Each issue of ISIS will carry resource listings from various parts of the world of feminist groups and women's movements. If your group would like to be listed, send us details.
ASIA
FEMINTERN PRESS
Box 5426 Tokyo International Japan
Femintern Press was set up by a Japanese feminist to serve as an information center and publisher distributor of materials about women in Japan and other parts of Asia. Takagi Sawako explains her reasons for setting up the Femintern Press in the following introduction:
I am providing this information about Asian women not only to satisfy the curiosity of and answer the chance questions that interested American, Canadian, European, and other feminists may have, but also from the conviction that feminists in these countries have the obligation to become informed about and support the actions of women in Asia, and particularly in undeveloped countries.
American and European feminists, by being uninformed about their sisters in other countries, contribute unwittingly to their exploitation. For example, take the situation of a large number of women in South Korea. (The same applies, in slightly varied form, in Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, etc.). They are exploited in various ways through foreign domination — economically, sexually, and politically - Economically as the cheapest of labor ($ 30 a month for factory workers and secretaries), sexually through government supported prostitution (kisaeng), politically through being imprisoned and sexually tortured for the least attempt to organize an effective feminist or other kind of activist group.
Scarcity of jobs force large numbers of women to become kisaeng, and prostitution is one of South Korea's main industries. It is government supported because it is one of the country's main sources of revenue, earning large sums of money ($ 300,000,000 a year) mostly from Japanese "salary-men" who come to South Korea in organized kisaeng-party tour groups. (But before blaming Japanese male tourists only, remember that women in other underdeveloped countries serve the same function for American, Canadian, European, and other "salary-men"). Prostitution in South Korea has even had to play the role of replacing the income lost as a result of the end of the Vietnam War as far as American and South Korean servicemen are concerned. During the war, the American government bought the services of Korean soldiers, providing Korea with a lucrative source of income.
Attempts to form effective women's movements to overcome these various forms of exploitation are immediately suppressed by the Park government, which is supported by American and Japanese economic power. These women are imprisoned and sexually tortured.
When we American, European, and Japanese feminists ignore and do not support more actively the attempts of rebellion of our sisters in countries where women have a harder situation, and simply devote 100% of our efforts to gaining a better place in our own national economies, we simply increase the exploitation of our sisters by these economies - a kind of feminist Stalinism or feminist chauvinism (in the old meaning of the word).
So in addition to carrying on our local struggles we must to some extent become informed about and support actively the harder struggles of women elsewhere. Otherwise what one woman in one country gains is gained at the expense of a much more oppressed woman in another country. Feminism must become an INTERNATIONAL struggle.
Takagi Sawako
Editor
Materials available from Femintrn Press:
The Hidden Sun: Women in Japan, by Akiyama Yoke (US $ .50, YI50). This article is a general history of Japanese women from the ancient legendary period of Japan until now and includes a short bibliography.
Ting Ling, Purged Feminist, by Akiyama Yoko (US $ 1.20 Y350) Ting Ling, one of the most outstanding women writers and Communist activists in the People's Republic of China, was also .i woman who possessed radical feminist ideas. Her ideas on how women should be liberated come into conflict with the more orthodox views of the Chinese Communist Party and she was purged in 1957. This pamphlet contains an article on the life and works of Ting Ling, a translation of Ting Ling's Thoughts on the Eighth of March, about the difficult situation of women in China and the Chinese Communist Party's attack of Ting Ling On Rereading Ting Ling's Thoughts on the Eighth of March, by Lin Shiau Hwa.
A Short History of the Women's Movement in Modern Japan, by Tanaka Kazuko (US $ 1.60 Y500). This is a more detailed history of the Japanese Women's Movement since the beginning of the Meiji Period (ca. 1868) to the present. It contains a listing of the major feminist groups in Japan, including men's feminist groups, and a complete bibliography of relevant Japanese works.
Why I Oppose Kisaeng Tours: Exposing Economic and Sexual Aggression against South Korean Women, by Matsui Yayori, translated from the Japanese by Lora Sharnoff (US $ .60 Y 200). 1 his article deals with the issue of prostitution tours to neighboring South Korea organized by Japanese travel agencies for Japanese "salarymen". The economic, political and historical colonial context of the issue is explained and the article also tells of the campaign against such tourism carried out by Japanese women's groups in sympathy with campaigns organized within South Korea itself.
On Being a Woman in Japan, by Carter Aiko (US S .60 Y 200). First published as a four-part series by the Japan Christian Activity News, this article gives a general overview of the present situation of Japanese women and the women's movement.
Onna Kaiho: Japanese Women Strike Back, by Takagi Sawako (US $ 60 Y200). This pamphlet is a current review of what is going on now in the Japanese women's movement and current issues of struggle concerning Japanese women.
LATIN AMERICA
In response to the first ISIS bulletin containing testimonies from the Brussells Tribunal on Crimes Against Women, ISIS received the following letter and appeal from the Department of Solidarity of the Chile Committee in Havana, Cuba (we have translated it from the Spanish):
Dear compañeras,
Recently and for the first time, we have received your publication, which seems to us to be, moreover, interesting and well-informed - an important element in throwing light on the struggle of women in the different countries and on how women are subject to every kind of oppression and the most brutal repression in the case of our country. We would like to inform you that we have a lot of good information regarding women in our committee and we will be setting up shortly a Feminine Front within the Committee, whose first and foremost task will be directed to solidarity with Chilean women and with all women who are suffering at this moment. Moreover, we are thinking of developing activities which will permit us to better educate ourselves and to become conscious of our actual problems - all of this following the heroic example of the Chilean woman who, in spite of being repressed, has raised new and greater forces to continue the struggle of resistance against the dictatorship. Surely you know how they have organized and are issuing monthly a magazine from the underground. We hope to keep in better contact and thus be able to exchange experiences.
We would like to ask your help in getting subscriptions to our bulletin, spreading this appeal extensively to other friends of our cause. Thanking you in advance, we send you greetings from.
Patricia Espejo
Comite Chileno en la Habana
Calle 13, No. 504. e/D y E
Habana, Cuba .
This bulletin, entitled Chile Informativo, is prepared by a unified working team representing all the sectors of the Chilean left of the Information Center of Chilean Commit Ice of Solidarity with the Anti-fascist Resistance in Cuba. In Spanish, it contains information from clandestine publications edited inside* Chile, news from the world press and information from the resistance movements as well as complete documents and declarations from all the organizations and parties of the Chilean left. Printing and distribution is carried out in Mexico and subscriptions may be obtained from: Chile informativo,Avda. Universidad 1134, Mexico 12,, D.F.
CIDHAL
Apartado 579, Cuernavaca (Mor.), Mexico
CIDHAL (Communicacion, intercambio y desarrollo humano en America Latina) has an extensive and excellent collection of books, magazines, pamphlets and newspaper clipping, especially from Latin American sources, on women in Latin America and on women in the Church. For the past seven years, CIDHAL has published a 64 page quarterly Boletin Documental Sobre las Mujeres on the liberation of women in Latin America. Back issues are available. Also still available are two English anthologies of articles from the Boletin, including a survey of women's liberation movements in Latin America, articles on women in Chile, in Mexico, on population control and more. Other publications include two packets of materials in Spanish on women and work, family, sex, maternity etc., useful for consciousness raising and action by women's groups. The center in Cuernavaca is open for visits and consultation of the documents. It is well worth a visit if you are in Mexico.
THE PACIFIC
PACIFIC WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTRE
YWCA Community Resource Centre, 2nd floor, Box 534, Suva, Fiji
Established in November 1976 after the Pacific Women's Conference which was attended by women from nineteen Pacific countries, this centre has a wide collection of information about the organizations, activities and opportunities available to women throughout the Pacific region. It is also a research center and proposes to run training programs. It produces a regular mimeographed newsletter. A report of the conference has been compiled and edited by Vanessa Griffen and published under the title Women Speak Out! by the Resource Centre. It is fascinating to read the presentations by women from Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti and other Pacific Islands about their struggle against their double oppression as women and as victims of racism, colonialism and neocolonialism. Especially since so little information about the Pacific comes through the established mass media and almost never something like this book - women speaking for themselves. We hope to carry more information from women in the Pacific in the future.
EUROPE
FEDERAL REPUBUC OF GERMANY
EMMA - Zeitschrift fur Frauen von Frauen
Kolpingplatz la, D-5000 Koln 1, Federal Republic of Germany
A new feminist monthly in German launched by Alice Schwarzer. The first issue, printed in 200.000 sold out on the first day. Designed as a popular glossy (something similar to MS), EMMA carries a multitude of articles and features covering things like battered women. Cleaning workers, women of East Germany, strikes, profiles, practical information on electricity and traveling alone, and reviews. Lots of photos, nicely laid out and readable.
FRANCE
L'Information des Femmes
14 rue Saussier Leroy, 75017 Paris, France
A monthly offset news magazine in French. Gives calendar of events, activities of women's groups around France (not just Paris) and short news briefs on other (mostly European) countries. Practical and news information on work, abortion etc. Helpful and easy to read (FF 40. - per year).
Le Catalogue des Ressources
Edition Paralleles/Alternative, 47 et 51 rue Saint-Honore, 75001 Paris, France
Francoise Pasquier is preparing a third volume of this catalogue, entirely devoted to the women's movement in French-speaking parts of Europe (France, Belgium, Switzerland). To appear later this year. Volume I deals with food, clothes, transport and environment, volume II with education, media and creativity. Large format, practical guides to alternatives in these fields (vol. 1 FF 39.50, Vol. II FF. 45.).
GREECE
Multi-National Women's Liberation Group
3, Ellanikou, Pangrati, Athens, Greece
Formed in January 1975, this is an English-speaking group of (mostly) foreign women living in Greece. They have a women's center and carry on consciousness raising groups and numerous other activities, news of which is published in their very interesting monthly newsletter OUT - "the famous one-word answer to the question 'where are you going' ". OUT also contains news about Greek women's organizations such as the following, from the March 1977 issue:
NEWS OF OUR GREEK SISTERS
Fifteen of the best-known Greek Women's Organizations have joined in a public statement opposing the Greek government's new plan to make military service for women compulsory. They declared:
"Under the present social and economic conditions, we say NO to military service for women: in other words, we say NO to yet another facet of society's unequal treatment of Greek women.
"Article 4 of the 1975 Constitution, which provides for the first time that Greek men and women have equal rights before the law, allows for a seven-year transition period for the relevant laws to be changed. Military service is put forward as a means to achieve equality - which has not yet been realized either legally or in fact. In reality, military service will make women's position in society even more unequal and difficult.
"The inequality of women is manifest, among other things, in unequal pay and unequal job prospects, for equal work and equal qualifications; in women being given the major responsibility for the house, the family and the children's upbringing while at the same time they work outside the home; in the shortage of nurseries and day-care facilities, etc.".
The statement is signed by:
Young Women's Democratic Union Greek Mothers Progressive Union
Union of Greek Women Lawyer Greek Association of Secretaries
Committee for the Study Women's Problems Athens Association of Secretaries
Women in Resistance Movement Association of Professional Midwives
Democratic Women's Movement Association of Greek Professional Women
Greek Women's Federation Association of Social Workers
Panhellenic Housewives Union Working Women's Co-ordinating Committee
Panhellenic Union for the Greek Housewife
(Quotes translated by Anne Mangrioti
and taken from an article in Eleutherotypia)
IRELAND
BANSHEE - Journal of Irish Women United
12 Lower Pembroke St., Dublin 2, Ireland
Formed in June 1975, Irish Women United is "a group of Women's Liberationists who believe that the best perspective for struggle against women's oppression in Ireland is an ongoing fight around the charter of demands" including equality before the law, equal pay, free legal contraception, right to self-determined sexuality, equality in education. This charter is printed in full on the back cover of Banshee, the monthly, 16 page journal of Irish Women United. Attractively illustrated. Banshee includes articles on issues such as laws in Ireland regarding women, women in trade unions, social welfare and political theory as well as news of actions and workshops around these issues in Ireland, book and film reviews (Subscription for 6 issues: Ireland and U.K. £ 1.50; Overseas £ 2.00).
THE NETHERLANDS
NIEUWSBRIEF VAN HET FEMINISTIES SOCIALISTIES PLATFORM
c/o Lenie Janssen, 2e Oosterparkstraat 102 II, Amsterdam
Published monthly in Dutch, this 24 page bulletin gives extensive listings of feminist activities all over the Netherlands, as well as addresses of groups and contact women involved in women's centers, feminist cafes, feminist socialist study groups and conferences, abortion and anti-violence actions, health and much more. Each issue also contains articles on these issues, some international feminist news, and listings of women's culture: films, bands, books, radio and TV programs. It is exciting to see so much going on all over the country (Subscriptions are at least 10 Dutch guilders a year plus postage).
ISIS/NETHERLANDS
c/o Jose Ijlsra, Kromhout 104, Dordrecht, The Netherlands
The ISIS bulletins are available in Dutch from the ISIS translation group in The Netherlands. Price: 4.20 Dutch guilders each.
UNITED KINGDOM
WIRES
'30 Blenheim Terrace, Leeds 2, U.K.
WIRES (Women's Information, Referral and Enquiry Service) is a national information service for women on the activities of the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain, run by a group of Leeds feminists. WIRES has "extensive files with lists of Women's Liberation Groups, campaign centres, women's aid refuges and so on... So that questions like 'Where does a battered wife go?' or "How do I claim equal pay"?" may be answered, and the enquirer referred to the appropriate organization". In addition, WIRES puts out a newsletter twice a month, publishing "lists of events, meetings, feminist publication's, women's film festivals, etc. and publicizes campaigns like the Working Women's Charter, rape crisis projects, the National Abortion Campaign, Lesbian Action Now, and groups for more and better nurseries. Subscribers send their opinions, and debates on subjects from International Women's Day March through jealousy to Wages for Housework are carried out in the News Letter". Averaging about 22 pages, this mimeographed newsletter is very rich in resources, contacts and news of what is going on in Britain in the women's movement. The Leeds feminists do a fantastic job getting this out and many women using the ISIS information service have found WIRES very useful for getting in contact with British feminists carrying out concrete practical actions. We highly recommend WIRES (Subscriptions: Individuals £ 5 per year, £ 3 if very poor; Groups £ 12 per year plus £ 2 per extra copy).
POWER OF WOMEN
Falling Wall Book Service, 79 Richmond Road, Montpelier, Bristol, U.K.
The magazine of the international wages for housework campaign, issue No. 5 of Power of Women deals with the Iceland women's strike, prostitutes in France, and a new black women's wages for housework group. Distributed by the Falling Wall Book Service, the price is 15 pence plus 8 pence postage. Review copies are available from the London Wages for Housework Committee, c/o Anne Neale, 59 Wrottesley Road, London NW 10.
WOMEN'S STUDIES IN THE U.K.
Published by London Seminars (M. Rendel), 71 Clifton Hill, London NW8 OJN. A 30 page booklet, this is a listing of women's studies courses in U.K. universities, colleges of education, polytechnics and adult education institutions plus a listing of books and readings useful for women's studies courses. The 1975 edition is out of print but its compilers, Gonagh Hartnett and Margherita Rendel, are considering a reprint or a new edition. Very useful for those working in this area.
WOMEN IN EASTERN EUROPE NEWSLETTER
c/o Barbara Holland, CREES, University of Birmingham, U.K.
As a result of a conference held in October 1976 at the University of Birmingham on Women in Eastern Europe, it was decided to produce a quarterly, mimeographed newsletter on the problems posed by the position of women in Eastern Europe. It is aimed at both researchers and all those interested. The first issue contains a study of "Marxism and the Position of Women in Eastern Europe" plus listings of people doing research in this area. Future issues will contain resource listings. There is a debate going on among those involved about the relationship of such research to feminism and to the women's liberation movement. Contributions to the newsletter are welcome (Subscriptions at least 50 pence for the next copies).
CANADA
EMERGENCY LIBRARIAN
c/o Sherrill Cheda, 46 Gormley Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4V IZI
Produced by feminist librarians, this very attractive magazine offers bibliographies and resources on issues of concern to women: children's books, violence against women, women and the law, women in the arts. It also presents articles on overcoming sexism and racism in reading materials in libraries and schools. Designed and written so that it is a pleasure to read. Emergency Librarian is also extremely useful as a resource for (mainly) North American books and films, evaluated from a feminist perspective. We found especially valuable the issue on rape and the Nov./Dec. 1976 Kids Issue on Third World books for children.
USA
WOMANSPIRIT
Box 263, Wolf Creek, Oregon 97497
A quarterly dealing with the more mystic sides of women, with beautiful art work and poems. Their Fall Equinox 1977 issue (no. 13) will be an international one, and they ask for contributions from' as many parts of the world as possible. They are hoping for "a planetary sharing of the insights and contributions of feminists who are growing into their women strengths and identities. We are searching inside women's experience for clues and hints of a new culture, new society". Write, draw, send photographs to for this issue (address above).
QUEST
P.O. Box 8843, Washington D.C. 20003
Quest, a feminist quarterly (described in ISIS 2) is producing an issue devoted to international perspectives and articles written from different parts of the world. While we welcome the submission of any material you consider relevant to promoting exchange and political development, three major areas of focus have been chosen for this international issue of QUEST: 1) What kinds of feminist or women's activities, movements, concerns are generated by different national and/or cultural conditions? 2) How do various types of governments and social systems affect women's lives? 3) What important theoretical, strategic and programmatic developments are taking place that are vital for an international feminist audience to know of and consider?
Deadline for this issue May 1st '77 but articles received after this date will be considered for future issues.
INTERNATIONAL
IDOC
Via Santa Maria dell'Anima 30, Rome - Italy
IDOC (International Documentation and Communication Center) "specializes in alternative information and research on contemporary Christian experience within a process of socio-political change and human liberation". It has an extensive collection of material available on the Third World, national liberation movements, multinational corporations, and left Christian movements. It also catalogues alternative information and documentation sources from all over the world. Very valuable as a resource center on these issues, IDOC publishes a monthly bulletin of documentation and annotated bibliographies as well as occasional dossiers and books. (Subscription to Bulletin: individuals $ 10, institutions $ 20, for airmail add $ 5).
MONTHLY REVIEW
World Confederation of Labour, 50 rue Joseph II, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
A journal of trade union information and training, this covers international news of unions around the world (literally - sections on 5 continents), working conditions, investments, torture. It is beginning to carry articles on women, e.g. November 1976 on the strike following an occupation of the Hara Clothing Factory by 500 women workers in Thailand. In English and French.