VOL. XVIII SPRING 1991 $2.95 DIALOGUE WITH ELIE WIESE• L NEW POLAND,OLD PROBLEMS I 1 •1* • i____ii^*j__djB

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• Send me. . posters ($4.00 each) and a free catalog. • I do not wish to order posters now; enclosed is $2.00 Shipping & Handling: for the complete catalog with pictures of over 90 posters. I enclose a list of posters ordered and payment: Up to $12.50 $3.00 The catalog includes information on sets, Number of posters. . x $4.00 = $. quantity discounts, and an index of special topics $12.51 to $100.00 $5.00 Plus shipping and handling _ such as Black Women, Native American Women, $100.01 to $1,000.00. . . 5% TOTAL ENCLOSED $. Women with Disabilities, etc. Name. Phone( ) Institution. Address City State Zip Note: Because we prefer to ship via UPS when possible, we need a street address rather than post office box number. Check or money order payable to OEES (U.S. funds only). MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO OEES. MAIL TO OEES, 808 UNION STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11215. PHONE (718) 783-0332 THE MAGAZINE OF SUBSTANCE FOR PROGRESSIVE WOMEN VOL. XVIII SPRING 1991 Vihere was foe church \ PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Merle Hoffman MANAGING EDITOR when HiHef was Beverly Lowy ASSOCIATE EDITOR ^Vinnocen^ Eleanor J. Bader 7 ASSISTANT EDITOR Karen Aisenberg

EDITOR AT LARGE Phyllis Chesler

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Charlotte Bunch Vinie Burrows Naomi Feigelson Chase Irene Davall Toi Derricotte Roberta Kalechofsky Flo Kennedy Fred Pelka Helen M. Stummer ART DIRECTORS Michael Dowdy Contents Page: (above) Prochoice Julia Gran activists make their statement outside ADVERTISING AND SALES MH ON THE ISSUES: A Dialogue CHOICES during Bishop Daily's prayer DIRECTOR Between On the Issues publisher Merle vigil of 1,000. (Photo: NY Daily Carolyn Handel Hoffman and Nobel Prize winner Elie News) See p. 6 Wiesel 6 Cover: A porter's wife, 26, a victim ON THE ISSUES: A feminist, humanist NEW POLAND, OLD PROBLEMS of starvation through oppression. publication dedicated to promoting politi- By Susan Cahn Poland, 1937. (Photo: Roman cal action through awareness and educa- A firsthand look at still-flourishing Vishniac, A Vanished World*) tion; working toward a global political consciousness; fostering a spirit of collec- anti-Semitism 13 tive responsibility for positive social MOTHERS ON THE RUN AND change; eradicating racism, homophobia, WOMEN AND DOGS OTHER ATROCITIES...Scenes classism, sexism, ageism, speciesism; and By E. M. Broner From Sweden, 1990 supporting the struggle of historically Animals teach us to unleash By Phyllis Chesler 23 disenfranchised groups to protect and affection 16 defend themselves. THE STRANGE CASE OF POPULATION CONTROL—OUT MARK CURTIS: VICTIM OR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS OF CONTROL? All unsolicited material will be read by the editors. For VICTIMIZER? return, enclose self-addressed, stamped envelope with By Eleanor J. Bader By Fred Pelka proper postage. Articles should be not more than 10 double Feminists and environmentalists spaced, typewritten pages on health, social or political Was convicted rapist Curtis framed? 24 issues by people with hands -on experience in their fields. confront the escalating population Professional papers ar*e acceptable. All editing decisions problem 18 FAY STENDER AND THE are at the discretion of the editors. Feminist cartoons are also acceptable under the same provisions. POLITICS OF MURDER ON THE ISSUES does not accept fiction or poetry. THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE By Diana E. H. Russell CRADLE CAN ALSO ROCK THE Advertising is accepted at the discretion of the publisher. Fay Stender's murder: Was it a political Acceptance does not necessarily imply endorsement BOAT or a personal act? 28 By Irene Davall PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The opinions expressed by contributors to our publication and by those we How prochoice activists turned around DEPARTMENTS interview are not necessarily those of the editors. the Dayton Foundation 21 ON THE ISSUES is traditionally a forum for ideas and concepts and a place where women may have Win Some*Lose Some 2 GEEZ, ARE WE REALLY their voices heard without censure or censorship. Choice Books 31 THAT BAD? ON THE ISSUES is published quarterly as an in- By Junior Bridge Film & Video 35 formational and educational service of CHOICES 36 Women's Medical Center, Inc. 97-77 Queens Boule- Women in the media — nearly Recordings vard, Forest Hills, NY 11374-3317 ISSN 0895-G014 invisible 22 Feedback 44

• A VANISHED WORLD IS PUBLISHED BY FARRAR. STRAUS & GIROUX COPYRIGHT 1 983 A Compiled Adaptation of News Items WIN SOME • LOSE SOME with Editorial Commentary by Beverly Lowy

GAY BASHING: the past decade to an anti-gay units and groups concerned Part of the reason for the UNENDING AND murderer. Many experts say with the issue...But in places dramatic increase in recent UBIQUITOUS the murders are among the like Indianapolis, anti-gay years is the increased willing- Thomas J. Maier in NY most bloody examples of a violence...gets lumped in with ness of some homosexuals to Ne wsday s Magazine: Violence trend nationwide — the dra- general assaults." Nationally, make their sexual preferences against homosexual men and matically increasing level of more than 7,000 acts of anti- public. "As a general proposi- women is a growing problem attacks, harassment and other gay bias — ranging from ver- tion, violence against lesbians not only in America's huge crimes against those believed bal harassment to violence — and gay men has increased in metropolises but also in small to be gay. were reported, Vaid's group proportion to the level of vis- towns, cities and outlying "We're only beginning to says. Of those, 15 percent in- ibility," Vaid says. neighborhoods. learn what is happening in the volved mention of AIDS. For In Indianapolis last summer, small towns and about the level those who felt threatened by There is little doubt that the homosexual men began carry- of violence to gays," says the disease, beating up homo- religious and social taboos ing guns to bars after police Urvashi Vaid, executive direc- sexuals somehow became so- against homosexuals in attributed the killing of 11 tor of the National Gay & Les- cially acceptable, the modern- American society has abetted young men with ties to the bian Task Force. "In cities like day equivalent of stoning lep- the violence against gays. Oh, homosexual community over New York, there are bias police ers. when will we ever learn?

SUCH BIG, BRAVE dealt with," said Sam Cottrell, HUNTERS! a state game ranger for 24 An AP news dispatch: Fish years. "You can't even call it a and game agents have raided hunt." a game preserve where hunt- Mr. Cottrell said the hunt- ers paid up to $4,000 to stalk ers paid $1,000 to $4,000 to and kill bears and cougars in a shoot down the animals, and fenced area the size of a foot- left their names, addresses and ball field, the authorities say. pictures of themselves with The officials said the 200 to their kills, information the 300 animals killed in the authorities are pursuing. shooting sprees at the game The preserve bought grizzly preserve had been raised in and black bears, cougars captivity. and elk from zoos, preserves "This wasn't hunting; it was and at auctions, Mr. Cottrell target practice," said Herb said. Hill, who manages the 160- acre Texoma Hunting Wilder- And since those innocent ani- ness in southeastern Okla- mals were used to human ani- homa and who reported the mals, they didn't even know hunts. enough to run. We'd like to More than two dozen agents send all those "hunters" into raided the refuge on Oct. 10. the jungle armed only with "Dealing with animals—this stones. Let's make this a fair is the worst thing I've ever contest!

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 SHARPER THAN A digenous to any particular SERPENT'S TOOTH segment of society, elder abuse Alfred Lubrano, NY Daily occurs among all ethnic and News Queens Section: How socio-economic groups. could an adult child treat an The overwhelming majority elderly parent brutally, then of abusers are relatives and "steal" the parent's house? adult children, Hershberg "It's a terrible thing to say," says. Often, the elderly vic- explains Rose Hershberg of the tims allow the abuse to go on New York City Department of because they are reluctant to Aging, "but you can't always turn in a son or daughter to trust your children." authorities. Abuse of the elderly is on the Elderly victims allow them- increase, according to experts. selves to be hurt again and In Queens, NY it is estimated again. Because they are so that some 12,000 elderly — dependent on others for food, mostly women over the age of shelter, or transportation, 75 — are abused each year. they dare not turn in the Social workers identify four people they need to help them categories of elder abuse: survive, experts say. Physical, financial, psycho- FREEDOM OF by a journal, a process that logical and neglect. In Queens, Add to that the "Where did I go INFORMATION FOR usually takes months. Re- Elder Abuse Project statistics wrong?" feeling of parents and WHOM? cently, for example, the Na- show nearly 37 percent of el- you have the perfect climate From a report by Gina Ko- tional Institute of Allergy and der abuse is physical. Not in- for elder abuse. lata, NY Times: In an attempt Infectious Diseases, a division to make it harder for the gov- of the N.I.H., didn't notify doc- ernment to conduct its busi- tors of a report advising that SHAME ON YOU, names of your eightchildren," ness in secret, Congress steroids can halve the death PARKER BROTHERS' and "Burn all your chocolate passed the Freedom of Infor- rate from an AIDS-related SISTERS! chip cookies." mation Act in 1966. Now, in pneumonia until the conclu- An AP dispatch: The head of Engeleiter said the game the age of AIDS, patients and sions were accepted five the U.S. Small Business Ad- shows an "insensitivity to their advocates say that the months later by the New En- ministration chided Parker modern realities in a society law could also be used to force gland Journal of Medicine. Brothers Inc. for showing "in- where women are making the government to release The Freedom of Information sensitivity to modern reali- breakthroughs in almost ev- manuscripts and research Act says that government ties" in a game that lists "su- ery profession...I'm amazed data before they are published studies are to be released to per mom" and schoolteacher that as we enter the 1990s, in medical journals. The re- anyone who requests them and as key careers for girls. the game doesn't include such sult has been a clash between that data not in the hands of "Parker Brothers is sending careers as business execu- scientists and patients over private contractors are to be the wrong message to young tives, government leaders, who owns the information given out But the N.I.H. has girls," SBA Administrator astronauts, scientists, or moms generated by government decided not to give out unpub- Susan Engeleiter said. "Even without the prefix 'super.'" sponsored studies. lished studies and tries its best Barbie dolls come with busi- Company spokeswoman Using the Freedom of Infor- to avoid releasing data. ness suits these days." Patricia McGovern stressed mation Act, advocates for Advocates for people with "Careers for Girls" is a newly the game is purely for enter- people infected with the AIDS AIDS say they are outraged by reintroduced board game tar- tainment and "is certainly not virus are trying to get unpub- this stance. "These data are in geted for girls ages 8-12. Play- to communicate that only cer- lished data from Federal the public domain," said Wil- ers select from six "careers": tain careers are limited to studies that they say include liam Rubenstein, a lawyer for Super mom, schoolteacher, women." The game was de- the cases of 300 women, by far the American Civil Liberties rock star, fashion designer, signed by a woman, art was the largest number ever par- Union. "They were paid for by college graduate and animal managed by a woman and the ticipating in clinical trials in- a public agency and the law doctor. product manager was a volving the disease. Before the says the public has access to Instructions for the game woman, McGovern said. government advises women the data. I don't see how the include, "Show us how you on drug treatment, the advo- government has a right to slow dance with your main For this type of entertainment, cates say, it should provide withhold them." squeeze," "Describe your No dice! Here's one game evidence that the treatment Joanne Belk, the acting dream husband," "Tell us the that should be called. works for women, who may Freedom of Information Offi- have different symptoms. But cer at the N.I.H., said: "We the National Institutes of really are trying to protect re- Health is just as determined searchers' draft manuscripts not to let people see papers before they are published. We before they appear in medical don't want to jeopardize their journals. chances of publication." Even when an agency thinks a result is too important to Is jeopardizing researchers' keep under wraps, it fre- chances of publication more quently will wait at least un- important than jeopardizing til the paper has been accepted our lives?

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 BLACKS: STTLL SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL From an article by Carlyle C. Douglas, NY Times: Not since such measurements began have Black Americans had lifespans the equal of whites. Now, in a devel- opment that has alarmed health experts, the life-ex- pectancy gap has begun to grow, primarily because Blacks began to die younger in the 1980s. In a study released in No- vember, the National Center for Health Statistics said the average Black infant born in 1988, the latest year for which statistics are available, could expect to live 69.2 years, down from 69.4 in 1987. All told since 1984, Black life ex- pectancy has shrunk by half a year, while it has increased among whites, from 75.3 years to 75.6 years. WHILE THE REAL homeless person as virtually into a two-story house in Ar- The gap is widest for Black HOMELESS anyone without a permanent lington appraised at $92,000. men, whose average life ex- GO UNHOUSED home, regardless of income, Robert Holton, a construc- pectancy fell from 65.2 From the Fort Worth Star- and the agency failed to set tion contractor, pays $348 in years in 1987 to 64.9, less Telegram .Texas businessmen limits on size and value of monthly rent for a four-bed- than retirement age, in 1988. and pastors are living in fash- houses. room, $85,500 house that he For Black women, life expect- ionable homes with Govern- These are among the ex- "thought would be adequate ancy dropped from 73.6 to ment-subsidized rents be- amples of abuse cited by the to house our furniture." 73.4. For white men, it rose cause of loopholes in Federal newspaper: "Obviously, these kinds of slightly to 72.3; for white guidelines for housing for the Roy Gray, a businessman abuses are unacceptable," said women it remained level at homeless. The Fort Worth and part-time street minister Walt Sevier, a regional deputy 78.9. Star-Telegram said that from Keller, rents a $92,500 administrator for the Depart- An unrelated study, report- people who have too much house in the Dallas suburb of ment of Housing and Urban ed in the International money to qualify for welfare, Rowlett for $1 a year. Development. "I don't want to Journal of Epidemiology, food stamps or other housing The net worth of Bill overreact, but that is simply found that Blacks, who ac- assistance qualified as home- Robinson's nonprofit company obscene." count for about 13 percent of less under a program intended will soon exceed $1 million, the population, account for for the poor. but the businessman and This is a definition of obscen- nearly 80 percent of prema- H.U.D. regulations define a Baptist minister has moved ity with which we agree. ture death — those occurring between the ages of 15 and 44 — from disorders such as VICTIM BLAMING, PAR The judge, who handled the appendicitis, asthma, bladder EXCELLENCE! woman's divorce case several infections and pneumonia From news dispatches: A con- years ago, said during that are normally not fatal if fessed rapist was a free man McCulloch's hearing, "Her treated early. after a central Florida judge past conduct has demon- The study noted that a ruled he needed some consid- strated to me there is some- disproportionate number of eration after getting involved thing seriously wrong with this Blacks are among the 37 with a "pitiful" woman. woman. I just have a hard million Americans who have Saying the 40-year-old time laying all the blame on no access to routine health woman was partly to blame him. I don't see how he could care services and therefore for the attack, Circuit Judge take up with her. She was tend to "postpone seeking Kenneth Leffler rejected a plea such a pitiful woman." primary care until their need agreement calling for Mark The outraged prosecutor said for treatment becomes Edward McCulloch to serve she would appeal. urgent." four and a half years in prison and 10 years' probation. He In this case, perhaps the judge And until we institute some ordered McCulloch, 36, freed should be doing some time as form of national health insur- from jail to serve two years' well. Maybe his consciousness ance, we will see this trend probation. would be raised a little. continue.

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 WE KNOW the trademark and copyrights callers heard when they di- calls him a "nigger drug MR. ROGERS NEVER that protect the show. aled an Independence, MO pusher." At the end of the tape, JOINED THE KLAN Mr. Rogers and Family Com- telephone number. They said the Klan lynches the youth. In From AP news dispatches: munications sued the men and the number had been widely a second tape, the Mr. Rogers Three men have agreed to the White Knights of the Ku circulated among schoolchil- impersonator ridicules homo- destroy recordings of racist Klux Klan in Federal District dren in the Kansas City area. sexuals and says, "AIDS was and anti-gay telephone mes- Court to stop the playing of the The number had been used divine retribution." sages that imitated the voice tape-recorded messages. earlier in 1990 to promote the The messages, said Cynthia and speech of "Mister Rogers" The three agreed to destroy philosophy of the Missouri E. Kernick, a lawyer for Mr. from the children's television the tapes and not use any ma- Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Rogers, "are of racism, white program. terials that imitate the show. The message imitated the supremacy and bigotry — the The men, Adam Troy Mer- The men said in their agree- sound effects and song of the antithesis of everything Rog- cer, Edward E. Stephens 4th ments that they were not Klan program and Mr. Roger's voice ers and Family Communica- and Michael Brooks, signed members. and speech patterns. On the ; tions Inc. stand for." agreements with Fred M. A group of religious, civil first tape, the Mr. Rogers im- Rogers and his Family Com- rights and community leaders personator points out a Black J Another fine example of the munications Inc., owners of denounced recordings that youngster on a playground and \ depths to which bigots sink.

POWER PLAY Sigma Chi, including a cam- From several sources: A fra- pus physician sporting a sign ternity party that featured a reading "Feel the power! Cas- poem describing seven wise trate Sigma Chi!" Dr. Amy men's vision of the perfect fe- Llewellyn said she was out- male sex organs and male stu- raged by the fraternity's skit, dents grabbing their genitals but that she was not advocat- and shouting "feel the power" ing "any literal interpretation" inspired outraged students and of the sign on her back. faculty at the University of The university suspended all New Mexico to display a little Sigma Chi activities. power themselves. An esti- mated 250 men and women We're still thinking about that demonstrated outside UNM's literal interpretation.

OF HOMELESSNESS, days work per month. Other BATTERING AND research shows that children CHILD ABUSE whose mothers are battered From various sources: Of 210 are physically abused or ne- homeless women interviewed glected 1,500 percent more in New York City, 21 percent than the national average. One indicated that abuse was the out of two American women primary reason for their will be in a violent relation- homelessness, according to the ship at least once. Victim Services Agency. An- other survey of 50 battered Just as frightening: Most of women showed that victims the abusive males will go un- TV VIEW OF WOMEN She said male television missed an average of three punished. ATHLETES commentators also regularly Gerald Secor Couzens in NY point out weaknesses in fe- Newsday: Television shapes male athletes while consis- the attitudes of society, but tently using strength descrip- when it comes to presenting tions for male athletes. Adult women to the public as fit and women athletes were often serious athletes, it has cer- referred to as "girls," while tainly failed, according to the adult males were called "men," president of the Amateur Ath- she added. letic Foundation. "The way TV covers women "In six weeks of TV sports in sports affects the way fe- news sampled for a study of male athletes are perceived," gender stereotyping, men's said DeFrantz. "And it also sports received 92 percent of tells us something about the air time and women's sports status of women in our soci- only five percent," said Anita ety." L. DeFrantz, speaking at Nike Women's Sports and Fitness We know about the status of Symposium. DeFrantz' orga- women in our society. We also nization, located in Los Ange- know the methods to bring les, commissioned the study. pressure to remedy it.

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 &A ON THE ISSUES "I Am Against Fanatics" A Dialogue Between Elie Wiesel and Merle Hoffman on Abortion, Love and the Holocaust

he first time I heard it was in women making private moral decisions the specter of Hitler's death camps Detroit in 1982. The words shot are compared to the wholesale slaughter abounds in terminology like m out at me like bullets, creating an of the Jews during the Second World "Abortoriums" and "Child Killing Cen- immediate mental image that War. Recently, an abortion clinic in ters." could not be shared. I had just Westchester was labelled "Auschwitz on These analogies are reinforced by radi- finished responding to Jerry the Hudson," while antiabortion protest- cal, right-wing Christian ideology which Falwell on national television. He had ors use Nazi insignias to make their points preaches that "money-hungry Jews" are asked me how I would feel "meeting my in front of clinics across the country. behind the abortion industry. Many times maker with the blood of thousands of Pseudoscientific books have been written patients have been accosted outside babies on my hands" when the TV host detailing Nazi experiments in concentra- Choices by the faithful screaming — turned to the audience for comments. tion camps and their supposed similari- "They're after blood money." If the pa- The woman who rose was obviously dis- ties to procedures in abortion clinics, while tient happens to be African-American she traught, her voice shaking. She relayed is told, 'Tou are desecrating the legacy of her own experience with abortion. The Elie Wiesel Dr. Martin Luther King." guilt still with her, the doctor's The power of this rhetoric, coldness, how "they" would backed by the hierarchy of the not let her see her child—and Catholic Church which gives then, extending her hand and financial and spiritual succor pointing an accusing finger at to participants in Operation me, she said "You — you are Rescue and other radical nothing but a Hitler to me". antiabortion groups, results in Throughout the years, as the clinic bombers stating that frustration, intensity and they plant bombs in clinics on rhetoric of the antichoice Christmas to "Give a present movement has grown, there to Jesus on His birthday." has been an ever-increasing This past June, the newly- tendency to liken abortion to seated Archbishop of Brook- the Holocaust. Individual lyn and Queens presented his

PHOTO: COURTESY ELIE WIESEL ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 ——mmmmmm——mm^mlmmmmmnnnmum^mm antiabortion strategy in front of Three young Jewish beys on their from food poisoning, yet still managed to CHOICES at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday secon3CVWIIdU UU]daT y oUfl Hebrew School in survive. For 10 years he lived in Paris, morning. Telling the press that his inten- Poland., 1938. worked, studied, starved and kept silent. tion was not violence but the desire to But his need for expression — to tell the pray for all the souls of the "murdered It was with these and other questions tale of the Camps, the horrors, the brutal- unborn," he and 1000 parishioners rhyth- that I went to meet Elie Wiesel. The day ity, the unbelievable evil, and his burn- mically recited the Hail Mary for two was unusually warm for November. I felt ing desire to help prevent its re-occurrence hours as surprised and distressed pa- that the strangeness of the weather was while insuring that the world would not tients were escorted into the clinic through somehow symbolic — as if for this special forget the victims — drove him to write. a gauntlet of religious supplicants! encounter things should not be in their And it was to his writings that I turned Responding to my request for a meet- I usual places. while following his public and political ing, Bishop Daily stated there was nothing ! I first met Elie Wiesel, as most of the activities. His appearance at the White to meet about — "children were being world does, through his writing. As part House asking President Reagan to cancel killed." When a reporter asked about my of my studies in graduate school, I ex- his trip to Bittburg, because "his place charges that his "Vigil" was harassment plored the nature of "endings." As I was was with the victims;" his testimony at and psychological abuse of women, Bishop sifting through hundreds of graduation the Klaus Barbie trial; and his lecture Daily replied "I feel badly about that — speeches, one stopped me, moved me so upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace but think about what happened — profoundly that I was amazed. I don't in 1986 when he stated "The lesson, the someone got killed there." (Long Island remember a word of it now. I only remem- only lesson I have learned from my expe- Catholic, 6/13/90). ber that, from that moment in time, Elie riences is twofold; first that there are no "Someone got killed there?" Lives in Wiesel was important to me. plausible answers to what we have en- struggle, economic deprivation, abuse, I learned that at the age of 14 he was dured. There are no theological answers, anxiety, despair, power, autonomy, love, wrenched from his studious Hasidic life there are no psychological answers, there survival — women's lives — these were in Sighet in the Carpathian Mountains are no literary answers, there are no the words that meant abortion to me — and deported to Auschwitz for extermi- religious answers. The only conceivable not "Someone got killed." But when you nation simply because he was a Jew. That answer is a moral answer. Second, that live in difficult places, you don't close his first night in the camps, his mother just as despair can be given to me only by your mind; you listen and you try to and sister were gassed; later he watched another human being, hope too can be his father bludgeoned to death, studied given to me only by another human be- understand. Try to understand all the ing." different questions and all the conflicting the Talmud from memory with another answers. inmate and, after liberation, almost died So I immersed myself in his writing,

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 PHOTO ROMAN VISHNIAC reading almost all of his 30 books in the Women who choose abortion are consis- Bible is to have children. past year. I was continually moved, en- tently labelled killers, and I personally thralled and transported by his novels have been compared to Hitler and called a When abortion was debated in 1977 in and analytic work which all spoke of his great murderer. the Knesset in Israel, the antiabortionists inner journey, his continual search for A woman who feels she cannot go on, articulated the feeling that abortion was meaning and God in a world filled with and with pain and despair she decides annihilating the Jewish people, that there evil and despair. His constant commit- that she has to give up her child, is this were no "unwanted" Jewish children and ment to the moral dimension in life; to woman a killer? Really — really. But look, that how can we after the Holocaust, the "moral answer." you cannot let these words hurt you. You slaughter Jewish children in the womb? In a recent book, Journey of Faith, have to be strong not to pay any attention Fanatics are all the same. These are Wiesel and John Cardinal O'Connor en- because those who do that — call you a fanatics. I am against fanatics every- gage in dialogue. O'Connor said that he Hitler and relate it to the Holocaust — where. I don't understand these words: agreed with Mother Theresa when she prove that they do not know what the Abortionist, antiabortionist. Those who stated during her Nobel Prize ceremony Holocaust was. give women the right of choice — he or that the "Greatest enemy to world peace she [sic] is an abortionist? What kind of is abortion," and that "We have created a You speak and write a great deal about articulation is that? mentality of violence — massive, ma- silence. The silence of God during The nipulated, propagandized movements Event. The silence of the Pope, of the church There is a feeling that women who choose that have brought about more than a as they were slaughtering children. When abortions are not active moral agents. • million-and-a-half unborn deaths every I read what you wrote about them taking That women's reproductive capacities and year." live children and throwing them in the fire women's lives are secondary to political Reproductive freedom, women's lives, — that an act of "mercy" by an SS guard ideology or religious morality. legal abortion are now not "merely kill- was to bash their heads against a rock so I don't like generalizations. Some people ing," but a threat to world peace? Eve is that they lost consciousness before — this feel that they need abortion. For them not only to be blamed for the first fall, but image will haunt me forever. So I wonder this is their morality. Other people say for the likely nuclear one as well. Elie if it is at all possible that the church is so that for moral reasons they are against Wiesel didn't agree. The violence he was vehemently against abortion at this his- abortion. I don't like simplistic defini- concerned about was the violence of the torical moment as a response to the indict- tions. abortion debate itself. After reading that ment of their silence during the Holocaust. he had to think more about it and was I don't like to speak for the church. But you have said that you feel abortion is "Not saying whether he was for or There are people who will speak for them. a tragedy. Why? against," I decided that I had to meet But that the church, the hierarchy of the For me the tragedy is for the mother, with him and discuss it. church was silent — yes. There were ex- and there is a father involved also. I don't It seemed to me that he is a person ceptions of course, there were some good think that much about the child. I haven't unlike any other, and yet he shares the courageous priests. John XXIII spoke out. thought about the child. I have to think it fate of millions — and he also is a person Of course there were others who saved through. I cannot believe that there is a of many more questions than answers. Jews and/or resisted Nazism. mother who does it lightheartedly. I sim- So it was with many conflicting, excited ply cannot believe it. For the mother, it's emotions that I got off the elevator on the But not enough. difficult, very difficult, it must be. There- 26th floor of his New York apartment The church in Rome at that time, the fore, once you accept that it is difficult, building. When I turned left, the first leaders, the Princes of the Church did not then it requires more thinking, more thing I saw was an open door revealing speak out. I am convinced if the Pope and soul-searching. As for the child and the a room with shelves and shelves of the hierarchy had said "save the Jews," question of when is a child a child, this is books. In front of that open door was a many priests in many villages would have a different subject which has to be dealt small, smiling, intense man. I took his done so. with but for the moment we are dealing hand, met his eyes and asked my first with the mother; if she comes to the question. In your conversation with Philippe de- conclusion that she cannot have this child Saint-Cheron [a French journalist] in the for whatever reason, then it is a tragedy. You have said that you are uncomfortable recent book Evil & Exile you stated that in with the violence of the abortion debate, the Talmud it is written that it is better not Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies is but when John Cardinal O'Connor first to be born than to be born. It is more that the majority of women make the came to New York he held a press confer- comfortable not to live. Can we relate thisdecision of abortion for economic reasons, ence in which he stated that legal abortion to abortion? out of a struggle for survival, and a desire was the "Second Holocaust." How do you Actually, I was quoting a type of humor not to bring another child into the world feel about abortion being likened to the in the Talmud. There were two schools of without adequate means of support. genocidal slaughter of the Jews? thought among those who had nothing Exactly. We must improve the economic I am uncomfortable with the language better to do for two-and-one-half years situation of the world, but at the same of this debate. I resent the violence of the than to argue about whether or not it is time, I tell you I understand — I must language — the words that they use like better to be born or not to be born. The understand — it is my duty to under- Holocaust — no it is not a Holocaust. It is question is not whether to live or not to stand those who are against abortion. I blasphemy to reduce a tragedy of such live, but whether or not to be born. don't like the shouting, I don't like the monumental proportions to this human cursing, I don't like the idea of saying tragedy, and abortion is a human trag- Because once you are born, you must live, anyone who is for abortion is a Hitler or edy. What should be done is to give back and according to the Talmud, if you live that abortion is a Holocaust. I am very the human proportion to the abortion you must study. troubled by this. But their pain, too, issue, and when we see it as such we may But this is not a question at all of must be taken into account. be able to have much more understand- whether or not to have children. The ing for the woman who chooses it. first law, the first commandment in the In a sense I would be uncomfortable if

8 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 people had no ethical dilemmas about Sharing sorrows. Lodz, 1937. and has become very violent quite beyond abortion. It is a very profound issue. words. Clinics have been firebombed and Of course they should have. And I un- Perhaps there should be a high level attacked and women patients are con- derstand why there is a debate, but I conference, but a quiet one, without pub- stantly accosted and harassed. don't want this debate to become so hos- licity, without shouting. Exactly. I would really like to plead for tile. It is "war." I tell you I am getting more comprehension on both sides and letters all the time asking me to speak up Why don't you convene it? The leaders of stop using certain words. against the "Holocaust of abortion." A the antichoice movement have refused to debate doesn't bother me if it is civilized meet with us. Neither Cardinal O'Connor Recently, to cap the "Year of the Child," and humanizing, but just mention the nor Bishop Daily will even respond to there was a children's summit held at the word abortion and flames start to fly. requests. You held an international con- UN where an International Bill of Rights ference on hatred recently — was any- of the Child was drafted and presented for But there are possible areas of common thing learned? all the countries of the world to sign. ground. It would seem that the prevention I think so because of the people I invited President Bush refused to sign it because of unwanted pregnancies would be an [Elana Bonner, Nelson Mandela]. My it did not have an antiabortion platform issue for both sides to join on, yet many conferences are civilized. There is never a and called for the abolition of the death antichoice people, particularly the Catho- heated or violent word. penalty for anyone under 18 years of age. lic Church, are violently against any type Your reaction ? of "artificial" birth control. Unfortunately, this issue is very heated I am crazy about children — any chil-

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 PHOTO' ROMAN VISHNIAC dren, especially Jewish children. When I Uzhgorod, 1937. Absolutely. The purpose inherent in see a child who is hungry I do whatever I literature and education are human rela- can to help because I have seen too many and what do you think is it's highest form tions and the possibility of imparting the Jewish children perish. As a result I feel of expression? responsibility for one another. Evil is in outrage and pain when a child suffers. There is no real definition of love, for all of us. No one is perfect — no one is a One of my main motivations for my work once you define it it disappears. The act of saint. It is for each of us to fight that evil is to work for children. All children. And trying to define it diminishes it. It is a within. The choice presents itself to us therefore, when I read about this mystery, but it is a kind of identification every day. If I sit here with you it is my children's summit, on the one hand I said with another person where that other choice, whether it is the evil part within to myself — my God, the world has person is as important as yourself and me (which I hope is small) that faces you, changed. When I was a child, Jewish that person's life as important as yours. It or the good part that faces you. It is also children were handed over to the killers. means that I would exchange my life for your responsibility to bring out the good There were no summits, no Presidents, hers. Does it mean sacrifice? Not at all. It part. It is a kind of symphony where all no Prime Ministers to save them. There means offering. Love is that. Every ges- these relationships play their parts, the were times when we could have saved ture becomes an offering. violins...the cellos... Jewish children for money. There was no money. For a few visas — there were no You have also written that "The thing I But who is conducting? visas. Nobody cared. Today people do learned about man in the camps is that Ah, that is the question, that is the care. There has been a change and I think evil, like good, is infinite and that the two question. that's good, but reading about the plight are combined in man,"and also that "one of children today I wish I could do more. man with a machine gun can kill a thou- If God's divinity is expressed through sand sages." So if each one of us holds humanity and ultimately through love, You have written that the very concept of good and evil within us, aren't we all as and, as you have said many times, "Every- love — that the word itself may fade and individuals responsible for saving or de- thing died in Auschwitz," how can we disappear. What is your definition of love stroying the world? expect love to save us?

10 PHOTO' ROMAN VISHNIAC ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 My favorite words are "and yet." Every- being born only to die...trees will not be Ah, but this is something else. We give thing died in Auschwitz and yet, — yes felled by men...animals will not be them too much power. That means that if there are reasons for me to despair, and slaughtered". ..etc., etc. What do you thinkI hear a woman's voice I am supposed to yet — yes there are reasons for me not to is the real purpose for us being on this be sexually aroused. So what — so what? believe in God and yet, and yet... planet? I wish I knew. There are all kinds of You give us power on the one hand and Che Guevera has written that "The true answers. But I have been thinking about then try to take it away on the other. revolutionary is motivated by great feel- this question seriously. In the beginning, (laughing) We don't take it away, we try ings of love." Do you believe it is possible why did God create the world? What did to convince you not to use it. But so what, for political systems to address social in- He need it for? Philosophy, theology offer if a woman is beautiful. I like women to be equities? Can politics answer questions of their own reasons, but there are no an- beautiful. Still, I think something has to equality and justice? swers and once you don't have an answer be done about the role of women, but I I am not a politician. I have never been you must ask the question — what is the would like it to come from the Orthodox involved in politics. I don't know much meaning of my life — why am / here. You community. Let them take up the subject about it. had better have an answer for that. You and decide how much we should do. How are here because you have to fight certain far we should go. But you are an activist. battles and I have mine. I want to enlarge I try to act on politicians. I believe in the the understanding of humanity. But we What is your position on the reunification moral dimension of everything, litera- better know why we are here — we have of Germany? ture, education, philosophy, whatever it no right to say we don't know. I am against it and was one of the few to is. Without it we are lost. Politics without say so publicly. It was done in haste and moral dimensions are cheap, corrupt pro- You have often said that "He or she who with a total insensitivity to those who cedures. We need the moral dimension to did not live through The Event will never survived the war. And the money in- prevent that. know it and that he or she who did live volved. They bought Russia, they bought through The Event can never reveal it". Eastern Germany. I don't trust Kohl. There is a continual debate in this coun- Doyou think this paradox was in any way After all, he is the man of Bittburg, and try, particularly acute in the abortion operative in the suicides of Primo Levi what was Bittburg? Bittburg had only issue, about the separation of church and and Bruno Bettelheim? one purpose — to whitewash the SS. But state. There are people who believe that I like paradoxes. he wanted to rationalize it and show that you cannot bring your religion (which many of these SS were just good soldiers many people view as morality) into the / know. You are a person who likes ques- — good soldiers? They were termed a political arena. tions more than answers. criminal group in the Nuremberg Trials; I am not speaking about religion. I am Bruno Bettelheim, I don't know. I never Kohl wanted to whitewash them and speaking about morality. I believe when met him. Primo Levi — yes, perhaps. "normalize," sanitize their actions. A uni- religion becomes politics that is a disas- Many writers who have written about the fied Germany in the hands of Kohl both- ter, and when politics becomes a religion Holocaust have committed suicide. More ers me. it is also a disaster. We should separate than musicians and painters. both. You have been severely criticized for not Why doyou think this is? condemning Israel about the intifada. You have never called for hate, love or Perhaps it is this paradox. A writer What is your current position on the Pal- vengeance as a response to the Holocaust must reveal — that is what he [sic] does estinian situation? but faith — and then you have written — communicate, and he or she can't com- I have been criticized for many that the only punishment commensurate municate their experience. It is beyond things...Yes, I refuse to systematically with the Holocaust is the destruction of their ability. I knew Primo Levi. We were condemn Israel. the world. Aren't we coming close to that together in the camps and later I felt that now with the events in the Middle East? indeed he might commit suicide one day. For anything? I am afraid of that but I believe once we There are certain red lines that I will realize how dangerous this is we could What is your attitude about the current not cross. If I had known at the time that prevent it. But yes, there is no punish- struggle to feminize Judaism — the Israel was involved in torturing I would ment for such a crime. The only punish- recent actions at the Kotel — the attempt have spoken out, but it was too late. ment is that the whole world should be to bring women into positions of spiritual When I found out, a commission had destroyed. I don't want it to be destroyed. authority? already been formed and justice prevailed, I don't want any human being to be de- I don't want to give apologia. I dislike but I don't feel I have the right to apply stroyed; that is why we must always easy answers. I would like to see a con- public pressure on Israel. remember the crime. clave of great Halachic and Rabbinic scholars and authorities to think about it. But you have the moral authority. You have always said that we can never It may take two years — so what? We are But what if I am wrong? truly understand the Holocaust and then dealing with centuries. I would like to see there are those who say that if we can truly that because it could be a way to show Can't you afford to be wrong? understand it we must forgive it. But if we what is wrong and there are things that Yes, but only if I pay the price. What if can never understand it how can we ever are wrong. According to Rabbinic law in I am wrong and they pay the price? What hope to prevent it from happening again ? Talmudic times (centuries ago) women if I apply such pressure on a decision and that decision may bring disaster or at We must always tell the story. could not serve as witnesses. What kind of injustice is this? A woman is a human least tragedy to Israel? Do I have the being, isn't she? right to do this? It is their children who In your novel Twilight, Adam asks God to will pay the price, not mine. I do go to reconsider His creation. To take it back. And they also are not allowed to be heard Israel and speak to the leaders — there I He says that if the world were not created, can say what I feel. But here, especially "countless souls would escape the curse of singing. 11 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 here, I have no right to speak out pub- Her mother has gone to look for Why? licly. As for the intifada, I have said on work. Warsaw, 1937 There are all kinds of answers. We are television and in an op-ed piece in the the world's conscience— envy, jealousy— New York Times that I understand the What is your reaction to the assassination all of them are true but still...there is young Palestinians. How did it start? It ofMeir Kahane? something else. It is a complicated issue. started in December 1987 when there I didn't like Kahane. He was a man of It would take hours, days to analyze it was a high level meeting, a kind of sum- hate and a racist. I was embarrassed by a here. mit meeting in Amman. The last item on man of such a reputation and I refused to the agenda was the Palestinian issue. engage him in debate. He is a Jew. I am a You said your teacher of mysticism taught The Palestinians were non-persons. There Jew. Something is wrong. you to love madmen. Explain. is nothing worse than that and that is I love madmen — mystical madmen — why I said I understood the young Pales- Do you mean to say a Jew cannot hate? not those who destroy but those who tinians. They refused to be non-persons; Who should a Jew be in the world today? create. then the violence started and they began A Jew should not hate. A Jew should be throwing stones. Violence is a language. a human being. No Jew should be a racist. You say that "In the beginning I thought When there is no other language you use At the same time I am outraged by the I could change man. Now I know that I violence. But then I turned to them and violence that killed him. Those who as- cannot. If I still shout and scream it is to pleaded, why don't you use words. Be- sassinated him and those who hired the prevent man from changing me." Has fore, no one was listening — now the assassin. I am harsher on them than on man changed you? whole world will listen to you. I did speak Kahane, because they were the crimi- People ask me so often if receiving the to Palestinians but I am offended when I nals, the murderers. Noble Prize has changed me. Ten Noble see Jewish intellectuals who all of a sud- Prizes would not change me — but it has den remember their Jewishness only to To what do you attribute the increasing changed my schedule. • use that Jewishness to attack Israel. rise of anti-Semitism in both Europe and ! These are men and women who have the U.S.? All Photos are taken from A Vanished World, copyright i never done anything for Israel — all of a There will always be anti-Semitism — 1983 by Roman Vishnmcpublished by Farrar, Straus i sudden they remember they are Jews. always. & Giroux, Inc. All rights reserved.

12 PHOTO ROMAN VISHNIAC ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 New Polanc Old Problems How could there be anti-Semitism when there were so few Jews? By Susan Cahn

here are not many Jews left in about the Carmelite nuns who had been devastated by the Nazis. We admired Poland. Maybe 10,000. There used established residence in Auschwitz, the courage of Solidarity leaders and m to be more than three million. The creating a violent dispute in 1989 between members, and had been watching with secular American Jews with whom Jewish organizations and Catholics. We interest the efforts of the Polish people to I traveled to Poland in June, 1990, had also noted the anti-Semitic comments overthrow the Stalinist practices and predicted that Polish anti- of the Polish primate on this issue. Yet my institutions imposed on them after the Semitism would be as weakened and traveling companions and I believed the war. diminished as the numbers ofPolish Jews. anti-Semitic past was truly past. We knew Unfortunately, we came to realize that, How could there be anti-Semitism, we that millions of non-Jews had also died in for many Poles, an important goal of the reasoned, when there were so few Jews? concentration camps and that Poland had nation's "democratization" is the In the old days, disproportionate numbers restoration of the legitimacy of Polish of Jews were doctors, lawyers, bankers This kerosene lamp is today a torch anti-Semitism. Jews residinginorvisiting and professionals. Now, with such small burning in memory of the six million Poland cannot escape noticing escalating numbers, even if Jews were martyrs. anti-Semitism. On a bus tour of Warsaw, "overrepresented" their for example, we stopped at presence in the professions many memorials connected to would be so miniscule as to the "glorious Polish past." The pass almost unnoticed. But my tour took us to the memorial traveling companions and I to the Warsaw uprising, to were wrong. churches which had, the guide None of us was wholly told us, fought in vain to "save unprepared for some anti- the Polish nation from Semitism, of course. We had communism," to statues all lost relatives in Poland commemorating Holy Roman during World War II. We had Emperor Sigismund's great all seen Shoah and followed victory in the 15th century the controversy over its "anti- over the infidels. At all these Polishness." We had read places, the bus stopped and

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 PHOTO. ROMAN VISHNIAC 13 the guide directed us to get off to look was partly Jewish. Of course, his mother committees with officials of the Church around; everyone dutifully did. At one explained to us, this was a terrible slander to monitor anti-Semitic activity, to rewrite spot, however, the guide asked if any which he could not tolerate. When he textbooks, to confront the demon. One passengers wanted the bus to stop so they questioned her, she told him that he outcome of these and higher level could get off to look more closely. Here, certainly had no trace of Jewish blood and meetings between Church officials and only a portion of the sightseers that those who said he did were jealous of international Jewish organizations is that disembarked. The spot was the memorial his success. She added that, if he were the Catholic church has promised to send to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Jewish, it was nobody's business. Yet, her a document to Polish parishes instructing Across Poland, we saw campaign posters son felt so slandered that he engaged in a priests in how to dispel anti-Semitic myths for the just-completed elections defaced fight over it. The fight resulted in his and the stereotypes of Polish folk-beliefs. with handwritten Stars of David. Many hospitalization. We asked the senator what he or other Catholic candidates, we were told, had The mother protested to the head of her government and political leaders were been accused of being "secret" Jews. A son's school. Something, she said, must doing about the demon, whether any of joke making the rounds during our stay be done to prevent future incidents. The the "camps" within or outside Solidarity asked the difference between the head of the school showed distress at the were actively grappling with the issue. Hungarian government and the Polish. outbreak of serious fighting but showed He responded that Lech Walesa, the The answer: The Hungarian government no willingness to confront the issues founder of Solidarity, had made a was made up half of Hungarians and half underlying the fight. Nor did the mother comment condemning anti-Semitism. of Jews while the Polish government had acknowledge the need for regular classes Walesa has also, however, made several no Hungarians at all. and discussions in which students could comments which feed anti-Semitism. He We encountered copies of The Protocols learn about discrimination and tolerance, has, for example, charged that "a gang of of the Elders of Zion, openly sold on and explore ways to recognize and honor, Jews had gotten hold of [Poland's] trough Warsaw streets and we learned that these rather than penalize, differences. She and is bent on destroying us." He has are new, updated editions. The new also did not suggest that her son had accused Jews of stirring up anti- Semitism introduction blames Jews for 20th century overreacted: That accusations of themselves in order to "get into the problems, including Poland's current Jewishness could be wrong without being limelight" and thus, somehow, rise in economic crisis. Some leaflets distributed terrible, intolerable slander. position. And he has made clear allusions in urban areas even blame Jews for the We raised the question of anti-Semit- to popular notions of Jewish conspirators attempted "genocide ofPoles." World War ism with a Polish senator of the newly- in his repeated assertions that there are II, according to these leaflets, was elected Sejm with whom we met. The Jews in positions of political power who "provoked" by the Jews and the genocidal senator sighed and agreed that, yes, Pol- "hide their nationality." deaths of 30 million Poles must be laid at ish anti-Semitism was something of a The senator discussed the dilemma of their door. Pamphlets and the banners problem. He described anti-Semitic ac- Adam Michnik, editor of Gazeta callingfor "Jews to the Ovens!" on display tions he had himself witnessed in the last Wyborcza, Solidarity's weekly newspaper, at a Warsaw meeting convened by the decade, acknowledged the recent in- who has not hidden his Jewish origins. A "Confederation for an Independent crease in anti-Semitic acts, and men- powerful leader of the non-Walesa camp, Poland," are obviously extreme examples tioned the existence of two avowedly he has made several statements calling of the still festering hostility to Jews in anti-Semitic political parties. for religious tolerance and condemning what is a "country of mostly pale blond The senator expressed an opinion racism and chauvinism. Yet, said the Slavs" (NY Times, 8/15/90), but they are common to many with whom we spoke: senator, given his Jewish background, not an isolated phenomena. Anti-Semitism, they said, had not been Michnik's statements are suspect and The Polish Jewish weekly, Folks- eradicated under the Stalinists; it had Michnik can do no more. Other leaders of sztyme, began observing, in October, 1989, only been silenced. Except in 1968, when the non-Walesa camp, including the that "everywhere, in shopping lines, on the government itself used anti-Semitic devoutly Catholic prime minister, have trams, and at tenants meetings, anti- propaganda to attack the emerging been rumored to be of Jewish origin. Jewish slander accusing the Jews of guilt opposition, anti-Semitism was repressed. These rumors seem to have prevented for all Poland's calamities is being spread." But, the repression merely sent anti- them from tackling the issue of anti- Shortly after our visit, the Committee of Semitic stereotypes and beliefs Semitism directly — or at all. They, too, Jewish Organizations sent a letter to underground. It did not hold these beliefs could be accused, as Walesa has accused former President Jaruzelski, with copies up to the sunlight of public discussion Michnik, of pushing people toward anti- to Church officials and leaders in the and education. Indeed, a study conducted Semitism and racism. parliament, calling attention to a rise in in the late 1970s showed that Polish Our discussion with the senator showed the number of overt acts of anti-Semitism, peasants overwhelmingly believed that us one way these accusations work. To which now include attempted arson. Jews kidnap Christian babies to use their our surprise, the senator told us that During this period of "transition to blood for Passover matzoh. When the American Jews were exacerbating the democracy," ordinary people and political government's repression ceased, these problem of Polish anti-Semitism. When leaders alike seem to have accepted anti- beliefs came out into the open. As one asked how American Jews had done so, Semitism as a normal part of daily politics; politician put it, "The fall of Communism he answered that many Poles had read some leaders encourage it. opened a Pandora's box, from which all about or heard about American Jews who The Poles we met were largely secular. demons escaped, among them anti- said Poles were anti-Semitic. Such Many decried the increase of open hostility Semitism." statements, he went on, themselves toward Jews. One woman, a member of a This particular demon had been aroused anti-Semitism, for what Polish government committee working for the nurtured in part by Church traditions person, on hearing such an accusation, reform of school curricula, told us how and, even, theology in this could remain open and friendly to Jews? anti-Semitism had affected her family. overwhelmingly Catholic country. In the The suggestion was that, if there were no Her son had become a target of a face of the vigorous resurgence of anti- "anti-Polishness" among American Jews, whispering campaign at his school, when Semitic activity, Jewish groups are there would be no anti-Semitism among other students spread the rumor that he beginning to organize and to form liaison Poles. Condemnations of anti-Semitism

14 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 by Jews, in other words, are worse than A member of the porters' collective. has no affirmative obligation to combat it. useless. Warsaw, 1938. If this is the attitude of those who oppose What was so striking about our anti-Semitism, what can one expect from conversations with the senator and the Yet religious education has returned to those who espouse it? member of the government's committee state schools and, thus far, the Polish While in Poland, we visited Auschwitz. on educational reform is that they are Catholic Church has not responded to the Millions died in Auschwitz, Jews and both members of political and intellectual rise in overt acts of anti-Semitism with a non-Jews alike. Auschwitz stands today elites that "deplore" anti-Semitism. They statement of condemnation. Nor have as a grotesque monument to bigotry, to are "enlightened" Europeans, opposed, church officials released the promised unreasoning and unreasoned hate. Its as were many of the Polish people with document combatting, rather than most frightening aspect is that Auschwitz whom we spoke, to intolerance, to acquiescing in, anti-Semitic stereotypes does not stand as a monument to a past censorship, to discrimination. Indeed, and folk-beliefs. And even these that is dead and gone. • they publicly argued against the return "enlightened" Poles believe that of religious instruction to state schools on accusations of Jewishness amount to Susan Cahn is a freelance writer from these grounds: That instruction in "fighting words," that Jews bear New York City.

Catholicism might breed divisions and, responsibility for Polish anti-Semitism, All Phiitm arc lakn, [mm A Viimbhed W.irld, copyright I9S3 In Runmn perhaps, intolerance and discrimination. and that the new leadership of Poland IVs/i/nuc t>ubli*>ietl h\ Fnrrar. Slraus & (Urnux. Ini All right* restrict

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 PHOTO ROMAN VISHNIAC 15 By E.M. Broner

dog-sit on occasion. My grand-dog Madison Square Park has changed since the park police. Dog owners carry false Tosh (rhymes with Posh) heads to- Madison Green, a 32-story residence, has ID's and there is a thriving business in wards Madison Park. In front of our sprouted on its southeast corner. What fake dog tags. loft building I have to restrain him was once forbidden is allowed and what In former idyllic days we kept the park from greeting our newly-planted was allowed is now forbidden. safe, standing in a circle, talking about saplings, Callery Pear Trees, the It's OK to ride a bike, roller skate and this dog's hysterectomy, that one's ear first trees on our block. play frisbees, as the sign at the park's infection or a valuable dog's hip opera- Tosh has no patience. He would pull me entrance once prohibited. But one can no tion. We would quickly break up dog into traffic on Fifth Avenue if I were not longer romp with one's dog. Leash rules fights, greet one another's pets, and, with pulling back on the leash. have been imposed. To impose them is the our sandwich bags, New York Times We used to have errands on the way to arm of the law, the hidden park police and business section, New York Post front the park in shops that have been gobbled even the mounted police who chase our page, pick up after our animals. As we up in the jaws of construction equipment. dogs on horseback if they're frisking with would leave the park after our nightly We no longer chat with the Korean fam- their friends. walks, the pushers were doing business ily where we picked up milk and dog food, The park used to be Doggy Eden. Tosh with the life insurance or court workers or walk past the stained- glass maker on would meet Suki, an independent female, and the park-bench sleepers were set- Sixth Avenue or stop into the Armenian or Rosie, a brown-and-while male, de- tling in. leather factory on 23rd Street to have a spite his name. High- born and low-born I am introduced to new dogs, that is, briefcase handle repaired. There are other shared the park: Pomeranians, spitz, newly-found dogs. One has been discov- shops, but they are unwelcoming to dogs, terriers, greyhounds, dachshunds, span- ered tied to a mailbox on 23rd Street, like the gourmet shop on 22nd Street not iels, poodles, pugs, bull terriers, corgis, another to a parking meter. Dogs are far from the church where the homeless pinschers, whippets, all the cuddled, being abandoned in great number. Margot line up for hot lunches. I still can head coddled, barbered and trimmed along with found her dog, Noosh, tied to a tree in downtown to the farmer's market in the curious shapes and sizes of our sturdy Central Park. Women who never wanted Union Square but if I turn east away mutts. Tosh is part Canaani, an Israeli dogs have taken pity. One dog was left in from the park, Tosh gives me the evil eye; breed. In dog politics, the Canaani is a bar. Others still await their owners Grandmas are supposed to be more obe- recognized by the American Kennel Club outside of supermarkets. dient. but not yet in the United Kingdom. So "My dogs taught me to love," says Tosh is my first dog experience. Be- there Tosh is, half-recognized, half- Margot. cause I write, I extrapolate from this Canaani, small, peppy, with his over- Since my dog-sitting days I have become singular fellow into the universal, sized ears and corkscrew tail. sentimental. I watch Tosh's prancy walk women and dogs. Since I am part of the The dogs, now leashed, strain towards and instantly sign all requests to impeach literary scene, I contemplate women and one another, snapping, barking, biting. our state legislator who has imposed the literature and dogs. Everyone is short-tempered, and the leash laws upon us, or boycott cosmetic Accompanying my daughter's dog I am owners are wary and wily, with the issu- companies that test their products on part of a whole new community, and I ing of $50 tickets for dogs off the leash. A have begun to take on its politics. new underground has developed to elude Continued on pg 37

16 PHOTO: TUEN VOETEN / IMPACT VISUALS ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991

Population Control - By Eleanor J. Bader

eeing triple?" asks the ad from Zero Clearly, we have all been made aware of Population Growth (ZPG). "World the escalating environmental crisis fac- population, now at 5.4 billion, could ing us. As ZPG reminds us, our waters nearly triple to 14 billion in the next are polluted, our air foul. Sea levels are century," it explains. "Yet, the im- rising, the earth's temperature is higher pact of our present numbers has than it has ever been, rainforests are already been sufficient to decimate rain being destroyed, and 10,000 varieties of forests, hasten wildlife extinction, deplete animal, insect and plant life are being the ozone layer, pollute our water, and lost annually. According to the Ehrlichs, initiate a global warming whose full con- each year the world "has billions fewer sequences cannot yet be determined." tons of topsoil, and hundreds of trillions "By the year 2010 we will have 10 billion fewer gallons of groundwater with which people if we don't get some kind of stabi- to grow crops than it had in 1968." lization in place," agrees Tanya Thomas, Scary stuff, this. In our minds we pic- Population Activist Coordinator of the ture the starving, the malnourished, the National Audubon Society, and former desperate. We envision them groveling director of the Women of Color program for food, water and shelter, hoping at the National Organization for Women. against hope that there will be enough to "There's a real fear that the earth may not go around. "If there were only half as be able to carry 10 billion people. Any- many Americans driving cars, using thing you do to protect the future has to manufactured devices and consuming deal with population and its continued electric power," write the Ehrlichs, "acid growth, or you will have too many people rain problems would be comparatively overwhelming an already overwhelmed negligible." world." Half as many people... The numbers tell one part of the story: While the theory sounds simple — of Between 1970 and 1990, world popula- course five billion people use more natu- tion rose by a whopping 47 percent, from ral resources than, say, three billion — 3.632 to 5.321 billion. More than a quarter getting people the world over to voluntar- of a million people, 264,000, are added ily reduce family size is not. Tactics and every day, 11,000 an hour. strategies play an enormous role in how Activists like Anne and Paul Ehrlich successful such policies will be, for unless (authors ofThe Population Explosion), Dr. population planners and those beating Garrett Hardin, and Susan Weber of ZPG, the drum of environmental catastrophe alongside organizations like the Popula- pay careful attention to the myriad so- tion Crisis Committee, the Sierra Club cial, political and cultural reasons people and the Population Institute, are sound- have children, they will court failure. ing a loud and persistent alarm: Reduce Furthermore, by sidestepping the com- world population by any means or the plex dynamics in the lives of families world may, literally, be destroyed. across the globe, they risk alienating the Many are jumping on this bandwagon. bulk of the world: People of color and

18 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 Out of Control?

women. be asked and answered before popula- The consequences of this — the creation tion dimunition can begin: Why do women of bitter political schisms — are hardly choose to have child after child, despite unprecedented. Political splits over advo- risks to both their health and the health cacy of population control policies have of the planet? Or do they choose? long fractured relations between women "Deprivation, seclusion, violence, all of color and white feminists. The failure of these serve to keep women (in developing many mainstream women's groups to op- countries) in their place," writes Betsy pose sterilization abuse (in which women, Hartmann in Reproductive Rights and usually African-American, Latina, or Wrongs (Harper and Row, 1987). "And Native American, are operated on with- part of being in that place is having out their consent or an understanding of children. For with no other option but the the permanent nature of the procedure) home or, at best, a low-paying job, has led to persistant rifts that have weak- women turn to children as their primary ened the women's movement. Likewise, source of power. The birth of a first child, the U.S. policy of pointing the finger at especially a son, brings a woman an au- lesser developed countries as the cause of tomatic status that other domestic roles environmental woes has led to charges of such as cooking and cleaning do not. A classism, imperialism and racism. child pleases a woman's husband and her "My concern," says the Audubon in-laws, the people who control her life. Society's Tanya Thomas, "is that when Children are a woman's constituency people talk about population growth they within the narrow political world of the like to focus on the fact that most of the family; the more she has, the stronger growth is happening in the third world, in her clout. If she is infertile, her status developing countries. Sometimes that's plummets and she often falls victim to used as a scare tactic. The U.S. is one of polygamy, desertion or divorce." In addi- the most overpopulated countries in the tion, other forces come into play. world, not in terms of numbers, but in Hartman reminds us that Indian terms of what we contribute to environ- women, accepting a preference for sons mental degradation. We're five percent of that is culturally mandated, have an the world's population, but we're respon- average of 6.3 offspring to ensure the sible for over 50 percent of the consump- survival of one male into adulthood. tion of natural resources and the produc- Similarly, in the African Sahel women tion of waste. Population policies can't average 10 children apiece, the only way deal only with numbers. The U.S. can to guarantee that at least one son will sustain its population, but look what we're survive to age 38. doing to destroy the world." Hartman is particularly leery of efforts Nor can population experts ignore the that ignore such variables and which role of women, indeed the role of sexism, substitute population control for social when formulating population reduction justice. "Improvements in living stan- programs. A variety of questions need to dards and the position of women, via

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 19 more equitable social and economic de- want family planning to be available to Although a variety of agencies and gov- velopment, motivate people to want fewer all the people who want it. If we can do ernments can point to "successful" popu- children," she says. "In the absence of that we'll bring the population down. But lation reduction programs — countries in such improvements, the scope for volun- how we do outreach is important. It has to which up to a third of the population has tary reduction of population growth is be culturally sensitive." been sterilized — the rancor and rage limited." The issue of choice is central to the engendered by coercive programs has Hartmann grounds her critique in ex- world's women. A1983 study by the World meant that many developing countries perience. She has lived in Bangladesh Bank found that between one-half and refuse to address the environmental im- and has witnessed firsthand the poverty one-third of Bangladesh's women did not pact of population growth. By alienating and the policies that have been crafted to know of any way, besides sterilization, to such people, important allies have al- eradicate it. But like much of the so- avoid pregnancy. "The mortality rate from ready been lost, and a great deal of healing called third world, Bangladesh remains IUDs in the third world is roughly double will have to take place before cooperation impoverished. Life expectancy is only 50; that in the West because of the increased can be assured. infant mortality is 125 per 1000; and risk from infections, septic abortions and So where does this leave the environ- nearly half of the babies who survive untreated ectopic pregnancies," says mental and feminist movements? "I think birth become physically stunted by the there are going to be a lot of important time they are four due to malnutrition. discussions going on because there's a lot More than half the population is chroni- Anything of overlap," says Patricia Ireland, Execu- cally unemployed, while 10 percent of tive Vice President of the National Orga- the country's households own 50 percent you can do to nization for Women. "There are a lot of of the arable land. feminists who are part of the environ- Part of the Bangladesh government's protect the future mental movement, who'll be pushing the solution to the searing economic situa- debate between women's rights to indi- tion it is in is population control. Al- vidual freedom and the question of how though the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act has to deal with much freedom a woman has to give up for has, since 1989, forbidden the use of U.S. the good of the whole." funds to pay for the "performance of population and its Ireland also envisions spirited discus- voluntary sterilizations as a method of sions on contraceptive availability. Un- family planning or to coerce or provide like Hartmann, she believes that some any financial incentive to any person to continued forms of birth control, like the injectable undergo sterilization," Hartmann says Depo-Provera, may be encouraged de- that the Agency for International Devel- growth spite known risks because the question of opment (AID), has found a way around safety has to be put into context. "Is it the financial incentive ban. "In Hartmann. "In countries where malnu- safe? Compared to what? One-hundred- Bangladesh AID skirts the law by calling trition and anemia are common, the in- thousand botched abortions?" the incentives compensation payments. creased menstrual blood loss associated Tamar Raphael, of the Fund for the It maintains that the money is intended with IUDs leads to iron depletion in many Feminist Majority, agrees with Ireland. to cover transportation, food costs and women after 12 months of use." Similarly, While she and the Fund advocate a host wages lost due to the operation. The free health care inaccessibility makes inject- of reforms to reduce economic injustice, saris and lungis are justified as 'surgical able or implanted contraceptives risky. she knows that this is a long-range solu- apparel' since the peasant's clothing is Side effects, from intermittent bleeding, tion. "Ending poverty is not something unhygienic. In fact, the clothing is often to headaches, depression, nausea and loss we can do overnight. It's not the root handed out after the operation, giving of libido, coupled with the possibility of cause of why women want to control their the lie to the surgical apparel argument. infection if the implant is not inserted or fertility. It's not only a question of pov- Moreover, free clothing is not handed out removed in a sterile environment, pose erty." Nonetheless, she asks some pointed after other forms of surgery." obvious dangers. And, use of the birth questions that feminists and environ- Incentives have been provided to control pill is also potentially damaging, mentalists would be wise to address. "Is it Bangladesh's people since 1976. Not sur- as routine medical monitoring is all but a moral to force a woman in Ethiopia to prisingly, given the country's economic pipe dream for the majority of people. have a child when she knows that child situation, the majority of people who "Unless we as organizations and indi- will die of starvation before age three? take advantage of their provision are viduals work on two fronts — creating Can society force women — should soci- poor. Seasonal variations have also been just laws regarding access to contracep- ety force women—to carry a child to term noted: Most sterilizations are performed tion and abortion, and attempting to when they know that child will die?" during the months of lowest food stocks change the conditions of people's lives — How we come down on these questions and highest rural unemployment. In July, we will be dealing with only half the will determine the types of coalitions we 1984, "flood month," one researcher problem," says Frances Kissling of the build and the types of alliances we make. documented 257,000 sterilizations in ex- Global Fund for Women. Like many femi- For some, the question of women's lives change for food — one-fourth as many as nist reproductive rights activists, she and female access to economic resources were performed between 1972 and 1982. cautions environmentalists like the and opportunities is central to any dis- And it is not only in Bangladesh that Ehrlichs to remember that improving the cussion of population policies. For others, such realities exist. India, Java, Kenya, conditions of women's lives has a dra- the question of finite natural resources Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, to matic impact on reducing population. takes center stage. The two camps have name just some of the countries targetted Concomitantly, reducing infant mortal- urgent cause for debate and action. "We've by AID for population reduction, have ity, equalizing access to health care, and turned the world into a giant similar tales to tell. guaranteeing women the right to basic wastebucket," says the Audubon Society's "I'm concerned about the kinds of con- services such as education and housing Tanya Thomas. "If something isn't done traception being pushed," says Tanya will lead to the desired goal: Smaller immediately we'll be past the point of Thomas. "We need to be very careful. We families. doing something to save it." •

20 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Can Also Rock The Boat By Irene Davall

The Dayton Foundation — the ads advocating a Christmas shopping giving arm of Dayton Hudson Cor- boycott aimed at Dayton and its subsid- m poration — announced last sum- iaries, including such eminent emporiums mer that its annual grant to as Hudson in Detroit, Marshall Field in Planned Parenthood was being Chicago and Mervyns and Target in Cali- withheld for the first time in 22 fornia. years. Executives said the decision Market analysts estimate that retailers stemmed from the foundation's desire — the Dayton chain among them — do not to take sides in the national debate about 60 percent of their annual business over abortion. during the Christmas-Hanukkah season. The decision, conveyed to Planned Par- Twin Cities securities analysts declared enthood last summer, was not made public the controversy probably has not harmed until August 31, the same day the Twin the company's bottom line yet, but that Cities National Organization for Women could change. "If it becomes a national rallied outside Dayton's Minneapolis issue it can have repercussions that flagship store to call for a boycott of all Dayton Hudson never imagined. It can stores in the Dayton chain. cause a lot more than $20,000 worth of Peggy Lucas, speaking for the Minne- damage." sota Women's Consortium, said "I think The words seemed prophetic when New the safest port Dayton had in the abor- York City Comptroller Elizabeth tion storm was the one they abandoned. Holtzman notified Dayton of her concern Donating money that was earmarked for that boycotts and other actions by abor- teenage pregnancy counseling. Now, tion rights supporters would affect the they've worked themselves into a no-win company's financial position. Her concern situation." was justified; the New York City pension Arvonne Fraser, Senior Fellow in Pub- fund holds 438,290 shares of Dayton lic Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey stock valued at $31.9 million. Institute, and the Directorof the Women's On September 20, Dayton announced Public Policy and Development Project, they were reinstating the $20,000 con- wrote the store: "Your venerable old Min- tribution. This does not mean that Day- nesota institution has just destroyed its ton or its Foundation is taking a position credibility with more than me." Along on abortion or abortion rights. "We have with her letter, Fraser mailed her Dayton never taken a position on abortion nor credit card, cut neatly in half. will we. The grant will be put in a restricted Fraser is also married to the mayor of education fund and Planned Parenthood Minneapolis. sorry if Dayton decided to revoke its deci- has assured us they will add a separate And Fraser's act was not a solitary one. sion. "There were a lot of us who had line category for it," they said. Abortion rights activists got busy, made a canceled our Dayton accounts. When the Peter Wilderotter, Planned Parenthood few calls to colleagues from the Minne- foundation withdrew funding our boycott Vice President for Resources, said "We sota Alliance for Choice and by midweek was over. I think if they had waited a little are pleased by Dayton's decision to rein- had 10,000 postcards in the mail. longer, they would have been able to see state funding, thereby seeing their way "There really was a groundswell, an the results," said an antiabortion spokes- to do something about reducing the need outpouring of protest," reported Clare person. for abortion. We welcome anyone, in- Gravon, chair of the Planned Parenthood Dayton executives said the foundation cluding our opposition, who will join with board. "There's no way we could have would continue to support other programs us in providing education and prevention orchestrated this response. People read aimed at pregnancy prevention. The foun- services." the article, they knew what they had to do dation and its divisions gave away $22.5 The Minnesota Women's Consortium and they did it." million in 1989, including more than $8 summed it up: "Dayton is considered a The company received letters and phone million in the Twin Cities. leader among corporate foundations. calls on both sides of the issue, but ac- According to the Women's Consortium, Other foundations would like to defund. knowledged that most disagreed with the if the foundation had not reinstated their We have an opportunity to have corpora- foundation's action. The Human Life Al- annual contribution by Thanksgiving they tions realize they have more to fear from liance of Minnesota had said it would be planned to take out full-page newspaper abortion supporters than opponents." •

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 21 GEEZ, AEE WE REALLY THAT BAD? Are Women Part of the News That's Fit to Print?

By Junior Bridge

learly, Max Frankel was not on the front pages about 27 percent of the victims of brutal acts, or in terms of their happy. Neither was Ben Bradlee. time; females were represented in only 24 familial relationships, i.e., Mary, the Frankel and Bradlee are the percent of the front-page pictures; and daughter of; his wife, Barbara; or, Joyce, executive editors of two of the references to females were abysmally low: mother of four. It was noted, too, that nation's most prestigious general- 11 percent. females were more frequently referred to interest newspapers, the New This despite the fact that females com- by their first names; men by their last CYork Times and the Washington Post, prise over half the U.S. population, about names. respectively. When asked to comment on half of newspaper readership, 45 percent USA Today averaged higher percent- the results of a national media survey of the total labor force, 60 percent of the ages of female bylines (41 percent), pho- about news coverage of and by women, new investors in New York Stock Ex- tos (41 percent), and female references both men sent short, testy replies. change companies, and more than half of (21 percent) than the other papers exam- The New York Times, for the second year all college students. ined. The New York Times averaged the in a row, had come out low (the lowest in The newspapers examined were the lowest percentages of female bylines (16 the 1989 study) in a 1990 media survey Atlanta Constitution, Chicago Tribune, percent) and references (five percent). which tabulated the number of times Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, The month-long 1990 study was ex- female bylines appeared, female proper Miami Herald, New York Times, St. Louis panded to include 10 additional newspa- names were used in stories, and females Post Dispatch, Seattle Times, USA Today, pers with circulations ranging from about appeared in photographs on the front and the Washington Post. Consideration 20,000 to 50,000. This was done to see if pages of 10 major, general-interest in the selection of papers was primarily there is any difference in news coverage newspapers around the country. This is given to geographic location. An effort of and by women in smaller, non-major- the newspaper that claims boldly on its was also made to include papers from media centers. masthead that it prints "all the news states considered to be bellweather areas Commissioned by the University of that's fit to print." for social change. Southern California's Media Watch: The Washington Post fared better. In There were days during the study pe- Women and Men Project, the latest study the first study, the paper's percentages riod when there were no female bylines, was released at the Spring 1990 annual in the aforementioned three categories photographs, or references to females on meeting of the American Society of News- fell approximately in the middle of the the front pages of these major general- paper Editors in Washington, D.C. It papers surveyed. In the 1990 study, it interest newspapers. Imagine a front page showed a gain in coverage of females in came out the highest of the papers exam- without a male byline, photo, or reference! photos from the 1989 survey. Little im- ined in female appearances in photos, In many of the March 1989 news stories provement was found, however, in the and about the middle range for the re- that included a female source, the female references to female names in stories or maining categories. name was not repeated. Instead, pronouns to the number of female bylines on front The idea for the survey initially was to were used ("she said," rather than pages. make a point: Women have still not ar- "Whitmore said") whereas the names of Females appeared in front-page photos rived on an equal footing with men in male sources were repeated frequently. 32 percent of the time, compared to 24 this country; women still have much Another finding was that female report- percent in the first study. Female bylines work to do to acquire gender equality. A ers don't appear to go to female sources averaged 28 percent, up one point since social indicator was needed that was any more often than male writers. Even 1989. Female names were found in sto- easily understood and widely accessible. stories on topics of specific and great con- ries 14 percent of the time as opposed to The print media was an obvious choice. cern to women, such as abortion, often 11 percent a year earlier. The increase The point was made — starkly. contained more quotes from men, and few appears due to the inclusion of the smaller- Results from the 1989 survey showed or no quotes from women. that on average, female bylines appeared Most often, females were portrayed as Continued on pg 41

22 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 SOME FEMINISTS ON WAR JANUARY 2 5, 1 9 9 1 These comments were gathered as the war in the Persian Gulf entered its second week and rushed into print immediately prior to our press date

e watch this war live for the first lieve it does, how do we confront it? Can time in history, at home, on tele- we do so effectively and nonviolently? If vision, sandwiched between MTV we could deploy a Cruise Missile to stop and reruns of the "Honeymoon- all rape, should we? If we could destroy Wers," the entire world united at last— as the central command posts of the pomog- disassociated spectators at the ultimate raphers and pimps, would we? high-tech video game. Many on the American left believe that As feminists, we had no say in this wan evil can be confronted with dialogue or We watch, glued to our screens as earth's that half-day marches can speak truth to innocent children don masks of terror all power. Perhaps violence must be met over the Middle East. Our emotions are with a force greater than itself—massive intense and conflicted. What if the world collective, continual, unarmed blames the Jews for being as imperfect as struggle — (like Gandhi's followers lay- everyoneelse?Fordefendingthemselves? ing their bodies down across British For daring to survive? Jews and Israelis, railway lines, like feminists pitching their like women and feminists, are held to tents at Greenham Common against much higher standards; both groups are nuclear missiles). All our bodies on the expected to be victims, not victors. front lines — all the time. And, if not, Feminists cannot afford to forget the Cruise Missiles will speak for us whether raging war against women which results we like it or not. in a litany of invisible and unmourned Those on the American right are well victims: Rape, battery, incest, Indian trained in cost benefit analysis. They feel dowry burnings, death from illegal abor- that 50 thousand more American lives tions, female infanticide in China, lost is not too high a price to pay to clitorodectomies in Africa and the Middle maintain control of the world's oil supply. East, etc. Female lives lived in helpless- Blood for oil? Hell yes! (Yours, not mine). ness and despair — lives lost to poverty After all, Americans, both left and right and daily crushing oppression. drive cars and show no willingness to give We remember Hitler and the danger them up in order to stop this war. of appeasement. If evil exists, and we be- We all supported Saddam Hussein: He paid good money for arms, he was suppos- prohibitive. We remember Vietnam. We and sons die by the thousands; risk the edly a bulwark against Iranian funda- remember that the United States has very existence of Israel and all its people, mentalism, he was a socialist "Robin armed Saddam Hussein and stood by and court the most chaotic conflagration Hood" who cared about Middle Eastern during his massacre of the Kurds with imaginable in the entire Middle East to poverty, inequity and the Palestinians. chemical warfare. This is not a war to maintain this economic power and mili- Now we are left to do deadly battle with a defend democracy: Women in Kuwait tary control of the privileged few in the monster we helped create. cannot vote, no one in Saudi Arabia can West. This is as barbaric — morally and As the tortured faces of prisoners of vote, women cannot even drive cars; a physically — as anything that Saddam war, refugees and ecological disaster, fill lesbian or homosexual is subject to bar- Hussein could dream of. our screen we know we are seeing George barous methods of execution. This is not Martin concluded his address by ex- Bush's "New World Order." One that will a war for any moral purpose, only for oil horting that "...Every man (and woman) be a recapitulation of the old. Regardless and power. For 20 years we have said ofhumane convictions must decide on the of the outcome of the war between na- that war is a feminist issue; it still is. Our protest against this madness that best tions, patriarchy, racism and anti- priorities remain at home: Poverty, rac- suits his/her convictions" — but protest Semitism will win and women, children ism, AIDS, the dangers to our own we must! and the poor will lose. Despite this, we economy and ecology. The proper solu- —Betty J. Powell -Black, lesbian feminist, must go on record in support of the war tion lies in the patient and concerted use Educator, trainer and management consult- against Saddam Hussein. of United Nations sanctions, not in the ant specializing in cultural diversity —Phyllis Chesler and Merle Hoffman massive folly of a catastrophic war into which George Bush would drag the people n the last decade, over one trillion r*t o much that is happening in this war of the United States and the world. dollars of our tax money was spent ^- is contrary to feminism. There are —Ti Grace Atkinson, Kate Millet t, developing the high technologyweap - i^ millions of invisible women victims Robin Morgan, Gloria Steinem ons systems we now see "being en- gagedI " in the Persian Gulf "campaign." }\J for whom this war has added another An edited version of this letter appeared form of violence to their lives. This in- in the NY Times 01/20/91 Twelve major American cities as well as cludes not only Kuwaiti, Iraqi, Saudi, entire states like California and New Palestinian and Israeli women but also s there a case for supporting a war in Jersey are now virtually bankrupt be- hundreds of thousands of Asian women the Gulf? I believe there is. Women cause for 10 years the federal govern- workers in the Gulf now displaced as have learned to resist the role of vic- ment chose to invest in Tomahawk Cruise refugees, vulnerable to abuse from sol- tim , to identify and speak out against Missiles, Apache attack helicopters, personaI l and public-policy oppressors. Smart warplanes, Ml tanks, and intelli- diers. The U.S. women in the armed forces, not allowed combat "privileges" yet sent Murders, rapes, and pillaging in Kuwait, gence satellites, instead of education, job to the region to face danger; the anti- including the removal of dozens of pre- training, energy research and develop- democratic nature of the U.S. troops, mature babies from their incubators, ment, infrastructure, and the needs of overwhelmingly made up of racial mi- Saddam Hussein's boast to turn Israel the American family. norities and the poor, taking the risks for into a giant crematorium through indis- It remains to be seen whether we would an ill-defined national interest. criminate bombings of its civilian popu- have found ourselves in the grip of lead- Perhaps most unsettling is the eager- lation, his lethal use of poison gas against ership so unworthy of power if 50 percent ness of many on both sides to have it out the Kurds in Iraq — many are crimes of Congress had been women when all militarily. Bush and Hussein made no against women in particular, as all are these electronic war toys were being ap- real effort at peace because they wanted offenses against humanity in general. propriated. to fight. The grip of machismo on our Silence is consent; feminists must not be —Linda Clarke • Student at Columbia public life can be seen in the delight of passive in the face of active, institutional- University many leaders and journalists in playing ized evil. war games and testing war toys, not to —Eleanor Pam s longtime activists in progressive speak of the defense industries' need to Eleanor Pam is a Professor, Hostos at and feminist movements, we de- keep up that budget. And while the U.S. C.U.N.Y. plore the violence and aggression plays world police in one region, it barters A levied against the Iraqi people. away the freedom of the Baltic states in utraged! Filled with incredible sad- Furthermore, we do not believe this war another. ness, pain and anger, I summon the is a solution to the global crisis facing the In spite of much talk of peace, there is wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr. world's people. little concern for women's lives or even who in 1967 addressed students at All loss of life is tragic — American, OSacramento State College on "War and token interest in what women think about Iraqi or Israeli. But the news we get this war. One lesson for feminists is that Conscience" saying "this way of settling ignores the loss of Iraqi life as if Iraqi, we must be heard as a voice on foreign differences is not just...We have again indeed all Arab people, are irrelevant, as and domestic policy in this country if fallen victims to the deadly Western if their lives don't matter. we hope that the new world order will [American led] arrogance and lies that We urge progressives to come together reflect humane priorities globally and have poisoned the world order for so long." in support of a negotiated settlement that at home. Once again we have built on political begins with U.S. withdrawal from the —Charlotte Bunch • Director of the myth for economic gain and then shored Middle East. Center for Global Issues and Women's it up with new violence. Black, Hispanic And, we urge progressives to oppose Leadership - Douglass College and poor white youth will die in dispro- forced conscription of young women and portionate numbers, in a desert where men into the armed forces with the peaking as feminists, we are opposed they have no right to be. They will all too concommitant loss of civil liberties here to any warin the Persian Gulf, where soon realize that this war is being fought at home. young men and women would lay for the wealthy and secure to insure that —Eleanor J. Bader, Mary Lou down their lives in a conflagration they remain so through their oil profits. Greenberg, Carolyn Handel, Beverly Swhose cost in blood and dollars would be George Bush would see our daughters Lowy -On The Issues staff COUNT ME IN. Here is my subscription to ON THE ISSUES. I have checked the appropriate box below You may be a Please Check One Box: Q Renewal Q First-time first time reader; i NAME but don't let this be ADDRESS your last issue! 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nil.In.lliliil.lli.il WEDEN 1990 raped by another (male) worker there is the second-in-command of ROKS, the October 1,1990. The flight is un- no redress. The Swedish government does shelter's national umbrella group, is my eventful — except that somewhere not, as yet, fund research into male vio- guide and translator. The shelter is a over the Atlantic I turn 50.1 arrive lence against women; it funds, but only huge three-story building with three in Stockholm almost "as naked as minimally, the 110 shelters for battered separate entrances and enough room for the day I was born," i.e., they've women, some of which have been in exist- a bookstore, child care center, meeting Slost my luggage. It's chilly, I'm wearing ence since 1979. The shelters are largely hall, theater, offices and a kitchen — in summer clothes, but SAS agrees to give dependent on female volunteers. addition to the five private apartments me a clothing allowance. Officially, I've been invited by the that house 17 women and children. Ev- The Hotel Oden: A welcoming row of Swedish Research Council on The Hu- erything is cheerful, brightly painted. I lamps, perennially lit against the soft, manities and Social Sciences to partici- gaze at the lighted windows of the five gray Nordic sky: Happiness — a sauna pate in a three-day international confer- apartments on free, feminist soil. (Well, and a machine that serves capuccino, ence in Stockholm; to give lectures at not exactly free. Paid for by the city, by another machine that expertly shines Uppsalla, Sweden's oldest university; and membership dues, by the proceeds from your shoes with you still in them — and at Umea, its newest, not far from Lapland. the bookstore and from cultural pro- a sex club just across the street. Norwe- My first night in Stockholm, I visit the grams.) gian born feminist theologian Eva Europe of royalty, the Europe of tourists: Afterwards .dinner with Gun in a nearby Lundgren sends Amy Elman, an Ameri- The narrow, cobbled streets of the Old cafe. "Have you ever been to a sex club?" can-born graduate student, to my rescue. City, the fairytale outline of castles and I ask her. I've begun to ask this of every We buy the most beautiful coat in all of ships against the sky, and dine by candle- feminist I meet. Apparently, no one has. Stockholm: Areally fine birthday present. light on smoked fish, caviar, wine. Amy Elman once tried, but was told she Over coffee, rich and strong, we discuss, October 2, 1990. Back to reality. I visit couldn't enter without a man. non-stop, the situation of women in Swe- Alia Kvinnas Haus, the Stockholm Shel- "Why do you want to go, Phyllis?" Gun den. ter for Battered Women. Gun Englund, asks me. Despite its world-class reputation as a "Either we'll go and enjoy ourselves," I humane and enlightened state, and de- reply (at this, Gun looks horrified), "or spite the existence of legalized prostitu- we'll go and feel our feelings: Embar- tion and pornography, reported rape is on Mothers rassment, desire, fear, terror..." the increase: Only the number of convic- "Maybe anger," says Gun. Slowly. tions for rape has decreased. So much for "Right," I respond. "Maybe we'll over- the illusion that legal prostitution will turn some tables." limit male sexual violence to the "bad" on the "Oh," says Gun, smiling. "I'll call up my girls and spare the "good" girls. boyfriend to come with us so we can get Most (80 percent) of Swedish women in." (He won't, it's getting late, and we are segregated into 11 low-paid profes- part.) Last year, when I gave a lecture for sions. Women (at least 20 percent, ac- Run and the 10th anniversary of the Feminist cording to one recent study) are also sexu- Therapy Clinic in Tokyo I also suggested ally harassed on the job. Those who com- going over to "hang out" in the red-light plain encounter on-the-job retaliation. district known as Shinju-ku — all 800 of More important, such harassment is not Other us. (Well, why not? A girl can dream can't officially viewed as a problem. By law, she?) men and women are "equal" as workers. If one (female) worker is harassed or Atrocities Continued on pg 42 ...Scenes from Sweden, 1990 By Phyllis Chesler

Phyllis Chesler (left) with Eva Lundgren—Sweden, 1990

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 PHOTO: COURTESY PHYLLIS CHESLER 23 THE STRANGE CASE OF MARK CURTIS:

VICTIM OR VICTIMIZE!*? By Fred Pelka

• i^ ive months after Mark Stanton and beating a political prisoner. So the rights, his defense committee in Des 1 Curtis was arrested in Des Moines retractions, when they came, were even Moines is picketed by the National Black J on charges of sexual abuse and more startling. United Front. While Curtis claims he was ^ burglary, Detroit Mayor Coleman "I've done some checking on my own," framed because of his fight for undocu- A. Young sent a letter to the au- wrote Detroit Councilman Mel Ravitz, in mented Latino workers, activists in the thorities in Iowa charging frame- a letter to the victim's father, "and have Des Moines Latino community say they up and police brutality. concluded that it is improbable that Mr. never heard of him until his arrest. While "As an early union organizer," Young Curtis was framed." Councilmen John his supporters contend Curtis was pros- wrote on August 18, 1988, "I am con- Peoples and Nicholas Hood also wrote ecuted as a warning to labor organizers cerned that Mr. Curtis may be being personal letters of apology for their sup- everywhere, his own union refuses to harassed for his political beliefs rather port of Curtis. endorse the effort to free him. And while than fairly investigated and brought to The Socialist Workers Party has de- feminists from North Carolina to Great trial for actual criminal activity." voted an enormous effort to the Curtis Britain write letters of support, counsel- Young's letter was one of hundreds sent case in the three years since his arrest. It ors at the rape crisis center in Des Moines to Des Moines that summer on behalf of has gathered endorsements from more insist on his guilt, and accuse his defense Curtis, a 29-year-old-member of the So- than 8,000 political activists and organi- committee of harassing a teenaged rape cialist Workers Party (SWP) and an em- zations in and around the world and victim. ployee at the local Swift meatpacking raised, by its own estimate, $150,000 in Critics charge the Socialist Workers plant. It echoed a Detroit City Council living room and union hall fundraisers, Party with perpetrating a hoax that is resolution which stated there was "no and by working the crowds at peace and rapidly becoming an embarrassing cause evidence" that Curtis beat and raped* a prochoice rallies across the country. Past celebre. Feminists in particular charge 15- year-old African-American girl in her and present Curtis endorsers include Ed that the success of the Curtis Defense home on the night of March 4,1988, and Asner, Congressmen John Conyers and Committee in winning financial and po- referred to "a brutal attack" on Curtis by Ronald Dellums, Angela Davis, the Rev. litical support reveals a deep streak of "law enforcement officials" of Polk County. Daniel Berrigan, Detroit Bishop Thomas sexism among progressives, and an ig- It isn't often that the government of one Gumbleton, several chapters of NOW, norance of the realities of rape. What American city accuses another of holding the national chair of Sinn Fein, and mem- does it mean, they ask, when so many bers of Parliament and the African Na- "politically correct" people are willing to [*Note: The rape survivor's last name tional Congress. has been changed to protect her But while endorsers around the world Curtis, at his sentencing, flanked by confidentiality. ] see Mark Curtis as a champion of civil prosecutor (left) and his attorney.

24 PHOTOS :BOB NANDELL / COURTESY: THE DES MOINES REGISTER ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 25 take, at face value, the word of a white from Jason. The tape of Jason's whis- directions to the Harris house. When they man convicted of rape over that of his pered message was played to the jury. Dr. arrived she asked him to get out of the car Black victim? Jodie Helmick from the Broadlawns and walk her into the house. She let him The case against Mark Curtis rests on Hospital emergency room testified that in with a key, and then disappeared into the accounts of two key witnesses, 15- Demetria had been beaten, while nurse the house, never to be seen or heard from year-old Demetria Harris and her 11- Jane Brackney described Demetria that again. year-old brother Jason. Accordingto their night as "crying, pretty upset." And though "Well, I heard a noise behind me, a 'bam' testimony, they were home alone on the no semen was found on Demetria (the as the door flew open." It was officer evening of March 4, 1988, watching TV, entire encounter on the porch lasted less Gonzales. "He handcuffed me, my wrists when there was a knock at their door. than 10 minutes. It took two minutes behind my back, turned me around, sat When Demetria asked who it was, a man me down on this bed that was there, he answered "Mark." Thinking it might be pushed me back onto the bed and he their bigbrother Mark, Demetria opened The closer one unbuckled my pants and pulled them the door to see a "tall and skinny" white down...I was — I was — I was flabber- man standing on the steps outside their gasted. I was — this was crazy. This was enclosed front porch, asking if "Bonita or gets to Des Moines, wild." Keith" were there, if this was 1545 lXth Curtis' account at the trial differed from Street. The Harris home is at 1529 lXth the less luck the story he had told in the initial months Street —just a few houses down. When after his arrest. In the original version, it Demetria told him he had the wrong Curtis has had was Demetria Harris herself who flagged address, the man asked if her parents Curtis down near the TNT Bar, and lured were home. Jason, getting bored, went him to her home. One month before the back into the house to watch TV. That's organizing his broad, trial, however, Curtis changed this story when "Mark" pushed his way onto the to that of a mystery woman — an uniden- porch. political fight tified Black teenager who was, according "He closed the door behind him," to Curtis, another cog in the police con- Demetria told the jury, "and he told me spiracy against him. — threatened, he said, 'I have a knife. I'll from the time Jason called the police to But Curtis was unable to produce a hurt your brother and you if you don't when they arrived; Curtis was interrupted single witness to corroborate the exist- cooperate.'" before ejaculation occurred), forensic ex- ence of this Black teenager. Neither did Demetria struggled, until "Mark" be- pert Paul Bush testified that dirt and Curtis deny during the trial that Demetria gan punching her in the face and head. creases on Demetria's clothes corrobo- was assaulted, (though he has since re- Jason, hearing the struggle, came to in- rated her account of the struggle. Curtis' ferred to her as "the alleged victim"), nor vestigate. Opening the door a moment he wallet and keychain were found on the did he challenge the authenticity of Jason's saw "Mark" on top of Demetria. Jason Harris front porch, his car was found 911 call, or accuse Kim Manning of lying went back into the house, armed himself parked out front. when she said the call came in at 8:51 (a with a kitchen knife, took the phone as Demetria's hour-long account of the at- crucial point, since the SWP claims Curtis' far from the porch as he could, and dialed tack was detailed and explicit. "I started presence at a bar until 8:30 constitutes 911. getting sick," she told the jury at one "an unchallenged alibi"). When asked why "This man is raping my sister," he told point. "I wanted to throw up but I couldn't Demetria and Jason would falsely iden- police dispatcher Kim Manning. Man- do it." Pointing to Curtis, she said, "He's tify him, Curtis said nothing about a ning logged the call into her computer at exactly who did those things to me." police frame-up. Instead, he replied, "I 8:51 PM. She then radioed officers Jo- Most Curtis endorsers have never heard don't know." seph Gonzales and Richard Glade, parked this testimony. In "The Frame-up of Mark Prosecutor Catherine Thune made short nearby. The officers arrived two minutes Curtis," a slick video by Hollywood direc- work of the conspiracy theory. How could later, pulled up silently. They walked to tor Nick Castle, Demetria is only allowed the police know, she asked in her summa- the front door and knocked. to speak for a few seconds. Three days of tion, when and where Curtis would go "Mark" put his hands around I testimony, much of it damaging to Curtis, shopping, or what route he would take? Demetria's throat, "and started choking are reduced to 30 minutes of tape given How could they know that the traffic light me, and told me not to say anything." largely to descriptions of conditions at the where the mystery woman was stationed Gonzales and Glade pushed through the Swift plant, of the beating Curtis received would turn red just as Curtis reached it? door, and "Mark," his pants down around at police headquarters after his arrest, of How could they know that Curtis would his legs, took off into the back of the Curtis as activist, son and husband. give this stranger a ride to the Harris house. Demetria, nude from the waist What the video gives us is Curtis' ver- house, then leave his car, enter the house, down and bleeding from the face, told sion of events, as recounted at the trial. and wait to be arrested? How could they Gonzales, "He just raped me." According to this, Curtis started the know the Harris children would cooper- The assailant was cornered in a back evening at a meeting called by Latino ate in framing a total stranger? And why bedroom, where, his pants still down activists to protest the arrest of 17 un- use children in a frame-up, why use a around his legs, Mark Stanton Curtis documented workers at a Swift plant ear- charge of sexual assault, when such cases was handcuffed and read his rights. lier that week. After the meeting, Curtis are notoriously difficult to prosecute? Demetria positively identified Curtis went to a local bar, leaving at 8:30 to go Thune has her own theory as to how at her deposition as the man who as- home. At 8:45 he left his house to go Curtis wound up at the Harris home that saulted her. She and Jason both repeat- shopping. Curtis says that on his way to night. Curtis' former neighbor, named edly identified him at the trial. Officers the store, while stopped at a red light, a Keith Harrison, had moved the day be- Gonzales and Glade identified him as I teenaged girl demanded that Curtis give fore to 1545 lXth Street. Curtis had asked the man they arrested at the Harris her a ride. She told Curtis that someone for Keith and his housemate Bonita by house on March 4. Kim Manning testi- , from the nearby TNT Bar was after her. name and address when he first spoke fied as to the time the 911 call came in Curtis let her into his car. She gave him with Demetria on March 4. Curtis, ac-

26 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 cording to Thune, was looking for Keith "personally denounce any organization the March 4 meeting, just hours before Harrison at 1545 lxth St., and instead or individual who says we should support his arrest, about "the need to get the wound up on the doorstep of Keith Harris, Mark Curtis." union very involved in defending these at 1529. Calls to the Iowa Federation of Labor, workers." He described it as a large While on the stand, Curtis denied ever the Des Moines chapter of the NAACP, meeting. "There were many of us from speaking toeither Keith or Bonita.Bonita, the American Friends Service Commit- my department at work, and family called by Thune immediately after Curtis, tee, the Catholic Peace Ministry, Des members of the arrested workers. The testified that she and Keith had spoken to Moines and Iowa NOW, and the League media was there, and so on." Curtis on several occasions. Curtis was of United Latin American Citizens "I don't know that he said anything," thus caught in a direct lie under oath. (LULAC) come up with the same answer. says Ila Plasencia, who organized and Curtis also had to admit that he had lied was present at the meeting. Plasencia, about his marital status when first taken past national vice-president for the into custody — he told the police he was Curtis says the police midwest section of LULAC, was a leader single when, in fact, he is married. His in the campaign to free the Swift 17. credibility was further damaged when simply started beating (Sixteen of the 17 were eventually freed; Thune pointed out that he had been fired one was deported to Mexico). "It wasn't a from a previous job for lying on his re- big meeting. There was no press there." sume. Curtis admitted fudging his re- him, calling him a No one else who was there remembers sume — making up jobs he'd never held — Curtis at all. "If he says he's an activist in but insisted that he was fired because of "Mexican lover" the Hispanic community," says Plasencia, his radical politics. "I would say no." For his part, defense attorney Mark Plasencia openly resents the fact that Pennington, during his summation, flatly "The reason they're organizing around she is quoted and LULAC is mentioned in denied that he or his client were claiming the country," said Marti Anderson, direc- Curtis literature. When asked what she frame-up. What this was, Pennington told tor of Polk Country Victim Services at thinks of the theory that Curtis was the jury, was an admittedly improbable the time of the trial, "is because they framed for his advocacy of Latino work- case of mistaken identity, combined with can't organize in Des Moines. He's not ers, she pauses a moment, and laughs. a bizarre coincidence (the mystery woman that important a person. He claimed to According to Charles Adams, author of leading Curtis to the scene of the crime), have been active in the feminist commu- Labor Defense and the Mark Curtis Case, and perhaps some overzealousness on the nity, but those of us in the feminist Curtis, far from being a threat to the part of officer Gonzales. community never heard of him. He Swift management, was described by his The jury found Curtis guilty as charged. claimed to be an activist in the union shop steward as "a quiet kind of guy who Curtis was sentenced by Judge Harry movement, and the unions in Des Moines kept to himself." And when Latino workers Perkins to 25 years in the Men's Reforma- aren't supporting him." walked off the Swift production line to tory in Anamosa. In April 1990 the Iowa "I think there's a lot of resentment protest the arrest of the Swift 17, Mark Court of Appeals rejected his final appeal. here," says Douglas, "over what people Curtis, self-described "militant unionist," "Curtis decided pretty quickly after he see as misrepresentations by the SWP of "antiracist fighter," and proponent of got out on bail that he wanted to organize Curtis' activism." Latino-Anglo worker solidarity, refused a broad, political fight against what was . Two examples of this "activism" are to join them. clearly a frame-up." listed by the SWP as the primary reasons "It's all a hoax," says Carter. "There isn't From The Frame-up of Mark Curtis: A for the alleged frame-up. The first is a shred of truth to any of it." Packinghouse Worker's Fight for Justice, Curtis' participation in a march against Mark Curtis was literally caught with by Margaret Jayco. police racism in nearby Clive, IA, two his pants down, minutes after a 911 call, But the closer one gets to Des Moines, weeks before his arrest. Larry W. Carter, in the home of a half-nude and bleeding the less luck Curtis has had organizing president of Des Moines NAACP, was adolescent who insisted that he had just his "broad, political fight." one of the organizers of that demonstra- raped her. There was an eyewitness to "There aren't many people in the peace tion. He says that "Curtis had absolutely the assault, and other corraborating evi- and justice community in Des Moines who nothing to do with organizing that. Maybe dence: His keychain and wallet, his car have bought his story," says Bill Douglas, he was there, but so were hundreds of parked out front, "Keith and Bonita," chair of the Iowa Socialist Party. Rudy other people." Carter himself "believed together with his proven duplicity under Simms, civil rights activist and regional from day one that [Curtis] was guilty as oath. As a result, Curtis' claim of frame- director for the National Conference of sin," and "was gratified when his appeal up has little credibility in Des Moines. In Christian and Jews, says Curtis "has no was rejected." Far from seeing Curtis' fact, there is a good deal of outright ani- support that I'm aware of in the Black arrest as a "racist conspiracy," as the mosity to his campaign, especially among community here. Personally, I can't fathom SWP has described it, the Des Moines African- Americans. How is it then that so NAACP "told the County Attorney's of- many people outside Des Moines, who any civil rights organization or any mi- identify themselves as progressives, and nority organization supporting Mark fice from the start that we wanted this man prosecuted just as strenuously as even feminists, have lent their names, Curtis." their reputations, and, in many cases, A call to Curtis' own union, local 431 of we imagine they would prosecute a Black man charged with raping a white teen- their financialsupport , in an effort to free the United Food and Commercial Work- Mark Curtis? ers in Davenport, revealed that, other ager." than sending a letter protesting his treat- I The second reason for framing Curtis is 'The first thing (SWP members) do is ment in custody, it has done nothing on supposed to be the speech he gave at the the personal favors trick," says Barry behalf of Curtis. When a petition for Curtis United Mexican-American Community Shuchter, editorial committee member of was circulated at the Swift plant, none of Center on behalf of the "Swift 17" — the the Boston Labor Page. "They say, 'We've the workers on his shift signed. Perry J. 17 Latino meatpackers picked up earlier been on the line with you, we've come to Chapin, president of the South Central that week by the INS. At his trial Curtis Iowa AFL-CIO, has stated that he would testified that he'd spoken in Spanish at Continued on pg 38 27 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 his is one person's account of an States today (for example, the slaughter murder before Lepine's frenzied shooting event that happened in 1979, but of women who reject their husbands, lov- of "fucking feminists." Rarely has a mur- m had its roots in the turbulent '60s. ers, boyfriends, or admirers), and there derer of women been so explicit about his No picture of those times would be has been a dramatic escalation in the hatred of women and his motivation for complete without noting that vari- number of serial killers of women in the killing them. ous government agencies were ex- past three decades, mass killings were One of the effects of Lepine's mass tremely active spying on and attempting considered to be gender-neutral forms of femicide has been to break through many to infiltrate and disrupt progressive, people's denial of how lethal misogyny radical, and revolutionary organizations. Fay Stender. often is for women. In contrast, when Fay The government's Counter- Stender was shot by a man in intelligence Program 1979, no one asked whether (COINTELPRO) was in full her being a woman was a factor swing, and a favorite tactic was in the attempt to kill her; that spreading false rumors about is what I will address here. particular groups and indi- But first I will describe what viduals to break up unity and happened in the early hours of sow dissension and disillusion- Memorial Day, and what is ment. While we don't know known about Stender's would- whether or to what extent gov- be assassin. ernment forces were involved in "It's hard to accept the idea the attack on Fay Stender (set- that, in the mind of some would- ting it up, encouraging or car- be assassin, pulling out [of the rying it out) and its aftermath, prison movement] just before we think it's important for she burned out is a sin punish- readers to keep this possibility able by the kind of lunatic bru- in mind when reading Diana tality visited on her in the E.H. Russell's article. middle of the night in her own home." — Austin Scott, LA Marc Lepine's massacre of 14 Times, 5 June 1979. female engineering students in I have chosen to write about Montreal on 6 December 1989 the death of Fay Stender, a marked the beginning of a new well-known California attor- era of misogynist murder — or ney, because I was very deeply femicide, as some feminists have affected by it. In part this was named such acts. Although because I knew her. Her lover i sexist murders are an everyday was a close friend of mine. In I phenomenon in the United addition, Stender lived in my FAY STENDER & THE POLITICS OF MURDER Mass killings were considered gender-neutral before Lepine's frenzied shooting of "fucking feminists" By Diana E. H. Russell

28 PHOTO COURTESY DIANA E. H. RUSSELL ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 neighborhood; I was with her only 24 talk to you," warned Neal. Seeing two gun found in his possession by the police hours before she was shot. As a political women in the bed, Brooks asked Stender was later determined by ballistic tests to radical, I also identified with her. Conse- to identify herself. He then ordered her to be the weapon used to shoot Stender. But quently, I found the attempt to kill her for sit at the desk. Brooks was released before the test was political reasons particularly horrifying. "Have you ever betrayed anyone?" conducted. A few days after his release, Stender was shot six times at point- Brooks asked Stender. She denied that Brooks was apprehended for armed rob- blank range in her Berkeley home by a she had. bery with five other men — four of them man later identified as 27-year-old, ex- "Don't you feel you betrayed George (including Brooks) ex-felons on parole convict Edward Brooks. One .38 caliber Jackson?" Once again, Stender denied from California prisons. bullet hit Fay's head, narrowly missing that she had. Brooks then ordered her to On 19 June, 1979, three weeks after the her brain. Three other bullets stuck her write the following statement: shooting, Edward Brooks was charged in in the abdomen and chest, damaging her "I, Fay Stender, admit I betrayed George court with attempting to murder Fay spinal cord and right lung. The remain- Stender. ing two bullets fractured bones in her It was not only Fay Stender who be- arms causing nerve damage. When Stender considered lieved that Brooks was a gun whose trig- Brooks ran from Stender's home, he "left ger had been pulled by others. Most law her for dead." Ste"nder was 47 years old at enforcement authorities believed — and the time, a feminist, the mother of two all prisoners to still do believe — that he was a member children, Neal and Oriane, and had re- of this all-male group of prisoners and ex- cently separated from her attorney hus- be political prisoners prisoners formerly known as the Black band, Marvin. Family, but transformed by Jackson into Stender was on the critical list for the the Black Guerrilla Family. Jackson had next few days and in the intensive care Jackson and the prison movement when hoped to replace "the criminal mentality" unit at a Berkeley hospital for several they needed me most." of group members with a "revolutionary weeks. When she was discharged, she Before he was gunned down in a prison consciousness." was permanently paralyzed from her escape attempt, Jackson had been a char- Brooks, however, steadfastly denied waist down. ismatic, political radical and author of that he had any connection with the BGF. Unable to endure the profound disillu- the much acclaimed best-seller, Soledad He said that he admired George Jackson, sionment and the relentless physical pain, Brother (1970), a passionate and eloquent but had never met him. During the trial, Stender herself eventually completed account of his prison experiences and Thomas Broome, Brooks' attorney, did Brooks' attempt to terminate her life. revolutionary politics. He had also been a not allow his client to testify. According "I'm just living for this [Brooks'] trial," longtime client of Stender's. to Peter Collier and David Horowitz, she told friends. "I want to see him put After starting this coerced confession, authors of a 1981 article on the case, away." Three months after Brooks was Stender protested. 'This isn't true. I'm "Broome did not want Brooks to reveal sentenced to 17 years in state prison for just writing this because you're holding a his feelings about George Jackson, 'which attempted murder, an overflowing con- gun to my head." But she completed the was something he was really into and gregation of grieving family, friends and "confession" when Brooks threateningly that would have hurt his case'." acquaintances attended Stender's funeral waved his gun at her. Nonetheless, less than two months af- — a year to the day (May 28,1980) after After pocketing the statement, Brooks ter Brooks' attempt to assassinate Fay Brooks forced his way into her home and requested money. Neal and "JoanMorris" Stender, Berkeley Barb reporter Bill shot her. — a pseudonym for the other woman Wallace expressed skepticism about Stender died in Hong Kong from a drug trapped by Brooks in Stender's bedroom Brooks' affiliation with the BGF. In part overdose. She had fled there in an effort — gave him the few dollars they had with this skepticism was based on what to quell the terror of another assassina- them, while Stender told him her money Wallace considered to be the unreliability tion attempt. But with the diminution of was downstairs in the kitchen. Brooks of the sources, often referred to in vague this terror, Stender's grief, disillusion- ordered Neal to tie Morris' hands to- terms such as "law enforcement experts" ment and anger came to the fore. Try as gether. Next, he forced Neal to lie face- or "prison authorities." Some, however, she might, she was unable to obliterate down on the bed, tied his hands behind argue that fear of the BGF might have these feelings and the state of profound his back, then followed Stender to the caused sources claiming knowledge of despair that accompanied them. She kitchen. There, she started to give him Brooks' membership to insist on ano- killed herself after less than two months the $40 she had stashed away in a nymity. In addition, since secrecy about in the country she had chosen for self- drawer, but Brooks suddenly raised his BGF membership was one of the group's banishment, half a world away from her gun, and from a distance of only two feet, rules, Brooks' denial of participation home. shot her six times. cannot be taken at face value. Edward Brooks had used a woman to Responding to Stender's screams, Neal Eleven years later, it seems that the gain entrance to Stender's home. Believ- ran downstairs, his hands still tied behind weight of the evidence at my disposal ing her to be in distress, Stender's 20- him. He found his mother lying on the indicates that Brooks was a member of year-old son Neal opened the door. Brooks floor, soaked in blood. "I'm dying," she the BGF. For example, the San Francisco sobbed. Examiner claims to have obtained a 22- — armed with a gun — then stepped page BGF document drafted at San forward and demanded to speak to Because Stender's would-be murderer did not know her, and because of the note Quentin in 1974 which states: "Our Stender. support has been destroyed by the vul- "Please don't hurt us," pleaded Neal. he had forced her to write, police started their search for suspects in the Black tures who call themselves movement "Get moving," Brooks insisted, "or I'll lawyers, with the help from their patron blow your fucking head off." Guerrilla Family (BGF), a militant Afri- can-American prison group that George saint Huey P. Newton. We call upon the Neal led Brooks upstairs to the bed- most Honorable Magistrates (of the BGF room where his mother sleepily answered Jackson had co-founded. On June 8, Brooks was arrested in San revolutionary court) to render the people his knock. a just verdict by exposing and punishing "There's a man with a gun who wants to Francisco for possession of marijuana. A 29 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 those responsible for such atrocious sidered the BGF to have become "a loose- oners to be political prisoners, no matter crimes (against) the revolution." Although knit 'gang' with little of its initial political what had prompted their incarceration. Stender was not mentioned by name, she impetus." By 1989, this group was de- According to Scott, "For a few years in was almost certainly one of the attorneys scribed in the San Francisco Chronicle as the very early 1970s, the Bay Area had the authors had in mind, for Stender had having completely lost its political di- the largest, best organized and best fi- left the movement in 1973; this docu- mension, having become instead "active nanced prison reform movement in the ment was written a year later. in drug dealing, commercial burglary nation." At one point Stender received In their 1979 article about the attack on rings, contract murders, armed robbery more than 100 letters a day from prisoners Stender, San Francisco Examiner re- gangs and forgery." throughout the state seeking her assis- porters Tim Reiterman and Don Martinez In March 1984, almost five years after tance. cited "official prison sources" as reporting Brooks shot Stender, he was stabbed nine One source, who prefers to remain that "Stender was one of a half-dozen times and killed by two Folsom Prison anonymous, maintains that Stender was lawyers named on BGF 'death warrants' seen as deserving death because she re- issued several years ago, about the time fused to supply George Jackson with a that Stender was dropping her emphasis It was Stender who gun. Jackson believed that so armed, he on prison." would have been able to escape and ini- Less than a month after Stender was tiate a revolution. According to Collier shot, Charles Garry, a well-known, long- first brought Jackson and Horowitz, "Because she had opposed time Black Panther attorney with whom Jackson's suicidal plans, it was whis- Stender had practiced law for nearly a to public attention pered on the prison movement's paranoid decade, said that he had been informed grapevine that she was a 'sellout' and by the Department of Corrections in Sac- possibly even a police agent. She made ramento that he was also on an assassi- inmates. His murder allegedly occurred her decision to leave the case when she nation hit list, as was attorney Salle "during a fight between factions of a Black received an envelope in the mail one day Seamen Soladay. Both had been very Guerrilla Family prison group." Accord- and opened it to find a razor blade.... active in the prison reform movement. ing to another source, "officials believe he When Jackson asked to see Fay late in Since police protection was provided lost his life because he dropped out of the June [1971], the person who relayed the both Soladay and Garry, the authorities Black Guerrilla Family." message noted that her face was torn evidently took this "hit list" very seri- Why did the BGF feel that Stender had with fear. 'I'm not going in there alone, I'll ously. While many on the left would likely betrayed George Jackson and the prison take another lawyer with me,' Fay said." mistrust information that comes from movement when they needed her most? In 1973 Stender had to close the Prison the Department of Corrections, Soladay The irony of this accusation is "almost Law Project for lack of funds and because and Garry did not. The pair were de- beyond belief — as reporter Austin Scott "after four years of doing nothing else., .it scribed as "staying in a constant state of pointed out in the Los Angeles Times — was just too painful." The pain included preparedness against the chance that since it was Stender who first brought extreme disappointment in the behavior they may be the next assassin's target," Jackson to public attention. It was she of some of the men she had helped. At- and Soladay "left the Bay area tempo- who conceived the notion of Jackson torney Doron Weinberg told Collier and rarily" because she felt so threatened. authoring a book, and it was she who was Horowitz about one of Stender's clients Reporters Collier and Horowitz write responsible for finding a publisher for for whom she had won parole. "Within a that a week after Stender was shot, Fleeta what became an influential, passionate month he supposedly threw his girlfriend Drumgo — one of the Soledad Brothers and moving bestseller, Soledad Brother. out the window. She knew the man well, who had been acquitted of murder after As his attorney, she did everything in and he had hurt the woman badly." Al- George Jackson's death — appeared in her power to get him out of prison before though Stender was appalled by his be- Garry's law offices. "He said he was a he was killed in 1971. havior, she continued to defend him, so member of the Black Guerrilla Family, Many of Jackson's letters to Stender are his parole was not revoked. that he had known of the BGF's plans to included in Soledad Brother. In some, he After closing the Prison Law Project, shoot Fay two weeks before the event and expresses great fondness and respect for Stender opened up a private law practice. that he was willing to sell information. her. "You are a very intelligent, sensitive During subsequent years, she became a He reappeared on several occasions, and wonderful person," he wrote on March feminist — thinking, writing, and orga- sometimes wearing a gun in his belt, and 5,1970. In April of the same year: "You're nizing on feminist issues. Among other named a former prisonmate of Brooks as like no one I've ever met from across the things, she helped to found California head of the BGF and the man who had tracks. I do think a very great deal of Women Lawyers. She also represented ordered the shooting." One month before you..." He ended this letter, "Fondly and Jane Scherr, longtime live-in companion Brooks' trial began in January 1980, Always," adding that he loved her. and co-parent of two children with Max Drumgo was killed on an Oakland street. Stender was so dedicated and active in Scherr—founder of the Berkeley Barb — Of course, Drumgo could have manu- the prison reform movement that Austin in a palimony case. When they separated, factured his story in an effort to exploit Scott described her as having been "nearly Max refused Jane's claim for a share of Garry's fears and get some money out of consumed" by it from 1969 to 1973. She the property. Having taken a strong the attorney. On the other hand, consis- formed the Prison Law Project in 1971, feminist stand on this case, Stender felt tent with Drumgo's story is the fact that investigated charges of mistreatment, stabbed in the back by former leftist Stender's daughter Oriane had bumped insisted on access to inmates, filed suits, friends who failed to support Jane, and into him a few days before her mother talked to legislators, and tried in every ended up concluding that "the left be- was shot, and "he had told her someone way possible to arouse public concern trayed me." For Stender this meant the was looking for her mother." In addition, about what she considered to be the Un- loss of the community that had been her Stender's mother also "received a death just and oppressive treatment of prison- main professional support. threat in the mail, signed by the BGF." ers — particularly those who were Afri- Stender's questioning of herself and her At the time of Stender's attempted can-American. Indeed, like many leftists murder, prison officials apparently con- at that time, Stender considered all pris- Continued on pg 40

30 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 seeking support from their American sis- took a lifetime of emotional commitment, ters in their campaign for reinstatement self doubt and pitiless honesty. An enig- and recognition. They are asking book- matic figure, she challenged colleagues PERGAMON PRESS — A Disgrace to stores not to stock, and magazines not to and charmed leading artists, from the Women's Publishing review or advertise, any Maxwell publi- flinty Degas to the reflective Mallarme. Pergamon Press, A UK-based publishing cations until the demands of the NUJ The charismatic Edouard Manet made company ownedby RobertMaxwell, which have been met. j six paintings of her, many reproduced in publishes the journal Women's Studies Other publishing companies owned by this book. In fact, his "Berthe Morisot International Forum as well as many Maxwell include Macmillan and G.K. with a Bouquet of Violets" in full color is women's studies titles under the Athene Hall. A full list of imprints is available the jacket art. Series imprint, has fired 23 members of from the Pergamon NUJ (address below). In 19th century France there was an the British National Union of Journalists They are also asking supporters to write almost iron control chaining the painter (NUJ). The 23 NUJ members, including to Robert Maxwell at Maxwell House, 8- to the Academy des Beaux Arts principles 13 women, were fired for participating in 10 New Fetter Lane, Holborn, London, and the proscribed subjects of history, a one-day strike on May 24,1989 over the Ec4A 1DU, Great Britain, and also to myth and religion. Not unlike today's company's arbitrary decision to deny Phyllis Hall, Pergamon Press Inc., Max- market, promotion offered aesthetic and union representation to one of their well House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, financial interest. And the academy members in a grievance hearing. Two of NY 10523, to tell them they are boycott- standards ruled Salon sales. A successful the women firedtoure d the United States ing these publications. Letters of support artist belonging to the traditional school in July, 1990 to raise awareness of, and to the chapter are also welcome. (Send received commissions, high prices, med- support for, their cause, including a them to Pergamon Press NUJ, 60 Cricket als, seats on committees and the valida- boycott of all Maxwell publications. The Road, Oxford, OX4 3DQ, Great Britain; i tion of peers. Since genius was considered boycott campaign has gained the support Tel: 865-60762; Fax: 865-726753, marked a masculine perogative, there were no of both school and university teachers for the attention of A/C No. 266). works by women in the Louvre or sold unions in Britain who are instructing On The Issues supports the NUJ and through the aegis of the Salon. Women their members not to buy or contribute to will not advertise or review Maxwell pub- prospered as copyists; few dreamed of titles owned by Maxwell. lications until the dispute is settled. We being more. The NUJ has always been the most urge our sister publications to do the But Morisot was a genius. She honed successful voice arguing for women's in- same.We understand that many feminist | her craft and opened a path like none terests within Pergamon, and over the writers, including Pauline Bart, Barbara before. From early studies with her sister years has managed to secure many ben- Christian and Tatyana Mamanova, will Edma under Corot, to intense dedication efits for its members, not only in pay but be caught in the middle of this conflict. : to the new dynamics, she claimed a cen- also maternity rights, health and safety We urge Pergamon to incorporate a femi- tral place in the history of art. Compiled measures, sickness benefits, and a clause nist politic into their labor practices and from journals, letters and a chronological regarding protection from sexual harass- resolve the strike with dispatch. We will overview of the intricate Impressionist ment. Now that the entire union mem- welcome Pergamon back to our family of exhibition history, the book limns an bership has been fired, these benefits advertisers at that time and will resume animated feminine sensibility. In its se- have been lost and the workforce is en- reviewing their feminist titles. ries of points and counterpoints, her story tirely unprotected. seems destined for contemporary readers. The 23 fired workers have been cam- BERTHE MORISOT by Anne Higonnet From earliest years, Morisot struggled paigning for well over a year for rein- (Harper & Row, New York, NY; $25 with a sense of ambivalence about her statement and the recognition of the right hardcover) work. When, at 33, she married Edouard of the NUJ to represent its members. The Why is Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) so Manet's brother, Eugene, she found an women's movement in Britain has been little known? Any painter worth a palette admiring supporter. Her painting was particularly active on their behalf, and a can identify her as one of the prime inno- accepted and given an integral space in number of prominent feminist publica- vators of the Impressionist movement. their married life. The birth of their tions, including Spare Rib, the Feminist But for most, Anne Higonnet's biography daughter Julie seemed to connect the Review and the Women's Press Bookclub, focuses a needed spotlight on an engross- artist to an even deeper understanding of have pledged not to advertise or review ing artist. The sole female of the radical her own instincts. She wrote to a friend: Maxwell publications until the demands school, with Degas, Manet, Pissarro, You have everything still to learn; the of the NUJ have been met. One of the Renoir and Sisley, this remarkable love of art as you call it, or simply the love, strikers took the campaign to the Fourth woman was an integral part of the group or a taste for whatever work does not International Feminist Book Fair in that revitalized the expressive genre. diminish with the years. It's really what Barcelona (June, 1990), where a number Expansive viewpoint, freer brushwork, best enables us to bear wrinkles and white of writers including Alison Lurie, Angela color use and choice of subject "en pleine hair. Chichi (Julie) is delightful, but as Carter, Nicole Brossard and Nawal el air" were the touchstones of the Impres- an intellectual resource she still leaves Saadawi signed a petition calling for a sionists. This group was bound together something to be desired and I live in such boycott of Maxwell's publications until by its rejection of the conservative Paris solitude that I would deserve to be pitied the dispute is settled. Salon — its romanticism and neoclassi- J if I couldn't occupy myself. In the United States, the National Or- cism, its didacticism, sentimentality, ex- What honest self regard and wise re- ganization for Women expressed its full aggerated attitudes and grandiosity. sponse she shows in a very familiar pre- support for the Pergamon NUJ and will Berthe Morisot evidences how freedom, dicament. In a later passage, the spirited be moving for formal support for the self discovery and an uncanny ability to mother plans to make of the beloved boycott campaign at its next executive persevere were also evident in Morisot's Julie, "a very chic woman." It's fascinat- meeting. The Coalition of Labor Union life. In her 54 years, she reconciled the ing to follow Berthe Morisot's priorities: Women has also given its full backing to diverse roles of artist, wife, mother, friend Julie, painting, Eugene and seeing select the demands of the strikers. — finding for each, expression of an friends. She successfully combined her original sensibility. Such consolidation career as an artist with that of a wife and The Pergamon Press NUJ chapter is 31 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 mother, often depicting her family in text has spawned new publications, new to Presenting Workshops on Lesbian and paintings over the years. approaches to research and new organiz- Gay Issues by Kathy Obear (The Human Morisot had undeniable influence with ing tactics. The result is that the disci- Advantage, Available from T.H.A., Suite her peers and is even credited with in- pline is moving in exciting new direc- 125, 6 University Dr., Amherst, MA fluencing Manet to adopt a wide range of tions. Bridges of Power, a volume of es- 01002,(413)584-0812) color in the mid-1870s. And yet this rec- says published in cooperation with the THE FINAL CLOSET: THE GAY PARENTS' ognized artist deprecated herself. A National Women's Studies Association, GUIDE FOR COMING OUT TO THEIR CHIL- typical example was when rallying to the tries to break new paths in women's DREN by Rip Corley (Editech Press, P.O. Manets' financial crisis after the artist multicultural studies. Parts of the book Box 611085, N. Miami, FL 33261, (305) Edouard's death, she and Monet mounted are more successful than others. 940-4749; $8.95) an exhibition. It wasn't successful. Berthe In general, each essay challenges the Homophobia has become the popular term herself bought many of the masterpieces, reader to think about some issue sur- to express the fear, hatred and oppres- turning her salon into a little Manet rounding a specific racial, ethnic or gen- sion of lesbians and gay men. museum. Her own work then occupied a der group or the ways in which (Heterosexism is sometimes used to de- secondary spot, ironically foreshadowing, multicultural alliances are formed. The scribe institutional and cultural oppres- perhaps, the book's cover. first section of the book addresses the sion.) Sometimes homophobia is evident Berthe Morisot made hard choices. question of what an alliance is and how in discriminatory laws or policies which Exploring and developing an area so women from different groups can learn to can be fought with sit-ins, demonstra- modern that the immediacy of her work together. The essays offer a theo- tions, elections and the like. But some of paintings still startle, she evolved a retical grounding in group dynamics and its most frequent and painful expres- brilliant technique notable in self por- alliance building, concluding with an sions are the words and actions of friends, traits. To a young painter she cautioned: exciting contribution by Charlotte family and co-workers. These range from You haven't come to the end of your Bunch, "Making Common Cause: Diver- relatively mild slurs to family estrange- struggles with painting...They will last a sity and Coalition." ment, friends' rejection and lost custody lifetime. The second group of essays is a bit of one's children. The tensions between Morisot never ceased painting, strug- problematic. Entitled "Women's Leader- potential liberation and potential loss is gling or responding with a radiant and ship and Power," this enticing section what makes coming out so challenging. intense spirit. Astonishing and direct, gives concrete examples of the work alli- It's also what creates a market for self- her figures dare the foreground. Berthe ances, such as the International Sweet- help guides. Morisot offers 40 black and white repro- hearts of Rhythm, do. Rayna Green's Several books have discussed coming ductions of photos, paintings and water- reprinted talk on Native American women out to one's parents, but coming out to colors by Manet, Renoir and Degas — and Judith McDaniel's essay on lesbian one's children is probably even more estimable views of an evolving Berthe. and peace activist Barbara Deming, offer traumatic. Enter The Final Closet: The However, only four, 10 percent, are her insight into a specific culture or woman's Gay Parents' Guide For Coming Out To own work. A small cavil, but this convert experience, but it is unclear how they tie Their Children by Rip Corley. It's aimed believes the four-color cover art should in with the rest of the book. primarily at lesbians and gay men whose have been her own "Self Portrait." The final section, "Building Women's children are from prior heterosexual re- The painting (from 1885) is on the back Multicultural Alliances for Social lationships. (Children born or adopted of the book jacket in black and white. Change," is the most exciting. Here, the into gay households are usually raised in Why? The motif of the biography makes reader learns of specific efforts to build an openly gay environment.) How do chil- such off-hand presentation unacceptable. coalitions. Guida West, forone, documents dren respond when told that a mother or She was a peer of, and respected by, the the conflicts and successes of the welfare father is gay? Corley notes that the age of greats. Yes, Manet's style is compelling, rights movement. This section is also the children, how amicable or hostile the but Berthe Morisot's holds its own. For multinational, offering us insight into parents' relationship is, and the previous earlier than Mary Cassatt and the parade efforts in Canada, Hong Kong, Peru, parent-child dynamic factor into the way of gifted women artists, there stood this Palestine/Israel and the U.S. a child takes the news. Corley also ad- pioneering grande dame. This final group of essays is the most dresses issues like custody problems, di- Morisot's work, her self, her life, offer valuable in respect to the intent of the vorce, grandparents and the various roles the splendor of coherence. Anne book. The others, while interesting and played by a parent's gay partner. Higonnet's next study plans to focus on worthwhile reading, do not appear to Some coming-out books offer structured her paintings. Hopefully, this will gen- form a cohesive whole. For those inter- guidance: Write this letter, make that erate much-deserved interest in the work ested in forming or teaching about phone call, plan a visit. In The Final of this most remarkable and, unfortu- multicultural alliances, however, Bridge Closet, case histories form a substantial nately, little-known artist. of Power offers a starting point for portion of the book. These stories are like — Claire M. Curtin further study. the body makeovers in weight loss ads: Claire M. Curtin is a poet and a play- —Harriet Alonso They're fun to read, provide you with a wright with a special interest in art. She Harriet Alonso is an assistant professor of good tip or two and let you know it can be lives in New York City. history and women's studies at Fitchburg done. Given the legitimate fears of many State College. parents, this is important. As the histo- BRIDGES OF POWER: WOMEN'S MULTI- ries make clear, happy endings aren't CULTURAL ALLIANCES edited by Lisa A GUIDE TO LEADING INTRODUCTORY guaranteed, but generally the parents Albrecht and Rose M. Brewer, New Soci- WORKSHOPS ON HOMOPHOBIA by feel that coming out was the right thing to ety Publishers, Philadelphia, PA', $ 14.95 Cooper Thompson and members of the do. paperback) Campaign to End Homophobia (Available While Corley*s book is a manual for The keyword for women's studies in the from C.E.H., P.O. Box 819, Cambridge, lesbians and gay men, the workshop 1990s is "multicultural." The commit- MA 02139; $10 + $2 postage) guides by Cooper Thompson and Kathy ment to address research, teaching and OPENING DOORS TO UNDERSTANDING Obear are aimed at mixed audiences and, organizing within a multicultural con- AND ACCEPTANCE: A Facilitator's Guide in particular, at challenging heterosexu-

32 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 als' anti-gay attitudes. As the authors What she finds is that sex segregation nical jobs necessary to maintain the sys- note, much of the material has been on the job, rampant before new technol- tem. And, as always, jobs held by men are adapted from earlier sensitivity work- ogy is introduced, is just as rampant more valued than those held by women. shops on racism and sexism, and include afterwards. In the industries Cockburn The same pattern holds true in newly role playing, guided fantasies and per- studies, women inevitably find them- computerized/mechanized clothing fac- sonal stories. Although the audience for selves as low-level, underpaid operators tories and hospitals Cockburn investigates. these workshops is somewhat narrow — of the new technology, while men engi- Many of the workers and managers certain not-for-profit organizations, col- neer, manage and repair the new sys- Cockburn speaks to have deeply inter- leges, perhaps some religious groups — tems. Cockburn describes the unhappi- nalized the rationales for sex-segregated these manuals will be useful in those ness of women workers at the Delta Ma- work. A number of men display shocking settings. ternity Ltd. company, which supplies attitudes about women. Some insist their The importance of lesbian and gay male children's clothing by mail order. In the jobs are too strenuous and dangerous for visibility in overcoming homophobia has old days, the packers at Delta, all women, women, even as they concede that only a been a cornerstone of the U.S. movement walked around the warehouse pushing tiny fraction of their work involves brute for 20 years. But dramatic actions, like carts, collecting the items ordered. Since strength. Technical workers frankly de- the Stonewall Rebellion or ACT-UP's St. they worked around each other all day, clare women to be mechanically incompe- Patrick's Cathedral demonstration, get they got a chance to at least say a few tent. One engineer obsessively repeats their lasting significance from a million words to each other as they did so. that women want to stay "nice and clean" mundane acts of visibility by teachers, Under the new "rationalized" system at on the job. Behind it all is the insistence neighbors, gynecologists, parents, reli- Delta, the women are now responsible for that women are primarily homemakers gious leaders and co-workers. These collecting a much smaller list of items and mothers and that their relationship books contribute to that process. within closer distance. A conveyor does a to their paid jobs is petty. —Tracy Scott lot of the moving women used to do; now Managers are the worst. One clothing Tracy Scott is a mother, activist and re- they mostly stand with their backs to industry boss says women don't need viewer from Brooklyn, NY. each other. Conversation is much more affirmative action to get a step up: "There's difficult, and the whole process is closely only two types of women. Dominant MACHINERY OF DOMINANCE: WOMEN, monitored by supervisors. women who get their own way. And soft MEN, AND TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW by For the male employees of Delta, the cuddly women who get their own way." Cynthia Cockburn (Northeastern Univer- new technology hasn't been so bad. Men, Says another high-level manager: "My sity Press) reports Cockburn, hold all the manage- job is to know when a woman is the kind Coffee breaks were always the high point ment and maintenance engineering jobs, who wants her bottom pinched or whether of my day as a clerical assistant for the as well as the better-paying truck driving she needs her bottom kicked." state of Wisconsin. At 10:15 sharp, I'd and heavy manual jobs. Only men have Some women workers have also accepted ride down in the elevator with several of been hired to fillth e newly-created tech- these sexual stereotypes, portraying the administrative assistants (all women) I was hired to help. We had 15 minutes to drink our coffee and laugh about what- ANIMAL ever our bosses (all men) had done that morning to get on our nerves. While these EXPERIMENTATION. women struck me as competent and self- effacing, our male bosses tended to be both incompetent and patronizing. Laughing at them in the lunchroom was WE DON'T a great relief. When news came that our department was to be "computerized" (this was in the BUY IT! early 1980s), we were uneasy. Some su- Your tax dollars, as well as corporate and private funding, keep a lot of pervisory types were presenting the reor- people in business and a lot of animals in pain. Each year, over 35 million ganization as a plus for us — we'd learn animals are burned, shocked, maimed, shot and blinded in U.S. new skills and upgrade our jobs. laboratories. Consider, for example, that millions of tax dollars are spent to It didn't happen that way. The state's addict animals to drugs and alcohol, while treatment programs for human basic scheme was to cut some administra- addicts go begging. This is a tragedy for both animals and people. tive assistant positions and farm out much of the department's typing work to a new Let The American Anti-Vivisection Society word-processing pool. A couple of ad- show you what you're paying for. ministrative assistants lost their jobs. Meanwhile, downstairs, another bunch of women had to spend eight hours star- Name . ing into computer screens, typing. Address This not uncommon workplace experi- City State Zip ence is the subject of Machinery of Domi- ( ) Here are my membership dues S10. nance: Women, Men, and Technical Know- How. Author Cynthia Cockburn, a senior The AA-VS researcher at the City University of 801 Old York Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046-1685. London, bases her book on an in-depth Telephone: 215/887-0816. study of several worksites in England, With your $10 membership you will receive TheAVMagazine 11 times a year. and hundreds of interviews with work- Dues and contributions to The AA-VS are not tax-deductible ers.

33 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 themselves as hopelessly technophobic. The Looney Bin Trip is a stark and in- hold, tend the crops, and "make art." It is, But they also have a camaraderie and a tensely personal account of Kate Millett's she writes, "the happiest summer of my healthy disrespect for patronizing men confinement to mental institutions here life." Radiant and at ease, she confides that reminds me of the women I worked and abroad. It chronicles her terror, de- that, as an "experiment," she has discon- with in Wisconsin. spair, and cunning in trying to secure her tinued taking lithium, a drug used for Of course, as Cockburn points out, the freedom and survive. Referring to her years to suppress manic highs, but which employers are the ones cashing in on this failed marriage, the stigma of psychiatri- had caused her unwelcome side effects. separate and unequal system. Some of cally diagnosed manic depression, sui- With this revelation, events take an in- the bosses interviewed acknowledge as cidal thoughts and acts, memories of her creasingly ominous turn as her lover, and much. Women are cheap, even though father, and obsessive relationships with then the group at large, begin to question they're often more responsible and previous lovers, the book also includes a the soundness of this decision and, even- hardworking than men. graphic account of a commitment attempt tually, her behavior and sanity as well. Cockburn offers no neat solution to sex outside Millett's loft in New York City. Her life at The Farm unravels. Mean- segregation and the technical competency From a strictly literary point of view, ingful looks pass between people when gap. She notes that it's not enough to The Looney Bin Trip, which took Millett she is near; "conversations ending when offer technical training to women; women four years to write and five years to find a I go by." At first she is only dimly aware need a harassment-free, encouraging en- publisher for, is the most beautifully writ- of the dimensions of these changes, then, vironment in which to learn. Women- ten and realized of her books. The prose is more keenly. Increasingly isolated from only training and work programs are clear, and imaginative — elegant and the earlier egalitarianism and intimacy great but can only serve a small number spare at the same time. Always a formi- of her inner circle, her personal power of people, says Cockburn. Ultimately, dably intelligent writer, Millett offers us wanes; the relationship with her lover she maintains, work itself has to change, a tough, brave, reflective book which takes deteriorates. "How little weight my per- become more gender neutral. And unions no prisoners, a psychological thriller of ceptions seem to have. I am the dis- — often still bastions of male control — sorts. cussed." have to be feminized. The Looney Bin Trip is divided into With her "nomination to mental ill- —Laura McClure three parts — The Farm, Ireland, and ness," trust metamorphoses into suspi- Laura McClure is a New York based New York City. The Farm is a women's cion and alienation as she attempts to freelance writer and labor activist. art colony, founded years earlier by Mil- cope with what is happening. Increasingly lett in Poughkeepsie, NY. The book opens passive and despondent, Millett loses her THE LOONEY BIN TRIP by Kate Millett with the author living an idyllic commu- will and ability to influence or control her (Simon & Schuster, NY; $19.95 hard- nal life with her lover and "apprentices," environment. She thinks, "If only no one cover) who maintain the property and house- had told me I was mad, then I wouldn't be." 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We offer a again," she complains about "long dis- carefully chosen selection of books, quality vibrators and many other sexual- tance calls in which my disease is spread awareness accessories for women in all lifestyles Our tasteful and informative and my reputation cancelled from New catalog has been endorsed by many leading professionals in the field of human York to California." sexuality who find our materials helpful in their clinical practice. To obtain your Dell Williams Inevitably, Millett becomes a captive in catalogue, send $2.00 to Eve's Garden, or visit our elegant midtown boutique, Gardenkeeper Mon.-Sat. Noon to 6:30PM. It will be our pleasure to serve you. her own perceptions. Lover, friends, and EVE'S GARDEN INTERNATIONAL, LTD , 119 W57th St., Suite #420 her closest relatives meld into a punitive New York, N.Y. 10019(212) 757-8651 Greek Chorus — warning, chiding, com- menting. Former sources of solace, af- fection, respect, joy, erotic connection — all are now unrecognizably transformed THE WISE WOMAN into Kafkaesque malevolents. 2441 Cordova Street As always, Millett obsesses about love. Oakland, CA 94602 She also broods about her father who (415)536-3174 "disappeared in his forties, a bankrupt my mother exiled—the firstofhi s deaths;" THE WISE WOMAN, a national quarterly journal, focuses on feminist of the rupture of her marriage to Fumio, a New York artist. She recalls her con- issues, Goddess lore, feminist spirituality, and Feminist Witchcraft. finement in mental hospitals in Califor- Includes: women's history/herstory, news, analysis, critical reviews, nia and then, two weeks later at the Mayo art, poetry, cartoons by Bu'lbul, exclusive interviews, and original Clinic in Minneapolis. She grieves about research about witch-hunts, women's heritage, and women today. the mother who sent her there, "betrayed Subscription: $15 a year/$Z7 for 2 years, $36 for 3 years (U.S. funds). by the very person who gave your body Sample copy or back issue: $4 (U.S. funds only). birth, that is too much to bear in these Published quarterly since 1980 by Ann Forfreedom. >v / coffins." A FREE 1 -year subscription to each Women's Studies teacher that / \ She describes how older sister, hus- sends in a copy of this ad. Z band, and lover conspired to institution- THE WISE WOMAN, 2441 Cordova St., Oakland. CA 94602 34 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 alize her on the West Coast. (A Troika of HOW I WROTE JUBILEE edited by Poets of the Forties and the Optimism of Intimates in the service of the Establish- Moryemmo Graham (The Feminist Press; the Age" is the most fascinating, for it ment — Trojan horses all). Then later $9.95 paperback) treats a period often neglected in favor of again in New York, this time with an Unfortunately, poet-novelist Margaret the '20s and '60s in both book and essay alternative trio of Significants — younger Walker's name is probably known to form. Here Walker astutely erects an sister, different lover, oldest friend. Un- very few. What renown she has rests on historical scaffold which permits us to see derscoring her conundrum are the chill- two brilliant works: Her 1966 historical clearly how technique, theme and external ing words of one of the psychiatrists as- novel, Jubilee, and"For My People"! 1942), forces exerted influence on African- sessing Millett's candidacy for the looney the title poem of a volume which won American poets from the 1920s through bin: "Your only mistake was in trusting the Yale Younger Poets Award. the '40s. the people who brought you here." Unfortunately, the neither fish-nor-fowl For readers who wish to learn about The last two chapters of The Looney character of How I Wrote Jubilee will some of the more important figures and Bin Trip continue Millett's cycle of des- probably do little to change her status as periods in African-American literature tiny which began the summer after her a "minor" writer. and who don't require specific works and freshman year when she worked at St. Oddly, the book's editor, Maryemma their interpretation, this volume is Peter's Asylum in Southern Minnesota. Graham, Director of the Afro-American valuable despite considerable lapses in Especially harrowing is the section about Novel Project at the University of editing. her "capture" in Ireland. The narrative Mississippi, has included both personal —Ernece B. Kelly advances like a dangerous storm in slow essays and essays focused on literary, Ernece B. Kelly is a teacher, film critic motion. A riveting and suspenseful ad- political and social matters. It's hard to and writer from Brooklyn, NY. venture story, its dramatic conclusion conjure up a potential audience as a will leave the reader breathless and re- consequence, forthe personal information lieved. will interest those already familiar with FILM & VIDEO Seeded throughout The Looney Bin Trip Walker's perceptions. Likewise, the BUILD HOMES NOT BOMBS, 18-minute are Millett's controversial views on many serious reader of literature is probably videotape. Directed by Erika Pilar issues, including psychiatry and drugs already familiar with the literary and Andersen. Produced and released by the as mechanisms for social control, and the political issues being discussed. More than National Jobs with Peace Campaign, 76 nature of mental illness itself. Ultimately, likely, although published as a trade book, Summer Street, Boston, MA 02110. $10 taking dead aim at the professionals in this slender (153 page) and very readable to rent; $ 15 to purchase. the field, she questions whether there is volume will be consigned to college reading "Build Homes Not Bombs" is a straight- such a thing as mental illness at all. She lists. forward, old-fashioned organizing tool. In asks, "But what if there were something The first section — the book is divided on the other side of crazy? What if, across into two parts — "Growing Out of that line, there was a certain under- Shadow," includes six essays which =L off our backs standing, a special knowledge?" examine the socio-economic circum- $2 a women's newsjournal | Ever the libertarian, Millett pleads for stances of Walker's early life: A rigidly the mind itself, for its wonder and beauty, segregated South; professional parents but especially for its right to be free. insisting on the best possible education CELEBRATING "Bring down the madhouse ...The human for their children; and early contact with condition is helped best by being re- Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, 20 YEARS with OOB spected." As an artist- advocate, she ap- both of whom influenced her career. prehends sanity as a spectrum, a rain- "How I Wrote Jubilee", the most widely \ a) Y bow, morally indifferent. She argues elo- known essay in this section, was originally " 1 ,r.. quently for the integrity and sanctity of published as a brochure in 1972. It "places within the great, still-unexplored chronicles the disruptions, some lasting country of the mind. None to be forbidden. years, which interfered with the research None to be punished. None to be feared. and writingofhow her great grandmother If we go mad — so what?" survived slavery. It is the story of the The Looney Bin Trip is a powerful and woman as artist, a story which, by 1991, poignant book, a record of personal fail- has been told by many others. ures and triumphs, an unflinching ex- "Richard Wright" is a piece dealing with amination of an evolving life and psyche. an author considered by many to be the greatest influence among a generation of Provocative in its point of view and as- off our backs, a womens news toundingly candid, we are offered the modern African-American writers. Refreshing candor marks Walker's talk journal, just celebrated its 20th story of an extraordinary woman in ugly birthday. We hope you'll join us for circumstances, struggling against her of her feelings about him, and anticipates many personal demons. Those which have disclosures made in her biography of our third decade of news, reviews, pursued her have been quieted, but not Wright which was finally published two commentaries - the best in feminist necessarily vanquished or identified. years ago. journalism! We think we know: Mental illness is Overall, the reader is most rewarded by subscribe today Kate Millett's bete noir. the second section. In "Literary and Other 11 issues a year: $17 Canada, Mexico: US$18 Or is it capture and confinement in the Legacies," Walker writes both analytically and provocatively about subjects ranging Overseas, all airmail: US$25, UK£16 looney bin? Trial sub: 3 issues for $5 Or is it love? from the humanistic tradition in African- American writing, to women writers, to NAME —Eleanor Pam writers of the 1940s, to an inquiry into ADDRESS Eleanor Pam is a professor of Behavioral William Faulkner's treatment of race. CITY STATE ZIP and Social Sciences at The City Univer- Of the eight essays in this section, "New sity of New York. oob, 2423 18th St. Wash.DC. 20009 35 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 the days before the development of acces- sible video technology, the materials in this 18-minute video would have made an excellent slide show. Its purpose is to win people's support for the "Build Homes, Not Bombs" project of the National Jobs with Peace Cam- paign. It will be more or less effective depending on the particular audience. It has one simple message. Leona Smith, president of the Philadelphia Union of the Homeless, asks: "Why are there three million homeless people in the nation, while we live in the richest damn country in the world?" The answer, unsurprisingly, is very simple. As narrator Robin Scott Manna points out, since 1980 military spending has doubled ($150 billion to $300 billion), while federal expenditures for housing development have gone down 80 percent ($35 million to $7 million). INFORMATION CALL 212-925-0606. A scene from the video DIANA'S HAIR There are, perhaps, fewer more impor- EGO, reviewed below. tant messages in this period of debate SKIN AND INK: ARTISTS AND COLLEC- over national priorities and discussion of TORS 28-minute video by Barbara Artie, Native American communities with re- the "peace dividend." That's why this Nora Monroe and Maureen Wellner. spect to gays and lesbians. reviewer wishes that the video had been This fascinating video is about women made with enough imagination to grab and tattoos: Beautiful tattoos applied by DIANA'S HAIR EGO 29-minute video by an audience's attention. It is probably both male and female artists on women. Ellen Spiro. weakest where it might be most impor- The "collectors" of this artform are cov- This video documents one hair stylist's tant, with young people. Most of the ered with indelible, intricate and colorful campaign to educate her community about video is talking heads, some with more designs. In the video, women talk about AIDS. Diana's hair salon serves as her interesting things to say than others. the stigma of being tattooed (one lost her campaign headquarters. Her clientele, One exception to the "talking heads" five children in a custody case because both male and female, not only get stylish approach, footage from a June 1988 ac- "she was tattooed over 60 percent of her haircuts but get an earful on the issue as tion, depicts Jobs with Peace and National body"); the empowerment they feel be- well. Unfortunately, the camera work is Union of the Homeless members building cause of the tattoos; and their enchant- not good and distracts from an otherwise a symbolic shanty on the front lawn of the ment with skin art. compelling video. Pentagon. But even here, despite hearing Unfortunately, the poor camera work is — Junior Bridge some speeches and seeing some people very distracting. The subject is such that Junior Bridge is a writer from Alexan- getting arrested, we don't really get a it would also be worthwhile to ask the dria, VA. sense of how effective the action was, "collectors" to explain why they find being except for a fairly positive TV-news re- tattooed such an empowering experience, port on a Washington, DC station. why it took being tattooed for some of One of the more important points these individuals to feel more secure about SINGER IN THE STORM by Holly Near brought out in the video is how many themselves. (Produced by Stephen Powers and Holly people are only an eyelash — a rent hike, Near, 1990 Chameleon Records). a paycheck, a co-op conversion — away HONORED BY THE MOON 14:41-minute The forces behind the flurry of publicity from homelessness. video by Mono Smith. Produced by the around Holly Near's newly released auto- The reordering of federal spending pri- Minnesota American Indian AIDS biography, her signing with Chameleon orities and the elimination of wasteful Taskforce. Records, and her portrait on PBS, seem and destructive weapons systems are Slow moving, slow talking, mostly head bound and determined to prove that a crucial for solving the larger social crisis shots, this video concerns homosexuality women's-music artist dedicated to peace in the U.S. This video, in the right context among Native Americans. The subject is and justice can make the switch to main- with the right audience, could play a role an interesting one in that homosexuality stream big time. Well, if anyone can do it, in organizing people around these issues. is rarely documented on film, much less Near can. And, certainly, if this album is For more information about the video discussed by minority ethnic groups. In the test, she hasn't sacrificed her art for or the Build Homes Not Bombs Campaign this instance, the viewer learns that Na- fame. contact: Jobs with Peace, 76 Summer St., tive Americans considered homosexual- Far superior to her previous album Sky Boston, MA 02110, or tel: 617-338-5783. ity a strangeness, an apartness, deserv- Dances (Redwood Records, 1989), Singer — Dan Cohen ing of honor. Traditionally, it was seen as in the Storm is sensual, joyous and full of Dan Cohen is the cultural editor of the a special gift bestowed upon an individual. beauty. Its theme is dreams, but dreams Guardian Newsweekly. Unfortunately, the subject is presented in that only action of some sort will make a somewhat dull fashion, but it did whet come true — dreams of freedom, of peace, THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE the appetite for more information on why and, yes, even dreams of living on after FROM WOMEN MAKE MOVIES, 225 Native Americans approached homo- death, in memory and melody, in stories LAFAYETTE STREET, NEW YORK, NY sexuality the way they did, and made me and their tellers. Particularly moving is 10012. FOR RENTAL OR PURCHASE wonder about current feelings among Near's work with Mercedes Sosa. Their

36 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 powerful voices blend in an urgent alle- lence, the narrator, one of two elderly (SIC), has her PI, V.I. Warshawsky, res- mande and link their common cry for the sisters living on the Upper West Side, cue the labrador retriever of a murderer, right to be free in Sting's eloquent and makes forays to the parks. She finds a and assume responsibility for him. The moving "Cueca Sola" (They Dance Alone) dead bird and places it in her Channel 13 dog becomes a continuing character in and Victor Heredia's "Todavia Canta- tote bag to rebury properly in her flower the series. mos" (Still We Sing). "Ella's Song (We pot. Accidental and domestic animals Women authors do not need a Lassie Who Believe In Freedom)" by Bernice share the sisters' lives. A mouse has es- running over hill and dale on a mission, Johnson Reagon is also noteworthy. Near caped the sisters' cats by jumping into the or a wolf dog in the frozen tundra who is is joined by Linda Tillery, Joey Blake and "can." The mouse is "flashy, with a good at last domesticated. Women seem to feel Rhiannon for a powerful no-holds-barred breast-stroke and fine coordination...an that we have more changing to do, rather rendition of this wonderful gospel hymn. admiring roach pulls up in the slow lane" than the dogs more training. We have to This is a marriage of politics and music to to watch this swimmer. From their win- learn communication, for the spoken word absolute perfection. dow ledge the narrator watches pigeons cannot convey the emotion of a sharp, John Bucchino, Near's arranger and who "kiss almost more than anybody ex- clear bark, a noisy meowing or steady accompanist, is a compelling pianist. His cept young people who all but mount on purring, from which we can supplement driving rhythms and quicksilver speed the street." She answers her Class of our store of vowels and consonants. impel the music. At the same time, on 1928 questionnaire: "Ugliest Thing I've How would woman or beast address the cuts such as "Te Doy Una Cancion," Seen" — "Seeing a person or animal homeless who claim a bench as their Bucchino's tender arpeggios complement mistreated or humiliated by one stronger retreat and a sleeping bag as furniture? Near's heartfelt, romantic delivery. than they. Seeing the unwanted — chil- The animals find something unfamiliar, Despite the fact that this album, re- dren, old parents, pets — cast out." unfamilial about these people to avoid corded at a concert in Oakland, CA in "Beautiful Things"—"The wit and wonder them, or Tosh stands at their benches 1989, was "augmented" in the studio with and grace of most animals." barking. bottom, rhythm and vocal harmony, it In the contemporary classic, Elsa We are all of us uncomfortable in the retains an intimate immediacy, that spe- Morante's World War Two epic, History, park, the dogs on short tether, the home- cial connectedness between audience and a Novel, set in Italy, the fate of less becoming snowmen. Their pets are performer that only a live performance characters in Rome is snared with their their bags, and, inside each bag, is a can give. Songs that Near fans have heard dog, Blitz, "a little brown dog... jumping memento, or a memento mori: A snap- many times before, "Harriet Tubman in a paroxysm of happiness...an animal shot that could have fallen from our photo (Lifeline)," "The Great Peace March" and of slight dimension, round, with album of a woman, a car, a house, a smile, "Singing For Our Lives" still have enor- crooked legs and a curled up tail...a big a dog. When the glue dries in our lives mous power to move, but I would like to head with one ear more erect than the and images fall from their binding, there hear some new material from her. "Singer other...a typical homeless dog." Useppe, must be someone to replace them, some In The Storm," her new "signature" song, the baby, learns the language of dogs in bindery where our spines are stiffened while lyrically powerful, suffers melodi- an Edenic time of innocence and pure and covers renewed. cally from a forced sameness. Near's love amidst the corruption of war. Blitz Perhaps in this Garden of Eden of our wonderful voice needs some innovative, ends, as his name predicts, to be replaced nostalgia of our Utopian planning, bags ground-breaking material. by the sheep-dog Bella, another mother will be declared obsolete, and their own- Singer In The Storm, though, makes for for little Useppe. Bella is his adviser, ers will blow them up and burst them exhilarating listening. As usual, Near's saves the child from drowning and tells loudly in unison. Then, the people on the music challenges her audience to act, to him, "They'll never be able to separate bench will leave these pews to return to feel, to love, to speak up for change. With us in this world." In the tragic ending, their lives, the dog of their album affixed this release, she attempts to connect her they are together. to their hand, the smile to the face. cry for human dignity with her art in a In the genre of mysteries, which women In the park whippets will lope, spaniels mainstream product. have taken to writing with energy and will romp and Tosh will remind me of —Lynn Wenzel resourcefulness, villains mistreat dogs, what it is to unleash the affections. • Lynn Wenzel's recent book, I Hear ex-lovers are left for indifference to America Singing, explores the social historyanimals, relationships are re-thought if Prof. E. M. Broner is the author of five of America through its musk. She is Manag-the male rescues a kitten. Sara books, including Her Mothers and A ing Editor of New Directions for Women. Paretsky, founder of Sisters in Crime Weave of Women.

WOMEN AND DOGS from pg 17 For A Vegetarian Seder animals. I am now an avowed antivivisectionist. One day I could even Egalitarian, Traditional, Poetic anticipate vegetarianism. I begin to think of the relationship in Haggadah For women's books to animals. Animals are part of the community in The Liberated Lamb women's Utopian novels, like Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, or Hebrew /English, paperback $14.95 Sally Gearhart's The Wanderground. In cloth 24.95 Gearhart's book, the women's community Postage $1.40 asks permission of the horse before 617-631-7601 mounting and thanks it courteously af- Micah Publications terwards. Language is developed between 255 Humphrey St. Long Distance Orders: woman and animal. Marblehead, MA 01945 1-800-YES-MICAH In Alma Stone's Now for the Turbu- 37 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 smelled like cigarette smoke when Curtis MARK CURTIS from pg 27 was a member, contribute to the willing- ness of the left to support almost anyone doesn't smoke; that Demetria "insisted your events. Now we're asking for this claiming frame-up. he was wearing a belt" when in fact he one favor in return.' Then comes the But by far the most compelling "evi- wasn't, and so on. Each of these asser- 'Look who else has endorsed' trick." This dence" of frame-up is the beating Curtis tions is false. Demetria on numerous works especially well with unions. "For a received while in custody. After his ar- occasions described Curtis as "tall and union not to support another union is rest, Gonzales and Glade turned Curtis skinny" with a mustache; she also de- seen as disloyal." over to other officers. The police say that scribed the clothes he was wearing. She Indeed. R.T. Griffin, president of the while at the station Curtis reached for the never claimed to have seen a belt, she Central Arizona Labor Council (CALC), holster of the officer Daniel Dusenbury, said she heard what sounded like a belt writes that "we at CALC wage (sic) all who struck him across the face with his jingling as Curtis pulled off his pants. Unionists to support the efforts to defend nightstick. Curtis says the police simply ! This could have been the keychain at- Mark Curtis and ask the Labor Move- started beating him, calling him "a Mexi- tached to his belt loop, entered as state's ment to stand behind him to illustrate can lover." The blow shattered Curtis' left evidence. And Curtis himself admitted solidarity for a Brother." cheekbone, and 15 stitches were required he'd spent several hours at Los "Talking to people," says Linda Nelson, to close the gash on his face. Compadres drinking beer with friends former chair of the Iowa Socialist Party, Curtis filedcharge s against Dusenbury who were heavy smokers. So it is not at "I realized that they didn't know much and his partner, but both were exoner- all unlikely that Curtis smelled, as about the case. And I would ask them, ated in the subsequent police investiga- Demetria said, like "a combination of face to face, 'Do you think he's innocent or tion. The police say Curtis refused to co- alcohol and cigarettes." guilty?' and they'd say, 'I don't really operate with the inquiry. Curtis calls it a Also cited are "irregularities" in several know, but he was framed.' In other cop whitewash, and more evidence that of Judge Perkins' rulings, such as his words, they were supporting Curtis out he was framed. dismissal before deliberations of the only of solidarity for a comrade." Either way, Curtis supporters do not Hispanic on the jury. But it was the juror What adds credibility to the SWP pitch seem to believe, as Detroit socialist Mar- himself, James Garcia, who asked to be is a long history of actual FBI harass- tin McLaughlin puts it, that "the police removed. Perkins refused to admit Curtis' ment, virtually from the party's founding beat up the guilty as well as the innocent." FBI file, testimony about the FBI's past in 1938. A report by former New York McLaughlin, a member of the Workers harassment of the SWP, or evidence of judge, Charles D. Breitel, cited instances League, a socialist group which is an the beating Curtis received hours after from 1938 to 1976 of SWP members los- ideological foe of the SWP, is the author of his arrest into evidence, ruling that these ing their jobs because of FBI harass- The Mark Curtis Hoax: How the Socialist were irrelevant to determining whether ment, arrests of members on spurious Workers Party Tried to Dupe the Labor or not Mark Curtis attacked Demetria charges, bugging and burglary of party Movement, a devastating critique of the j Smith on March 4. Curtis supporters offices, anonymous death threats, and Curtis campaign. For their efforts the allege Judge Perkins, along with the Des physical attacks on party offices and Workers League has been dismissed by Moines police, the Polk County Attorney's members. The Bureau gathered millions the SWP as "an embryonic fascist organi- office, Polk County Victim Services, of pages of fileso n hundreds of members zation." "In other words," says (probably) the management of Swift and (including Curtis), and cultivated 300 McLaughlin, "if you don't support Curtis the FBI are all part of the frame-up paid informants in a party whose na- you are branded as anti-labor, and out- conspiracy. tional membership is estimated to be side of the workers' movement." Strangely enough, after all the effort anywhere from a high of 2500 to a low of A photograph of Curtis' swollen and spent discrediting Demetria, the SWP 750. Yet the FBI turned up no evidence bloodied face, taken immediately after his claims that Curtis was convicted "solely whatsoever of any treasonous act com- release, has been massively reproduced, on the testimony of a cop who was a mitted or planned by the SWP. and features prominently in the Nick proven liar." This is a reference to Not everyone takes so seriously a Castle video. It is blown up and used on Gonzales, who had been suspended 10 Marxist party with a seemingly un- posters at Curtis rallies around the world. years before the Curtis trial for fudging equaled propensity for internal squabble Nick Molnar, vice president of the United an arrest report to protect the identity of and mass defection. In its history, the Mine Workers (UMW) in Ebensburg, PA, an informant. It ignores the testimony of SWP has spun off such groups as the wrote a letter to Demetria's father ex- Jason, Glade, Manning, and, most sig- Spartacist League, Socialist Action, the plaining his endorsement of the Curtis ! nificantly, of Demetria herself. While Revolutionary Marxist Committee and campaign. "The story given at that time Des Moines feminists bristle at this dis- the Fourth Internationalist Tendency. was that he was sleeping on his couch at crediting of a rape victim's testimony, Many of its women members, citing what home when the police broke in and ar- Marti Anderson of Polk County Victim socialist-feminist Karen Brodine de- rested him on so-called trumped-up Services is even more incensed by the scribed as "the SWP's growing conserva- charges." "convicted solely" argument. tism, anti-feminism, and crass opportun- The printed materials distributed by "In their account the girl disappears, ism," left the party in 1966 to form the the Curtis Defense Committee (CDC) are i she doesn't exist. It's as if her word, her Freedom Socialist Party. (Ironically, the only slightly less fanciful than the story of story, her experience, counts for nothing." FSP is listed as a Curtis endorser.) Curtis arrested while "sleeping on his "When your gut reaction is to sympa- The SWP filed suit against the federal couch." Their brochure, "Who is Mark thize with an accused rapist of a young government in 1973, and in August 1986 Curtis?" is fairly typical. In part, it echoes girl (and Black) then you have to investi- won $264,000 in damages. The govern- Pennington's defense of Curtis at the gate not only the facts but such a reac- ment appealed, but settlement was fi- trial, where instead of asserting frame-up tion ." From "Labor Defense and the Mark nally made the week after Curtis was he concentrated on attacking Demetria's Curtis Case" by Charles Adams. arrested. This history, and the continu- credibility. Curtis endorsers, by publicly support- ing harassment of groups such as the The brochure claims, for instance, that ing Curtis, declare their belief that Committee in Solidarity with the People Demetria's description of her assailant { Demetria Harris and her family are either of El Salvador (CISPES), of which Curtis didn't match Curtis; that the assailant police dupes or outright liars. Most en-

38 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 dorsers do this purely on the basis of the arrest Curtis was planning to prepare "a cused you of rape? That would put a SWP account. Not one of the numerous chicken and rice dish, his specialty" — as crimp in your political work, wouldn't it?" endorsers I interviewed had made a single if to ask: Could a man who cooks be a Almost as disturbing is how the SWP phone call to Des Moines. rapist? tried at times to obscure the fact that There is, of course, a long and tragic "There's this eternal denial on the part Curtis is a white man with a college history of rape survivors being silenced of the left," says Claire Kaplan, director of education. One of their allegations, for by the criminal justice system, where the the National Coalition Against Sexual example, is that Curtis "did not have a most prevalent forms of rape — date Assault, "to think that men among their jury of his peers." As peers, the SWP lists rape, marital rape, rape by family or ranks couldn't possibly commit such a "Blacks, Hispanics, farm workers." It's acquaintances of the victim — are almost crime. But if you talk to women active in difficult to see this as anything but a never prosecuted. This is especially true the left you'll hear widespread complaints cynical attempt to co-opt the oppression for women of color, and reflects a dynamic about sexism. I'm a socialist myself, I'm of others, including Curtis' victim. If any- of social denial so virulent that Dr. Judith involved in a fineorganization , but there's one has a right to complain about the fact Herman, author of Father/ Daughter In- still sexism." Kaplan sees the Curtis case that the jury in Curtis' case, as well as the cest, has concluded "this society doesn't as "backlash, pure and simple." judge and court officers, were white, it is prohibit rape, it regulates it." Linda Nelson believes that to deny Demetria. What becomes immediately evident in Curtis could rape because he is a leftist is In a reply to an anti-Curtis editorial in any feminist analysis of the Curtis case is "the same dynamic which occurs when the Boston Labor Page, Russ Davis, a how effectively the left has acted to si- communities refuse to believe some fine Boston Curtis organizer, wrote that "there lence the survivor. We know little or upstanding citizen (the banker, the scout have been cases (Scottsboro Boys, etc.) nothing about her from reading the CDC leader, etc.) could do such a thing." This where rape has been used in frame-ups. material — her age and year in school, for denial is both exploited and encouraged The fact that Mark is white does not example, are never mentioned. Nor is it by the Curtis campaign. change that." (Italics are mine.) mentioned that her parents were active Also exploited by the CDC is the myth It's significant that Davis' list of cases in the civil rights movement in Des Moines that women "cry rape" to manipulate or where rape "has been used in frame-ups" in the 1960s, helping to integrate the intimidate innocent men. Endorser Paul begins and ends with the "Scottsboro local Firestone Tire Plant, or that Keith, Shannon, for example, with the Boston Boys" — a group of African-American Demetria's father, broke the color bar in chapter of the American Friends Service men convicted of rape by an all-white his union local. Today Keith runs a one- Committee, said he considers Curtis to be (and all-male) jury in Alabama in 1931. truck hauling company from his home, another man "framed by the feminists." In that case the main prosecution wit- and Demetria helps by baby-sitting and Barry Shuchter recalls a Curtis supporter nesses were themselves incarcerated answering the phone. At the time of the asking him, "What if some woman ac- during the entire length of the trial, one attack Demetria also worked part-time at a local Burger King. Her favorite sub- ject at school was nursing, and the evening of the assault she and Jason had gone for a walk with friends to buy cook- ies at a neighborhood candy store. All in QUALITY PRINTING, all, Demetria and her family seem an improbable choice for police/FBI co-con- spirators. QUALITY SERVICE. Mikel Johnson, a Des Moines feminist and observer of the Curtis case, believes that "there are some very heavy aspects Our customers They also know of racism to this case. There were even have a lot more in that when a project statements at the time of the trial that it's common than you'd comes down to the impossible for a Black girl to give testi- think. wire, people will be mony this good." Johnson says she was Of our mid range burning the mid- "outraged from the start, because it was print run customers, night oil. And when apparent that Curtis' credibility rested all are so confident a question can't primarily on the fact that he is a white that not one ap- wait, their account man." Johnson also sees "coastal chau- proves color on administrator is vinism" at work in the way activists from press. They enjoy available, day and New York, Boston, or L.A. will endorse near perfect delivery night. Curtis without calling anyone in Des histories and most all Why so much in Moines. "People in Iowa," she says bitterly, have practically un- common? Because "couldn't possibly know what's going on limited selected bind- they all share an in their midst." ing capability at their uncommon quality Curtis supporters place great credence disposal. printer named Fry. in the notion that "good men" — that is, men who agree with their politics — don't rape. Nick Castle's video discusses Curtis' FRY COMMUNICATIONS • 717/766-0211 800/334-1429 pro-labor sympathies, his membership in 800 WEST CHURCH ROAD, MECHANICSBURG, PA 17055-3198 CISPES, his concern for Native Ameri- cans. Curtis' mother testified about her son's years as a cub scout and Webelo, and his "normal" dating habits. Jayco in FRY her book tells us that on the night of his 39 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 of them recanting after her release. The Curtis inside (Curtis was out on bail the but — I couldn't — every moment of it defendants had been pulled off a train at entire six months between his arrest and hurt overwhelmingly — too deep, too random after a racial incident. trial), Keith smashed the plate-glass win- pervasively — way beyond acupuncture There is one similarity, though, be- dows with his fist. "I cut my hands, but I or psychotherapy." tween the Curtis case and that of the wanted them to stay away from my kids." A great deal of fear was engendered by Scottsboro defendants. In both cases, the Like Curtis' activism, this vandalism the attack on Stender. As Berkeley Barb prosecution witnesses, women without becomes more significant the further one reporter Bill Wallace stated several weeks access to power and unable to tell their gets from Des Moines. It is seen by Curtis afterwards: "The atmosphere of fear cre- stories, were vilified by the left. In 60 endorsers not as the understandable, if ated by the shooting remains impenetra- years that much, at least, hasn't changed. violent, reaction of a father whose family bly thick." Wallace quoted a local prison "It is a sad story...Besides splitting the has been assaulted, but as more evidence movement activist as saying, "I'm glad energies of the peace movement and di- that Keith is a police thug. Endorser Jackie that you're the one doing this story and verting resources and attention away from Osbourne, president of the Greensboro not me — I want nothing to do with it!" the work we have to do, the [Curtis North Carolina chapter of NOW, says she Likewise, several of my friends expressed Defense] committee is again raping the discounted Keith's open letter to Curtis anxiety on my behalf simply because of a victim...by having to call her a liar to supporters because "we understand that short article I was writing about Stender's create their version." he has been responsible for some violence murder for a little-known feminist publi- From "Is the Personal Political? (Com- against the Curtis program. Our under- cation. Many people refused to even talk ments on Mark Curtis)" by Linda Nelson, standing was it was something like a mail about the case. from the Iowa Idea. bomb." My early attempts to understand this The attacks on rape victims by the The Curtis Committee claims that the horror story in all its complexity, pro- Curtis Defense Committee have been Polk County Attorney's reluctance to duced only the most cynical and bitter specific as well as general. According to prosecute Keith for his vandalism is fur- "insights." For example, I felt that Demetria's father, these have included therproof of collusion. But this anti-Curtis Stender's experience showed that it was the leafletting of Demetria's high school conspiracy doesn't seem to extend to the foolish — indeed dangerous — to try to with flyers denouncing her as a liar civil courts. The SWP brought a lawsuit work for radical change. That those who (Demetria was personally handed a leaf- against the Harris family, winning $2,000 do so inevitably could not do enough — let as she stepped off her bus the morning for damage to their windows. incurring criticism, being treated as "the before the trial); the posting of handbills How will all this end? No doubt Curtis enemy" by some of these critics, and be- up and down their street; and the use of will be out on parole in a year or two, but coming the target of accumulated hatred money collected through the Curtis De- whether the Curtis campaign moves be- and frustration, while the real enemies fense Fund to hire a private detective to yond embarrassing individuals like were ignored. It seemed to be a warning have the chidren and their family inves- Coleman Young and Ed Asner remains to to inactive but politically progressive tigated. be seen. Claire Kaplan of the National people not to try to help solve some of the Terry Schock, Demetria's rape crisis Coalition Against Sexual Assault has not inequities in society, because if they did counselor, recalls how the SWP packed yet seen any damage to the stop-rape so, they might be in danger when they the courtroom while Demetria was on movement on the national level, but fears stopped. And for those already in the the stand, moving people in and out that "groups will be divided wherever the struggle who hadn't become too well during the most difficult part of her tes- SWP takes this campaign." Barry known or hadn't been recognized as too timony, telling jokes and carrying on Shuchter of The Boston Labor Page is valuable to the movement, the message conversations. Schock saw this as "an concerned that the case will "divide labor was: Quit and be safe. attempt to intimidate" Demetria. The and feminists in very unhealthy ways." Not surprisingly, I was not the only one commotion became so distracting that In their pamphlet, "Who is Mark Curtis?" to respond in this way. Ezra Hendon, a Judge Perkins stopped the proceedings an SWP supporter is quoted saying, "This friend and former colleague of Stender in to ask the bailiff to restore some order. is not a case about rape." But the Mark the Prison Law Project, said that Stender's Mikel Johnson refers to "a campaign of Curtis case is precisely about rape. It is death "marked the end of an era in my harassment," culminating in the burn- about the insidious and pernicious myths life, and I think the end of an era, period. ing of a cross on the Harris' front lawn. that work to silence rape survivors and Her conviction that you could be commit- The Curtis campaign has admitted protect their abusers. It is about backlash ted to a political goal, work for it and be leafletting Demetria's school. CDC coor- against the stop-rape movement. brilliant in its service—in a clean way— dinator Stu Singer is quoted in the Sept. It is about how easy it is for a rapist and that's over for me. I don't know about the 2,1988 Des Moines Register, saying that his friends to recruit allies in their attack others, but I can't have that belief any- Curtis supporters wouldn't return to on a courageous young woman who dared more. Demetria's high school "because we al- to speak out against her abuser. • "I guess it would be easy to say," Hendon ready did, and we don't have to do it continued, "that Fay played with fire, again." (The CDC in Des Moines refused FAY STENDER from pg 30 and people who play with firege t burned. to answer questions about this or any But it should count for something that other issue. When I called I was told to life opened her up to a lesbian relation- she wanted to be a force for good in the put my queries in writing. Eight months ship with attorney Joan Morris. This re- world, that she was a brilliant, remark' and several certified letters later, I have lationship was so important that after a able woman who dedicated her life to yet to receive a reply.) The intention, lot of soul searching and turmoil, she others and to making the world a better says Keith Harris, was to embarrass decided to initiate a separation from place." Demetria among her friends. Marvin — her husband of 25 years. But While appreciating the despair Stender Keith became so incensed with all this her relationship with Morris was cut short and others felt, my own initial disillu- that he went down to the SWP's Path- by Brooks' bullets. In the suicide note she sionment, my conclusion that we should finder Bookstore in Des Moines several sent to her lover from Hong Kong, she all confine ourselves to pursuing our own weeks before the trial. When he found wrote: "Know that I tried and at times self-interests, came to feel intolerable, the door locked against him and saw with you almost thought I might make it, and incompatible with feminist.principles.

40 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 I am also aware that my privileged posi- She (Stender) felt that "they ripped her pened to Stender. Because she was a tion makes it possible for me to weigh the off on some level." woman — one whom the prisoners ini- pros-and-cons of making a commitment It is not uncommon for needy, depen- tially saw as a "good mother" who pas- to social change instead of feathering my dent, misogynist men to kill their wives, sionately wanted to free them no matter own nest. This privilege is one of the lovers and girlfriends for walking out on what they had done — she became the inequities that some less privileged people them against their wishes. Perhaps object of her clients' and would-be clients' — like Brooks — respond to with rage. Stender's walking out on male prisoners expectations, hopes, demands and Aside from the political motivation evi- tapped into this kind of rage against a dreams. When she couldn't or wouldn't dent in the assassination plot — albeit woman they depended on daring to finally fulfill their wishes — for example, the twisted and outrageously unjust — I be- put her own interests before theirs. request to supply a gun to George Jack- lieve that sexism was another aspect of Interestingly, "there were signs as early son — she came to be seen as a betrayer, Brooks' and the BGF's political motiva- as 1977 tha J Stender was concerned about a "bad mother". tion in attacking Fay Stender. her safety." For example, according to I am not maintaining that men in au- For a start, I don't believe that it was Reiterman and Martinez, she and her thority are not subject to some of these mere coincidence that a woman was the husband "changed their phone number same dynamics. I am suggesting that first and only person on the BGF's hit list several times and wouldn't give it out to these dynamics operate much more to be physically attacked, and that the some friends." Stender also apparently strongly with women in positions of au- most prominent radical woman attorney had "window vents in her house designed thority than with men in such positions. involved in the prison movement was the so that no one could climb through the And I am also arguing that the misogy- one to be riddled with bullets. I believe openings." She even told the Examiner in nistic attitudes and behavior of many that Stender was probably not only shot June 1978 "that many people were un- men, whether in authority or subject to it, for pulling out of the prison movement, happy that she quit prison reform work, are often unleashed when women don't but because she was a woman who did so that some believed she had betrayed the give them what they want — whether we against the wishes of her male clients. prison movement, that threats had been are talking about sex, or wifely "duties" Reporter Austin Scott describes the way made against her and that she wouldn't such as dinner being prepared on time, or Stender felt about her treatment in the be surprised if someone took a shot at efforts to release them from prison. prison reform movement after she had her." Marvin Stender said of Fay: "She loved left it. "She was ridiculed and threatened As a college professor for 20 years, I Jackson; she had said to friends that, by those who disagreed with her position, have experienced a phenomenon that outside her own family, he and Newton abused and pulled in far too many direc- many of my female colleagues have also were the only people she had ever been tions by far too many inmates who saw observed, particularly those who are willing to die for." But she said this at her as their one desperate chance to get feminists. Many of my students feel free the height of her commitment and belief out." Many of them, continued Scott, to make demands on me — some of which in them and what they and she were "smuggled pleading letters out of their are quite outrageous — that I am con- doing, not after the psychic wounds she prisons up and down the state to her." vinced they would not so readily ask of was subjected to prior to the savaging Reporters Reiterman and Martinez quote male professors. For example, one student of her body and her soul with bullets. a San Quentin convict as pointing out —• a Women's Studies major, I'm sorry to Yes, betrayal is what Stender's story is that "for everyone she helped, there were say — recently asked me to move my 35- about. Not the betrayal of George two or three others who wanted her help student class to another room so that Jackson, but the betrayal of Fay Stender but couldn't get it." someone who wasn't enrolled in my course — Woman. • The picture that emerges is one where could attend it for 20 minutes out of the hundreds of needy, dependent men — one-and-a-half-hour period. When I I would like to acknowledge my indebted- needy and dependent because of their refuse to accommodate such requests, ness to Peter Collier and David Horowitz incarcerated status — relied on Stender the response is often that I am being for their well-researched, informative for assistance. It was a life versus death, unreasonable, authoritarian, or mean. article "Requiem for a Radical" (New freedom versus incarceration kind of as- Other feminist professors have de- West, March 1981), to Joan Morris sistance they wanted. Yet, sometimes, scribed this common experience to illus- (pseudonym) for being willing to review after Stender had succeeded in winning trate how sexism operates in the class- this article and lend me her newspaper the release of a client, he spurned her. room. But such responses are not confined clippings, to Candida Ellis for her valu- For example, Stender was extremely to academic settings. It is a common ex- able editorial suggestions, and to Phyllis hurt by the way Black Panther Huey perience of women in powerful roles, no Chester for suggesting I submit it to Newton treated her after she got him out matter what their profession — lawyer, On the Issues. of prison. Roberta Brooks, a friend of politician, business woman, doctor, —D.E.H.R. Stender, told journalists Horowitz and therapist, employer, minister — even Diana E.H. Russell is Professor of Sociol- Collier that: "She told me that she and landladies. We are expected to give more ogy at Mills College and author of several Huey had been very close, and then when than men to our clients/patients/em- books on violence against women, in- she saw him at a party after he was ployees/congregations/tenants, to be more cluding the forthcoming Femicide: The released on the basis of her appeal, he accessible to them, to be more willing to Politics of Women-Killing (edited with didn't even speak to her. Her attitude listen to and make accommodations for Jill Radford). Her most recent book is was, 'Jesus Christ, I sacrificed spending their personal problems. Lives of Courage: Women for a New South weekends with my family to go down Furthermore, the reaction of females Africa (Basic Books). there to San Luis Obispo to deal with his and males to not getting what they want case, and then I see him in a room and he is also often very different. Males are GEEZ from pg 22 doesn't speak to me.'" Brooks also told much more inclined than females to vio- Collier and Horowitz that from her dis- lently act out their dissatisfactions, dis- market papers which, on average, printed cussion with Stender, "it was clear that appointments and anger. more stories by females and that refer- her feminism drew in part on the time I think this phenomenon may be rel- enced females. she'd spent representing men in prison." evant to an understanding of what hap- The additional newspapers included in 41 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 the second study were the Albuquerque ments), the women at the Times were one full professor in each department in Tribune/ Journal (NM), The Beacon- outraged. every Swedish university. Always, it's a News (Aurora, ID, The Courier (Findley, The next day, many of them appeared at man. OH), Daily Camera (Boulder, CO), Enid work wearing teabags pinned to their My lecture is on Human Psychology in News and Eagle (Enid, OK), The Joplin lapels. Then buttons started appearing. the 21st Century, but I focus on female Globe (MO), The News-Times (Danbury, They were circular with the bright red psychology: Colonized, at the heart of CT), Pine Bluff Commercial (AK), Sun- international symbol for NO (a circle with culture, yet in exile. I ask: "Has a Nobel Journal (Lewiston, ME), and The a diagonal slash through it) superim- Prize ever been given to a woman on Tuskaloosa News (AL). posed over a black teapot. It is rumored behalf of her fight for women's freedom? The Albuquerque Tribune averaged the that Frankel apologized to his staff. Don't we have our Nelson Mandelas, our highest number of female names used in In general, the remaining five responses Elie Wiesels?" Mona is enchanted by the front-page stories, 22 percent, and the were constructive and instructive. educational value of raising this idea. "Of highest number of female bylines, 51 Tom Kelsch, executive editor of the Sun- course," I hastily explain, "such a prize percent, beating USA Today's lead in the Journal, said his initial reaction was, would have to be awarded to many women 1989 study, 21 percent and 41 percent, "Geez, are we really that bad?" Upon simultaneously from many countries." I respectively. reflection and a closer scrutiny of copies of have wine and cheese and, after many The lowest average, six percent, for his paper during the reporting period, he happy hours, depart. female references was found again in the concluded that the study had made him Birgitta and I stop in a gas station. A New York Times (five percent in 1989). stop and think. He said, "First indications van pulls up and out pile three men in And the Findlay, OH Courier had no fe- show there is a problem; more study would their early 20s. They are tall: Six feet male bylines during the month-long seem to be called for." His thoughtful three or four inches, sport an earring in study period. commentary included many suggestions one ear; have bright blonde hair that The Washington Post had the highest about how to further examine the issue. cascades down their backs. Oh, I am in average photo coverage of females, 42 The Miami Herald's executive editor, the land of the Vikings. percent, one percent more than USA Janet Chusmir, also offered insightful October 4. The international conference Today's leading average in 1989. The commentary. "As a woman in charge of is at Sodergarn, a retreat on the North lowest average photo coverage of females one of the major metropolitan papers, I Sea. It is damp, windy, already growing was found in the Lewiston, Maine, Sun- have an intense desire to see all newspa- dark when I arrive. Journal, 19 percent. pers, especially my own, do a better job of There are three women from America, The initial study was conducted in con- representing women in the news pages. myself included, and 26 women academ- junction with Women, Men and Media — No, we don't do nearly the job we should, ics from Austria, Denmark, England, a conference held in April 1989 in as the survey shows. We must do better," France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Washington, D.C. The conference was she admitted. Scotland, Sweden and the United States. sponsored by the University of Southern She then goes on to discuss the goals the I'm part of the opening night panel. California and the Gannett Foundation. Herald and its parent company, Knight- My colleagues, Eva Lundgren, Rebecca Co-chair Betty Friedan, founder of the Ridder Inc., have set to attend to this Emerson Dobash, and a philosopher from National Organization for Women and a problem. Knight-Ridder has "established Paris, are sitting together in the near- prominent writer/lecturer, formed the change and progress in pluralism as top dark. The atmosphere is tense. The phi- Media Watch: Women and Men Project priorities" for all of its newspapers. The losopher arrived two days ago by train as a result of that conference. main suggestion she made about future ("she does not believe in air travel") and Results of the 1990 front-page study studies on news coverage of and by women has impatiently been waiting for the were sent to top editors of the 20 newspa- is that they include an examination of the conference to begin. The philosopher also pers surveyed, with an invitation to relative differences in story play and does not believe in switching on lights — comment. Of the 20, only seven re- content on women and women's issues. which is why we're sitting in the dark. sponded. It is clear that these and other media Nor does she believe in communicating Ben Bradlee wrote: "I am damned if I studies on the same subject have touched with us in anything less than perfect can see what conclusions should be drawn a nerve, both among the media and among French; an interpreter has been hired from your findings. The wisdom of the women. The question is: Will they stimu- just for her. ages appears to cry out for silence." The late change? • We introduce ourselves, try to warm Washington Post is facing a sex discrimi- things up a bit. No dice. Our philosopher nation suit which Bradlee has publically Both studies were designed and conducted remains disdainful, aloof, amused. Re- referred to as simply an attempt by or- by Junior Bridge, president of Unabridged becca speaks about her research on vio- ganized labor to harass management. Communications, a consulting firm in lence against women: Our philosopher Max Frankel was even snippier in his Alexandria, VA interrupts. "But you can't believe that response. Said he: the state actually exists. The state is only "...As soon as Mr. Gorbachev lets Mrs. an idea. You must respond to this point." Gorbachev do his deciding, or even CHESLER from pg 23 And Rebecca does. "Anyone who thinks speaking, we will be quoting or photo- the police officer coming to arrest you is graphing more women on Page One. Or October 3, 1990. Birgitta Holm, on the only an idea is living in a fantasy of her even Chancellor Kohl, or President Bush faculty in Comparative Literature, drives own." and their wives..." me to Upsalla, Sweden's Oxford Univer- I introduce myself. The philosopher in- When these comments and further snide sity. Professors in berets ride by on their terrupts me, too. "My group in Paris de- remarks ("If and when more tea parties bicycles in slow motion, as if World War II cided that with the publication of About were covered by the Times more female has yet to happen. Upsalla is where the Men that Phyllis Chesler was no longer a names would appear on the front pages") original Nazi eugenics research was first feminist." "What was the vote on that?" I by Frankel were reported in a Washing- done. I meet Professors Eva Lundgrenand wisecrack, but politely, carefully. This is ton Post article (by a female reporter who Mona Eliasson of the Feminist Research no laughing matter. This woman is ca- did not report on her own editor's com- Center; they explain that there is only pable of destroying our conference. (Is

42 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 she mad? Does it matter?) Now, our phi- wonderful. Professionally, they are her life on hold, an outlaw. losopher removes a two-page, closely- nurses, physicians, psychologists and The Umea feminists tell me about other typed memo from her briefcase and hands grassroots leaders. They've been together recent atrocities: The case of two doctors it to the interpreter. This, and this alone, for 11 years. Agneta has just published a who photographed their autopsy and to- is her introduction. book on incest and sexualized violence tal vivisection of a young prostitute. Afterwards, Rebecca says: "We must against women; Ingegard, a psychologist, (They were arrested when someone not let her polarize us, or drain our en- was on the faculty at the university, but finally remembered having processed ergy. I've heard this is what she does at is now working at the Crisis Center full- the photographs for them.) The physi- conferences." Eva is worried. The Swed- time. They've cooked a splendid dinner cians claimed they didn't kill her and ish Council, which funded us, has sent for us and quite ceremoniously light had no explanation for why they cut her two representatives, Bo Ohngren and Bo candles for our workshop. (Even at the up, kept the pictures and quietly dis- Sarlvik, to observe the conference. They university, they light candles in the lec- posed of her body parts. Neither man are men and they are here. ture hall.) was convicted. The/bur of us have two hours to present There's a growing custody crisis in Swe- Strong, Jack-the-Ripper stuff. I've al- our papers and lead a discussion. Our den: The Umea feminists have all read ways wanted to create a memorial to our philosopher spends one hour reading her my book Mothers on Trial in English. wounded and our dead, perhaps based on paper in French and having it translated They tell me that the media, the judi- what happens to women, worldwide, in aloud, sentence by sentence, into English ciary, and the Parliament are sympa- just one month, the number of women — this, despite the fact that her paper thetic to fathers rights and that social beaten, tortured, raped, killed...This me- has already been translated into English workers and psychiatrists are suspicious morial would have more names on it than and passed out to everyone. She refuses of any mother who interferes with any the Vietnam War Memorial. to stop, then abruptly ends by saying that father's right to visitation or who accuses The Umea feminists treat me to a Swed- had she known the conference would not a father of incest or child abuse. (Am I ish massage and to a tour of the museum; be in French she would not have come. surprised? Did I somehow think that they present me with a silver moose ("But our correspondence was all in En- Sweden was a feminist paradise?) Nora, necklace for my birthday — a copy of a glish," Eva whispers.) in Ibsen's "A Doll's House," knew she recently discovered cave painting nearby. Shoulder to shoulder, we resolve not to wouldn't be allowed to take Helmer's I'll treasure it. confront her. Instead, we try to save children with her when she left; Ingmar I'm blessed by such feminists in the what's left of the evening. Eva cuts her Bergman in "Fanny and Alexander," world. They/we are the feminist govern- presentation short, Rebecca does not shows us a typical 19th century Swedish ment in exile. • present at all, I speak for about 10 min- custody battle: A mother's new, legal utes, and try to rouse the women's spirits. husband simply kidnaps and imprisons CLASSIFIEDS No one speaks. We/they are too dispir- her children as his rightful marital ited. property. The philosopher is sly, sadistic, imperi- My point is that we don't shed our histo- FILMS & VIDEO ous, eccentric, and no doubt brilliant. ries so quickly. Today, there are mothers Were she a man, her interpersonal disas- on the run, mothers in hiding, in Sweden. ters would be smoothed over by her wife, For example, a mother I'll call Anna, has her mistress, her mother. But she is a been in hiding for nearly a year. Divorced THE BEST FILMS woman and must bear the consequences since last year, she began to grow con- of her actions, alone and immediately. cerned when, in 1988, her two- and-a- YOU NEVER SAW. Softly, politely, we avoid philosophy; half-year-old son returned with a red- Now you can rent or purchase VHS videotapes by hardly anyone talks to her for the rest of dened anus after visiting his father. The mail. Over 1,400 hard-to-find quality films are available, including Cinema Paradiso, Pixote and Story of Women the conference. boy began putting items into the anus of Our library includes foreign and independent films, The women are extremely friendly, high- dolls; he said he didn't want to see his limited release features, Hollywood classics, cult spirited, accomplished, and refreshingly father. favorites and documentaries. non-competitive; we range in age from Anna was reluctant to believe that any- Its simple and inexpensive. Makes a great gift. Phone our 30s to our 60s. Working together thing was wrong; the boy's child care or write for free information and list of films. gives me pleasure. Everyone has some- center began to ask the hard questions. A 1-800-258-3456 thing of enormous value to contribute. local shelter for battered women helped Home Film Festival* Perhaps not everyone has to be an activist Anna find two sexual abuse experts, both ft P.O. Box 2032, Scranton. 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ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 you for speaking of our children, Editors Note: In the period referred to in FEEDBACK everyone's children, and discussing with Irene Davall's article, NARAL was the Please direct all comments to: insight and heart their plight the world National Association for Repeal of Abor- Editors, ON THE ISSUES, 97-77 Queens Boulevard, Forest Hills, NY 11374. over. My only suggestion would be that tion Laws. you provide "action items" that ydur WORDS OF THANKS readers can do with reference to a par- ON ANIMAL RESEARCH AND RIGHTS I am so pleased with your Fall 1990 ticular issue. Keep it up! Many of the concerns raised by Betsy issue that I would like to order four addi- Shirley Spraguer Swart in her excellent article on animal tional copies to distribute to others (I Mound, MN use in addiction research apply to animal have a routing list of about 50 people). research in general. The animal model is Thanks! Especially for the "animal com- I would like more information and/or fundamentally unsound and virtually passion" issues discussed. And please publications you have to offer. You stand incapable of advancing medical science. don't discontinue the snappy remarks out with flying colors in that you are The purpose of an experiment is to test after each "Win Some #Lose Some" piece. concerned with the two beings I love a hypothesis, but when animal data Brooke L. Manley most: Women and animals. contradict an animal researcher's hy- St. Paul MN Angle Nabrotzky pothesis about a human disease, the Salt Lake City, UT animal data is dismissed on the grounds AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS that animals differ from humans in I am delighted with the editing and pre- ON SPECIESISM AND EDITORS anatomy, physiology and presentation of sentation of my article, "Susana: The When I wrote the essay "On Speciesist disease processes. When the animal data Myth of the Saved Child" (On the Issues, Language" (Winter 1990), I used italics seem to confirm the hypothesis, it is held Fall 1990). However, I would appreciate or quotation marks to flag all euphe- aloft as "proof" of the hypothesis! your printing my acknowledgements misms and speciesist expressions. These How can scientists, who are generally and thanks to the Ford Foundation, the are just a few of the terms that I distin- intelligent people, be so illogical? The Maurice Falk Medical Fund and the Mc- guished from my own usage: pets, reasons are many, but most often, I am Dowell Colony for helping to make this owners, master, fur farm, ranch-raised, convinced, the motives are financial. In article possible. game species, varmints, subjects, milk- the publish or perish world of science, Naomi Feigelson Chase fed veal. animal research is fast and easy. Fur- Cambridge, MA The published version of my essay, thermore, those who are trained in however, is missing most of my italics. animal research techniques would find A PLACE CALLED H.O.M.E. Removal of these important flags has it difficult, if not impossible, to succeed I am writing to you in regards to your obscured the meaning of many sentences, in another area. Meanwhile, academic Summer 1990 publication of On the Is- dissipated the essay's originally sustained institutions, dependent upon federal sues. In search of a topic for my English focus on language, and created the false grants to survive, do not want to rock the assignment, I came across Helen M. impression that I myself use speciesist lucrative animal research boat, and Stummer's article "H.O.M.E.: One expressions. Most unfortunately, each academicians who dare to challenge Woman's Approach to Society's Prob- unmarked speciesist term now insidiously the status quo put their careers in lems." perpetuates the very practice I sought to jeopardy. The MRMC will gladly supply, I am a student at the University of counter. upon request, literature that discusses North Carolina at Wilmington. I have Joan Dunayer the inherent shortcomings of the never had to experience such hardship as Old Bridge, NJ animal "model" and that documents the Ms. Stummer so descriptively wrote and suppression of criticism of animal magnificently portrayed through her LET THERE BE LESS LIGHT research. photographs of homeless victims. I quite agree with most of your Stephen Kaufman, M.D. The organization, H.O.M.E., has be- "environment savers" (Winter 1990) with Vice-Chair, Medical Research come an alternative to homelessness for one big exception: Fluorescent light is a Modernization Committee the lower socio-economic communities. I penny-wise/pound-foolish way to save Box 6036 Grand Central Sta. would have never known such an estab- energy. First, it's an ugly light which New York, NY 10163-6018 lishment existed, if not for the concern visually deforms all that it lights. Ms. Stummer has in this matter. I now Morale does, or should, count a lot I appreciate the articles in the Winter have a greater admiration for these more than many think. Also, fluorescent '90 issue on animal rights (Swart and people who have the perseverance to gives off radiation. Incandescent does Dunayer) and Merle Hoffman's thought- better their lives. not. We need to use less light to save ful piece in Fall '90 in which you I commend you on choosing to publish energy. discuss "the connections between an article that may educate the public, Bette Dewing women's liberation and animal libera- such as I, and compliment your maga- New York, NY tion." zine. I hope you will continue to keep the Jennifer L. Gala NAME CHANGE CORRECTION animal rights issue on the feminist Wilmington, NC In "Which Way After Webster?" (Winter agenda. From my point of view, work by 1990) NARAL is referred to as the Carol Adams and Collard and Contrucci NO "CORPORATE PAP" National Association for Repeal of and the emergence of Feminists for I would like to thank all of you for pro- Abortion Laws. NARAL was changed to Animal Rights represent important con- viding a genuine alternative to the usual the National Abortion Rights League ceptual and political developments for corporate pap dispensed as "journalism" after the Roe v. Wade decision was the animal rights movement. these days. I have long awaited a hu- handed down. Kenneth J. Shapiro, Ph.D. manistic publication that is not mealy- Marcia Festen Psychologists for the Ethical mouthed, or which evidences oxygen dep- NARAL Volunteer Treatment of Animals rivation in the ethereal heights. Kudos to Chicago, IL New Gloucester, ME 44 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1991 MENOPAUSE, NATURALLY: Pre- WISE WOMAN CENTER healing re- paring for the Second Half of Life, Sadja treats, workshops, apprenticeships. Free BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS Greenwood, M.D. Revised 1989. The new brochure, POB 64 Ol, Woodstock, NY edition contains new assessments of 12498. treatment of uterine fibroids without hysterectomy, lowest effective dosage of estrogen, the estrogen "patch", ASSOCIATION OF VETERINARIANS osteoporosis and calcium intake. Also FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS. Veterinarians H*N PMOSKEN WIN NCWS IS AN OPEN PARTICIPATOR* addressing ethical issues surrounding the E 0 I T O discusses new risk factors for breast cancer, OUARTERLY BV. FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN use of nonhuman animals. Contact P.O. REPORTS ON benefits of fish and olive oil, and negative WOMEN S RIGHTS AROUND THE OLOBEI effects of artificial sweeteners in the diet. Box 6269, Vacaville, CA 95696. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE 4 PARTICIPATE! FOR INFO CONTACT 187 GRANT ST LEXINGTON. MASS. 02175 (617) an «li Send $14.95 postpaid, Volcano Press, WIN News is offering a free sample to readers of Inc. P.O. Box 270, Volcano CA 95689. SERVICES ON THE ISSUES. Please send $1.00 for postage. CLOTHING FREE LESBIAN MAIL ORDER BOOK IVomeit JLoohuf CATALOG describing over 500 books, AT LAST! Work clothes, gloves & boots for hardworking women. Free Catalog. TOomen df videos, records; send 2 stamps to: For a change in your life, we invite you to Womankind Books, Dept. 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Among the many featured speakers are: CAROL ADAMS • RIVER PHOENIX • COLMAN McCARTHY • TOM REGAN • INGRID NEWKIRK • MICHAEL W. FOX • MICHAEL KLAPER • HOLLY HAZARD • PETER GERARD • DON BARNES • NEIL BARNARD • JIM MASON • GARY FRANCIONE

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