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

1970-12-11 "Ain't I a Woman" Page 5

RIPPING OFF IS POLITICAL
   Rat/Liberation News Service -- Early Thursday morning, Nov. 6, over forty mothers who went into Macy's to get school clothes for their children walked out of the store with armloads of clothes, without bothering to stop at the cash register. They are members of Welfare Rights Organization (a nationwide organization of people living on welfare who are committed to fighting the injustice of the welfare system.)
   Ten of the women were arrested by security guards at the 34th St. entrance of Macy's. Before they were taken to a nearby precinct they insisted that Macy's wrap and package all the clothes. At the precinct police officials attempted to dismiss their case quickly by serving the women with summonses and sending them home.
   But the women had come prepared to make their point. They had all arranged for the care of their children so that they could stay to be heard in court. Police officers repeatedly tried to take the clothes from the women, but the women did not allow them to. They knew that the school clothes were important evidence. If they didn't have the clothes the police would charge them with stealing all sorts of things -- which would lessen the political implications of their act.
   In Night Court the ten mothers pleaded guilty to reduced charges of criminal trespass and were paroled by the judge, who dismissed the case saying that their action was "political". The D.A. and the arresting officer were mad that the women were getting away too easily. They single out one woman, Jeanette Washington, and charged her with non-cooperation with a police officer because she refused to have her picture taken when she was booked. These charges were also thrown out. 
   The Welfare Rights Organization has been waging a fight to get money for school clothes for children. Two years ago the N.Y. State legislature cut back the funds for "special allowances" which included money for clothing and furniture; the only time special allowances are now available are in cases of fire and flood. This leaves already hard-pressed welfare mothers with no way of providing clothes for their children.
   The WRO has concentrated on trying to obtain federal funds from local Boards of Education. Five years ago congress passed Title I, a bill designed to put funds into the educational  budget for the use of welfare and low income children. The money was primarily intended for school clothing and lunches. Instead these funds have been used to subsidize a drum and bugle corp in one state, gym programs, swimming pools. 
   The Welfare Rights Organization wants $100 per year per child for school clothing from Title I money. They tried legal ways: demonstrations at City Hall, appeals to the mayor's office and meetings with the Board of Education. Then they decided more direct action was needed. With the weather getting colder there wasn't any time left for administrative bullshit. Five hundred mothers signed up to participate in "shop-ins". Two days later Macy's was hit. 

Questions To Be Raised
   Women in Cambridge, Mass. and Washington, D.C. have written to us about their plans around participation in the Revolutionary Peoples Constitutional Convention. Both groups had made lists of topics they felt would be important for women's workshops to deal with. We feel that these questions will need to be dealt with again and that they relate to our ongoing struggle. We don't see answers at this time; we expect there will be more questions raised.
(from Cambridge): 
relationship of the women's movement to third world movements
What does Third World leadership mean? Do we accept the concept? How do we deal with the questions concerning leadership that have come out of the women's movement in relationship to the concept of leadership put forth by the Panthers? What does a new constitution mean? a vision of a new society, demands, programs that immediately serve the people Does a political program for the women's movement make sense? (what is a political program, what kind have we and should we develop) What does it mean to develop anti-racist politics in the women's movement? what has been and should be our relationship to Black women? How does the present women's movement deal with the questions posed by the Gay Movement?

(from Washington)
What skills we need to have and how we can learn them (such as automechanics, electronics, self-defense, etc) 
Women's media development - films, radio, photography, publications, etc. Women's culture - art, music, poetry, theatre
Feminist liberation of new generations: infant and child care, schools, adult chauvinism, sex-role programming, etc.
The politics of health projects and women's health care

[hand drawing]  SELF-PORTRAIT I   V. KENT

Forward from Earth Day--how to bring revolutionary women's consciousness to the ecological crisis (population control as imperialist, consumerism, life-style changes, etc)
Women's projects around racism - how do sexism and racism relate? what would be a new women's way to relate to the black and brown struggles at home?
Women's projects around imperialism - how to sexism and imperialism relate? what would be a new woman's focus on the Vietnam war and support for the Vietnamese struggle? how can we concretely express solidarity with Third World women?
Within all our work, we are also struggling with some general questions:
Collectives -- living, working, present, future - you know, everything
Sister love - female state, lesbian nation, feminist life force - conceptions of our future
Defense and Support of New institutions -- self defense, financial sustinence, etc.

Change in N.Y. Women's Center
Announcement of the October 15th meeting at the New York City Women's Center.
    Previously it had been decided to keep the NYC Women's Center open with a loose structure so that women of widely varying affiliations and politics within the movement could meet and exchange ideas freely. The October 15th meeting dealt with just what groups were in the movement and in what ways individuals and groups should use the center.
   Motions passed at the meeting included:
1) No women running for political office or actively and publicly engaged in campaigning for another person seeking political office within this system can serve on the steering, speakers, forum, fund raising, financial or literature collectives of the center.
2) No organized political party or subdivision seeking power within this system (by election) or representation or publication of such a party can use the name of the W.L. center in any way that implies identification of the party organization or individual with the Center. Any breach of this rule will be met with public repudiation by the Center.
3) No member of the SWP-YSA or any party set up or controlled by the SWP can serve on any collective connected with running the center. 
For a copy of the minutes of this meeting write to:
Women's Liberation Center of New York City
36 West 22nd St.
New York, N.Y. 10010


A WOMAN?  DECEMBER 11, 1970    5

Saving...

RIPPING OFF IS POLITICAL Rat/Liberation News Service -- Early Thursday morning, Nov. 6, over forty mothers who went into Macy's to get school clothes for their children walked out of the store with armloads of clothes, without bothering to stop at the cash register. They are members of Welfare Rights Organization (a nationwide organization of people living on welfare who are committed to fighting the injustice of the welfare system.) Ten of the women were arrested by security guards at the 34th St. entrance of Macy's. Before they were taken to a nearby precinct they insisted that Macy's wrap and package all the clothes. At the precinct police officials attempted to dismiss their case quickly by serving the women with summonses and sending them home. But the women had come prepared to make their point. They had all arranged for the care of their children so that they could stay to be heard in court. Police officers repeatedly tried to take the clothes from the women, but the women did not allow them to. They knew that the school clothes were important evidence. If they didn't have the clothes the police would charge them with stealing all sorts of things -- which would lessen the political implications of their act. In Night Court the ten mothers pleaded guilty to reduced charges of criminal trespass and were paroled by the judge, who dismissed the case saying that their action was "political". The D.A. and the arresting officer were mad that the women were getting away too easily. They single out one woman, Jeanette Washington, and charged her with non-cooperation with a police officer because she refused to have her picture taken when she was booked. These charges were also thrown out. The Welfare Rights Organization has been waging a fight to get money for school clothes for children. Two years ago the N.Y. State legislature cut back the funds for "special allowances" which included money for clothing and furniture; the only time special allowances are now available are in cases of fire and flood. This leaves already hard-pressed welfare mothers with no way of providing clothes for their children. The WRO has concentrated on trying to obtain federal funds from local Boards of Education. Five years ago congress passed Title I, a bill designed to put funds into the educational budget for the use of welfare and low income children. The money was primarily intended for school clothing and lunches. Instead these funds have been used to subsidize a drum and bugle corp in one state, gym programs, swimming pools. The Welfare Rights Organization wants $100 per year per child for school clothing from Title I money. They tried legal ways: demonstrations at City Hall, appeals to the mayor's office and meetings with the Board of Education. Then they decided more direct action was needed. With the weather getting colder there wasn't any time left for administrative bullshit. Five hundred mothers signed up to participate in "shop-ins". Two days later Macy's was hit. Questions To Be Raised Women in Cambridge, Mass. and Washington, D.C. have written to us about their plans around participation in the Revolutionary Peoples Constitutional Convention. Both groups had made lists of topics they felt would be important for women's workshops to deal with. We feel that these questions will need to be dealt with again and that they relate to our ongoing struggle. We don't see answers at this time; we expect there will be more questions raised. (from Cambridge): relationship of the women's movement to third world movements What does Third World leadership mean? Do we accept the concept? How do we deal with the questions concerning leadership that have come out of the women's movement in relationship to the concept of leadership put forth by the Panthers? What does a new constitution mean? a vision of a new society, demands, programs that immediately serve the people Does a political program for the women's movement make sense? (what is a political program, what kind have we and should we develop) What does it mean to develop anti-racist politics in the women's movement? what has been and should be our relationship to Black women? How does the present women's movement deal with the questions posed by the Gay Movement? (from Washington) What skills we need to have and how we can learn them (such as automechanics, electronics, self-defense, etc) Women's media development - films, radio, photography, publications, etc. Women's culture - art, music, poetry, theatre Feminist liberation of new generations: infant and child care, schools, adult chauvinism, sex-role programming, etc. The politics of health projects and women's health care [hand drawing] SELF-PORTRAIT I V. KENT Forward from Earth Day--how to bring revolutionary women's consciousness to the ecological crisis (population control as imperialist, consumerism, life-style changes, etc) Women's projects around racism - how do sexism and racism relate? what would be a new women's way to relate to the black and brown struggles at home? Women's projects around imperialism - how to sexism and imperialism relate? what would be a new woman's focus on the Vietnam war and support for the Vietnamese struggle? how can we concretely express solidarity with Third World women? Within all our work, we are also struggling with some general questions: Collectives -- living, working, present, future - you know, everything Sister love - female state, lesbian nation, feminist life force - conceptions of our future Defense and Support of New institutions -- self defense, financial sustinence, etc. Change in N.Y. Women's Center Announcement of the October 15th meeting at the New York City Women's Center. Previously it had been decided to keep the NYC Women's Center open with a loose structure so that women of widely varying affiliations and politics within the movement could meet and exchange ideas freely. The October 15th meeting dealt with just what groups were in the movement and in what ways individuals and groups should use the center. Motions passed at the meeting included: 1) No women running for political office or actively and publicly engaged in campaigning for another person seeking political office within this system can serve on the steering, speakers, forum, fund raising, financial or literature collectives of the center. 2) No organized political party or subdivision seeking power within this system (by election) or representation or publication of such a party can use the name of the W.L. center in any way that implies identification of the party organization or individual with the Center. Any breach of this rule will be met with public repudiation by the Center. 3) No member of the SWP-YSA or any party set up or controlled by the SWP can serve on any collective connected with running the center. For a copy of the minutes of this meeting write to: Women's Liberation Center of New York City 36 West 22nd St. New York, N.Y. 10010 A WOMAN? DECEMBER 11, 1970 5