Letters
LETTERS to the Editor More Radical Than NOW In "NOW for Something I Completely Different" (March issue), L.A. Kauff-man spoke clearly and cogently to a serious concern of mine. I consider myself...
...Since that time, largely as a result of the impact feminism has had on me, I have done a lot of changing and growing, and invested myself in a very demanding graduate program...
...Many schools are only too willing to comply with such requests...
...As a result, the time I have to give to political activities is much more limited than it once was...
...I would dearly love to see and be a part of a ground-swell of grass-roots activism of the sort Kauffman has called for...
...We must conclude, however, that we live in a nuclear world and that war is obsolete...
...It pointed out strengths and weaknesses without attacking...
...It suggested alternatives and additions instead of substitutes...
...As soon as the plant shut down, the independent union folded, leaving us with no organization...
...Richard Sturgis Student Publications Chairman Biola University La Mirada, California Correction Because of an editing error, Dan Conlon's name was misspelled in "Profits for Peace" (Datelines, April issue...
...Kauff-man is, but I would say she doesn't know much about NOW or the feminist movement...
...Like Kauffman, I do not question the importance of the work NOW and related organizations are doing—I support and applaud them...
...The article was balanced and thoughtful...
...NOW is not, cannot be, and doesn't pretend to be, the feminist movement...
...An informal network of individuals and grass-roots collectives, WRR is the work of women who reject bureaucratic and hierarchical organizations, but who desire the support, solidarity, and sense of forward motion which unified national movements provide...
...Nothing can conceal my record of hard work and struggle...
...feminists have recently created a national movement—Women Rising in Resistance—to bring together women whose goals and methods are more radical than those of NOW and other liberal groups...
...Can one safely assume from the tone of his article that Rothschild advocates the abandonment of U.S...
...Over a thousand volunteers are spreading out across eleven carefully chosen states—Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Georgia, Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and California...
...As I do this, however, I am aware of all the pressing feminist issues, from abortion to equal rights to day care to violence against women, all the way to nuclear stockpiling and American intervention in all manner of foreign wars, on which I am not acting directly...
...After a period when they were forced to lie low, these terrorists are again assuming prominent roles in the academic community...
...My accent was born in Georgia and matured in the orange groves of Florida, where I began fifty years of labor...
...I doubt endorsing a "we are the real radicals who prefer not to muck-muck around with liberal politics" stance will attain any secure, long-lasting results...
...No, because we do not have the level of agreement yet that we need in order to make structural change...
...We must change...
...When we all recognize the legitimacy and importance of a multitude of women working in a variety of ways, we will all be stronger in achieving equality for women...
...It is our prenuclear thinking that we can still fight wars with nuclear weapons...
...Frank Lumpkin Chicago, Illinois Peace, Politics, and Placebos From the perspective of "Beyond War, A New Way of Thinking," I'd like to answer the questions raised by Samuel H. Day Jr...
...in "Peace, Politics, and Placebos" (Reflections, March issue...
...Kauffman states, "As • important and desirable as the [Equal Rights] Amendment is, it has become a liability to the feminist movement, draining energy from equally important and more attainable goals...
...We know their experience has been repeated many times in many places, and the end is not in sight...
...Should a liberal with absolutely no moral base be elected to my position, I will be sure to give them your address...
...I consider myself a radical feminist, and have seen my life utterly transformed by my experience of feminism...
...Michelle Gale Avondale Estates, Georgia While radical feminists have done effective work at the local level, they have made few attempts to coordinate efforts nationally...
...Finally, Wasik's interpretation of my "Boston accent" as concealing more than thirty years at the mill is kind but incorrect...
...We are fighting for the thousands of dollars Harvester owes each of us...
...In your article entitled "Gay Power Comes of Age," for example, your support for the morally bankrupt homosexual constituency is repulsive...
...Marcia Niemann Regional Director, NOW Phoenix, Arizona Ihave been a member of NOW for about fourteen years and an activist radical feminist for thirteen years...
...While community and workplace organizing is a useful strategy, Kauffman is calling for a retrenchment, an inimical reorganization of priorities, that may undermine or undo some of NOW's successes...
...They are sharing their commitment to a world beyond war, and educating others to the implications of that decision...
...When I look about me for a way to channel my political energies, I see few opportunities for direct activism in which I can participate without the sense that my radical energies are being diluted...
...WRR calls upon feminists to organize grass-roots groups committed to nonviolent direct action...
...The purpose of the network is to link women and groups committed to nonviolent direct action in the cause of peace, social justice, and equality...
...At most college campuses, CIA recruiters are still reluctant to show their faces...
...to build unity with Sister Resisters by spreading the idea and logo of WRR to women engaged in nonviolent direct action...
...It includes women who are convinced that direct confrontation with those in power must accompany the traditional political methods of education, electoral campaigns, and lobbying if we are to achieve a more humane social order...
...Thank you for a thought-provoking article...
...Does it deal with injustice as well as the threat to peace...
...After mocking the various reasons students seek employment with the CIA, Rothschild attributes student motivation to conservative political orientations, conservative institutions of higher learning, and conservative families and friendships...
...And we have joined with other unemployed to demand a job program and the continuation of unemployment compensation...
...Our demonstrations won partial back pay and a CETA jobs program...
...But their resurgence is not going unchallenged...
...Kauffman's article proposing that those who are dissatisfied with NOW's political position split off and form a new group more sensitive to individual women's likes...
...exploitation of Mexican labor ("A Borderline Case," April issue) is a real eye-opener...
...But NOW can find no graceful way to avoid working for the Amendment, so the campaign goes on...
...I note that the article is advertised on the cover as "A New Feminist Direction...
...Or is there something wrong with this point of view...
...A research project into relations between the CIA and the University of California being conducted by the UC-San Diego Student Cooperative Union shows these links go far deeper than most people suspect...
...Eric Peterson Cambridge, Massachusetts Working for the CIA Matthew Rothschild's article about CIA recruiting on campuses ("Central Employment Agency," February issue) was very timely...
...Child care, the right to abortion, union organizing of clerical workers, and the other local issues she cites would all be advanced by passage of the ERA...
...I found The Progressive to be more offensive than any smut magazine because under the guise of being intellectual and objective, you pollute inquiring minds with liberal dogma...
...Yes, in that we are educating to reach the level of agreement that we need on the basic principles before we can make the structural changes...
...NOW wants the ERA...
...Ties include research and recruiting, CIA hiring of academics and administrators as consultants, and monitoring of research pursuits of faculty and students...
...Edith Fountain Seiad Valley, California Iwas dismayed by L.A...
...to carry out at least one dramatic act of resistance each year, season, legislative session, month, week, or day...
...History will show that the ones who stay and fight will eventually win...
...students at colleges across the country have protested CIA ties and recruiting...
...This export of jobs across borders smacks of internationalism, and undercuts that most basic of progressive principles, defense of the American worker...
...intelligence operations...
...I realize your magazine has a sizeable readership, but I would like to reduce its size by one...
...Kauffman's article on NOW was excellent...
...After reading the first five pages of the February issue, I got the distinct impression that you did not care for the Reagan Administration...
...Please remove us from your mailing list...
...The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...The way these companies lure poor workers to the border region shows a dangerous, worldwide trend: In a cut-throat effort to trim costs, capitalists systematically seek out the poorest people able to do the needed work...
...Philip G. Paccione Irvine, California Waiting for the Brimstone John F. Wasik's "Waiting J for the Brimstone" (March issue) rendered a service in exposing the corporate scam that left us at Wisconsin Steel, Chicago, without pensions or benefits...
...I don't know who L.A...
...But the real value of the story was in showing the resolve and power of the Wisconsin Steel workers who are beginning our fifth year of fighting back...
...It offers a message of hope and a new way of thinking to get us out of this mess we are in...
...They have been so busy fighting among themselves that they have little influence...
...No and yes...
...U.S...
...When enough of us have reached agreement on the basic knowledge, have made a decision, then the action will follow...
...Without the ERA, women will be hamstrung in pursuing comparable worth in the workplace and jeopardized in achieving it...
...Betty Jallings Fitchburg, Wisconsin Occasionally an article is so adept at articulating my private thoughts and conversations that it takes my breath away...
...Louise Thompson New York, New York Borderline Jobs James W. Russell's expose of U.S...
...But the rank and file organized a Save Our Jobs Committee which has won important victories...
...Kauffman's last dozen paragraphs of wishful thinking about a new women's political organization would make many NWPC members ask, "Where have you been all this time, Sister...
...Jon Bekken San Diego, California Ichallenge Matthew Rothschild to answer this question: How and where should the CIA recruit competent employees, if not from our nation's campuses...
...They often occupy the "peace" niche in their communities and, since they tend to be funded and staffed from out of town and out of state, they aggressively shove locals out of their "nonpartisan" way...
...to communicate with the WRR clearinghouse (Box 2096, Station A, Champaign, IL 61820, 217-352-6110) about planned demonstrations and meetings...
...While NOW's political success has been won by sacrificing some personal, grassroots participation, much of it remains in the hands of skilled people who gained their skills within NOW...
...Does the "Beyond War" | project call for structural change in present militaristic institutions...
...Or would he limit CIA recruiting to our Federal and state penitentiaries...
...Kauffman can write three printed pages on women in politics without even mentioning the National Women's Political Caucus...
...Mary Lee Sargent Champaign, Illinois LA...
...Indeed, documents released to the Student Cooperative Union under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Agency routinely demands special treatment, including secret interviews, the right to prescreen interviewLETTERS ees, and the right to examine resumes and other information on file...
...Yes, the "Beyond War" project does affix responsibility for the nuclear arms race, and it affixes it on us...
...In San Mateo County, California, just south of San Francisco, the newly formed San Mateo County NWPC cut its teeth on an exciting but narrowly unsuccessful effort to replace assassinated Representative Leo Ryan with his legal aide, Jacqueline Speier...
...The only way to have an effect is to get in and fight for what you believe...
...Something must be done to prevent U.S...
...Not a wit daunted, Jackie and the organization came back in the next county election (1980) to upset and replace a conservative Republican county supervisor who had twenty years' seniority on the Board...
...to use the theme "Women Rising in Resistance" and the network logo in all material publicizing actions...
...Eventually, changes can be made...
...Garrett Connelly Santa Barbara, California Fan Mail am writing to express my concern over the content of your publication...
...Never does he propose an alternative to intelligence operations and recruitment, nor does he tell us why you cannot separate analytical employment from operational and covert activities...
...This is a good way to destroy the women's movement...
...companies from attracting impoverished workers to these jobs before cheap, imported goods ruin our standard of living...
...Upon my sworn oath to be open-minded to other viewpoints, I pressed on, all the way through the magazine, only to my further disgust...
...When there is finally a women's organization with enough clout to make a difference, Kauffman wants it to be split up...
...International Harvester never expected the workers to fight back when it forced Wisconsin Steel to close...
...it is not a liability but a focal point that moves other issues along with it to those "equally important and more attainable goals...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...Kauffman takes note of this fact, analyzes the inadequacy of NOW policies for radical feminists, and suggests that we "create a network of community and campus activist groups, emphasizing local actions and national discussion and resource-sharing...
...But I also see both the need and the opportunity for altogether more radical political organizing than that which takes place in the context of such organizations...
...to carry out nationally coordinated actions on specified Women's Resistance Days...
...The success of NOW's work is related to the presence and activity of other groups, other strategies, other issues...
...The "Beyond War" project is starting with education and change occurring in the hearts of people, knowing that the structural changes will follow...
...They would all agree there's not much new and "completely different" in grass-roots political action except that in some places women are learning how to do it on their own behalf...
...Our slogan is, "Jobs or Income Now...
...Mary J. Flanagan Downey, California It is difficult to understand how L.A...
...In a sense, I am intensely politically active: I am doing feminist research, working on a couple of projects related to women in academia, preparing to teach a women's studies course, and speaking up in response to patriarchal myths and inequities whenever and wherever I can...
...I find that a laugh...
...The mass lobby to Washington, described by Wasik, won partial payment of Rule 65 pensions...
...Yes, "Beyond War" does, and I think goes beyond "justice" to caring and responding to the needs of people...
...The organizers of WRR believe an informal structure will promote radical feminist unity without the drain of energy and resources which would be required to maintain a formal organization...
...No, we are not just "waiting for the brimstone...
...It is what has made left-wing movements ineffective since the United Front of the 1930s and 1940s...
...When we reach that conclusion, and understand the implications of it, our attempts to resolve conflict through war must give way to other forms of conflict resolution...
...She dismisses the ERA as a campaign NOW doesn't want but is saddled with...
...the nuclear world demands it...
...Time that would otherwise be spent on a national board, officers, and committee structure will be available for planning and carrying out dramatic and powerful acts of resistance...
...At Temple University in Philadelphia, law students have been protesting recruitment by the CIA and the Department of Defense, and had succeeded in getting these recruiters barred from the campus until top administrators intervened in the face of DoD threats to cancel lucrative research contracts...
...Peter R. Whitis, M.D...
...Dubuque, Iowa Sam Day overlooked one important point in his great little article on placebo peace offensives: Such groups are usually quite possessive...
...NOW has chosen its areas of expertise and specialization, its targets for membership, its place in a larger movement...
...When I first happened onto the women's movement in 1978,1 took an active role in NOW and several other organizations, and a leadership role in a number of actions...
...And that change begins with our seeing a new vision—the vision of a world building itself beyond war...
...Since then, she and the county NWPC helped elect another woman to the Board of Supervisors while they all continue to grow and learn the hard way about grass-roots politics...
...As a long-time activist on many levels, I am distressed by the young who want to quit, drop out, or splinter as soon as they find that changes don't take place immediately...
...For now, the "doing" is education...
Vol. 48 • May 1984 • No. 5
