DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1970-10-09 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 3

To Commit Herstory
women, those who were fighting for the real (white male) revolution. The realization hit us that our oppression and liberation was peripheral to the things our "brothers" talked about and did. The reality of our lives was peripheral to their revolution.
And we began to realize we could not trust them to fight for anyone's liberation. They exploited women in their daily lives. Mike Abeles could fuck a 16 year old virgin, give her the clap, not tell her, and leave her. And he couldn't understand what he had done: "I don't see how you can be oppressing someone when you're socking it to them." And Chip Marshall was only a little more sophisticated in his approach. When asked what male chauvinism was about, he responded, "It means you don't treat your girlfriend like a sexual object." Jeff Dowd could threaten a woman: "You bitch! I'd like to smash your face in. You're not oppressed. Men are oppressed. We're the ones that are dying in Vietnam and rotting in the jails." 
We were forced to use the oppression of black people in explaining our own to movement men. But we began to see that although they responded to that analogy out of liberal guilt, they did not understand oppression. They understood power. It was their knowledge of the power they had over other people that sustained their egos and drove them to action. 
By April, an anti-male leadership grumblings increased, secondary leadership" began to emerge. Lerner and Sundance men chose certain men as protogees and fucked selected women into leadership positions. 
Then the conspiracy busts for TDA came down. And the second level leaders swaggered and jived as best they could, trying to make it in the movement. One of the macho men's protogees, Rick Alba, who was later to become the Sky River big schtick, did pages of research on employment at Boeing for an anti-war demonstration there, and presented it to the SLF. Surprise. Not a single fact about black or women workers. 
Many women refused to go to the Boeing event; it was just another male-defined, male-led demonstration. Those of us who did go supported one of the women on tactical leadership when she refused to give her speech after being totally ignored by the male leadership. Afterwards the female exodus from SLF began in earnest. 
But a few days later came Cambodia, Kent State, Jackson State, Augusta. Everyone reached the point of freaked-out suicidal hysteria we'd been headed for, with the SLF heavies still managing somehow to define the only proper revolutionary response: stupid, ineffective, "militant" actions in which women were ordered into the front-lines and were used as cannon-fodder for the Revolution. 
After the strike, many more people left SLF: some disgusted, some burnt out, some resolving never to be used again. We'd com to realize exactly what Chip Marshall meant when he said, "In a revolution, people have to be manipulated."
During the summer we were forced to deal with SLF only twice: once to stop them from claiming a women's center some of us had set up, as an SLF project: and a second time to stop Jeff Dowd from handpicking people to represent Seattle on a "youth culture" trip to Cuba. We read disgusting articles which offered the nearly defunct SLF as the answer to a fragmented left. 
But many other people had come out of their "revolutionary" trance. The feeling was growing that SLF- and most of the movement - was merely a degenerate form of what it claims to be attacking. We tried to get in touch with our feelings and the reality of our lives: to live as human beings and do our work.
Then came August and Sky River. The reaction of the women's movement to the festival was varied. We were appalled at the arrogance of sponsoring any rock festival after Altamont, and especially at SLF's extravagant claims for it. We doubted they would be able to ejaculate politics into the youth culture whose worst aspects they had hyped as revolutionary. 
But after being assured by the Hydra collective (who undertook the festival's sponsorship) that "of course they were against 'male chauvinism'- this was a political event" and that there would be adequate food supplies, sanitary facilities, and protection, some women decided to go. 
Then we heard about the gang rapes. And the reactions of the men: "Well, it depends on the circumstances, but I never saw anything wrong with a little fucking, myself." Abeles was not alone in thinking the horror of Sky River for women unimportant. Most of the men brushed it off: "I don't believe there were any gang rapes ..." "the women got what they deserved."
We had tried to render SLF irrelevant. But what it did was still affecting us as women. We knew who had the power in SLF, we knew who had been most responsible for creating an atmosphere in which rapes could occur and be condoned. That knowledge shaped our decision to denounce those men: Mike Abeles, Rick Alba, Jeff Dowd, Joe Kelly, Chip Marshall, Michael Lerner, and Bobby Oram.
We cannot be expected to tolerate the existence of a movement which is oppressive to women, merely because it is packaged and sold as revolutionary. It is not enough for us to build an alternative to it. What its leaders do still affects us as women. That is why we felt it necessary to expose the basis of their power and attack their use of it. 
Both the denunciation itself, and this statement were done with the full awareness that five of the men named - Abeles, Dowd, Kelly, Lerner, and Marshall - have been indicted on federal conspiracy charges for TDA. 
Although we cannot support a defense based on macho jive nor an attempt to use this trial to recruit people into a sexist movement, we will support an honest defense. 
The defense of the Chicago Conspiracy was based on making movement starts into superstars. Because of their prominence in the movement, it was possible to rally support on that basis. The Chicago Conspiracy were not convicted on the conspiracy law and there has been no precedent set on its use.
The Seattle defendants do not have the movement status of those men, and a defense built on that basis will undoubtedly fail. But more importantly, such a defense does not make clear the real dangers of the conspiracy law. What should have been done in Chicago and what must be done in Seattle is to build a defense based on the repressive nature of the conspiracy law, not on the personalities of the defendants. 
We feel that an honest defense is necessary. If there is any hope for that at all - or for an honest Seattle movement - this action may have cleared that way for it. 

Love and Power to our Sisters, 
Anna Louise Strong Brigade
Fanshen
Many Independent Women

[cartoon drawing of a woman's face, curly hair, beady eyes, and a large mouth that is open, inside the mouth are the words "LOVE AND POWER TO OUR SISTERS IN SEATTLE"]

Sisters, 
If you could stop a lie in Seattle, maybe we can help to stop it across the country. 

Yesterday we received a package from Liberation News Service containing one of those expensive, multi-colored leaflets from SLF, which informed us that the 27 collectives in SLF were responsible for day care centers, and a women's center among other things. (Strange that their program demands don't say anything about women or speak to any of the special needs of women?) 
The movement press will have to stop functioning in the same way as the establishment press -- only as much truth as the people can bar. Maybe they should realize that we're not going to shut up, that we're going to spread the truth about women and about those things that happen to us and they're just going to have to come to terms with it or be left out of our revolution.
The movement press is going to have to stop functioning as a degenerate form of what it claims to be replacing -- packaging and selling as revolutionary those thing which degrade and destroy women in the same ways and with the same arrogance as the male-dominated power structure. We thing that anyone who wants to support an honest defense in Seattle should support our sisters in the collectives: 
THEIR ADDRESS IS
Fanshen, 2339 Boylston East, Seattle, Washington 98102

A Woman?     Oct. 9, 1970     Page 3

Saving...

To Commit Herstory women, those who were fighting for the real (white male) revolution. The realization hit us that our oppression and liberation was peripheral to the things our "brothers" talked about and did. The reality of our lives was peripheral to their revolution. And we began to realize we could not trust them to fight for anyone's liberation. They exploited women in their daily lives. Mike Abeles could fuck a 16 year old virgin, give her the clap, not tell her, and leave her. And he couldn't understand what he had done: "I don't see how you can be oppressing someone when you're socking it to them." And Chip Marshall was only a little more sophisticated in his approach. When asked what male chauvinism was about, he responded, "It means you don't treat your girlfriend like a sexual object." Jeff Dowd could threaten a woman: "You bitch! I'd like to smash your face in. You're not oppressed. Men are oppressed. We're the ones that are dying in Vietnam and rotting in the jails." We were forced to use the oppression of black people in explaining our own to movement men. But we began to see that although they responded to that analogy out of liberal guilt, they did not understand oppression. They understood power. It was their knowledge of the power they had over other people that sustained their egos and drove them to action. By April, an anti-male leadership grumblings increased, secondary leadership" began to emerge. Lerner and Sundance men chose certain men as protogees and fucked selected women into leadership positions. Then the conspiracy busts for TDA came down. And the second level leaders swaggered and jived as best they could, trying to make it in the movement. One of the macho men's protogees, Rick Alba, who was later to become the Sky River big schtick, did pages of research on employment at Boeing for an anti-war demonstration there, and presented it to the SLF. Surprise. Not a single fact about black or women workers. Many women refused to go to the Boeing event; it was just another male-defined, male-led demonstration. Those of us who did go supported one of the women on tactical leadership when she refused to give her speech after being totally ignored by the male leadership. Afterwards the female exodus from SLF began in earnest. But a few days later came Cambodia, Kent State, Jackson State, Augusta. Everyone reached the point of freaked-out suicidal hysteria we'd been headed for, with the SLF heavies still managing somehow to define the only proper revolutionary response: stupid, ineffective, "militant" actions in which women were ordered into the front-lines and were used as cannon-fodder for the Revolution. After the strike, many more people left SLF: some disgusted, some burnt out, some resolving never to be used again. We'd com to realize exactly what Chip Marshall meant when he said, "In a revolution, people have to be manipulated." During the summer we were forced to deal with SLF only twice: once to stop them from claiming a women's center some of us had set up, as an SLF project: and a second time to stop Jeff Dowd from handpicking people to represent Seattle on a "youth culture" trip to Cuba. We read disgusting articles which offered the nearly defunct SLF as the answer to a fragmented left. But many other people had come out of their "revolutionary" trance. The feeling was growing that SLF- and most of the movement - was merely a degenerate form of what it claims to be attacking. We tried to get in touch with our feelings and the reality of our lives: to live as human beings and do our work. Then came August and Sky River. The reaction of the women's movement to the festival was varied. We were appalled at the arrogance of sponsoring any rock festival after Altamont, and especially at SLF's extravagant claims for it. We doubted they would be able to ejaculate politics into the youth culture whose worst aspects they had hyped as revolutionary. But after being assured by the Hydra collective (who undertook the festival's sponsorship) that "of course they were against 'male chauvinism'- this was a political event" and that there would be adequate food supplies, sanitary facilities, and protection, some women decided to go. Then we heard about the gang rapes. And the reactions of the men: "Well, it depends on the circumstances, but I never saw anything wrong with a little fucking, myself." Abeles was not alone in thinking the horror of Sky River for women unimportant. Most of the men brushed it off: "I don't believe there were any gang rapes ..." "the women got what they deserved." We had tried to render SLF irrelevant. But what it did was still affecting us as women. We knew who had the power in SLF, we knew who had been most responsible for creating an atmosphere in which rapes could occur and be condoned. That knowledge shaped our decision to denounce those men: Mike Abeles, Rick Alba, Jeff Dowd, Joe Kelly, Chip Marshall, Michael Lerner, and Bobby Oram. We cannot be expected to tolerate the existence of a movement which is oppressive to women, merely because it is packaged and sold as revolutionary. It is not enough for us to build an alternative to it. What its leaders do still affects us as women. That is why we felt it necessary to expose the basis of their power and attack their use of it. Both the denunciation itself, and this statement were done with the full awareness that five of the men named - Abeles, Dowd, Kelly, Lerner, and Marshall - have been indicted on federal conspiracy charges for TDA. Although we cannot support a defense based on macho jive nor an attempt to use this trial to recruit people into a sexist movement, we will support an honest defense. The defense of the Chicago Conspiracy was based on making movement starts into superstars. Because of their prominence in the movement, it was possible to rally support on that basis. The Chicago Conspiracy were not convicted on the conspiracy law and there has been no precedent set on its use. The Seattle defendants do not have the movement status of those men, and a defense built on that basis will undoubtedly fail. But more importantly, such a defense does not make clear the real dangers of the conspiracy law. What should have been done in Chicago and what must be done in Seattle is to build a defense based on the repressive nature of the conspiracy law, not on the personalities of the defendants. We feel that an honest defense is necessary. If there is any hope for that at all - or for an honest Seattle movement - this action may have cleared that way for it. Love and Power to our Sisters, Anna Louise Strong Brigade Fanshen Many Independent Women [cartoon drawing of a woman's face, curly hair, beady eyes, and a large mouth that is open, inside the mouth are the words "LOVE AND POWER TO OUR SISTERS IN SEATTLE"] Sisters, If you could stop a lie in Seattle, maybe we can help to stop it across the country. Yesterday we received a package from Liberation News Service containing one of those expensive, multi-colored leaflets from SLF, which informed us that the 27 collectives in SLF were responsible for day care centers, and a women's center among other things. (Strange that their program demands don't say anything about women or speak to any of the special needs of women?) The movement press will have to stop functioning in the same way as the establishment press -- only as much truth as the people can bar. Maybe they should realize that we're not going to shut up, that we're going to spread the truth about women and about those things that happen to us and they're just going to have to come to terms with it or be left out of our revolution. The movement press is going to have to stop functioning as a degenerate form of what it claims to be replacing -- packaging and selling as revolutionary those thing which degrade and destroy women in the same ways and with the same arrogance as the male-dominated power structure. We thing that anyone who wants to support an honest defense in Seattle should support our sisters in the collectives: THEIR ADDRESS IS Fanshen, 2339 Boylston East, Seattle, Washington 98102 A Woman? Oct. 9, 1970 Page 3

To Commit Herstory Women, those who were fighting for the real (white male) revolution. The realization hit us that our oppression and liberation was peripheral to the things our "brothers" talked about and did. The reality of our lives was peripheral to their revolution. And we began to realize we could not trust them to fight for anyone's liberation. They exploited women in their daily lives. Mike Abeles could fuck a 16 year old virgin, give her the clap, not tell her, and leave her. And he couldn't understand what he had done: "I don't see how you can be oppressing someone when you're socking it to them." And Chip Marshall was only a little more sophisticated in his approach. When asked what male chauvinism was about, he responded, "It means you don't treat your girlfriend like a sexual object." Jeff Dowd could threaten a woman: "You bitch! I'd like to smash your face in. You're not oppressed. Men are oppressed. We're the ones that are dying in Vietnam and rotting in the jails."  We were forced to use the oppression of black people in explaining our own to movement men. But we began to see that although they responded to that analogy out of liberal guilt, they did not understand oppression. They understood power. It was their knowledge of the power they had over other people that sustained their egos and drove them to action. By April, an anti-male leadership grumblings increased, secondary leadership" began to emerge. Lerner and Sundance men chose certain men as protogees and fucked selected women into leadership positions. Then the conspiracy busts for TDA came down. And the second level leaders swaggered and jived as best they could, trying to make it in the movement. One of the macho men's protogees, Rick Alba, who was later to become the Sky River big schtick, did pages of research on employment at Boeing for an anti-war demonstration there, and presented it to the SLF. Surprise. Not a single fact about black or women workers. Many women refused to go to the Boeing event; it was just another male-defined, male-led demonstration. Those of us who did go supported one of the women on tactical leadership when she refused to give her speech after being totally ignored by the male leadership. Afterwards the female exodus from SLF began in earnest. 
But a few days later came Cambodia, Kent State, Jackson State, Augusta. Everyone reached the point of freaked-out suicidal hysteria we'd been headed for, with the SLF heavies still managing somehow to define the only proper revolutionary response: stupid, ineffective, "militant" actions in which women were ordered into the front-lines and were used as cannon-fodder for the Revolution. After the strike, many more people left SLF: some disgusted, some burnt out, some resolving never to be used again. We'd com to realize exactly what Chip Marshall meant when he said, "In a revolution, people have to be manipulated." During the summer we were forced to deal with SLF only twice: once to stop them from claiming a women's center some of us had set up, as an SLF project: and a second time to stop Jeff Dowd from handpicking people to represent Seattle on a "youth culture" trip to Cuba. We read disgusting articles which offered the nearly defunct SLF as the answer to a fragmented left. But many other people had come out of their "revolutionary" trance. The feeling was growing that SLF- and most of the movement - was merely a degenerate form of what it claims to be attacking. We tried to get in touch with our feelings and the reality of our lives: to live as human beings and do our work. Then came August and Sky River. The reaction of the women's movement to the festival was varied. We were appalled at the arrogance of sponsoring any rock festival after Altamont, and especially at SLF's extravagant claims for it. We doubted they would be able to ejaculate politics into the youth culture whose worst aspects they had hyped as revolutionary. But after being assured by the Hydra collective (who undertook the festival's sponsorship) that "of course they were against 'male chauvinism'- this was a political event" and that there would be adequate food supplies, sanitary facilities, and protection, some women decided to go. Then we heard about the gang rapes. And the reactions of the men: "Well, it depends on the circumstances, but I never saw anything wrong with a little fucking, myself." Abeles was not alone in thinking the horror of Sky River for women unimportant. Most of the men brushed it off: "I don't believe there were any gang rapes ..." "the women got what they deserved." We had tried to render SLF irrelevant. But what it did was still affecting us as women. We knew who had the power in SLF, we knew who had been most responsible for creating an atmosphere in which rapes could occur and be condoned. That knowledge shaped our decision to denounce those men: Mike Abeles, Rick Alba, Jeff Dowd, Joe Kelly, Chip Marshall, Michael Lerner, and Bobby Oram. We cannot be expected to tolerate the existence of a movement which is oppressive to women, merely because it is packaged and sold as revolutionary. It is not enough for us to build an alternative to it. What its leaders do still affects us as women. That is why we felt it necessary to expose the basis of their power and attack their use of it. 
Both the denunciation itself, and this statement were done with the full awareness that five of the men named - Abeles, Dowd, Kelly, Lerner, and Marshall - have been indicted on federal conspiracy charges for TDA. Although we cannot support a defense based on macho jive nor an attempt to use this trial to recruit people into a sexist movement, we will support an honest defense. The defense of the Chicago Conspiracy was based on making movement starts into superstars. Because of their prominence in the movement, it was possible to rally support on that basis. The Chicago Conspiracy were not convicted on the conspiracy law and there has been no precedent set on its use. The Seattle defendants do not have the movement status of those men, and a defense built on that basis will undoubtedly fail. But more importantly, such a defense does not make clear the real dangers of the conspiracy law. What should have been done in Chicago and what must be done in Seattle is to build a defense based on the repressive nature of the conspiracy law, not on the personalities of the defendants. We feel that an honest defense is necessary. If there is any hope for that at all - or for an honest Seattle movement - this action may have cleared that way for it. Love and Power to our Sisters, 
Anna Louise Strong Brigade Fanshen Many Independent Women [cartoon drawing of a woman's face, curly hair, beady eyes, and a large mouth that is open, inside the mouth are the words "LOVE AND POWER TO OUR SISTERS IN SEATTLE"] Sisters, If you could stop a lie in Seattle, maybe we can help to stop it across the country. Yesterday we received a package from Liberation News Service containing one of those expensive, multi-colored leaflets from SLF, which informed us that the 27 collectives in SLF were responsible for day care centers, and a women's center among other things. (Strange that their program demands don't say anything about women or speak to any of the special needs of women?) The movement press will have to stop functioning in the same way as the establishment press -- only as much truth as the people can bar. Maybe they should realize that we're not going to shut up, that we're going to spread the truth about women and about those things that happen to us and they're just going to have to come to terms with it or be left out of our revolution.The movement press is going to have to stop functioning as a degenerate form of what it claims to be replacing -- packaging and selling as revolutionary those thing which degrade and destroy women in the same ways and with the same arrogance as the male-dominated power structure. We thing that anyone who wants to support an honest defense in Seattle should support our sisters in the collectives: THEIR ADDRESS IS Fanshen, 2339 Boylston East, Seattle, Washington 98102 A Woman? Oct. 9, 1970 Page 3