Radical Women

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Radical Women (RW) is a 1967 founded, socialist , feminist grassroots activist organization , the radical voice within the feminism movement and feminist voice within the political left has and women formed to guide people in movements for social and economic justice to be. It has offices in both the US and Melbourne , Australia .

history

Radical Women originated in Seattle , Washington , from a "Free University" seminar for women and society conducted by Gloria Martin , a communist and civil rights activist . As a result of the seminar, Martin teamed up with Clara Fraser and Melba Windoffer , founders of the Freedom Socialist Party, and Susan Stern , a figure from the local Students for a Democratic Society , to found Radical Women in 1967.

In Socialist Feminism: The First Decade, 1966-76 , Martin writes that this new group was formed to “demonstrate that women become politically active, learn and teach theories, run an organization, develop down-to-earth leadership, and raise awareness of the movement and the community can focus on the painfully neglected abuses of women's rights - and that women can do this themselves. "

From the beginning, Radical Women was heavily involved in the Vietnam War Prostests and also opposed subsequent wars, interventions and occupations launched by Western countries .

The members worked with African American women from poverty reduction programs to launch the Washington State abortion rights movement in a historic 1969 march to the Capitol.

Early in 1970, RW helped organize a strike and union for underpaid workers (mostly women and people of color) at the University of Washington . Many RW members were pioneers in the non-traditional industry. At Seattle's public utility, Seattle City Light , Clara Fraser developed the country's first applied plan to train women to become nonprofit electricians. For these efforts and her prominent role in a mass strike at the power company, Fraser was fired. She fought it in court for seven years, until she was finally confirmed the right to freedom of expression at work and she was reinstated at City Light.

After working closely with the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), RW and the FSP formally merged in 1973 on the basis of a joint socialist-feminist program.

Purpose and ideology

In The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure , the purpose and ideology of Radical Women is defined as follows:

“Radical Women is dedicated to exposing, resisting, and eliminating the inequities of women's existence. To accomplish this task of insuring survival for an entire sex, we must simultaneously address ourselves to the social and material source of sexism: the capitalist form of production and distribution of products, characterized by intrinsic class, race, sex, and caste oppression. When we work for the revolutionary transformation of capitalism into a socialist society, we work for a world in which all people may enjoy the right of full humanity and freedom from poverty, war, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and repression. ”

“Radical Women is dedicated to exposing, resisting, and eliminating the injustices of the existence of women. To accomplish this task for the survival of an entire gender, we must simultaneously address the social and material source of sexism : the capitalist form of production and distribution of products marked by intrinsic class, racial, gender and caste oppression. If we work for the revolutionary transformation of the capitalist into a socialist society, we are working for a world in which all people can enjoy the right of perfect humanity and freedom from poverty, war, racism, sexism, homophobia , anti-Semitism and repression . "

Radical Women calls for a multiracial, proletarian and anti-capitalist approach for the liberation of women. The group pays attention to the leadership of colored women and lesbians in movements for social change and calls for solidarity and common help from all oppressed.

RW mobilizes protests against attacks by the political right against freedom of reproduction. She calls for free abortion as desired and an end to the forced sterilization of women of color and affordable, high-quality 24-hour child care.

RW persistently urges the forging of alliances and united fronts, including efforts such as the Action Childcare Coalition , the Feminist Coordinating Council (an umbrella organization made up of the full spectrum of Seattle women's rights groups), and the Coalition for Protective Legislation (one under the impression of the Equal Rights Amendments submitted by Washington State , proletarian and feminist effort to expand work security measures designed for women to also apply to men).

RW constantly supported the front role of colored women, fought against racism among feminist activists and spoke out against sexism in movements for colored people. In its early years, Seattle Radical Women worked closely with the local branch of the Black Panther Party . in the 1970s, members took part in mass civil disobedience events organized by the United Construction Workers Association to break the "color line" in all-white construction. They defended Chicana activist Rosa Morales , a victim of a sexist dismissal from her post as clerk for Chicano studies at the University of Washington. RW worked closely with Native American activists Janet McCloud and Ramona Bennett and participated in the successful acquisition of the Puyallup tribe of the Cascadia Juvenile Center , a former Native American hospital. The group calls for consenting acts, ethnic studies, justice for immigrants and an end to police violence.

RW played a leadership role in the effort for the freedom movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people . Members helped set up militant lesbian and gay rights organizations and have been involved in many coalitions dedicated to preventing forced HIV testing, destroying ballot boxes for gay rights votes, and lobbying for gay rights legislation , among other things . In the 1980s, RW leader Merle Woo , a lecturer, writer, and Asian lesbian rights spokesperson, triumphed against the University of California at Berkeley in two major employee cases suing racist, sexist, and political ideology.

RW encourages its members to become union militants, and some have been important members of workers' councils in counties in San Francisco and Seattle for many years . RW sees the mass entry of women into employment as a matter of profound importance. RW believes that women, along with colored people, lesbians and gays are the overwhelming majority of workers and have the potential to revolutionize society.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A bibliography of Socialist Feminism . Center for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech . Contains the works of Gloria Martin and Clara Fraser.
  2. ↑ Gloria Martin, 1916-1995: Feminist Pioneer and Unabashed Lifelong Socialist (Obituary issued by RW and the Freedom Socialist Party.)
  3. ↑ Clara Fraser, 1923-1998: American rebel and architect of socialist feminism ( Memento of May 24, 1998 in the Internet Archive ), Socialism.com.
  4. ^ Gloria Martin, Socialist Feminism: The First Decade, 1966-76 , Red Letter Press. ISBN 0-932323-00-6 . [1]
  5. ^ Marilyn Ward recalls the campaign to reform Washington's abortion law . HistoryLink.org.
  6. ^ Nicole Grant, "Challenging Sexism at City Light," University of Washington, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.
  7. ^ The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure , Red Letter Press ISBN 0-932323-11-1 . [2]
  8. ^ United Construction Workers Association at Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington.
  9. ↑ Janet McCloud, 1934-2003: Indian activist put family first ( Memento August 10, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) in the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington.
  10. ^ Ramona Bennett at Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington.
  11. ^ Don Poulson, "Seattle's Gay History: Jamma Phi (1959-1963): Seattle's first Gay Organization. ( Memento of June 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Seattle Gay News.