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

1970-10-30 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 10

A continuation of the story of the Collective that has no name follows:

III.ONGOING STRUGGLES
Looking back, we feel that the two sisters who originally called the collective together played an important role in maintaining it during the first few months when our interest and loyalty had not yet developed. They took responsibility for regularly attending meetings, coming prepared, and keeping a flow to the meetings. Now that our collective has become very important to each of us, we all try to take responsibility for these functions. One goal of our collective is to develop the leadership potential of every individual; however, the early and necessary leadership of these two women has carried over, creating some problems of leadership and unequal participation which must still be worked out.

We have had one insight, however. When we began meeting, every woman came wondering how the other women in the group would view her. We were so self-conscious about how we came off that it was impossible for the uniqueness and beauty of our true selves to come through all the shit-defensiveness. Each of us had developed our own way of projecting ourselves in a group. These patterns perpetuated themselves. Some of us dominated, others spoke very seldom. We have come to realize that to be ourselves, we must come out of ourselves. We must cease to relate through these same roles. We must relate instead to the needs of the group -the total, the collective, rather than to our self images. Relating to the needs of the collective allows our individuality to be expressed. We find that as each sister risks herself with the collective and finds the response not shock or hostility but the sympathy, help and acceptance that comes from realizing our oppression has warped us all, the ugliness and fear of her "true self" becomes lost in the beauty and strength of the collective. What was before only a phrase becomes reality - Sisterhood is powerful. Even as we realize this, it is extremely difficult to act out. Each of us slips into periods of self-consciousness which inhibit us. We must continue to struggle.

We found that creating a collective means more than sharing the part of our sisters' lives brought to our weekly meetings. It means taking total, collective responsibility for our sisters - always. We cannot

[hand drawn cartoon figures]
[REFLECTIONS spelled backwards]

allow our sisters to face their daily lives alone. Sisterhood is all-encompassing. When each of us is left to struggle alone with our responsibilities - be they child care, work, transportation, family life, whatever - these responsibilities can easily be overwhelming. Each sister finds herself in the situation where, because she is alone, she does not have the time or energy to respond to the needs of her sisters - nor they to her needs. By bringing a total picture of our lives to our weekly meetings, we can share with our sisters not only a better idea of who we are outside the collective, but we can give them a sense of what burdens we often find overwhelming. In this way we can better deal with crisis flare-ups (by understanding the history and meaning of these situations) as well as allowing us to plan our lives together, in order to meet these needs.

We are just beginning to explore what it means to take collective responsibility for a sister. We have begun to share child care, cars, financial help to allow a sister to not work for a period of time or to take a vacation, as well as emotional sustenance available anytime - day or night. Again we have just begun and, although our rhetoric is together, we have a long way to go to make that rhetoric reality. From realizing this we have begun to see Women's Liberation not as ideas and concepts that we try to convince other women of, but a concrete reality that must meet the needs of all women if we expect these women to find Women's Liberation meaningful to them.

IV. WHY WE HAVE COLLECTIVES
Many of the reasons why we believe that collectives are an essential form for building the Women's Liberation movement have been expressed in earlier parts of this paper. We would like to summarize these reasons and others here:
First: To overcome our isolation and alone-ness. 
   As women we have been divided from each other. Our oppression has left each of us alone to fend for herself in a male world; as wife, mother, or worker. Men cannot respond to our needs even if they are sensitive enough to realize we have them. We need sisterhood with other women. Collectives, where sisters attempt to deal with each others' needs, can begin to help us overcome our isolation.

[ON spelled backwards]

Second: To overcome the learned competitiveness which makes us ineffective.
   We women have spent much of our lives competing with each other or competing to make it in male circles. Collective groups by definition are constantly struggling to overcome these old patterns so destructive to realizing sisterhood.
Third: To gain the political strength we lack as individuals, and to build a political unit out of which to act.
   Alone, we as women are powerless to alter our situation or overcome our oppression. In unity there is strength. Our collective has enabled us to develop politically and to be able to articulate to each other programs or methods of struggle for overcoming our oppression. The possibilities for political activity in collectives which decide to take on projects are endless: theatre, abortion repeal, women artists, newspapers, media groups, women's cultural centers, writing groups, child care groups, women's history groups, etc. From our experience we have found it very important for sisters in collectives to be actively involved in working on projects together, as well as having regular gatherings and discussions. Projects are important in building a collective history.
Fourth: For companionship.
   Because of the society we live in, we have usually looked to men for companionship and have considered our relationships with women as secondary and/or temporary (until we found the right man). Our collective has enabled us to discover the beauty of companionship with women and to develop deep and lasting friendships to carry us through our daily struggles.
Fifth: To make ourselves individually stronger.
   By far the most fantastic thing that has happened to all of us in the past year is that we have become individually stronger through our involvement in the collective. For the first time we are experiencing other people really loving us, with a beautiful love that can never be taken away. This has enabled us to look more honestly at ourselves and to realize our beauty.
Sixth: To unite political and personal struggles into one struggle.
   If we are to create a decent non-oppressive society we must be able to unite our political goals with the way we lead our individual lives. Most of the insights we have had as a collective have not come from great political discussions about how to bring about a cookbook revolution in America. Our insights have not come from what we said but rather from our reflection on how we have said it. They have come from beginning to break down the superstructures through which we relate to each other and through the love and acceptance we have for each other, which has made it possible for us to deal honestly with conflict, feelings and fears. By uniting our personal with our political struggles we gain the strength and perception needed to go out from our collective to further the Women's Liberation Movement.
Seventh: To have collective responsibilities for decision-making.
   To build a collective, we must first decide to struggle collectively to solve problems rather than individually. Often times it is very difficult; it is "easier" to decide things by ourselves. However, it is only by making decisions collectively that everyone can fully participate in carrying those decisions out. It is only through collective decisions that we overcome hierarchical relationships with each other and build a revolution in which the output of every individual is respected.

[COLLECTIVES spelled backwards]

Our experiences lead us to encourage other women to organize into similar types of groups. We understand collectives to be necessary to gain both personal strength and political power. We are interested in getting women together to start more collectives, and in developing a means of linking all of our collectives together. 

SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL!
COLLECTIVITY IS STRENGTH!
All Power to the People who fight all forms of oppression
    SISTERS IN THE REVOLUTION

for more information contact
THE WOMEN'S COUNSELLING SERVICE
808 East Franklin Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Phone 339-5479 or 339-3335

10  Vol. 1 No. 8     Ain't I

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A continuation of the story of the Collective that has no name follows: III.ONGOING STRUGGLES Looking back, we feel that the two sisters who originally called the collective together played an important role in maintaining it during the first few months when our interest and loyalty had not yet developed. They took responsibility for regularly attending meetings, coming prepared, and keeping a flow to the meetings. Now that our collective has become very important to each of us, we all try to take responsibility for these functions. One goal of our collective is to develop the leadership potential of every individual; however, the early and necessary leadership of these two women has carried over, creating some problems of leadership and unequal participation which must still be worked out. We have had one insight, however. When we began meeting, every woman came wondering how the other women in the group would view her. We were so self-conscious about how we came off that it was impossible for the uniqueness and beauty of our true selves to come through all the shit-defensiveness. Each of us had developed our own way of projecting ourselves in a group. These patterns perpetuated themselves. Some of us dominated, others spoke very seldom. We have come to realize that to be ourselves, we must come out of ourselves. We must cease to relate through these same roles. We must relate instead to the needs of the group -the total, the collective, rather than to our self images. Relating to the needs of the collective allows our individuality to be expressed. We find that as each sister risks herself with the collective and finds the response not shock or hostility but the sympathy, help and acceptance that comes from realizing our oppression has warped us all, the ugliness and fear of her "true self" becomes lost in the beauty and strength of the collective. What was before only a phrase becomes reality - Sisterhood is powerful. Even as we realize this, it is extremely difficult to act out. Each of us slips into periods of self-consciousness which inhibit us. We must continue to struggle. We found that creating a collective means more than sharing the part of our sisters' lives brought to our weekly meetings. It means taking total, collective responsibility for our sisters - always. We cannot [hand drawn cartoon figures] [REFLECTIONS spelled backwards] allow our sisters to face their daily lives alone. Sisterhood is all-encompassing. When each of us is left to struggle alone with our responsibilities - be they child care, work, transportation, family life, whatever - these responsibilities can easily be overwhelming. Each sister finds herself in the situation where, because she is alone, she does not have the time or energy to respond to the needs of her sisters - nor they to her needs. By bringing a total picture of our lives to our weekly meetings, we can share with our sisters not only a better idea of who we are outside the collective, but we can give them a sense of what burdens we often find overwhelming. In this way we can better deal with crisis flare-ups (by understanding the history and meaning of these situations) as well as allowing us to plan our lives together, in order to meet these needs. We are just beginning to explore what it means to take collective responsibility for a sister. We have begun to share child care, cars, financial help to allow a sister to not work for a period of time or to take a vacation, as well as emotional sustenance available anytime - day or night. Again we have just begun and, although our rhetoric is together, we have a long way to go to make that rhetoric reality. From realizing this we have begun to see Women's Liberation not as ideas and concepts that we try to convince other women of, but a concrete reality that must meet the needs of all women if we expect these women to find Women's Liberation meaningful to them. IV. WHY WE HAVE COLLECTIVES Many of the reasons why we believe that collectives are an essential form for building the Women's Liberation movement have been expressed in earlier parts of this paper. We would like to summarize these reasons and others here: First: To overcome our isolation and alone-ness. As women we have been divided from each other. Our oppression has left each of us alone to fend for herself in a male world; as wife, mother, or worker. Men cannot respond to our needs even if they are sensitive enough to realize we have them. We need sisterhood with other women. Collectives, where sisters attempt to deal with each others' needs, can begin to help us overcome our isolation. [ON spelled backwards] Second: To overcome the learned competitiveness which makes us ineffective. We women have spent much of our lives competing with each other or competing to make it in male circles. Collective groups by definition are constantly struggling to overcome these old patterns so destructive to realizing sisterhood. Third: To gain the political strength we lack as individuals, and to build a political unit out of which to act. Alone, we as women are powerless to alter our situation or overcome our oppression. In unity there is strength. Our collective has enabled us to develop politically and to be able to articulate to each other programs or methods of struggle for overcoming our oppression. The possibilities for political activity in collectives which decide to take on projects are endless: theatre, abortion repeal, women artists, newspapers, media groups, women's cultural centers, writing groups, child care groups, women's history groups, etc. From our experience we have found it very important for sisters in collectives to be actively involved in working on projects together, as well as having regular gatherings and discussions. Projects are important in building a collective history. Fourth: For companionship. Because of the society we live in, we have usually looked to men for companionship and have considered our relationships with women as secondary and/or temporary (until we found the right man). Our collective has enabled us to discover the beauty of companionship with women and to develop deep and lasting friendships to carry us through our daily struggles. Fifth: To make ourselves individually stronger. By far the most fantastic thing that has happened to all of us in the past year is that we have become individually stronger through our involvement in the collective. For the first time we are experiencing other people really loving us, with a beautiful love that can never be taken away. This has enabled us to look more honestly at ourselves and to realize our beauty. Sixth: To unite political and personal struggles into one struggle. If we are to create a decent non-oppressive society we must be able to unite our political goals with the way we lead our individual lives. Most of the insights we have had as a collective have not come from great political discussions about how to bring about a cookbook revolution in America. Our insights have not come from what we said but rather from our reflection on how we have said it. They have come from beginning to break down the superstructures through which we relate to each other and through the love and acceptance we have for each other, which has made it possible for us to deal honestly with conflict, feelings and fears. By uniting our personal with our political struggles we gain the strength and perception needed to go out from our collective to further the Women's Liberation Movement. Seventh: To have collective responsibilities for decision-making. To build a collective, we must first decide to struggle collectively to solve problems rather than individually. Often times it is very difficult; it is "easier" to decide things by ourselves. However, it is only by making decisions collectively that everyone can fully participate in carrying those decisions out. It is only through collective decisions that we overcome hierarchical relationships with each other and build a revolution in which the output of every individual is respected. [COLLECTIVES spelled backwards] Our experiences lead us to encourage other women to organize into similar types of groups. We understand collectives to be necessary to gain both personal strength and political power. We are interested in getting women together to start more collectives, and in developing a means of linking all of our collectives together. SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL! COLLECTIVITY IS STRENGTH! All Power to the People who fight all forms of oppression SISTERS IN THE REVOLUTION for more information contact THE WOMEN'S COUNSELLING SERVICE 808 East Franklin Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota Phone 339-5479 or 339-3335 10 Vol. 1 No. 8 Ain't I