NEW ZEALAND'S FEMINIST MAGAZINE FIFTEENTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION OCTOBER 1986 ISSUE 143 $3.30 TAXING YOU - GST, THEN WHAT? NIGHTWORKER — CLEANING THE HIGH RISE FAY, RICH WHITE presents LIMBS DANCE COMPANY in EQUINOX f Photoprint -++- A SEASON OF NEW DANCE From high-energy jazz dance to ' S E S M the haunting TARAW ERA — — I— I— I— I— I—H the fresh new style of dance + + + - down under. H f - NATIONAL TOUR 1986 When you need f - Dunedin — Sept. 12,13 f - Christchurch — Sept. 17,18 H Nelson — Sept. 21,22 fine photoprints Wellington — Sept. 25-27 t - Palmerston North — Oct. 1 H New Plymouth — Oct. 4 ... on time f- Auckland — Oct. 7-12 H Whangarei — Oct. 17,18 Hamilton — Oct. 30 Rotorua — Nov. 2 Tauranga — Nov.5 Corner of Ophir & Gundry Streets, Newton. 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HOURS: 10 - 5.30 WEEKDAYS 10 - 8 THURSDAYS 10-1 SATURDAYS COME IN AND BROWSE SPORTING SUCCESS Page 16 CONTENTS FEATURES NIGHTWORKERS C leaning city offices SPORTING SUCCESS AUCKLAND TO WELLINGTON ON A BICYCLE TAXING US HARDER TEEN MOVIES WHEN A LESBIAN IS DYING — IS THERE ROOM FOR HER FRIENDS? ^THEY DIDN’T TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS IN COURT REGULARS LETTERS AND FRONTING UP BEHIND THE NEWS Not Just Home Economics/Equal Pay/Lesbian and Gay Teachers W omen’s Studies Conference — Here’s Looking at Us/Chinese Lesbians Meet SISTERS INTELLIGENCE SERVICE K ate S h e p p a rd B o o ksh o p W o m e n ’s W o rkin g Party on Drugs WHAT’S NEW ON THE SHELF Jane Mitchell competing in the HOGWASH 100 metres hurdle, East Coast Bays, H i mm CLASSIFIED ARTS REVIEWS The Electric Ballroom Whisky and W hitebait Stories From the River/Nga Kokako Huataratara/A Changing Order/Head and Shoulders, Great Expectations/Women s Mental Health ------- Project Cervical Cancer/Pirate Moon Women and Culture Broken Mirrors _________39 INTERVIEW P a u lin e O ’R e g a n 40 Cover drawing by Jeannette Wocllcombe, design by Sharon Alston BROADSHEET COLLECTIVE Sharon Alston, Peta Joyce, Claire-Louise McCurdy, Jenny Rankine, Pat Rosier, Jesvier Singh, Athina Tsoulis Editorial and policy decisions are made by the collective. 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TEEN MOVIES Page 26 Broadsheet is on file at the Women's Collection, Special Department, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois 60201, USA. ISSN 01 10-8603 Registered at the GPO as a magazine. CHALLENGE TO Issue 139, May 1986 ploughed back into women’s BROADSHEET CONTINUES If Broadsheet was political understanding, rather organisations in India. Any than airing of unsubstantiated genuinely interested in report­ meaningful investigation into Dear Broadsheet ing on women's struggles in and ludicrous views on areas Wē: are writing as anothei these “profits” would reveal into which little research has India, it should have done pre­ that costs cover Zed Press’ fermnist publication in re­ cisely that rather than publish­ been conducted and even less sponse to the four pages in overheads and enable them to thought given. ing ill-conceived arguments survive. (Zed Press is a work­ Broadsheet issue 139 de­ posing as political analysis. I 1 have found many sections voted to correspondence with ers' co-operative, unfunded, of the review and correspon­ refer to the correspondence publishing some excellent Gma (‘Broadsheet Chal­ about and review of ‘In Search dence insulting to Indian lenged’). Your editorial deci- titles by Third World women). women, offensive and politi­ of Answers’ (an anthology of All royalties go to Manushi, in­ Sibbs and selection of material writings from Manushi cally dangerous. For Gma to fdf°p>ublication are presuma­ cidentally also unfunded, write (and you to publish) a magazine, India). and are used by Manushi in bly based on the politics you Certain points made and diatribe which does everything wish to promote, which is ways they deem appropriate to cast aspersions on the polit­ questions raised in letters and and necessary— Manushi re­ surely to contribute to interna­ her review not only need ical integrity of the editors and mains the best judge of that. authors of the anthology, and tional feminism. Gma's argu­ clarification but must be ex­ ments are contradictory, per­ The point about the book nothing to even begin to raise posed as false, uninformed being available only in a sonalised and offensive. Her and dangerous. questions about the com­ foreign country/the West is plexities of women’s oppres­ Criticisms of Manushi and What is the controversy that Zed Press are not based on also inaccurate. Not only has it sion and the fightback, is to be Gma refers to in connection received substantial coverage political differences but on the with the publication of “In censured. Political criticism self-righteous assumption in the Indian press, it is also av­ and analysis of the book would Search of Answers”? If it is re­ ailable in India with demand that she is in a better position lated to her own suspicions of have been welcomed. Instead, than anyone else to articulate for it always increasing. Yes, it we are being assaulted with a the motives behind its publica­ is available outside India, and Indian women’s demands. At tion then surely it is a con­ barrage of highly charged per­ no point does she acknow­ why not? The exchange of in­ sonal statements in the guise troversy of her own making? In formation is crucial to the de­ ledge her own priv i leged posi­ any case, why should any sus­ of some kind of Black feminist velopment of political under­ morality. tion in being able to attend in­ picion befall the publication of standing and consequently, a Finally, for Gma to conclude ternational conferences. If she an invaluable and vital feminism that is inter­ that the book is “another voy­ had used this position to agi- documentation of a variety of | tate and denounce the brutal nationalist and not confined to euristic rip-off of Black and in­ Indian women’s struggles as insural boundaries. And yes, it exploitation of Indian women perceived and analysed by digenous women” is totally (as the editors of Manushi is published in English, the outrageous and offensive. If feminists and activists in language of our colonisers have done for years) all well India? the editors and authors of the but, ironically, also the lan­ book — all feminists and ac- and good, but instead she at­ Gma declares that “no clear guage that unites Black tivits — are not “permitted” (or tacks Manushi and Zed Press commitment has been made (a radical publisher, which in­ women from different parts of so it would seem) by Gma to towards the vast majority of In­ the world. Again, any cursory cidentally does not make pro­ dian women” — clearly a publish such a book, who is? investigation into the com­ Sheila Shah fits from its books) as though ludicrous accusation, and one /they were agents of capitalism plexities surrounding the England which displays ignorance usage of English in India by and imperialism! about the history and role that s If the Manushi anthology is the literate public would have Manushi is available from CI-20 Latpat Manushi (the magazine) has revealed that a book published Nagar — I exploitative and Zed Press is played for several years. Both New Delhi ripping off Indian women in in English would reach a wider 10024 India editors of the book are found­ audience, in India and abroad. publishing it, who does have ing members of Manushi and the right to spread such infor­ In the review itself, which Dear Broadsheet have worked tirelessly and on Broadsheet mistakenly ele­ I really like the stimulating mation? Or does Gma wish to a voluntary basis not only for silence everyone other than vates into “an analysis of the range of stuff in Broadsheet Manushi s survival but also in politics of the publication of these days. One reservation — herself? grass roots organising I We welcome Broadsheet's the book" Gma claims that the the article of May 1986 on a amongst women. What is the dedication of In Search... 1984 controversy on the non­ increasing coverage of inter­ commitment that Gma is national and indigenous which says, “...To all those publication of a review by an questioning? Surely the very women of India, some known, Indian New Zealand woman. women’s struggles but we fail existence of Manushi is in it­ to understand what criteria but mostly unknown, whose Current readers did not have self an obvious expression of lives have been devoted to the the information to understand could have been used in de­ commitment from the women ciding to publish personal cor­ struggle for freedom and dig­ the issues at the bottom of the and supporters who have nity...” is “empty and a bitter controversy so publication of respondence, an uninforma­ worked on it and for it.