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

1971-02-19 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 7

OURTH WORLD MANIFESTO

the interest in getting WL involved at this point is let out with incredible paternalism (so that one would almost have thought that a man had written the leaflet) just before this statement, and even earlier in the leaflet. If you aren't raging mad at this point - the worst is yet to come. The "anti-imperialist" women make this statement in the leaflet.
  "Discussion followed concerning the level of anti-imperialist consciousness within the Women's Liberation Movement in the various cities represented. It was evident that although there was both a [underline] high degree of women's consciousness [/underline] and of anti-imperialist consciousness in various parts of the Movement, the relation between the two has not been made clear to most women in the Movement." p. 3 (emphasis - author)
   It was condescendingly kind of these women to say that there is, though only in various parts of the Women's Movement, a high degree of Women's consciousness as well as some consciousness about imperialism. But the two will have to be made clear to us - all of us shuffling dumb females.
  The point that the "anti-imperialist" women don't have the foggiest idea of is that we KNOW WHAT IMPERIALISM IS IN OUR GUTS. We have never had self-determination as women and what's more we know it. And that's what imperialism is all about.
   The Vietnamese women made it clear what they wanted and who they wanted to attend the Conference. We have shown how the planning sessions and projected Conference participants were not representative of the Women's Liberation Movement. Although the Vietnamese women wanted a Conference with Women's Liberation to find out more about the North American Women's Movement, the "anti-imperialist" women had other ideas about what the Conference should be. They decided that the Conference could be used to "educate" the Women's Movement about imperialism. They set about this in a very imperialistic fashion and in a most paternalistic manner.........
What is remarkable about this leaflet is the "anti-imperialist" women's lack of concern - their chauvinist disregard - of the Women's Movements' in Third World countries, such as Vietnam. There is not even a hint - not one word -that the Women's Movements' in Indochina might be a concern to Women's Liberation in this country or that they might be of interest to "anti-imperialist" women.
   All the leaflet describes is an attempt to "raise" the anti-imperialist consciousness (which in their definition is distinct from women's consciousness) of Women's Liberation about the Indochinese struggle.
   The only connection made is where they report that the Vietnamese women want to meet with the Women's Liberation Movement to learn what is happening in the Women's Movement in North America. And presumably, to the Vietnamese women, and autonomous WL women, this means an exchange of information and ideas on the common problems of oppression and resistance to such oppression which we share as women.
   But throughout the entire leaflet the "anti-imperialist" women ignore the very clear implications of the desire of Vietnamese women to meet with North American Women's Liberation. In fact, as we have shown, they disregard the Vietnamese women's wishes - as to true representation of Women's Liberation and as to what they have decided their planning conferences will do "for" Women's Liberation's "consciousness".
   But the Vietnamese women, being closer to their own feelings, are much more sensitive than are the "anti-imperialist" women to the connections between Women's Movements' all over the world and the common bond of oppression which all women share. What the Vietnamese women see as an important indigenous Movement for freedom (the Women's Liberation Movement) which has deep connections with their own fight for freedom as a nation and particularly as women, the "anti-imperialist" American women only regard in this leaflet as a ready made tool for "educating" women on anti-imperialism.......That the Vietnamese women, who are in the midst of a most hideous genocidal war being waged against them by the U.S., can see the importance of the women's freedom struggle and wish to know more about the Women's Liberation Movement in North America, should begin to open the eyes of the "anti-imperialist" women.

...A larger number of women were to be involved in the planning of the Conference than would go to the actual Conference (p.3). This was perhaps seen as a way of "educating" the Women's Movement but not of having them embarassingly represented in the actual meetings with the Indochinese women.
   But if there is still any doubt in your mind as to what the planning conferences that the "anti-imperialist" women are setting up (to "prepare" for the Indochinese and North American "women's" conference) are really all about this final quote from page 4 and 5 of the leaflet may convince you.
  "160 women in "WL" in each region (three general regions) would be able to attend, [underline] our primary focus should not be on the Conference itself[/underline], but on the processes surrounding it. [underline] The direct goal would be to develop a program of activities building toward the Conference [/underline] which would [underline] involve the entire Women's Liberation Movement [/underline] in the [underline] planning [/underline] process and which would [underline]raise the anti-imperialist consciousness of the WL movement. [/underline]"   p.4&5 (emphasis - author)

   Then follows an outline of a program of how to do this beginning with contacting Women's Liberation to attend the "planning" conference in Buffalo.
But the "anti-imperialist" remain blind to the implications of the Vietnamese women's interest in Women's Liberation because it does not fit in with "their" (male Left imposed) view of the "relative importance" of the "anti-imperialist" (as the define it) and women's struggles for Liberation.
  In an interview printed in the "Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement" (August '68), a Vietnamese woman, Mrs. Than Van Pham said: "It is a long process of struggle. We are struggling to win effectively  that right to be equal with men; it cannot come naturally. If you don't work, if you don't struggle, men will never recognize this equality with us. They always want to be superior to us; they have always been used to it. We have known so many centuries of oppression by men and by foreign invaders"....
   And who would pay for the Conference? "Cost for the Conference is estimated at $10,000 dollars which U.S. Women's Liberation and WSP have taken responsibility for..." p.3
   It then states that "the Washington women have agreed to devote the December 17th issue of "Off Our Backs" to questions of women and imperialism leading toward the December 20th Celebration." p. 5
   The plans for the use of the Women's Liberation Movement to "raise their consciousness" in the "planning" process of a Conference which is supposed to be between Women's Liberation and Vietnamese women but whose WL representation has been determined (unfavorably for WL) by "anti-imperialist" women (who make it clear they are not a part of the autonomous Women's Movement) is too strange to believe - if we didn't have proof of it right here before us in their 6 page organizing leaflet..................
........................Women who still are acting for the Left male invisible audience but who now form women's collectives to organize women in relation to the priorities set up by a male Left are little more independent than they were working with the males. They are somewhere between fear and open rebellion. They fear to work on their own definition of women and women's issues and so still relate primarily to the invisible audience of "male heavies". 
    What a difference it would make - in terms of male approval - in the women working in "anti-imperialist" collectives or on "anti-imperialist" issues were working on their own women's issues. If they themselves developed a perspective on how women are a colonized group in relation to men all over the world, in all classes and races, including the Third World. With that perspective they would no longer be a part of the male Left. But it doesn't even seem to occur to the "anti-imperialist" women that the male definition of imperialism may be extended and perhaps truly was originally applicable to women.
   The "anti-imperialist" women are trying to get women to work on "anti-imperialist" issues in a certain way they are defined by the male Left. We quote an article describing the last planning meeting that was held in Baltimore (Oct. 24-25). "In order to spread the word about the Conferences (planning) more widely and to get women involved in anti-war activities, a series of actions are being planned as part of a whole anti-imperialist offensive of women." (from "Battle Acts" published by Women of Youth Against War and Fascism)
  It's one thing to be against the Vietnam War and all wars and quite another for a group of women to try to draw women working in their own Movement away from it into the male dominated very narrowly defined anti-war and anti-imperialist Movements. The same mistake happened at one point (there's always something more "important" than female liberation) when a large segment of the earlier Feminist Movement went into Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and fizzled out as a threatening force in the society.
   The demand for an end to sex roles and male imperialist domination is a real attack on the masculine citadel of war. Alfter all women don't declare or fight in offensive wars. War is a male instiution - as are all other institutions in the society - and war is simply an extension of the colonial policy of the subjection of the female culture and "weaker" male cultures i.e. "weaker" national cultures. Women, who have nothing to say about running the country or fighting in the war will never end war except by attacking and ending male domination and the sex roles where men learn their war-mentality. The women who went into WILPF took the safest and therefore totally ineffective and reactionary (for women) way out. They opted to reinforce the split between male and female and to use their "feminine myths" to act as adjuncts to the male Peace Movement and claim that women's voice was needed (in the same old role of course) to save men from themselves -  their own self-imposed slaughter. The oppressed are going to "save" with their oppressed "virtues" (defined by males and unsifted and unquestioned) their own oppressors.
  The anti-imperialist women, in a new refrain to an old song are in essence asking that women in the independent Women's Movement to focus their energies on "anti-imperialism" as the male Left defines it. This is like asking the Women's Movement to move from a position of independence to a position of subservience to the male dominated Left. 
   But the Women's Liberation Movement started out from the Civil Rights Freedom Movement, Student Movement and Anti-War Movement, Women got the notion working in these movements that the idea of freedom should apply to women too. But the males in these movements never intended the freedom struggle to extend to women. It is still too subversive an idea for any of these movements to tolerate on any real level. So many women who got the freedom bug too bad left to relate to women in a Female Movement.
   And just as the freedom and anti-war struggle never applied to women so neither does the present Left anti-imperialist movement. Is there [underline]any[/underline] analysis about imperialism against women? Is there any recognition in writing or action that women are a colonized group - brutality exploited by their colonizers -men - and that this is a primary fact of women's existence? No. And this kind of analysis will never happen in the male dominated Left or its periphery because males are the colonizers. And the colonizer has never yet defined his privileges out of existence - only the colonized will.
   The male Left has absolutely no interest in a female revolution. Rather, the male Left has a direct interest in perpetuating the status quo i.e. male privileges, and preventing any real threats [underline] to male supremacy from both within the Left and without it.[/underline]
P.S. We also suggest to women that they do not go to the planning meetings for the Conference but that all autonomous women who can make it go to the Conference to talk to the Vietnamese women without invitation from the "anti-imperialist" women.
The reason we suggest not going to the planning meetings is so women will continue to work on our priorities - women. 
The actual conferences with the Indochinese women are planned for March 24th thru April 7th, 1971. There are 3 planned - in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. We suggest women contact other women in their area to make arrangements to go to the conference closest to them. We need a lot of independent Women's Liberation women to go to the conference.

A Woman?   Feb. 19, 1971   7.

Saving...

OURTH WORLD MANIFESTO the interest in getting WL involved at this point is let out with incredible paternalism (so that one would almost have thought that a man had written the leaflet) just before this statement, and even earlier in the leaflet. If you aren't raging mad at this point - the worst is yet to come. The "anti-imperialist" women make this statement in the leaflet. "Discussion followed concerning the level of anti-imperialist consciousness within the Women's Liberation Movement in the various cities represented. It was evident that although there was both a [underline] high degree of women's consciousness [/underline] and of anti-imperialist consciousness in various parts of the Movement, the relation between the two has not been made clear to most women in the Movement." p. 3 (emphasis - author) It was condescendingly kind of these women to say that there is, though only in various parts of the Women's Movement, a high degree of Women's consciousness as well as some consciousness about imperialism. But the two will have to be made clear to us - all of us shuffling dumb females. The point that the "anti-imperialist" women don't have the foggiest idea of is that we KNOW WHAT IMPERIALISM IS IN OUR GUTS. We have never had self-determination as women and what's more we know it. And that's what imperialism is all about. The Vietnamese women made it clear what they wanted and who they wanted to attend the Conference. We have shown how the planning sessions and projected Conference participants were not representative of the Women's Liberation Movement. Although the Vietnamese women wanted a Conference with Women's Liberation to find out more about the North American Women's Movement, the "anti-imperialist" women had other ideas about what the Conference should be. They decided that the Conference could be used to "educate" the Women's Movement about imperialism. They set about this in a very imperialistic fashion and in a most paternalistic manner......... What is remarkable about this leaflet is the "anti-imperialist" women's lack of concern - their chauvinist disregard - of the Women's Movements' in Third World countries, such as Vietnam. There is not even a hint - not one word -that the Women's Movements' in Indochina might be a concern to Women's Liberation in this country or that they might be of interest to "anti-imperialist" women. All the leaflet describes is an attempt to "raise" the anti-imperialist consciousness (which in their definition is distinct from women's consciousness) of Women's Liberation about the Indochinese struggle. The only connection made is where they report that the Vietnamese women want to meet with the Women's Liberation Movement to learn what is happening in the Women's Movement in North America. And presumably, to the Vietnamese women, and autonomous WL women, this means an exchange of information and ideas on the common problems of oppression and resistance to such oppression which we share as women. But throughout the entire leaflet the "anti-imperialist" women ignore the very clear implications of the desire of Vietnamese women to meet with North American Women's Liberation. In fact, as we have shown, they disregard the Vietnamese women's wishes - as to true representation of Women's Liberation and as to what they have decided their planning conferences will do "for" Women's Liberation's "consciousness". But the Vietnamese women, being closer to their own feelings, are much more sensitive than are the "anti-imperialist" women to the connections between Women's Movements' all over the world and the common bond of oppression which all women share. What the Vietnamese women see as an important indigenous Movement for freedom (the Women's Liberation Movement) which has deep connections with their own fight for freedom as a nation and particularly as women, the "anti-imperialist" American women only regard in this leaflet as a ready made tool for "educating" women on anti-imperialism.......That the Vietnamese women, who are in the midst of a most hideous genocidal war being waged against them by the U.S., can see the importance of the women's freedom struggle and wish to know more about the Women's Liberation Movement in North America, should begin to open the eyes of the "anti-imperialist" women. ...A larger number of women were to be involved in the planning of the Conference than would go to the actual Conference (p.3). This was perhaps seen as a way of "educating" the Women's Movement but not of having them embarassingly represented in the actual meetings with the Indochinese women. But if there is still any doubt in your mind as to what the planning conferences that the "anti-imperialist" women are setting up (to "prepare" for the Indochinese and North American "women's" conference) are really all about this final quote from page 4 and 5 of the leaflet may convince you. "160 women in "WL" in each region (three general regions) would be able to attend, [underline] our primary focus should not be on the Conference itself[/underline], but on the processes surrounding it. [underline] The direct goal would be to develop a program of activities building toward the Conference [/underline] which would [underline] involve the entire Women's Liberation Movement [/underline] in the [underline] planning [/underline] process and which would [underline]raise the anti-imperialist consciousness of the WL movement. [/underline]" p.4&5 (emphasis - author) Then follows an outline of a program of how to do this beginning with contacting Women's Liberation to attend the "planning" conference in Buffalo. But the "anti-imperialist" remain blind to the implications of the Vietnamese women's interest in Women's Liberation because it does not fit in with "their" (male Left imposed) view of the "relative importance" of the "anti-imperialist" (as the define it) and women's struggles for Liberation. In an interview printed in the "Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement" (August '68), a Vietnamese woman, Mrs. Than Van Pham said: "It is a long process of struggle. We are struggling to win effectively that right to be equal with men; it cannot come naturally. If you don't work, if you don't struggle, men will never recognize this equality with us. They always want to be superior to us; they have always been used to it. We have known so many centuries of oppression by men and by foreign invaders".... And who would pay for the Conference? "Cost for the Conference is estimated at $10,000 dollars which U.S. Women's Liberation and WSP have taken responsibility for..." p.3 It then states that "the Washington women have agreed to devote the December 17th issue of "Off Our Backs" to questions of women and imperialism leading toward the December 20th Celebration." p. 5 The plans for the use of the Women's Liberation Movement to "raise their consciousness" in the "planning" process of a Conference which is supposed to be between Women's Liberation and Vietnamese women but whose WL representation has been determined (unfavorably for WL) by "anti-imperialist" women (who make it clear they are not a part of the autonomous Women's Movement) is too strange to believe - if we didn't have proof of it right here before us in their 6 page organizing leaflet.................. ........................Women who still are acting for the Left male invisible audience but who now form women's collectives to organize women in relation to the priorities set up by a male Left are little more independent than they were working with the males. They are somewhere between fear and open rebellion. They fear to work on their own definition of women and women's issues and so still relate primarily to the invisible audience of "male heavies". What a difference it would make - in terms of male approval - in the women working in "anti-imperialist" collectives or on "anti-imperialist" issues were working on their own women's issues. If they themselves developed a perspective on how women are a colonized group in relation to men all over the world, in all classes and races, including the Third World. With that perspective they would no longer be a part of the male Left. But it doesn't even seem to occur to the "anti-imperialist" women that the male definition of imperialism may be extended and perhaps truly was originally applicable to women. The "anti-imperialist" women are trying to get women to work on "anti-imperialist" issues in a certain way they are defined by the male Left. We quote an article describing the last planning meeting that was held in Baltimore (Oct. 24-25). "In order to spread the word about the Conferences (planning) more widely and to get women involved in anti-war activities, a series of actions are being planned as part of a whole anti-imperialist offensive of women." (from "Battle Acts" published by Women of Youth Against War and Fascism) It's one thing to be against the Vietnam War and all wars and quite another for a group of women to try to draw women working in their own Movement away from it into the male dominated very narrowly defined anti-war and anti-imperialist Movements. The same mistake happened at one point (there's always something more "important" than female liberation) when a large segment of the earlier Feminist Movement went into Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and fizzled out as a threatening force in the society. The demand for an end to sex roles and male imperialist domination is a real attack on the masculine citadel of war. Alfter all women don't declare or fight in offensive wars. War is a male instiution - as are all other institutions in the society - and war is simply an extension of the colonial policy of the subjection of the female culture and "weaker" male cultures i.e. "weaker" national cultures. Women, who have nothing to say about running the country or fighting in the war will never end war except by attacking and ending male domination and the sex roles where men learn their war-mentality. The women who went into WILPF took the safest and therefore totally ineffective and reactionary (for women) way out. They opted to reinforce the split between male and female and to use their "feminine myths" to act as adjuncts to the male Peace Movement and claim that women's voice was needed (in the same old role of course) to save men from themselves - their own self-imposed slaughter. The oppressed are going to "save" with their oppressed "virtues" (defined by males and unsifted and unquestioned) their own oppressors. The anti-imperialist women, in a new refrain to an old song are in essence asking that women in the independent Women's Movement to focus their energies on "anti-imperialism" as the male Left defines it. This is like asking the Women's Movement to move from a position of independence to a position of subservience to the male dominated Left. But the Women's Liberation Movement started out from the Civil Rights Freedom Movement, Student Movement and Anti-War Movement, Women got the notion working in these movements that the idea of freedom should apply to women too. But the males in these movements never intended the freedom struggle to extend to women. It is still too subversive an idea for any of these movements to tolerate on any real level. So many women who got the freedom bug too bad left to relate to women in a Female Movement. And just as the freedom and anti-war struggle never applied to women so neither does the present Left anti-imperialist movement. Is there [underline]any[/underline] analysis about imperialism against women? Is there any recognition in writing or action that women are a colonized group - brutality exploited by their colonizers -men - and that this is a primary fact of women's existence? No. And this kind of analysis will never happen in the male dominated Left or its periphery because males are the colonizers. And the colonizer has never yet defined his privileges out of existence - only the colonized will. The male Left has absolutely no interest in a female revolution. Rather, the male Left has a direct interest in perpetuating the status quo i.e. male privileges, and preventing any real threats [underline] to male supremacy from both within the Left and without it.[/underline] P.S. We also suggest to women that they do not go to the planning meetings for the Conference but that all autonomous women who can make it go to the Conference to talk to the Vietnamese women without invitation from the "anti-imperialist" women. The reason we suggest not going to the planning meetings is so women will continue to work on our priorities - women. The actual conferences with the Indochinese women are planned for March 24th thru April 7th, 1971. There are 3 planned - in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. We suggest women contact other women in their area to make arrangements to go to the conference closest to them. We need a lot of independent Women's Liberation women to go to the conference. A Woman? Feb. 19, 1971 7.