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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-06-26 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 4
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[insert]Following a week of window smashing, mass rallies, and the burning of the old armory biulding, students at the Univ. of Iowa voted to strike under the following demands: (1) U.S. out of Indo-China now, (2) An end to all political repression, (3) An end to all racist attacks on black people especially the Black Panther Party; and an end to sexism (the exploitation of women), (4) The abolishment of ROTC and all military recruitment on this campus, (5) The punishment by law of police who assaulted students, especially the police who shot at the four blacks, (6) The granting of amnesty for all persons protesting American's Agressive War in southeast Asia, (7) The Tuesday, May 12 meeting of faculty senate on the status of ROTC must have 10 student representatives. Roll call vote published, (8) All university employees affected by strike be paid for lost wages. [photo] Monday night, sitting in the union, I say to Ginna, "No more confrontation politics." She agrees. We are all angry about Kent State. Hours later the phones wakes me. It's Da-da. There are people in the streets downtown. Should we go? We'll feel horrible in the morning if we don't. I say, "Pick me up. I'll be ready in 5 minutes." It is a typical street riot. I am scared & concerned about the make-up of the group. It begins to sound like a big social event. "Hey, there's Shelley." "There's Carmen & Bruce." "Let's go talk to them." "Aren't many political people here." "Hey let's stay together." The crowd smashes windows at Iowa Book & Supply. That's cool. The place exploits the hell out of students. But the crowd stops short of really looting. I wanted them to. I wanted them to smash & loot the hell out of the whole town but I was in the back of the crowd-unsure-immobile-chickenshit. Wished we could find more sisters. I keep saying to myself, "I've been through this movie before." Where are all the women? Do I want to get arrested now? Aren't I saving my ass for some glorious women's rebellion? More sisters show up and we muddle through the evening. The events that followed for the next two weeks led my mind to mull over questions I still haven't answered, like how do I relate to the crowd that masses for rallies every night, how do I relate as a feminist? I realized soon that I had to somehow participate. I was too angry about Kent, about Cambodia, about a lot to do nothing. I also have a gut feeling of guilt about everything evil that takes place. I know that the enemy can do what it wants. It has all the power. But I am responsible for what it does if I allow it to function against only my silence. Saturday people get together in the union and vote to strike. We begin to choose demands and I think, "I have joined the student left again. I am giving up romantic fantasies of all women strong & separe fighting together but there are still minimal conditions for my existence. They must at least grant a sentence: We demand the end to sexism. I am too scared to bring it up. I've done that before in student politics and soon learned as a woman I had few friends there. My husband proposes it. Jesus Christ, I know he was sincere but after all the scene was too much to take. I'm too scared so my husband fights for women's rights. Good Gawd! There is a typical left fight over it. I could have fallen asleep & known what would be said. Divisive Divisive-If you really care about ending the war you'll give up your personal concerns and fight on that issue, etc. However, they finally voted as one demand, "an end to racism & atacks on the Black Panther Party and an end to sexism (exploitation of women.)" They had to addthe latter in parens cause most of them didn't know what sexism was. Some thought it was promiscuity. Dig that! Well, I decided that at least some good political education could come out of it. At least people would know what sexism was. But it is still hard to work with people who don't have their heads together. It is hard to work with men when they call you chick and are taking masculine political ego trips, or women who are so damaged that they have no self-esteem, who can't understand why they should mind being called a chick. Everyone was involved for different reasons. Some wanted to protest the war, some primarily wanted ROTC off campus. People kept running around saying, "Join us--you don't have to support all demands--if you support one of them join us. " Well that kind of reasoning stinks and here's why: We want a just society where people--all people--have a chance to develop & be truly alive. It is not enough to be against the war and not against the exploitation of other peoples--any people by anyone. It is not enough to be against ROTC on campus and not to support an end to racism. It is not enough to be against racism and not against sexism. It is not enough to want justice for only some people. If a revolutionn ccame off tomorrow in this country it would be a mess and little worth the trouble. Foar a revolution to mean anything it has to come from a mass of people who collectively want to end oppression of anyone by anyone. there is a lot of work to be done till people cellectively are willing to fight for everything that is just. And there is even more work to be done till a sufficient number of people are willing to risk small privileges today for no privilege tomorrow, till students are willing to chuck their A's until their campus is decent enough for human beings to live and work there with dignity. By the end of activity there still was no collective thinking on what we were really fighting for let alone tactics, but some people (mostly men) were at least starting to verbally defend all of the demands and doing a nice job of it and coming to some kind of understanding on why all the issues were important and related. Maybe that's a beginning. A lot of things happened during the May strike actions at Iowa. Also, a lot of things didn't happen: like violence and extensive property damage. Nonetheless, a frightened university establishment reacted hysterically against the terror that never came, and took a few victims of their own. Chief among these were four students: Leona Durham, the newly-appointed editor of the campus newspaper, The Daily Iowan, and three "radicals" on her staff. They were fired before they had ever put out a single issue of the paper. Although the firing would probably not have happened at a quieter time, certain key figures at the newspaper were worried about Leona from the day she had been hired, one month before she was fired. She expressed some radical ideas, she was a graduate student who had never previously been connected with the paper, and she was a woman. The sexist issues, then, didn't stand alone, but they were there. The day after she was hired, Leona was quoted in the paper as saying she hope to have at least 50% of her staff female. That started the rumor mill producing, and it got some fresh material a few days later, when Leona ran an ad for new staff members. The ad, amog other things, invited those interested in "bread and roses for all" to apply for jobs. Among a cluster of really absurd rumors (she was a "Communist plant from Berkely"; she "announce" she would follow a policy of "deliberatelu slanting the news"; and many others) was the story that she was involved in the women's leberation movement. (She was, and is.) In its context, this was obviously meant to show her disreputable character. A week before she was to take over Leona complained to the advertiging manager about two grossly sexist ads that had recently run, and told him that when she became editor, he was not to accept such atrocities. This story soon made the rounds as a rumor that she had demanded complete control over all advertising. Both the current editor and the chairman of the board which oversees the paper expressed sexist attitudes against Leona. The editor, Lowell Forte, told one of his staff that a woman shouldn't be editor of a newspaper. The chairman, a political science professor, has long been notorious for his mal chauvinism: He allegedly once refused to work on the same staff with a woman (the poly sci department is still 100% male), and reportedly once told a class that "any red-blooded male who says he wants to com home to a wife who is competitive is lying." During the week when he led the movement to fire Leona, he told one of the paper's staff that "Leona can convince me of many things about her political beliefs, but she can't convince me she isn't pro-women's right." When Leona was initially suspended, she was not given an adequate explanation of board's high-handed actions. She was first told that in a time of crisis, the old staff was more experienced and should stay on; then, later, that she and the other three were "technically incompetent," and, finally, that by publically protesting her suspension, she had a shown a "lack of faith" in the board and thus deserved to be fired. Fear of radicals, the sudent protests, faculty outrage at a student who talked back them, petty politics by old Iowan staffers angry that an "outsider" had been picked as editor, and sexism all combined to give Leona the axe. 4 Pat June 26, 1970 [drawing of an arm] Ain't I
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[insert]Following a week of window smashing, mass rallies, and the burning of the old armory biulding, students at the Univ. of Iowa voted to strike under the following demands: (1) U.S. out of Indo-China now, (2) An end to all political repression, (3) An end to all racist attacks on black people especially the Black Panther Party; and an end to sexism (the exploitation of women), (4) The abolishment of ROTC and all military recruitment on this campus, (5) The punishment by law of police who assaulted students, especially the police who shot at the four blacks, (6) The granting of amnesty for all persons protesting American's Agressive War in southeast Asia, (7) The Tuesday, May 12 meeting of faculty senate on the status of ROTC must have 10 student representatives. Roll call vote published, (8) All university employees affected by strike be paid for lost wages. [photo] Monday night, sitting in the union, I say to Ginna, "No more confrontation politics." She agrees. We are all angry about Kent State. Hours later the phones wakes me. It's Da-da. There are people in the streets downtown. Should we go? We'll feel horrible in the morning if we don't. I say, "Pick me up. I'll be ready in 5 minutes." It is a typical street riot. I am scared & concerned about the make-up of the group. It begins to sound like a big social event. "Hey, there's Shelley." "There's Carmen & Bruce." "Let's go talk to them." "Aren't many political people here." "Hey let's stay together." The crowd smashes windows at Iowa Book & Supply. That's cool. The place exploits the hell out of students. But the crowd stops short of really looting. I wanted them to. I wanted them to smash & loot the hell out of the whole town but I was in the back of the crowd-unsure-immobile-chickenshit. Wished we could find more sisters. I keep saying to myself, "I've been through this movie before." Where are all the women? Do I want to get arrested now? Aren't I saving my ass for some glorious women's rebellion? More sisters show up and we muddle through the evening. The events that followed for the next two weeks led my mind to mull over questions I still haven't answered, like how do I relate to the crowd that masses for rallies every night, how do I relate as a feminist? I realized soon that I had to somehow participate. I was too angry about Kent, about Cambodia, about a lot to do nothing. I also have a gut feeling of guilt about everything evil that takes place. I know that the enemy can do what it wants. It has all the power. But I am responsible for what it does if I allow it to function against only my silence. Saturday people get together in the union and vote to strike. We begin to choose demands and I think, "I have joined the student left again. I am giving up romantic fantasies of all women strong & separe fighting together but there are still minimal conditions for my existence. They must at least grant a sentence: We demand the end to sexism. I am too scared to bring it up. I've done that before in student politics and soon learned as a woman I had few friends there. My husband proposes it. Jesus Christ, I know he was sincere but after all the scene was too much to take. I'm too scared so my husband fights for women's rights. Good Gawd! There is a typical left fight over it. I could have fallen asleep & known what would be said. Divisive Divisive-If you really care about ending the war you'll give up your personal concerns and fight on that issue, etc. However, they finally voted as one demand, "an end to racism & atacks on the Black Panther Party and an end to sexism (exploitation of women.)" They had to addthe latter in parens cause most of them didn't know what sexism was. Some thought it was promiscuity. Dig that! Well, I decided that at least some good political education could come out of it. At least people would know what sexism was. But it is still hard to work with people who don't have their heads together. It is hard to work with men when they call you chick and are taking masculine political ego trips, or women who are so damaged that they have no self-esteem, who can't understand why they should mind being called a chick. Everyone was involved for different reasons. Some wanted to protest the war, some primarily wanted ROTC off campus. People kept running around saying, "Join us--you don't have to support all demands--if you support one of them join us. " Well that kind of reasoning stinks and here's why: We want a just society where people--all people--have a chance to develop & be truly alive. It is not enough to be against the war and not against the exploitation of other peoples--any people by anyone. It is not enough to be against ROTC on campus and not to support an end to racism. It is not enough to be against racism and not against sexism. It is not enough to want justice for only some people. If a revolutionn ccame off tomorrow in this country it would be a mess and little worth the trouble. Foar a revolution to mean anything it has to come from a mass of people who collectively want to end oppression of anyone by anyone. there is a lot of work to be done till people cellectively are willing to fight for everything that is just. And there is even more work to be done till a sufficient number of people are willing to risk small privileges today for no privilege tomorrow, till students are willing to chuck their A's until their campus is decent enough for human beings to live and work there with dignity. By the end of activity there still was no collective thinking on what we were really fighting for let alone tactics, but some people (mostly men) were at least starting to verbally defend all of the demands and doing a nice job of it and coming to some kind of understanding on why all the issues were important and related. Maybe that's a beginning. A lot of things happened during the May strike actions at Iowa. Also, a lot of things didn't happen: like violence and extensive property damage. Nonetheless, a frightened university establishment reacted hysterically against the terror that never came, and took a few victims of their own. Chief among these were four students: Leona Durham, the newly-appointed editor of the campus newspaper, The Daily Iowan, and three "radicals" on her staff. They were fired before they had ever put out a single issue of the paper. Although the firing would probably not have happened at a quieter time, certain key figures at the newspaper were worried about Leona from the day she had been hired, one month before she was fired. She expressed some radical ideas, she was a graduate student who had never previously been connected with the paper, and she was a woman. The sexist issues, then, didn't stand alone, but they were there. The day after she was hired, Leona was quoted in the paper as saying she hope to have at least 50% of her staff female. That started the rumor mill producing, and it got some fresh material a few days later, when Leona ran an ad for new staff members. The ad, amog other things, invited those interested in "bread and roses for all" to apply for jobs. Among a cluster of really absurd rumors (she was a "Communist plant from Berkely"; she "announce" she would follow a policy of "deliberatelu slanting the news"; and many others) was the story that she was involved in the women's leberation movement. (She was, and is.) In its context, this was obviously meant to show her disreputable character. A week before she was to take over Leona complained to the advertiging manager about two grossly sexist ads that had recently run, and told him that when she became editor, he was not to accept such atrocities. This story soon made the rounds as a rumor that she had demanded complete control over all advertising. Both the current editor and the chairman of the board which oversees the paper expressed sexist attitudes against Leona. The editor, Lowell Forte, told one of his staff that a woman shouldn't be editor of a newspaper. The chairman, a political science professor, has long been notorious for his mal chauvinism: He allegedly once refused to work on the same staff with a woman (the poly sci department is still 100% male), and reportedly once told a class that "any red-blooded male who says he wants to com home to a wife who is competitive is lying." During the week when he led the movement to fire Leona, he told one of the paper's staff that "Leona can convince me of many things about her political beliefs, but she can't convince me she isn't pro-women's right." When Leona was initially suspended, she was not given an adequate explanation of board's high-handed actions. She was first told that in a time of crisis, the old staff was more experienced and should stay on; then, later, that she and the other three were "technically incompetent," and, finally, that by publically protesting her suspension, she had a shown a "lack of faith" in the board and thus deserved to be fired. Fear of radicals, the sudent protests, faculty outrage at a student who talked back them, petty politics by old Iowan staffers angry that an "outsider" had been picked as editor, and sexism all combined to give Leona the axe. 4 Pat June 26, 1970 [drawing of an arm] Ain't I
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