RED 20p RAG A MAGAZINE OF WOMENS LIBERATION No.9 “ Women are the greatest victims of the war, but they are also the greatest heroes” Vietnamese saying INSIDE: Vietnam, Chile, Cuba, Dhofar, China, Japan, 2 EDITORIAL Red Rag No 9 JUNE 1975 In International Women’s Year there’s no country on earth in Imperialist defeats in Cambodia and Vietnam represent a which women are not oppressed, and few countries in the real victory for internationalism both in the concrete support world where women are not beginning to struggle towards given by socialist countries and through political and ideol­ their liberation. The basic features of our oppression — the ogical campaigns fought in Europe and America. Their sexual division of labour and women’s role in the reproduc­ victory is ours. We helped them, but the Vietnamese have tion of labour power — stretch across all national boundaries. helped us far more, by demonstrating that with international Women still have the primary responsibility for cooking, solidarity, the largest imperialist force in the world can be cleaning and the care of children, and the majority still work defeated. in the lowest paid, least skilled jobs. However, the forms of We recognise the increasing urgency of the anti-imperialist women’s oppression and the struggles against it vary struggles in Northern Ireland, and the need to translate our enormously around the world. The kind of problems women solidarity into concrete support for Irish women, whose lives face in socialist, capitalist or ‘Third World’ countries - are are a daily struggle against the effects of internment, repres­ determined by the political, economic and ideological con­ sion and British occupation. We condemn the extension of ditions in which we live. We believe therefore, that the first this oppression to the Irish population in Britain, both through step towards feminist internationalism is to recognise this anti-terrorist legislation and in the unpublicised cases of Irish fact. We need more concrete information about the condi­ women political prisoners in British jails who are suffering tions facing women in different countries, and we also need brutal treatment. greater understanding of women’s oppression, so that while we can learn from the successes and failures of other In Britain, Barbara Castle has received £10,000 from the women’s struggles, we do not arbitrarily impose our expec­ government for International Women’s Year, a sum which is tations or patterns of development on women working in both small and so far invisible. This sop to the demands raised quite different historical situations. by British women, has taken place within the context of a deepening economic crisis. The resultant redundancies and But while it is true that we cannot ‘export’ our demands cuts in social services hit women especially and opposition and forms of struggle to our sisters in different countries, to them is urgent. we can recognise the increasingly international scope of some of our problems. For the women of Latin America, The current spate of legislation aimed at extending equal the fight against imperialism involves a common struggle rights to women, such as the equal pay and anti-discrimina­ against fertility control by groups of foreign investors. tion legislation, has, on closer scrutiny, been found to be Moreover the issue of fertility control or ‘population policy’ both inadequate, and riddled with loopholes. Discussion and affects not only women in Latin America or Africa, but is a analysis of this has reached an important level within the vital issue for women around the world. women’s movement and opposition to the deficiencies of the Sex Discrimination Bill has given rise to an important In Africa and the Middle East, women in the different campaign around the 5th demand for legal and financial independence movements are meeting to discuss their role independence. We have also seen the appearance of outright in the national liberation struggles, to develop common fronts reactionary legislation such as the Abortion Amendment and support wherever possible. In Europe women workers Bill and the Lords ruling on rape. Such moves to erode the in the multinational corporations such as GEC and Ford, modest advances already achieved for women’s rights have clearly have common interests around the struggles for equal prompted mass reactions both within and outside the pay, against redundancies and the use of women as scape­ women’s movement. goats in the current economic crisis. This backlash in itself represents an authoritarian response The articles in this issue of Red Rag begin to tackle some to women’s increasing assertiveness, out of which came the of these questions; the contributions on China and Cuba partial legislation designed to give women formal equality. open a discussion on women in socialist countries which will But how much we gain from this depends on the continued be developed in the next issue with articles on women in strength and struggle of women. eastern Europe. CONTENTS Japan...................................................................................... 18 Buzz Goodbody................................................................... 3 Abortion.............................................................................. 21 Chile..................................................................................... 4 Mrs Thatcher....................................................................... 24 Argentina.............................................................................. 6 Single Mothers....................................................................... 26 Cuba....................................................................................... 7 Manchester.............................................................................29 Dhofar.....................................................................................10 ACTT................................................................................ 30 China....................................................................................... 12 CIA......................................................................................... 31 Vietnam.................................................................................. 15 Letters....................................................................................32 This issue was produced by: — Typeset by Jenny Pennings Elizabeth Wilson, Roberta Henderson, Vai Charlton, Mandy Merck, Beatrix Campbell, Barbara Taylor, Adah Kay, Sue Cover and titles by Val Charlton O’Sullivan, Angela Weir, Margaret Edney, Sally Alexander Jean Radford, Marion Dain, Rosalind Delmar, Maria Loftus,. Fran Mclean. Letters, articles, donations orders for supplies and subscriptions £1 to 9, Stratford Villas, London NW1 Printed by SW ithoL Printers ltd. (TU all depts) 3 Buzz Goodbody died on April 12 from a massive overdose of the classical theatre was spent at the RSC’s experimental drugs. At 28 she had decided to take her own life, after theatre, the Other Place in Stratford, where she also completing her last production for the Royal Shakespeare produced King Lear and a play on the English Revolution. Company — Hamlet. The following tribute was spoken at her funeral. In our Her most fruitful year as Britain's only woman director in next issue we will carry a full analysis of her work. Sisters and brothers. contradiction between frailty and effectiveness, both in This is International Women’s Year. herself and in us, in our attempts to become conscious Millions of women in countries far away are beginning to people. begin to construct and reconstruct their lives. They are In daring to explore and expose the politics of personality, beginning to begin to be self-determining. in daring to be raw and receptive, in daring to change. There are millions of women here who remain thwarted, A brief word about her work for those who did not work silent, lonely. The beginning has barely begun for them. in the theatre and maybe who never went to the theatre. Buzz Goodbody was one of all these women. An ordinary She was committed to making available a classical culture woman and an extraordinary woman — extraordinary for her from which millions - not least the kids having to do it for persistent, stringent, curious and militant application of her exams and who are going to see her productions of Lear and intelligence to her work and to politics - the politics of Hamlet - have felt dispossessed, to make it accessible, to social relationships and the politics of personal relationships democratise it in a way that they, like her, could live it - of intimacy. and like it. She was one of a blossoming school of women who are And a subjective word. My own talks with Buzz were getting stronger every day - but she challenged false strength characterised by persistent attempts to find clarity and and false courage. Very important this both for men for consciousness, and an awareness of the imperative not just whom a charade of strength is often debilitating, and for to trundle along in life, but to live knowingly. So that we women for whom raw fragility is often crippling. could learn to be conscious and consequential, and therefore She understood, and she lived the uneasy, apprehensive more effective. co-existence between fragility and power. My relationship with Buzz changed me. It enabled me to live with a little more grace, more knowledge, more commitment. But her own vulnerability did not stop her being potent,