Forward to Freedom: Women and in

JULY, 1985-_._--,....-...-

The ugly face of apartheid is once again on the front page ofU.S. newspap­ ers. It has been put there by the biggest crackdown by the South Africa regime since , and the subsequent wave ofprotests and arrests at embassies and on campuses across this country. At the same time, Reagan has continued to push his colaborationist policy of"con­ structive engagement." Reagan's ease with the racist South African regime comes as no surprise. Many of apar­ theid's features bear an uncanny resem­ blance to the history ofwomen of color in the U.S.-ofnative people kicked off their land, of slavery, and the abuse of migrant labor. Itis critical, now more than ever, that progressive women in the U.S. seize every opportunity to voice our opposi­ tion to apartheid. Itis up to us to educate ourselves and others about apartheid's deadly consequences for South African women, and stop the U.S. from banking on apartheid.

APARTHEID: PERFECTING THE ART OF OPPRESSION Apartheid embodies the most vicious combination of race, class and sex op­ pression in the world. While South Afri­ can women suffer as members of the subordinate sex, their oppression is pri­ land was designated the property ofthe illld called "migrants" in their own marily determined by the "peculiar "white nation." The remaining 13%, t.bI country. institution" of apartheid. most barren land, was declared the As their lands were being taken over Apartheid is an Afrikaans word that "homelands"·· of the Africans, even by white settlers, African men were means "separate development." In real­ though they make up 72% ofthe popula­ press-ganged into an exploitative system ity, it stands for the subordination of tion. of migratory contract labor, frrst in the Blacks to whites. The racist system of In addition, Africans may not pur­ gold and diamond mines, then in other apartheid guarantees the most intense chase land in white areas nor remain industries. The laborofAfrican men and class exploitation for the Black majority. there without a permit. Indians and women is also the source of wealth for South Africa was built into the richest, Coloreds (people ofmixed ancestry) can *"Forward to freedom, security, equal rights most industrialized country on the Afri­ only live in segregated sections within and peace for all" is the slogan ofthe banned can continent by dragging the slave sys­ the white areas. Today, the 4.5 million Federation of South African Women. tem into the 20th Century. Forexample, whites can vote and have citizenship **The terms homelands, reserves and ban­ under the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936, rights, while the 21 million Africans tustans are all apartheid terms and used 87% ofthe most fertile and mineral rich cannot vote, are treated as foreigners, interchangeably. "unproductive laborunits" bythe govern­ ment because their work in raising children and in subsistence does not produce profit. According to G.F. van L. Froneman, former Deputy Minister of Justice, Mines and Planning: "This African laborforce must not be burdened with superfluous appendages such as wives, children and dependants who could notprovide service . .. There are single African women who could be usefully employed in the White areas, and while there are white families who could not do without domestic help, the momentaBantu woman starts afamily, then she belongs in her homeland. " This slavemasters' vision ofthe role of African women has been systematically implemented by the apartheid regime on a nationwide basis since the late 1950s. At that time the pass law system was extended to women, resulting in the forced removal of millions from the white areas to the . The pass laws are pivotal to apar­ theid's control of the Black workforce. white Afrikaans-owned agribusiness. "SUPERFLUOUS All Africans over the age of 16 are On the backs ofAfrican workers, South APPENDAGES" required to be fmgerprinted and carry a Africa has become the largest food In the majority of societies, women pass book at all times, with a record of producer and food exporter on the shoulder the bulk ofchildrearing respon­ their identification, employ­ continent. European colonialists con­ sibilities. But, in South Africa, not only ment, permits to enter white ~as, tax structed the economies of the other is women's work in childrearing de­ and family status. Before the 19~s the countries in southern Africa, such as meaned, it is practically a crime to be a pass laws only applied to African men, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe and mother and have a family. Women are because African women's waged work , so that they would be depen- called "superfluous appendages" and was still peripheral atthattime. The pass laws were extended to African women in "I used to sit and think, and worry, about what would 1956 in order to force all women and children not employed as domestic ser­ happen to my children underapartheid ifI shoulddie­ vants to get out ofthe white areas. This that gave me the strength to fight. "-Annie Silinga. move provoked the most massive and dent on South African agriculture and industry. South Africa has distinguished itself by being the only advanced capitalist country in the world that pays the major­ ity of its workforce, Africans, less than starvation wages to survive. Thus, in 1981, while Africans made up 71 % of the workforce, they only took home 29.4% of the total wages. The high poverty rates among Black families (up to 62% of African families in Johannes­ burg) are the flip side of South Africa's ability to insure the highest rate ofprofit on the continent to corporate investors. The architects of apartheid did not rest content with shortchanging Black workers by not paying them enough to ~ support their families. Apartheid went ... further to physically separate African Since 1960, millions ofBlacks, mostly women and children, have beenforcibly removed families and banish women and children. from white areas to the bantustans. 2 • AAWO • July 1985 sustained resistance of South African WOMEN IN THE TOWNS women who have weaved their way women in the history of the apartheid through these hurdles can even apply for regime (see box on history of women's Apartheid has developed a maze of a permit to seek work from the district resistance). "Catch 22" type laws aimed at pre­ labor officer. Over a thousand people Since 1960, the South African gov­ venting African women from settling in per day are arrested for pass book ernment has removed 3.5 million Blacks the towns to form stable families. Sec­ violations. from white areas to areas designated for tion 10 of the Bantu Urban Areas Act Even those women lucky enough to Blacks. Atleast 1 million more Africans forbids Africans from staying in a white find work and stay in the towns still live have been forcibly relocated within the area for more than 72 hours without a on the edge of survival. Mrican women bantustans and a further 1.7 million are permit unless they can prove that they earn an average ofless than halfofwhat under threat ofremoval. As a result, by have lived there continuously since African men are paid, and only 8% of 1983 fewer than 10 million Africans, or birth; have worked there continuously white males' average earnings. Accord­ 46% of the Mrican population, still for one employer for at least 10 years or ing to Hilda Bernstein, in her excellent lived in the white areas while more than 11 million, or 54%, lived in the bantu­ stans. The majority of those moved out have been women, children and old people. Black children are the most "super­ fluous" to the regime. The government does not even keep mortality statistics for Africans. But, according to the Ned­ bank research group in South Africa, in 1980 the infant mortality rate per 1000 live births was 13 for whites, 24 for Indians, 62 for Coloreds and 90 for Mricans. In some rural areas, mortality rates for Africans are much higher with estimates of220 to 320per 1,000. Relief workers say that 2.9 million Black children under the age of 15 suffer from malnutrition. Some 35,000 to 50,000 children die each year from illnesses All Africans over the age of16 must carry their passbook at all times. related to diet deficiencies. The net result of these policies has been to close offalmost every avenue of lived there lawfully and continuously for book, "For their triumphs and for their economic survival open to African 15 years; are a wife, unmarried son or tears-Women in Apartheid South women, destroy the family and, literally, daughter under the age of18 ofsomeone Africa," cripple the lives of African children. In in the above categories; or have been "0fthe totalpopulation in the 'white' the words of Nomazizi Sokudela of the granted special permission to be in the urban areas, a much higherproportion ANC's Women's Section: "One ofthe area. (37%) are in paid employment (partly most burning issues for the women's Most women cannot meet the quali­ ofcourse as a result ofthe removal of struggle in South Africa has continued fications demanded by Section 10. For non-productiveAfricansfrom the urban to be the destruction of the African example, they may have left the area to areas). However, the majority ofthese family life through the vicious migrant visit relatives in other areas, gone to their (65%) are again servants, followed by labor system laws and the forced parents' house during childbirth, or smaller proportions of manufacturing removal and deportation ofmillions of taken their children outside ofthe areato (8%) and professional (7%) workers. South Africans to the so-called home­ attend secondary school. The govern­ Domestic service is therefore the lands . .. the women and children, el­ ment allows few schools for Blacks to be main occupation ofAfrican women in derly and the sick are the worst victims located in white areas. Most of the both town and country. Other working ofsuch removals. It is for this reason Mrican women workers in the towns are women are employed in occupations that they have fiercely defended their employed as domestics. They are often also connected with householdneeds, in ancestral land, their communities of forced to change their place of employ­ food processing or canning works, in long-standing, and their squatter towns ment because of low wages or inter­ garment manufacturing and launder­ ...mass removals threaten the very ruptions to have children, so many fail to ing, and in teaching and nursing. ... nationhood ofBlacks in South Africa. meet the requirement of working 10 The public services, banks, building When you deny, dispossess, and dis­ continuous years for the same employer. societies, mining houses and other cor­ placepeople it is the destruction oftheir Even a woman who meets the residence porations employ a large number of total livelihood. " requirements through her parents can women in administrative andsecretari­ The next sections will examine the lose thatright ifshe marries a manfrom a al jobs, but nearly all of them are specific impact of apartheid on Mrican different town. But she cannot go to live white. " women in both the urban areas and the with her husband since she is prohibited Not only do African women workers bantustans. from entering another town. Only those receive the lowest direct wages, they

July 1985 • AAWO • 3 also getlittle in the way ofindirectwages as well as creating dangerous health and of 1887 stipulates that a woman is a in the form ofhealth and social services. sanitation hazards. perpetual minor who cannot own pnr To illustrate, the per capita spending on perty, inherit, or act as the guardian of education in 1981 was whites-Sl,115; WOMEN ON THE RESERVES her children. She cannot enter into con­ Indians-S625; Coloreds-S31O; and African women are increasingly being tracts, sue, orbe sued withoutthe aid ofa Africans-S170. In 1983 the doctor/ banished to the barren reserves, where male guardian. patient ratio was whites-l:330; they are bound by still another set of Women on the reserves find them­ Indians-l:730; Coloreds-I:12,000; "customary laws" passed and enforced selves in the ultimate legal andeconomic and Africans-l:19,000. Many of the by puppet chiefs. These laws distort bind. Apartheid's policies of migrant Black townships are not provided elec­ African tribal customs in order to labor and forced relocation have made tricity and running water, making implement apartheid on the bantustan. many women single heads of house­ women's chores all the more laborious For example, the Natal Code (Law 46) hold. Yet the law treats them as minors, UNITY, STRENGTH, DETER Just as women have been the special dom" was a leading force in the forma­ Mandela call for a new program of victims ofapartheid, so have they carved tion of the ANC Women's League. struggle for self-determination and the out a central role in the struggle against Overthe next few decades many ofthe tactics of boycott, strike and civil dis­ apartheid's manifold abuses. South Af­ women who gravitatedto the struggle got obedience instead of patient appeals to rican women have brought decisiveness, their first political training within the reason. tenacity, courage and enthusiasm wher­ labor movement, training that helped 195Q-Florence Matomela leads dem­ ever they have taken up struggle. The prepare them for the increased militancy onstrations against enforcement of new first anti-pass resistance was initiated by ofthe 1940s and the upsurge in the anti­ government "influx control" regulations. women in 1913 in the Orange Free apartheid movement in the 1950s. What The demonstration ends with the burn­ State. In 1919 the African National follows is a briefchronology ofthe major ing of pass books. Congress Women's League was formed, landmarks in the struggles of South Af­ 1952-The ANC and the Indian Con­ seven years after the ANC was founded rican women from the 1950s to the gress launch the Campaign ofDefiance and just one year after the Union of present. Against Unjust Laws, the largest civil South Africa and white minority rule 1948-Present Nationalist government disobedience organized up to that time. was established. Charlotte Maxeke, comes to power. Within the ANC, Many women participate in the cam­ known as "the mother of African free- , and Nelson paign, which is met with fierce repres­ sion and mass arrests. June 26, the Campaign's first day, is now known as South African Freedom Day. 1954-Founding of the Federation of South African Women (FSAW), a multi-racial women's organization. The ANC Women's League played a key role in its formation. The FSAW slogan is "Forward tofreedom, security, equal rights andpeaceforall." Ida Mntwana, the first president declared "Today women are marching side by side with men on the road to freedom. .. let us come out as a united force, let us take

ourplace in the struggle forfreedom. II 1955-2000 women hold the first large demonstration against pass laws being extended to women. In the same year, a Congress ofthe People was convened by the ANC, the Indian Congress, the Colored People's Congress and the Congress of Democrats. Women's de­ mands, as drawn up one year earlier at the FSAW founding convention, are adopted as part ofthe , a landmark document that came out of the Congress. After the Congress, 156 men and women leaders are arrested and charged with treason. They are not acquitted until 1961 , at which time most Lilian Ngoyz calls for volunteers during the of1952. were banned.

4 • AAWO • July 1985 denying their access to land rights to hours, separated from their families. In erated mechanization. As a result more carry out subsistence agriculture to feed many areas, casual wages are often not and more Black women who have their children. even paid in cash, butwith anoccasional worked as casual laborers are being sent There are two groups ofwomen agri­ bag of "mealie" (com meal). back to the bantustans to "sit out" the cultural workers-those who work for In the wake of the recent drou~t in drought. wages on the large white-owned farms, Africa the situation has deteriorated. The "lucky" woman on the reserves and those who work without wages on Only 8% ofrural Blacks are subsistence receives a small amount ofmoney from the reserves. The white farms employ farmers; most need cash earned in the her migrant husband working in the city, Black men and women on a seasonal "white" economy to purchase food they and tends a small family plot on the basis. Women now predominate among do not grow them~elves. In 1983, reserves. Many women do noteven have casual laborers in white agriculture and 250,000 workers were laid off because the benefit ofthese bare resources. Inthe work at extremely low wages for long ofthe drought and white farmers accel- most uninhabitable areas, women spend INATION: THE RESISTANCE 1956-20,000 women, led by the FSAW, take to the streets of , protesting the pass laws. Afterdelivering petitions to the office of the prime minister, Lilian Ngoyi, FSAW and ANC leader calls out "Afrika!" three times, to which thousands shout their response in kind. The women then stand in electric silence with the thumbs up salute ofthe ANC for a halfhour, and end the demonstration with a new freedom song whose refrain is "Wathint' a bafazi, way ithint' imbolodo uzo kufa"-(Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder, you will be crushed.)The day of this protest, August 9, is now celebrated as South African Women's Day. 196o-South Africa declares itself a republic. 20,000 people are arrested and 2000 activists detained without trial in direct response to the massive protests stemming from the -the day when 69 peaceful demon­ strators were killed bypolice. The ANC, the Pan African Congress and the FSAW are then banned. The liberation movement goes underground. 1969-The South African Students .~ Organization (SASO) is formed, the c. lI. first organization representing the Black """'"C ~ <8 Consciousness Movement. An early ."'. ."'. d •••• .,·, leader was , later killed in Women have spearneaded the resistance to forced removals and relocations to the bantustans. police detention. Many women became involved with SASO, such as Mam­ Federation of South African Women co-President ofthe UDF, for which she phela Ramphele and Thenjiwe Mtintso. (Witwatersrand). These groups carry on has been charged with treason. 1976-Police massacre children pro­ the spirit of the FSAW. They playa Ofthe 600 organizations in the UDF, testing apartheid education in Soweto. leading role in community struggles over 60% are women's groups. As Nomazizi 1977-Aftermounting protests ofBiko's rent, housing, education, forced reloca­ Sokudela ofthe ANC Women's Section death and the Soweto massacre, another tion and the rights ofdomestic workers. has said, "Through this mass organiza­ 18 organizations are banned, including 1983-The United Democratic Front tion the women have challenged the most ofthe Black consciousness organi­ (UDF) is formed-a multi-racial orga­ regime on all fronts, and neither tear zations. Subsequently, several new nization founded to unite various groups gas, bullets, or prison will deter their women's organizations form, including working against apartheid. Women's in­ determination to fight for the disman­ the Women's Federation ofSouth Afri­ fluence and leadership is reflected in the tling ofapartheid andforthe creation of ca (Soweto), the United Women's Or­ UDF's program, which calls for full a free, democratic, non-racial and ganization (Western Cape), and the sexual equality. Albertina Sisulu is the united South African society." •

July 1985 • AAWO • 5 most ofthe day collecting firewood and The U.S. also benefits from apart­ U.S. is friendly, and not critical or carrying water from the nearest river or heid, economically, militarily and geo­ hostile to apartheid. However, the real borehole, just to survive. strategically. Once Reagan took office purpose ofconstructive engagement was the U.S.'s relation to the South African laid bare by its designer, Assistant APARTHEID'S regime got much more intimate. Under Secretary ofState Chester Crocker. in a BENEFICIARIES Clearly apartheid lies at the core of women's oppression in South Africa. "I'd like to see a multi-racial South Africa where There is no way that the lives ofwomen everybody's going to belree;lree to speak,lree to move can be improved without the elimination andIree in every respect. And that includes women in of the apartheid system. Yet the South everything-there's no diJ1erence. .. when we struggle African regime resists making even the smallest concession to the Black major­ lor rights we are automatically including rightslor us ity. Whites have been able to grab the women in that struggle. "-Albertina Sisulu. best land and get the highest profits fOl the cheapest wages only by instituting an this administration, the U.S. has moved secret memo to his boss, Alexander iron system of white supremacist rule past Britain to become South Africa's Haig, in May 1981: over the Black majority. Number One trading partner. The U.S. "Ifthe South Africans co-operate: to U.S. liberals have encouraged Pre­ has $2.6 billion in direct investments achieve an internationally acceptable toria to make concessions before itis too and as much as $15 billion in all forms of settlement (for Namibia), this will late. However, South African ruling holdings, including loans, stock shares, greatly facilitate efforts to deal effec­ circles have a bigger problem than their and investments made through Euro­ tively with the Soviet threat. .. A rela­ "broadminded" U.S. advisors can .ap- pean subsidiaries of American corpor- tionship initiated on a co-operative basis could move forward toward a future in which South Africa returns to a place within the regional framework of Western security interests... We can, however, work to end South Afri­

ca's polecat status in the world. ... II In other words, constructive engage­ ment was designed to bolster South Africa's image by having the U.S. run interference for apartheid. Accordingly, during Reagan's first term, Pik Botha was invited to the White House, the first Foreign Minister from Africa to be welcomed by the president. At the same time, the ChiefofPretoria's Mili­ tary Intelligence lunched secretly with U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Since then military ties have been strenthened, including the training ofthe . SWAZILAND SouthAfrican CoastGuard. The Reagan administration also gave the green light HO for International Monetary Fund loans to South Africa. And, the U.S. has undermined the arms embargoes im­ posed by the UN against South Africa in 1977, by easing restrictions on the sale of strategic gOOdS to South Africa, inCJUdJDg aircraft, computers and communications The arrows show where SouthAfrican militaryforces andtheirsurrogates haveattackedthe equipment, and enriched uranium for frontline states. use in South Africa's nuclear plants. preciate. Apartheid cannot tolerate the ations. Between 1979 and 1982 U.S. U.S. policy treats South Africa as the simple right of "one person, one vote" companies racked up ail 18.7% average most friendly power in the entire south­ for the equally simple reason that its rate of return on the investments in ern Africa region, and as the most reli­ entire economic and politicalfoundation SouthAfrica, compared to 16% for U.S. able watchdog for Western interests on rests on the absence of rights for the companies worldwide. the continent It is strikingly similar to Blackmajority. The bottom line is thatin The Reagan Administration cooked the role played byIsrael in North Africa South Africa, Blacks constitute the up the policy of "constructive engage­ and the Middle East The resemblance majority ofthe population, as opposed to ment." It's purported rationale is that does notend there. SouthAfrica has also the U.S. with its minority non-white the South African government will be provided Israel its apartheid model for population. more amenable to peaceful change ifthe use with Palestinians and other Arab

6 eAAWO e July 1985 peoples within Israeli borders. And, Israel Defiance Campaign, and Soweto. Re­ rent anti- making its is the biggest supplier of arms to South cently we've seen the combined efforts way through Congress is an important Mrica, in open defiance of the UN of the United Democratic Front, the first step. It came because ofthe highly embargo. Israel has also sent military independent Black trade union move­ visible and vocal anti-apartheid move­ advisors and troops to aid South African ment, and the student and youth boycott ment, initiated by the Free South Africa troops in Angola and Namibia. movement against the divide and rule Movement, and since taken up by Particularly since the liberation ofthe tactics of the regime. students and local and national organ­ former Portuguese colonies of Angola, The protracted character ofthe South izations. We must continue to push for Mozambique and Guinea Bissau, and Mrican people's freedom struggle re­ passage and enforcement of this and the overthrow of white minority rule in quires that women activists in the U.S. stronger legislation towards total divest­ Zimbabwe, the South Mrican regime likewise be prepared to demonstrate ment and a complete cutoff of all forms has become all the more aggressive in its solidarity with our South African sisters ofU.S. economic, military and political attempts to subvert the progress of the for a long time to come, learning to life support systems for apartheid. frontline states. In 1981, South African deploy a full arsenal ot diverse tactics. military forces attacked Mozambique, carried outa massive invasion ofAngola and later moved into Lesotho. Recently, South African forces carried out a mid­ night raid in Botswana, murdering people as they slept These invasions were rationalized as pre-emptive strikes against African National Congress (ANC) and South WestAfrican People's Organization (SWAPO of Namibia) "terrorists." In the wake of the U.S. invasion of Grenada, in December, 1983, South Africa again launched a massive invasion ofAngola. Its mercen­ aries continue to occupy sections of southern Angola, and carry out acts of sabotage and assassination throughout the frontline states. FREE SOUTH AFRICAI The struggle of our South African sisters to end apartheid has been long and hard. They face a formidable enemy, not headquartered in some faraway western capital, but right in their own land, armed to the teeth with the most up-urdate weaponry, and propped up by international capital. While the regime has been shaken by opposition from the United Democratic Front and the Black trade union movement, it is not about to topple. The fact thatthe Reagan Admin­ istration is embarrassed, but not yet hysterical, about its policy and prospects in southern Africa indicates that the reactionaries in Pretoria and Washington Women participating in anti-apartheid demonstration, Oakland, CA, January 1985. still have a lot of initiative. Inorder to end apartheid, the people's The recent upsurge in the U.S. anti­ Opposition to apartheid must also be movement, headed by the ANC, is apartheid movement, in response to the linked to opposition to U.S. intervention working to build up sufficient political resistance call of the South African in Central America. The cynical hypoc­ and military strength to decisively knock people, has given us a valuable oppor­ risy of a government that can increase out the recalcitrant minority regime. tunity. the expense accounts ofracists in South Apartheid cannot be reformed; it is in­ Our task is to tear the sheets off of Africa and mercenaries in Central corrigible. For decades the world has Reagan's policy ofconstructive engage­ America (supposedly for "humanitar­ witnessed the flashpoints in the struggle ment by targeting U.S. governmental ian" purposes) while robbing the poor of the Black majority and the bloody and corporate complicity, and pushing in this country must be exposed. South aftermath-in the 50's anti-pass move­ for strong national anti-apartheid legis­ Africa must be embargoed, not Nica­ ment spearheaded by women, the lation and divestment by state and local ragua! Sharpeville protests and massacre, the governments and institutions. The cur- July 1985 • AAWO • 7 This brochure was written by a collective of I AAWO activists which included Vicki Alexander, "We know that as women we have many problems Pam David and Miriam Louie. which hold us back from taking part fully in the In preparing this discussion paper we have struggle, and it is for precisely that purpose that we primarily used the following sources: have come to break down these problems. Let us come For their Triumphs and for their Tears­ Women in Apartheid South Africa, Hilda out as a unitedforce, let us take ourplace in the struggle Bernstein, 1975. for freedom. "-Ida Mntwana. To Honour Women's Day-Profiles of Leading Women in the South African and Namibian Liberation Struggles, the Inter­ national Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Our responsibility is to inform women in the people in the face of a ferocious Africa (lOAF), 1981. We Make Freedom-Women in South in this country about apartheid's conse­ enemy. By following the example of the Africa, Beata Lipman, 1984. quences for women's lives--aboutforced women of South Africa we can hasten Resistance, War andLiberation: Women I labor and relocation, the destruction of the downfall of apartheid, racism, sex­ ofSouthern Africa, Women's International families, high infant mortality and mal­ ism, and all forms of oppression. Resource Exchange, 2700 Broadway, New nutrition, and the savage repression and As eloquently expressed by Doris York, NY 10025. police murders ofBlackyouth-in short, Tamana, an 84 year old activist "Crisis in South Africa," The Black the complete absence ofany rights that a Scholar, volume 15, no. 6, Nov./Dec. 1984. "You who have no work, speak. "South Africa Fact Sheet," Southern white man is bound to respect. The You who have no homes, speak. African Perspectives, Jan. 1984. historic parallels between SouthAfrican You who have no schools, speak. Apartheid: The Facts, lOAF, 1983. women and poor women in this country, You who have to run like chickens Organizational Resources: especially women of color, bind us from the vulture, speak. African National Congress, 801 Second together. This administration's increased Let us share our problems Ave., Room 406, New York, NY 10017 economic and political encouragement so that we can solve them together. SWAPO, 801 Second Ave., Room 1401, to racism South Africa-style is facili­ We mustfree ourselves. New York, NY 10017. tated by racism U.S.-style. Reagan's Men and women mustshare housework. TransAfrica, 545 8th Street, SE, Washing­ cozy relation with apartheid speaks Men and women must work together ton, D.C. 20003. volumes about a mentality that wouldbe Washington Office on Africa, 110 Maryland in the home and out in the world. Ave., NE, Washington, D.C. 20002 all too willing to opt for a plantation/ There are no creches American Council on Africa, 198 Broad­ reservation/labor camp system here. and nursery schools for our children. way, New York, NY 10038. Many lessons can be learned from our There are no homes for the aged. The International Defence and Aid Fund for South African sisters who have managed The is no one to care for the sick. Southern Africa, 64 Essex Road, London to hold on to a protracted view of the Women must unite to fight 8LR. The lOAF can also be reached at liberation struggle, utilize creative and for these rights P.O. Box 17, Cambridge, MA, 02238. They diverse organizing tactics, develop out­ publish a variety ofmaterials in conjunction I opened the road for you. with the United Nations Centre Against standing mass leadership and keep faith You must go forward." • Apartheid.

Alliance Against Women's Oppression Alliance Against Women's Oppression NON-PROFIT The Women's Building ORGANIZATION The Alliance Against Women's Oppression (AAWO) is a 3543 18th Street U.S.POSTAGE national, multi-racial organization of women with chapters in the San Francisco, CA 94110 PAID San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Seattle, Boston and Washing- ~94 SAN FRANCISCO, CA ton D.C. We are committed to reforging the U.S. women's """"',- PERMIT NO. 10579 movement on a revolutionary, anti-capitalist and anti-racist basis. AAWO is active in the Rainbow Coalition and is involved in reproductive rights organizing focusing on the defense of abortion rights, and fighting against infant mortality. In 1984, the AAWO initiated and organized a national multi- racial women's delegation-Somos Hermanas (We Are Sistersj- to Nicaragua atthe invitation oftbe Nicaraguan Women's Associa- tion (AMNLAE). In commemoration of International Women:s Day 1985, the AAWO held the First West Coast Conference in Solidarity with Women in Central America. The conference resulted in an on-going regional network ofwomen in solidarity with Central America, also called Somos Hermanas. AAWO continues to be active within this network. AAWO also publishes discussion papers on issues facing the women's movement and organizes annual celebrations oflnternational Women'sDay. AAWO's work is dedicated to the full liberation ofwomen in all spheres of social life.

ALLIANCE AGAINST WOMEN'S OPPRESSION 3543 18th Street The Alliance is a sponsored project ofthe San Francisco Women's San Francisco, CA 94110 CenterslThe Women's Building.

8 • AAWO • July 1985