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Women & Politics Inside: Cornel West on the L.A. Riots PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA May/June 1992 Volume XX Number 3 Women & Politics with Ruth Sidel, Christine Riddiough, Lisa Foley, Loretta Williams & Saskia Sassen DSA Demands Reproductive Freedom March For Women's Lives+ April 5, 1992 +Washington, DC INSIDE DEMOCRATIC LEFT WOMEN & POLITICS On the Left by Horry Fleischman ... 12 DSA Marches For Choice On The Road for Socialism by Uso Foley ... 2 by Michael Ughty ... 13 DSAction . 16 Women In Poverty by Ruth Side/, PhD ... 4 Celebrate What? by Loretto J. Williams ... 18 Revolution in Illinois by Christine R. Riddiough ... 7 Japan's New Poverty by Soskio Sossen ... 21 Fighting For Our Lives Janie Higgins Reports ... 24 by Uso Foley . 10 cover photo by Tom Ellett ing the economic boom that was cannot sustain itself without a vi­ EDITORIAL characteristic from 1945 to 1973, brant public sphere that benefits ev­ there was a 3.3 percent increase in eryone. productivity every year. And from The refusal of the populace to A RESPONSE 1973 to 1991, we see not a recession sustain that public sphere, i.e., pay but a slow-motion depression, a si­ taxes, is understandable because lent depression: 19.l percent decline they are paying a greater share of TO L.A. in inflation-adjusted real wages. those taxes, while corporations BY CORNEL WFST That's 19 years of social slippage, which paid 31 percent of all taxes downward mobility. It dispropor­ prior to 1980, now pay 9 percent. The rebellion in Los Angeles has tionately affected the black industrial The transformations are also cul­ much more to it than the vicious at­ working class, no longer making $26 tural. Post-modem culture is a cul­ tacks on people and property (al­ to $27 an hour; you're lucky to get a ture that promotes narcissism, though that is very real, especially for job, and if you get a job, you make $6 careerism, and privatism. It's a cul­ too many of our Korean brothers and to $7 an hour. ture that is so suspicious of the public sisters). It's not simply an expression There is now a silent depression, sphere, that it feels as if only the of the voice of the people, the masses coupled with massive, unprece­ market can provide some conception of blacks -- no, there's no such thing dented redistribution of wealth from of the good life. Stimulation is the as one voice. Invoking the masses working people to the wealthy basis of cultural life, like so much our and claiming a unified expression, people: Americans in the top 1 per­ TV and movies: stimulation, through usually has managerial politics in the cent income bracket own 37 percent foreplay and orgiastic intensity, as if background. Rather, we must con­ of the country's wealth, an increase continued page 17 sider the broader political, cultural from 31 percent in 1980. and economic transformations of the As that redistribution of wealth DEMOCRATIC LEFT last twenty years. upward took place, the public sphere The post-industrial city has been was being underfunded, and public Founding Editor fundamentally transformed by the services undermined. By public Michael Harrington (1928--1989) shift from manufacturing sector to sphere, I mean public education, Managing Editor service sector. The city is no longer a public transportation, public infra­ Michael Lighty center that processes goods, rathel' it structure, the sewer system, high­ Production processes information; the de-indus­ ways, and subways. Public services Ginny Coughlin trialization that has occurred has led have become increasingly associated to the devastation of the industrial with people of color. And it's very Editorial Committee working class. Look at South-Central important for us to realize that subur­ Dorothee Benz, Joanne Barbn, 30 years ago, there was significant banization in the United States is the Howard Croft, Mitth Horowitz, manufacturing, significant numbers version of residential racial segrega­ Sherri Levine, Neil Mcuughlin, Maxine Phillips of black folk, especially black men, tion -- with the result that suburbs Domocnb< Loft (ISbN 016403201) .. putiu.hed ... - • ~ •• did have jobs. It's gone now. can pay for good services while cities 15 Dul<h St.. 1 500. NY, NY 10038 Subocnp11ana: $11 "&UIAI; SIS lNbtwlONI l'oounaoter Soo!d adcl<.o ch1u>&• 10 IS Ouoch St. f This is a large structural, institu­ cannot. Simi Valley was created by 500. NY.NYl<>OJll Domocr1bcLoft11plJbllahodbythoOomocnlic tional process, characterized by de­ federal policies that promoted a seg­ Soaah... of ""-lai, 15 Dutd\51.,1500, NY. NY I0031(212)962· OJ90.S.,....t •rldn ap,.... 1M _ ..., cf the ""'"°" ''°" ""' clining productivity after 1973. Dur- regated suburbanization. A society .......n/y tlioJ<cftManNA...,IOll 2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT DSA Marches For Choice Democratic Socialists DSA Honorary Chair Gloria Steinem I speaks at ! OSA's post­ march reception. ver100 DSA'ers marched as a con­ views on politics and social issues. To close, she tingent in the April 5 March for called for announcements -- "What's going on? Women's Lives in Washington DC. What are you doing?" " Anything you want to 0 DSA'ers also participated in actions tell each other?" she asked. A discussion ensued in Seattle and San Francisco -- demanding not about women as candidates and workers in only choice but reproductive freedom. DSA's electoral politics; the need for a broad women's presence at the DC march was highlighted by health agenda in the pro-choice movement; and the appearance of DSA Honorary Chair Gloria Ross Perot's rotten record on labor. Steinem at the DSA post-march reception. There was more to the April 5 weekend than Steinem's remarks to the crowd of DSA march­ the traditional DSA demonstration activities, ers and friends was a little different from her i.e., more than making poster-board signs with speech at the rally a few minutes earlier. The socialist-feminist slogans, marching with the feminist writer and women's rights organizer rose-and-fist contingent, and talking about poli­ encouraged a democratic-socialist emphasis on tics with Gloria Steinem. Members who could reproductive rights, particularly stressing the stay an extra day were invited to participate in concept of "bodily autonomy" - an ideal and a the first DSA Washington Lobby Day. Organ­ right which she said perished for women under ized by Feminist Commission Chair Christine Soviet and Eastern European socialism. Riddiough, the Monday Lobby Day sent demo­ Steinem, whose recent best-selling book cratic socialists into the halls of Congress, push­ Revolution From Within has been drawing long ing for passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, lines ather book-signings, was recently featured which would codify Roe v. Wade; arguing the with Backlaslt author Susan Faludi on the cover merits of a single-payer health care system; and of Time magazine. Al though Steinem did stop to insisting that democracy demands DC state­ sign a few autographs, many among the DSA hood. DSA lobbyists joined hundreds of other group were impressed that she spent most of pro-choice activists from across the country her time organizing. After brief remarks, she who also stayed in town to make visits on Capi­ invited dialogue with theaudienceand solicited tol Hill. -- Lisa Foley MAY/JUNE 1992 3 Women In Poverty In Their Rhetoric of the "Middle Class," the Candidates Are Ignoring Issues of Race and Gender BY RUTH SIDEL, PHD his issue of Democratic Left on women Moreover, the composition of poor families and politics appears at a critical has changed significantly over the past thirty moment -- during a national election years. In 1959, 23 percent of all poor families T and during a time of severe recession were headed by women; by 1989 that figure had when the economic hardship suffered by mil­ risen to 51.7 percent. Today nearly 40 percent of lions of people in the U.S. highlights the neces­ the U.S. poor are children and over half are sity of rethinking our social and economic pri­ members of female-headed families. orities. One of the crucial issues largely ignored The situation of families headed by African­ by virtually all of the candidates in this year of American and Latina women is even more political attention to the "middle cJass" is the bleak. They continue to be at greatest risk of economic status of women and children. poverty. Among poor black families in 1989, It is important to note that while many nearly three-quarters, 73.4 percent, were women have moved into a wide variety of pro­ headed by women with no husband present; fessional, managerial and entrepreneurial occu­ among poor families of Latino origin, nearly pations in the U.S. during the last quarter cen­ half, 46.8 percent, were headed by women. tury nonetheless a duel labor market continues to exist and the majority of women continue to Life Chances work in low-paid, low-status jobs doing primar­ In comparing the poverty rate of married­ ily clerical, service and sales work. Moreover, couple families with that of female-headed while women's wages, particularly those of families, the significant differences in economic young women, have risen in recent years, full­ status and therefore in life chances become time, year-round female workers earn only dear. Among white married-couple families, about 70 percent of the earnings of comparable the poverty rate in 1989 was 5 percent; among male workers. This gap is a central factor that white female-headed households, the poverty keeps a vast number of women -- and their rate was five times higher, or 25.4 percent. While children -- in poverty in the U.S.
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