" on Friday, March
NYC

NYC- "South Korea: RePression

WASHINCTON, D.C.-Palm
Sunday events around the theme
"Save Our Communities : Meet
Human Needs" willtake placeon
Sunday, March '19. lncluded are a
1pm religious service across f rom
the Whitã House in Lafayette Park
to be followed by a march and a
"Save Our Communities',' fair
from 2:30 pm-5 pm at Luther Place
MemorialChurch, 14th and N
Streets NW. For more
information, contact the Washington Mobilization for Survival, 1333
N St. NW,.Washington, D.C.

and Resistance," a Program with

2OOO5

10, 7:30pm at The Free Associa-

tion, 5 W. 20th St. For more information, call 691-0669.

NYC- Lorna Salzman will sPeak
on " Nuclear Power - Cancerous
Technology" on FridaY , MarchlT
8pm, atMaryhouse,55 E.3rd St.
Sponsored by The Catholic

,

Worker.

(2O2)26s-7876

prison notes

more information and

reservations,

cal I (413) 773-9065.

FREELAND, MD

-

Alternate

Energy Conference on March 31April I at Heathcote Center School
of Living. For more information,
contact Heathcote Center, Rt. 'l ,
Box 129, Freeland, MD 21053.
(301) 329-6041.
LOS ANGELES, CA- The Fifth
Annual "Dayof Nonviolence" will
be held on Saturday, March 11,

1Oam-6pm with keynote speaker..

im Wallis and numerous workshops. The location is Convent of
The Cood Shepherd, 1500 S. Ar-

Southeastern Conference for
Lesbians and Cay men, will be
held in Atlantaon March 3'l-April
2 with workshops, speakcers and

March 18, 7:30pm, at Washington
Square Church, 135 W. 4th Street.
For more information, call

and others on March 10-12. tor

J

EVENTS

speakers and f ilms on Saturday,

7:30pm at the Workmen's Circle
Center, 369 Bth Avenue (near 29th
Street). Sponsored bythe Liber-

lington, Los Angeles. SPonsored
bythe Los Angeles Catholic
Worker. For more information,
call(213)264-8144.
NYC Marty Rosenblatt wi I I
speak on " lssues and Struggles of
City Workers" on TuesdaY, March
7 ,6pm at Free Association, 5 W.
20th St., ln Manhattan. For more
information, cal I 691 -0669.

-

NYC

"The

Eric Cordon will sPeak on

Anarchist Movement in
Brazil" on ThursdaY, March 9,

Although women prisoners form a
minority of the prison population,
they suffer forms of oppression
which male prisoners do not.
Recently, under the guise of

"equal job opportunities," male
guards have been working in
women's prisons where they pÉeviously were excluded. Their presence involves a violation of
privacy for the women who are in
prison and also has brought
charges of sexual exploitation f rom
some of the women. Hilda Chester, writing in the Canadian
publication Open Road, discusses
this issue and the campaigns in
New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and the Canadian Oakella Correctional lnstitution to get male
guards out of women's facilities, ln
New York a temporary court injunction prevents men from working in women's prison living
quarters, but f urther court action

is pending, and it could go either

way. A series of incidents at
Oakella revealed such bad conditions that several off icials were
'transferred and the public service
union, which includes the guards,
has recommended that male
guards be transferred to male
institutions. Support groups at
both ends of the continent are calling for a national network to plan
and implement strategies to
improve the lot of women in

prison.

':

ln Spain recently prisoners have
participated in a series of rebellions involving burning and rioting. They are demanding that they
be included in the amnesty recently granted to political prisoners,
claim ing that under the olcl Franco
regime al I those jai lecl were
political prisoners. The latest uprising was in the localjail in
Malaga, where prisoners
clestroyed alnrost all of the build-

1()7tì

\t.ì.,

..

t' t'¡-tì \\ lN

.

?t)

ing with an estimated damageof
$1.25 million. According to Spanish prison officials, earlier rebellions caused $7.2 million worth of
damage.
The Counsel for Human Dignity, a

coalition of prisoner support
groups in Ohio, is undertaking
what i s probably the f irst citizen
suit to close down a prison, the
Ohio State Reformatory at Mansf ield. The 82-year-old i nstitution
wh ich i s seriously overcrowded
has been criticized by state health
and industrial relations inspectors
who listed 96 instances in which
the prison did not meet public
health and safety requirements. ln
addition to dirty water and cockroaches in.cooking kettles, inspectors noted electrical shock
hazards, noise hazard, poisonous
gas hazards and machinery which
lacked protective guards. Theold
wiring system permits prisoners to
haveonlyone 60-watt light bulb in
each cell. Cuyahoga County J udge

Bernard Friedman said, "The

\

Ohio Reformatory at Mansfield
should be torn down. lt's unf it for
human beings." lf you would like
more information aboutthis suitor
wish to contribute to the much
needed funds write: "Counsel for
Human Dignity," Ohio Councilof
Churches, 89 East Wilson Bridge
Road, Columbus, Ohio 43085.
The Rumanian government has

undertaken an experiment wh ich
has emptied many of that
country's prisons, giving some
prisoners amnesty and others assigned work in various
communities. The policy has had
critics and a marked increase in
crime, especial ly thievery, was
attributed to the release of
crim inal s. Nevertheless,
governmentoff icials defend the
new direction in criminal procedure. One was quoted in the
Washi ngton Post as saying,
"There is more a perception of
increased crime than a real epidemic. " Ruman ia's PresidentCeausescu defended the reform
saying, "As socialist society
develops, the repressive f unctions
of the state gradually disappear."
Since Rumania has a rePutation for
,

26WlN Marcl¡ 9, 1978

rather severe repression of civil
rights, it will be interesting to see
what developments may ensue.

prison activist Claire Culhanewas
tried and found guiltyof trespassing on British Columbia

lf it is dehumanizing to permit a

second time within a year. Hertrial
grew out of a refusal to leave the
off ice of the prison director when
he would not permit her to visit a

Pen

man to change his name to a
number is it not also dehumanizing
to use numbers rather than names
for prisoners? Early in February a

district judge in Minnesota denied
the request of Michael Herbert
Dengler to assume legally the

itentiary ploperty for the

on its way to

Hunt in merely reducing the
sentences of the Wi lm in gton 10
instead of granting them Pardon
has produced rñore demonstrations on their behalf . Whilethe

tou".not *us justifying his d'eci-

cision in news conference, pickets;
outside denounced the "racist

frameup," and on February 4
Bobby Seale addressed two
hundred persons in Washington,
D.C. on behalf of the 10 saying,
''I 've been ii political prisoner, so
to speak, and I understandthat."
One of the signs the supporters
held said: "Human Rights Begins
at Home, Free the Wilmington
10." Congressman Don Edwards
al so sent a I etter to AttorneY
General Criffin Bell, signed by

seventy-four Hou se col leag ues,
asking Bell to support efforts to
free the Wilmington 10. Now is the
time to write to AttorneY General
Bell and President Carter, urging
that justice be done in.this case.
On December 29 the Canadian

w

Native American prisoner,
Clarence Johns. She described her
attempt to get her message across
in court as a "real fencing match"

in which she was ableto raisethe
name 1069, saying such a change
f ive basic points but without elabwould constitute "an offense to
,oration. The judge f ined Claire
basic human dignity." The New
$150, which she ref used to pay.
YorkTimes quoted J udge Donald
Since she is gathering evidenceto
Barbeau as saying, "Dehumanization is widespread and affects our expose conditions in the local
women's prison it is unlikely the
culture like a disease in epidemic
authorities would put her there for
proportions. To allowthe useof a
nonpayment of the f ine. Would
number instead of a name would
that we had more like Claire Culonly provide additional nourishment upon which the illness of the hane!
deh uman ization is able to feed and
Senate Bll1437 (ä revision of the
grow to the point where it is totally
old S-1 ) has passed the Senate and
uncurable." lf J udge Barbeau's
gone to the House where it is
ruling is allowed to stand it should House Bill 6869. Under the guise
give prisoners a basis for insisting
of revising an antiquated federal
that prison officials and guards
criminal code, a very repressive
also address them by name rather
and cumbersome bill maywell be
than number.
passage unless

The shamef ul decision of North
Carolina's Covernor James B.

a

enough of us expose it and demand
its defeat. As it now reads it continues to be Nixon-Mitchelltypeof
legi slation wh ich, amon g othèr
things, would severely limit the
legality of much draft counseling,
peacef ul demon strating and

participating in a meeting which
might later be considered a conspiracy. lt also virtually eliminates
.federal parole and severely
reduces the proportion of a
sentence which could be el iminãted by good time. lt expands
federal police power and provides
for excessively long conf inement for
many categories of offenders. Yet
this dangerous bill has the support
of some leading congressional
liberals as well as conservatives
who would like to ruih ¡t through
before the opposition forces gather
strength. lt is urgent that you write
your congressman and state Your
oppostion. For a short descr:iption
of the bill's contents, writethe
National Moratorium on Prison

Construction,,324 C Street, SE,
Washington, D.C. 20003.
- Larry Gara

women talkof this "male quality'.'-as if it were some
sortof magical and unattainable àbility. Some men
(perhaps those with more self-knowledge than ! have

TOWARD A NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN
by J ean Baker Miller M.D.
Beacon Press

/ 1976 / 143pp,lr$t.$$

One wonders if it were a large number of men who
suffered f rom chronic feelings of alienation, inadequacy and depression would there long ago have been
a redef inition of f ulf illment and success. Since,

how-

ever, it is onlywomen who sosuffer, it is not
necessary to alter society to obviate our sense of
failure. Sophisticatedand powerful mind-altering
drugs'are cheaper and considerably less radical in
their effect on the realpolitik

generally given them creditfor here), knowingthat
they posses s no extraordinary ability women do notshare, have settled, for an explanation, on the most
noti

ce abl e

phy

s

i

cal

d i f fe

re nce

-the

pen i s.

Miller sees women,s adeptness at nurturing ,
interrelating, and allowing our basic human"Áess to
triumph oveîcold objectivity às our most signif icant
contri'butions to sociéty. Noithatwearetocontinue in

subordinate roles, Ùut ratnliihatwe should strivà to
inf use oui naturaisensu ãt intugrution and iusiice into

Jean BakerMiller has begun thearduousprocess- allof society. She urges women toconfrontthe
it- of def ining the psychology of women conf lict between ouñrr" feelings and those which we
to explain why so many of usseem to linger on the's.ide are told are the pr"r.i¡UãAãn"rl Sf,Vir,ã i.o- .ônfii.tr,
as she calls

ofthatgreatroadwaycalledTheMainstt"*l_ill1ll,_._ aswomenaretaughttodo,willneitireichange
ingonlyitspollutionandnotawhiffofitspower.Miller inAiv¡ãual*o,n",inãi¡,ùniuni."soii"ty.Sim"iiarly,fear
doesnotshunthebeliefthatwomenareinherently. ofpower-oritsmorepãiutãUlucorollaiy,effel_ "

different from men. Rather, she almost eagerly points
out the differences, often demonstrating
the ways that we women have used our special
talents to shore up men who are actually not nearly so
self-suff icient as they would like to think. She does not
pursue why women and men have different basic
makeups: I assume she leaves that fundamental
question to social scientists and geneticists to debate.
tt is not simpty thatwomen are excluded f rom

acquir-

ingexperienceintheseriousworldof*ort ,'øJiili^;
tháy a'ctualty come tò betieve thattheretr r";;;;cial,

inherentability,,o^"lrrto,tn",utrãíåJtn"u"^

tiv'eness

;;;;
f

Wf,ut ¡S neeáéd ¡s for
- is immobilii¡ng -prv.hotoev
r";;pi;;i""tìïË
to påwei, rede-

ine it to exciie'its oppressiven"rr,

ñ'd then exeøse

it, without fear of losing men's approval. This is,
indeed, a tall order, anã no mattäi how persuasive
J ean Baker Miller is on the need for us t'o make these
f undamental changes, it will not be easy for women to
shed our extensiveìontrary condition¡nS.
problem shared by women is an

,- l!"o.'-l""ommon
l:Íllitvtocreditourselveswithacco.mplishment
personal' we have alwavs rated our
Tf ilj: solelv
secondarvtothoseof men, and

:::i:ilt

;;;,i.;,;;i ir;;itrbi;;*apethem. rheraci'tËài,','-"' ;:i;:ffi,ijltjiïff::l ?äåäi"tå;il,ï#,Tä:tn,
serr-imale ;;a".ã,i" *omen traditionailv
Y"",T,i;âi!¿;!:#:fJ::i:,:;:å'::ã"0!!;#:i{:::"0,"
ü::ìi:
personal worth on the basis of our ability tó
'"
betiev1 that men haie this special qual¡ry. u'/rií'"
ïi?:::
*;.^e!-, iiiiit¡tuøn-gco,dition¡nàtnat'¡nåiáå,
to believe this myth

'

rn"," ffi:åïå?i,,t"ïå:lìil"";i,'J,##j:fji:frïj:,:l,n_

oursälues when the person to whom we look for aff ir:Thisvery belieÍ isone(but justone)of theexpressions mation and conf irmation is instead just making more
that psychiatrists and theorists have perceiv:ed as evi- demands? (For 23 excellent personal accounts of how
denceof "penisenvy." They may hayebeen encoar- women struggledto meet self-def ined professional
agedintheirperceptionbythemi,annerinwhich goals, seeWorkingltOut,editedbySaraRuddickand
Pamela Daniels, Pantheon Books, 1976.)
Miller asserts that men and their perception of

*otunwillnecessarilychange'
wendyschwartzworksatthecouncilonEconomicprioii¡is'anafrequently writes f;rw¡Ñ. òiliespaush ¡s Aswomen ref usetobecomethecarrie,rsof someof
onthestaff oÍtheWar Resisters League/Southeaitin thecentralunsolvedproblemsof male-ledsociety,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
and as women move on to become the proponents'of

March 9,1978W1N27

..t.

ing for us. Understanding our problems, the psychological obstacles to overcome, is but a small f irst step
towarcl solving them. As helpf ul as women's natural
boncling tendency is, ultimately each of us, in the inti.
macy of our souls, must drive out the insecurities of
our pasts and replace them with a new authenticity. lt
is a hard, lonely task, but a necessary one- for each of
us personally, and for society. J ean Baker Miller

sorne of the best parts ol the human potential . . . men
will f ace the challenge of grappling with their own
issue,s in their own way. Men will be f aced with having

todealwith their bodily, their sexua/, their childish
experiences , their Íeelingsof weakness , vulnerability, he/p/essness, and the other similar unsolved
areas. But men can also goon toenlarge their emotional experience and more f ully discover their real
potential for cooperativeness and creativity. As these
areas are no longer "f illed in" by women and
devalued by a male-led society, men willbeforced to
conf ront the ways in which their socialforms do not
adequately deallwith these necess¡ties. They will have
to'go aboutf inding their own newer and better ways.

th in ks we can do it

A com

I

hope she is right.
Schwartz

-

.

. . . if society deems women'sareas /ess valuable, it
cannot also tell a woman thal she can, or should, feel
herself to be a f ully valued person; and if we do not
allow a person the basic right to be a f ully valued
member of society, we limittheflow of her psychologicalexpression in a million ways, large and
,

'

.

White women have been unwilling to accept male
dom ination of the ''movement"
whether it be civil
rights, anti-war, or current liberation struggles. Because of male dom i ñation, many white women left the
civil rights movement and committed their energies
to feminism. This greatly increased the level of mistrust between white and black women and caused a
good part of the splittoday between the two move-

Dirt: The Bawdy Lore of Southern Women'.' by Rayna
Creen; and "Right to Life: The Southern Str:ategyl' by
Prisci lla Parish Wi lliams.
The many women portrayed in Generations, each in

.

herownway, havecontributedtothedeveloping,,,,,
insights into the connections between race, sex ãnd
class. Whether it be Pauli Murray (the f irst Negro
woman ordained a priest in the 200-year histor.y of the,
Protestant Episcopal Church) telling her story of ,: r
growing up in Durham, North Carolina, with her.Aunt,
Pauline, or Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard writing
and singing women's blues, you'llf ind in these 120
page,s a part of yourself . You'll f ind a heritage so rich
and full that it will be hard to putGenerations down
until you've f inished the last page-and then you'll
f ind that the history of these women will live on in you
for generations to come.
_ Diane spaugh

,

.

-

Paul i Murray, photograph by Stephen March/Southern Exposure

ments.
Looking back through history, the causes of abolition and women's rights have been closely intertwined. As SaraVeen writes in her article, "Women's
Consciousness and the Southern Black Movement":

This issue of Southern Exposure is a unique collection
of writings, essays, stories, bawdy tales and poetry
that bring to life the history of southern women

Women workwith the pervasive sense thatwhatthey

197tì

posef u I a nd sy m patheti c wome n

for Southern Studies / P.O. Box 230,
ChapelH¡ll, NC 27514,

do does not matter as much as what men do. t n this
they are, of course, in absolute touch with realityreality as def ined for them by society . .

28WlN Mârclì 9.

pur

GENERATIONS: WOMEN lN THE SOUTH
Southern Exposure, Vol. lV, No.4,
a quarterly publication of the Institute

olher people" can be perfectly compatible with
"feeling effective and free."
The most important contribution of Towards a New
Psychology of Women is of course its analysis of the
psychological impact on women of systematized disenf ranchisement f rom mainstream society.

Our attitudes about ourselves and our work- ranging
in this man-def ined world from neutralto self-loathing are equally important to women of all races and
classes, for few with a poor self-image can function
adequately, and none can f unction well enough to de.
mand equality long overdue. What the book can't do,
unhappily, is crawl inside our heads and do the chang-

ty of

-Wendy

in an increase in our already seemingly endless
supply of guilt rather than in our prestige: every
crumb of compromise a man throws us will be calculated to make us more grateful ratherthan more free.
Miller questions the value of independence as a
major goal for women. While she acknowledges that
economic, political, social, and psychological dependence is opprêssive, she urges women to strive for
i nterdepe ndence. " Feel i n g i nten sç con nection s with

small. .

i

directed to their self -determined goals is a new phenomenon. lt has created an atmosphere and milieu that
brings a whole new quality to life. lt advances and
fosters both attempts at knowledge and a personal
conviction about the content and the methods ot
getting at knowledge. lt createsa newsense of con.
nection between knowledge, work, and personalliÍe.
All this has begun to happen for women.

I hope that Miller is right, but given the number of
generations it took for women to be conditioned as
subordi nates, I faí I to see the potential for an overnight eradication of sexism. Even in the simplif ied
case hi stories in her book, Mil ler is quick to point out
that while husbands are willing to make some
changes in their lives to accomodate their wives'
needs, they are not willing to havetheir lives undergo
core restructuring which would result in less prestigious work, smaller salaries, or in general any
devaluation of their lives as rated by traditional male
values. I see tokens being thrown to women, resulting

\

mun

:

An upsurge in the racist use of the rape charge is
always triggered by historicconditions. After Reconstruction in the South, when lynching reached its
height, the charge of rape was used to terrorize the
black conmuriityt, divide interracial Populist coalitions, and keep power in the handsof afew. Afew
white men.
The " rape caseS " inspired action and and became
famous not because they were unusual butbecause
they exemplif ied the terrorism which upheld politicat
and economic power relationships in the South. Every
black person knew that a member of his or her own
family could have been a "scottsboro Boy" or a
Martinsville defendant. At any moment, a false rape
charge could be used to divide white against black and
destroy ef f orts at f u ndamental
çhange

blackwomen, whitewomenf poorwomen, mill and
factory workers, miners' wives, slaves and slave
owners. ltexamines the variety of roles that a wom¡an
may play in her lifetime-mother, daughter, sister,
grandmother, lover, com m un ity leader, arti st,
educator.
On an analytical level, Generations delves deep in
an exploration of the roots of southern women's race,
class and culture. ln the South, especially, we grew up
under a hierarchy that placed all blacks "beneath" all
whites. White women, while having no real economic
or political power, felt that we were in a social class
above blacks. Today, manywhite women, along with
other women and men, are rejecting that hierarchal
structure and recognizing that it only causes us to
f ight and compete among ourselves for a "piece of the
pie" (even though the whole pib is rotten). lt pits us
againsteach otheron the basis of race, sex, class,
age, religion and lifestyle
This same battle over a sliver of the pie has been
used to split black women and white women over the
issues of racism and sexism. Blackwomen in the
south have found it diff icult to embrace the struggle
for women' s equal ity wh i le thei r sons, lovers, brothers and f riends were being lynched for crimes they
never committed orforwhite women they never
touched.
As Anne Braden points out in her article, "A Second
Open Letter to Southern White Women":

Twice in the history of the L|nitedstates the struggle
for racial equality has been midwiÍe to a feminist
movement. ln the abolition movementoÍ the 1830's
and 1840's and again in the civil rights revolt of the
1960's, women experiencing the contradictory expectations and stresses of changing roles began to move
from individual discontents to a social movement in
their own behalf . Working Íor racial justice, they
developed both political skills and a belieÍ in human
rights which could justiÍy their own claim to equality.

This common history, this common struggle to
overcome racism and sexism has led southern
women, black and white, to worktogether, while
recognizing the uniqueness and separateness of our
individual struggles. This common history has given
bi rth to an understand i n g of the roots of our oppression as women and as Southerners trying to rid ourselves of the stigmas of white southern belle and black
southern slave.
ln this review, I havefocused largelyon race and
sex, sincethose issuesweredealtwith in several articles in addition to the ones by Braden and Veen
already mentioned: "We Started from Different Ends
of the Spectrum" by Cynthia Washington; " lf lt was
Anything for J ustice," an interviewwith Sallie Mae

Hadnott by Margaret Rose Cladney; " Lillian Sm ith:
Reflections on Race and Sex" by Jo Ann Robinson;
and "Women and Lynching" by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
Many other aspects of southern women's lives are
dealt with: "Quilting Women: Rather Quilt Than
Eat, Almost" by J ennifer MiIler; "Magnolias Crow in

March 9, 197BWlN 29

ì
PRODUCTS

PANAMA SLIDE 5HOW. Radical analysis of historical. econom ic, cultural background to new Canal
Treaties. 20 m¡nutes long with taped commentary.

$-15-rental; $45-purchase. Write: Panama, 172
Putnam Ave., Apt.3, Cambridge, M402139.

Free il no exchange ol $8 involued
and only 20 words in length.
Otherwise $2 t'or every ten words.
PUBLIC NOTICE
WINTER/SPRINC Calendar of Events available
from Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa
Cruz. lncludes list¡ng of resources available (books,
literature, workshops, speakers, etc.) and noticeof
events with or about: "The Power of the Pæple"
nonviolence in America, with Helen Michalowski;
Love ¡n Action with Diane K. Pkeand Arleen
Lorrance; Personal Story and Nonviolence with
James McClendon; and much more. Send self-addressed stamped envelope to: RCNV POB 2324,
SantaCruz, C495063.
lf you are ¡nterested in disarmament, feminism, war
tax resistance, nonviolence or organizihg an WRL
local chapter and you live in the South, then please
contact the new War Res¡sters League Southeast
Regional Office, 108 Purefoy Road, Chapel Hill, NC
275'14.919-967 -7244.
Peace Sem¡nar to U.S.S. R, D¡sarmament and
detente discussions with Peace Committees in the
Soviet.Un ion are being arranged for a Peace Seminar
to the U. S. S. R. Au gust 6-27, 1978. lnterested people
are invited to participate. For details and application
wr¡te to Promoting Enduring Peace, Box 103,

i

i

Woodmont, CT06460.
CAY MEN ANDWOMEN- lf you believeorganized
religion is the greatest enemyof Cay Liberation and
want full informat¡on about a new movement, Cay
Atheists League of America, write: CALA P.O. 8ox
14142, San Francisco CA 94114.

l

PUBLICATIONS

Aworkbookon NuclearPowerwith: NuclearMyth
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POLITICS AND EDUCATION is a new national
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in the structure of h igher education and American
society as a whole. For information, contact P& E,
Wesleyan Station, Middletown, CT, 06457.'
INSIDE REPORT to and from grassroots Amer¡ca.
WASHINCTON WATCH, 5 issues for $2.00. Dept.
WN1, 3308 Cedar, Lansing, Ml 48910.

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THE STUDY KIT FOR NONVIOLENTACTIOÑ.
produced by War Resisters League/West conta¡ns
articles on the theory and practice of nonviolence,
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the successes and problem of contemporary
nonviolence. Articles and painph lets by Cam us,
Gandhi, Gene Sharp, Barbara Deming, Mârk
Morris, Ceorge Lakey and the WIN Double lssueon
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Send $2.50 per study kit to WRL/West, 1360
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NOWAVAILABLE. FREE 1978 LITERATURE LIST
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94102
The Continental Walk Eook reduced to $2.50 for
lim ¡ted time onli! Checks should be made payable to
"Continental Walk." WRL, 339 Lafayette, New
York, NY 10012.

30

IMPACT Tape Services offers cassette program on
Black and Left history and culture including
interviews with Bobby Seale, John Coltrane, Cloria
Steinem, and coverage of Black capitalism, heroin
traff ic, the ClA, and busins. For more information,
write IMPACT. P .O. Box 227 8, I n glewood, CA 90305
POPULOUS BUMPERSTICKER. The

CUTTCNT

ANti-

cult witch-hung won't stopthe Moon-Koreagate
conspiracy, but a grassroots populous campaign .
will. (A bold headl¡ne & fine print in a petition
format.) DON'T BUY SOUTH KOREAN
PRODUCTS UNTIL Sun Myung Moon ceases his
m ind control efforts. UNTI L all Korean refugees in
America are no longer being harassed by the South
Korean governmenl in blatant disregard of
American laws. UNTlLall Korean linkstothebr¡bing of Congressmen, kickbacks, & computer¡zed
thefts of mì litary suppl ies is exposed. U NTI L all
unfair compet¡t¡on ceases, specif ically the
subsidizing & dumpìng of goods on the American
market. UNTIL South Korean workers havethe
freedom to join unions & strike against starvation
wages & hazardous working conditions, & Koreans
in general are granted somebasicfreedom. Write
your congressman & tell him that you oppose ALL
aid to Korea unti I ALL these conditions are met !
Please send large self-addressed stamped envelope
for free sam ples. Freedom Stickers, Box 1967, Phila.
PA 19105. Contributions & Volunteers are needed.

achieved. Pfeasesendfull information in exchange
:for same.
Wolf , Box204, North Sari Juan, California95960.

THE EMANCIPATION OF
WORKING WOMEN

Brooklyn, downtown. Opening soon ¡n cooperat¡ve
household. Comfortable non-sexist person with
WIN-type interests desired. $114-127 per month
plus e/e, (212) 87 5-1946.

Flora Trisun was one of the first women of the lgth
century to realize that the working class must embrace
the struggle of women for their own liberarion. Here is
Tristan's eloquent address to the workers' movement,
showing the importance of women's rights ro the whole
working class.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUÑITIES
The North Carolina Prison and Jail Projecthas
an open ing for staff position. J ob would require

working with prisoners; organizing visitation
programs; corhmunity education; and some death
penalty work. Salary is $7,200. We will be f illing the
position soon so please rush resumes (with current
address and telephone number) to NCP&J P, Box

2842,DurhamNorthCarolina,27705.

Tristan presents a cogenl analysis of women's weak
position in the.male-ruled sociery of the mid-l9th

..

I
./

Clergy and Laity Concerned is looking for a person to
coordinate our Membership and Development
program from the New York City-based national
office.
The Membership and Development staff person
should be self-motivated, have a backgroünd in
grassroots organizing and be comm itted to a nonhierarchical organizational style. lf th¡s position
interests you or someone you know please contact:
J eanne Kaylor, CALC 3rd fl., Broadway, New York,
NY 1m38.
All qp.Þlicants must notify us by April 1, as we
would like to f ill the position by May 1, 1978.

?

Now Available in lssue #7 of

HARVEST OOARTERLY
Coming soon in

Workand live in a spiritual educational cooperative:
we are looking for an ass¡taht organii gardener to

I

I months, a cann ing and freezing coordinator
for 6 months and office person for 3-6 mdnths. Must
be committed to a spiritual path and be willing to.
participate ¡n community. Room and board and
small monthly stipend offered. J ane Bishop (301)
486-6262 Koinoni a, P.O. Box 57 44, Pikesville,
Maryland 21208.
work

SERVTCES

lnformation on tax resistance (philosophy, methods,
phone tax refusal, an alternatíve fund, creative tax
resistance, fem in ism and tax resistance) is avai lable
by writing War Tax Resistance, 331 17 Ave East,
Seattle, WA 98112 or calling 206-525 -9486.25É for
postage would be n ice, but is not necessary.
The Brandywine Peace Community and Alternative
Fund is a nonviolent resistance community (both
live-in and extended). We areworking for peace,
disarmament, and a change of valuesãnd priorities
away from war and its preparat¡on to an emphasis on
peace, social justice, and people's needs.
Brandywi ne sponsors educational programs,
act¡on campaigns, and public demonstrations in
order to h igh light the moral, political, and economic
imperative of disarmament. Add¡tionally, the group
is making a positive statement w¡th its alternative
fund. Th i s fund, compri sed of refused war taxes,
personal savings, and group deposits, makes
interest-free loans to soc¡al thange and service
groups Iprimarily in Delaware and Chester
Counties, PA). Contact: Brandywine Peace
Community and Alternative Fund, 51 Barren Rd.,
Med¡a. P4"19063.

Philadelphia Movement for a New Society is offering
two week general training program in Philadelphia
during March 18 - April 2 for social change act¡vists.
The program will develop skills in community
bui lding, olgan izing, and nonvíolent direct act¡on.
For more informatin contact the Medium Term
Training Organizing Collective/MNS, 4722
Balt¡more Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19143 or call (215)
a

729-1928.

LIVING ALTERNATIVES
Leavitt Hill Farm, NewVineyard, Me.04956: land
t rust, comm un ity, ch i ldren, work for social change.
orchards, gardens, greenhouses, aquatulture,
forest ry.
CRANDPARENT, WRITER, PACIFIST,
RADICAL-FEMINIST seeks strong, centered familv
or grouping of adults and children with whom to live

iñtermittently. Can contribute: nice ómall library,
stereo and record col lection, bits of household furnìshings, culinary abilities, warmth, wit, various
eccentricit¡es, and some sophisticated living skills.
Require privacy much of the time. Also willingness
to deal with interpersonal tensions in a psycho-poI itical context, Prefer rural or semirural area. Would
be in residence on ly part of the year. lf other needs
match, equitablefinancial arrangementscan be

century. Alone, women were incapable of winning their
own liberation. They needed the support of the workers'
movement. In turn, Tristan shows thât the workers
needed liberated women to help form a united front in
the struggle for a new social order.

Clergy and Laity Concerned is looking for a program
coordinator andan assistant to staff CALC's Human
Security program in New York City with.the specif ic
responsibility of working with the Mobilization for
Survival (a coal¡tion of anti-nuclear, pro-human
needs groups across t he country) Reiigious
Taskforce. Contact: Rick Boardman, Clergy and
!g!ty Ç9rye¡¡9Q, t98 Broadway 3rd fl., New !ork,
N.Y. 10038 (212) 964-6730.

o

(t

ñi, {lí€ ajtàr.
NAMC

HARVEST
QUARTERLY

covering the
historic Home
stead Strike in

No.Sisa

Pennsylvania

special issue

in

TO ORDER send $'1.75 for
ngle issue or $6.00 ($7
outside USA) for a subscription of four quarterly ¡ssues
to: Harvost Publishers, 907 Santa Barbara St., Santa
Barbara CA 93101. 300/o cash discount on orders of
10 or more copies. Please inquire on orders over 50.
Enclosed is $
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copies of the current issue of HARVEST
OUARTERLY #7

t

(4 issues) to HARVEST
OUARTERLY
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WIN ls looklng for

a

new ctaff

menlber-6omeone wlth tylre.
sgqlg gxporlence úo taketesponslblllty for typesettlng WIN e¡ch
woekrnd to wolk on ourtJryo.
sett¡ng a¡rd deelgn buelneee.
SHlts ln fundralelng, wrltlng,

proqotlon, etc., would be helpful
too. You ehoûld be commltúed to

nonvlolent soclal change,
femlnism ¡nd prefersbly hovo
Eome backgtound ln the
Movement. IVe partlcularly
encoüege women, goys and thhd
worldpeople toapply. We worlr
colloctlvely, and because ofout
philoeophlcal commlûnent don't
mlnd the long hours and low, ofûen
lrr_egular, pay. Wo ask thatyou be

wllllng

úo

make e minlmum

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MN for

oneyoat.
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úouch wlth you: WIN Stam, 503
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Aset of nine postcards (two colors with a glossy finish) can be
yours for e paltry $2 per set. You'll receive cards with drawings
that first appeared in WIN by artists like Peg Averill, Fred
lYright, Johanna yogelsang, Julie Maas, Tom Lewis, and Jacky
English and which are sute to warm the qockles ofthe heart of
whõmever is on the receiving end. Order today.

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March 9, 1978WlN 31

.¿..

rrfhe System ls rhe Soluliontt
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ll

-ËPROCRESSIVE

Ì

ii

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lf you are one of the growing number

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Amer¡cans who realize lhát AT&T'S slogan
means, "What's good for big business is
good for Amprica," then . . .
. . . welcome

É

lo The Ptogrcssive, the month-

ly magazine that knows it's long past t¡me

to

convertible to electric power, the sun oflers
energy
crisis. lt could become America's energy
cornucopia-if Congress doesn't turn ¡t ¡nto
iust another corporate asset to be exploited
for the sake of privAte greed."

the ideal solutlon to the world's

Mark Norlhcross

make fundamental changes. More and

more of us see that
System squanders our nation's
-The
wealth.
System rapes our natural and human
-The
environments.
i,

il

I
lr
I

I

li

I
iL*

t,
I
ti

;l

t¡.,

l

Systom pours hundreds of billions
a rathole called

-Th€
of dollars down

"national security."
System puts profit ahead of people.

-The

The System works, all right-it works for
AT&T and Lockheed, for IBM and Exxonbut it doesn't work for us, the American

'

David P. Thelen
"Our Government: A Wholly Owned
SubsidiarY"
h THE PROGRESS'YE

"Solar energy has begun to capture the
American people's imagination. Ôlean, inexhaustible, capable of heating and cooling,

Betty Medsger
"Thê 'Free' Propaganda That Floods
the Schools"

"The ad in Fo¡bês is simple but s€ductive,
the message clear: Come to North Garolina,
where wages are low, proflts are high, and
unions are almost non-existent. North Caro'

lina's "commitment" to

h

THE PROGRESS'YE

a "favorable"

atuses its

mosphere means that the state
unflagging powêr to guarantee a supply of
cheâp, abundant, submiesive, and-most
imÞortant-unorganized labor."

people.

"Government and business share the assumption that problems will disappear as
production incrêases; the corollary is that
big business offers the surest way to increase production. Open government is impossible so long as corporate'sponsored
economig growth is regarded as the highest
good."

'Who Will Own the Sun?"
In THE PPOCRESSTYE

"Because the Defense Departmênt and th€
corporations have the monøy, they can en'
dow the schools w¡th "fr€e" or "inexpênS¡ve" materials that perpetuate militârislio
values, rac¡st attitudes, and sexuål stereotypes. Our schools are cluttered with mlli'
taristic indoctrinatìon and with conservat¡ve
propaganda.... I wonder why progressives
are always on the defensive in these con'
troversies."

lf the System isn't your solutlon,'lt you'rs
looking for lnformation and solld political,

social, and economic analysis, you'll find
The Progressive important and oxciting
reading.

Barbara KoePPel
"something Could Be Finer Than
To Be in Carolina"

Join us in creating a system thåt works for
people-all of us. Your subscription begins

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378

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