events and campaigns

European conference on battered women, Amsterdam 15-16 April 1978.

This is a closed conference for women who are involved in working with battered women and women who live in refuges themselves. So far the following countries are involved: Holland, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and those invited but who have not yet replied are: Germany, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Luxemburg, Poland, Czechoslovakia, USSR (reacted but cannot come), Ireland, Yugoslavia. The aim of the conference is, besides sharing experiences and ideas, to work out a feminist analysis of the problem of battered women. The following issues will be dealt with in workshops: research, paid or unpaid labour, economic (in)dependence of women, publicity, organisation of refuges, fund-raising, housing, problems of women living in a refuge, children, (for further information: Stichting "blijf van m'n lijf", Postbus 4214, Amsterdam, Holland).

Lesbian Mothers' Defense Fund.

Launched on 8 March 1978 by Wages Due Lesbians, the Lesbian Mothers Defense Fund is intended to be a permanent resource for lesbian mothers who need information and money to build the best possible legal case in fighting for custody of their children. Sponsors are invited to contribute: individual $ 5, group $ 25, sustaining $ 50. More information available from Wages Due Lesbians, P.O. Box 38, Station E, Toronto, Canada. Tel: (416) 465-6822 or 921-9091.

Why Be a Wife Campaign 214 Stapleton Hall Road, London N. 4, U.K. Tel: Lucy Robinson 01/720 9403

The women organising this campaign write:

"We want this to be a campaign which is directed at marriage in general, not just the legal disadvantages of marriage to women. We don't want to put down women who are married. Being a wife is nothing to do with whether you're married or not: it is all part of the assumption of emotional dependence and selfless service which lies behind women's relationships with men. It is something we have all been educated into, and something we can all try and escape. We don't want to dictate the ways in which people should live, all we want to say is that there are alternative ways of looking at things.

The campaign wants especially to reach young girls who have just left school with no other aim in life but to get married and settle down.

When the campaign has been launched, we want to use it as a platform for attacking the kind of discrimination from which women suffer because of the assumption that they are legally and emotionally dependent upon men:

- their right to childcare facilities, married women's right to work, to be treated as an independent person in matters of tax and social security." A leaflet, badge, sticker and poster are available from the organisers.

asia and the pacific

Pacific and Asian Women's Forum PAWF 

PAWF was established during a meeting convened by the United Nations Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development, although quite apart from that organism. On December 9, 1977 about 25 women from seventeen Pacific and Asian countries decided quite spontaneously to establish a forum of women in the Pacific and Asian Region. Established during a meeting convened by the UN Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development, PAWF was born out of a common feeling of the need to share ideas and experiences and to build a network to develop future programmes. The Forum would not be dependent on the UN APCWD but remain an independent voice collaborating with it. It would not only complement the activities of the Centre, but also play a watch-dog role.

The common understanding about what the forum should be was so strong that nothing was written down. There were, however, a few points of concensus which the rapporteuse defined later;

• the problems of women cannot and should not be viewed in isolation of larger social, economic, cultural and political problems.
• without changing the overall structures of society, no significant changes in the position and condition of women can be brought about. The two have to go together.
• the desired changes in society and in the conditions of women will have to be fought for. For this pressure groups and people's movements will have to be organised to mobilise the forces of change.
• the satisfaction of basic needs of women and men though necessary is not enough. A critical consciousness needs to be created through which the majority becomes an active force rather than remains in the culture of silence.
• because of class differences, the interests of all women are not the same. Those who are for change will have to be on the side of the oppressed classes who would have to form the vanguard of any movement for change.

There was no attempt to give any formal structure to the Forum. Five sub-regional contact points were set up to initiate activities in a decentralised way, and one central contact point was established, all of which work would be done voluntarily.

If the Forum was able to stimulate adequate interaction and there was enough material and information to exchange, a newsletter/journal could also be launched. It was felt that if the Pacific and Asian women had a journal of their own, they would not have to run to Europe or the US to have their writings published in Western journals. Such a newsletter/journal could carry news and analysis of women-related activities going on in different countries. The journal could also play a role in articulating the emancipatory aspirations of Asian women in accordance with the values and changing needs of their own societies.

Donations of the group amounted to 900 dollars enough to set the network going. Additional funds would only be sought after more dialogue on what exactly the Forum should set out to do.

 

JAPAN

Asian Women's Liberation, c/o Goto Masako, 147 Kenjukosha, 112 Sakuragaoka, Hodogaya-ku, Yokonama-shi, Kanagawa-ken, Japan.

In their first newsletter published in May 1977, the Asian Women's Liberation Committee of Japan write:

"In summer 1974, nearly one hundred women met in Tokyo to form a new women's group entirely independent from any established (male-dominated) organization or Western-oriented women's liberation movement. Some members are Christian concerned about the suffering of Asian people today; some are active in the protest movement against Kisaeng tourism (tens of thousands of Japanese male tourists visit South Korea each year to play out their sexual fantasies with young Korean women called Kisaeng), and others are working for the protection of the civil rights of minorities in Japan such as Korean and Chinese residents who are discriminated against within our society. Several women have been activists in the movement for the release of political prisoners in Korea and other Asian countries, and some women are particularly committed to the anti-pollution movement in Japan as well as the movement to stop the export of pollution-producing factories by Japanese firms to other parts of Asia.

When we first met, we realized that we have virtually no information on the situation of women in Asia - how they live, what kind of oppression and exploitation they experience as women and how they are struggling. Thus as a first step, we started a series of study meetings in an attempt to remedy our lack of knowledge.

On the first of March in 1977, seven of us (staff member of a Christian organization, journalists, painter, medical workers, secretary) published "our Declaration, Asia and Women's Liberation" to express our determination to strengthen our movement. We are now convinced that our own liberation can not be realized at the sacrifice of other Asian women or without learning from their courageous struggle.

In search of true solidarity with Asian women, we are engaged in various activities to expose the oppressive systems under which they are suffering and the role of Japan in supporting those systems. Our three main tasks are as follows:

Firstly, to resist Japanese economic aggression in Asian countries. We want to make far-reaching investigations on how Japanese overseas business activities exploit Asian especially women workers, and to accuse the guilty Japanese companies.

Secondly, to condemn sexual exploitation prostitution tourism - by Japanese male tourists who are now flocking to South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand and other Asian countries. We cannot forgive the shameful deeds being done by our countrymen, recalling with a deep sense of guilt how during World War II, Japanese militarist armies forcibly took hundreds of thousands of Korean girls to the battlefields in China and Southeast Asia as prostitutes. We will not allow Asian women to again be dehumanized as sex objects by Japanese men.

Thirdly, to fight against political oppression. We cannot ignore the fact the dictatorships in South Korea and other Asian nations which imprison and torture freedom fighters are economically and politically supported by the Japanese government and Japanese corporations. It is our duty to demand the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience and to give whatever support we can to their families.

We are collecting information, making appeals, holding meetings, and publishing newsletters. It is our sincere hope that this small newsletter will serve as a means to strengthen links among women who are concerned and committed in their respective struggles for liberation.

TOMIYAMA Taeko, YUASA Rei,
MATSUI Yayori, YAMAGUCHI Akiko,
ANDO Misako, GOTO Masako,
KAJI Etsuko

Feminist: Japan, New Blue Stocking. "A new bi-monthly journal for women interested in exploring international womanhood" containing articles about Japanese and Asian women. Quarterly in Japanese, with one issue per year in English. Feminist: Japan International Issue Volume 1, No. 4 February 15, 1978 US $ 2.50. Payment to: Feminist Japan #182 - 1999, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., Roosvelt Island, New York, N.Y. 10044, USA. Editorial Office: Ikuko Atsumi, 6-5-8 Todoroki Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 113. (offices also in New York, Los Angeles, and the Netherlands).

europe

France

L'information des femmes, monthly newspaper of the movement in France is unfortunately suspending publication, because of the lack of financial response to the newspaper, and the lack of a real working group to produce it. The telephone information service will continue to function: Paris 622-34-23. Personal note from ISIS: we regret this very much, and found "L'information des femmes" highly useful and informative. But the movement seems to be going glossy...

des femmes en mouvement, 70 rue des Saint-Peres, 75007 Paris, France (tel: 222 02 08).

A new monthly produced by the women of "editions des femmes" (groupe psychanalyse et politique) as a follow-up to their irregular publication "quotidien des femmes". A 96-page glossy, it tries to cover everything from women workers to violence to feminist writing to women's culture. Some very good articles, some totally confusing with a tendency to polemic, but nonetheless a welcome addition to French feminist publications. 6 FF (note: Librarie des femmes, 2 Place des Celestins, Lyon; and 35 rue Pavilion, Marseille. Both women's bookshops run by the psych, et pol. group).

United Kingdom

WIRES 32a Parliament Street, York, United Kingdom; tel. 35471 (Note new address and telephone!)

WIRES continues to be an excellent source of information on what's going on where in the women's liberation movement in the United Kingdom. The women producing this newsletter do an excellent job and deserve our support. They have sent us the following description of their work.

Want to know where your nearest women's group is? Need help with the projects you're writing on women's legal rights? Like to know about women's theatre, film or music groups? Want to contact other lesbians? Want to know more about Women's Aid or feminist publications? If you do you can write to WIRES, the national information and coordination service of the Women's Liberation Movement.

WIRES has been running successfully for nearly three years now. It was set up after the 1975 National Women's Liberation Conference as a central point of contact in the Movement, so that all groups could report their activities and keep in touch with what other groups are doing, as well as enabling more isolated women to find out about the various campaigns, projects and research going on all over the country. Such a co-ordination network is vital in a movement as diverse as ours, which is made up of local groups, and where much of the activity and information would otherwise remain unknown except to those most closely involved. Our files are fairly wide now, with contact addresses relevant to almost every subject you'd be likely to need. But they also rely on you to write regular reports and keep them fully up to date.

The fortnightly newsletter is a vital part of work, with informations, articles, reviews, debates, events, letters, and news from groups and campaigns. We'd like more women to write for the newsletter so that it can become a more lively reflection of the discussions going on in the movement. At present we take many of our articles from local newsletters but we'd appreciate a wider indication of what other people see as important.

WIRES is run by a collective of 5 women and by 6 monthly meetings where any woman can come along with new ideas, criticisms, and suggestions. We have only just taken over in York and are only beginning to grapple with the problems involved so we welcome as much feedback as possible from all sisters. We are financed almost entirely by subscriptions, and we hope groups will be able to raise money for donations so we don't have to spend too much of our energy on fundraising - it's your paper too! Above all we need subscriptions - £ 6.00 p.a. for individuals ( £4.00 if poor) and £ 12.00 p.a. for groups (which get sent 2 copies). We make a charge for adverts for groups not in the W.L.M, 

SUBSCRIBE and keep yourself in touch and WIRES alive!

SUBSCRIBE and keep yourself in touch and WIRES alive!

The Women's Press, 12 Ellesmore Road, Bow, London E3 5QX, U.K. Sales inquiries: Quartet Books, 27 Goodge St., London W10 1FD.

The Women's Press published their first five books early this year. They are: The awakening, by Kate Chopin; Lives of Girls and Women, by Alice Munro; Aurora Leigh, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Lolly Willowes, by Silvia Townsend Warner; and Love and Freindship (sic), by Jane Austen. Feminist ideas, submissions, inquiries and feedback are welcomed. Please enclose return postage.

Women's Calendar 1978, from Moss Side Community Press Women's Co-op, 21A Princess Road, Manchester 14,England, (tel: 061 226 7115).

 A really interesting and creative production by a group of women who are also producing feminist posters and cards.

latin america

Militancia Feminista, Prolongacion Iquitos 2344/3er. piso, Lince/Lima (tel: 22 60 82 / 45 42 11).

This is a group which has recently formed to put pressure on the Government to include a whole series of demands concerning women in the new constitution which will be established after the next elections (march). They have just published a "Documento sobre la Constituyente" (document on the constitution) in which their demands include: an end to all discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, social origin, religion and ideas; progressive incorporation of women into salaried employment; local day-care centres and extended school services for children of working women; longer and more standardised maternity leave; full and equal rights for women within marriage, and social security for housework; sanctions against violence against women both within and outside marriage; a whole series of demands for the greater protection of children; full contraceptive services, and the making legal and safe of abortion.

north america

USA

HERESIES # 6: Women and Violence, to appear later this year. The Heresies Collective request women to contribute material to this issue of the journal, on all possible aspects of violence. To be submitted by April 15, 1978. Box 766 Canal St. Station, New York, NY 10013, USA.

Women in the Struggle for Liberation, a resource packet, 1977. Available from University Christian Movement, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, Ma. 02138, USA. Price $ 2.50 ($ 2.00 for 10 or more copies).

Compiled by the World Student Christian Federation Women's projects, this resource packet is designed to help student and other study groups to understand the international dimensions of women's struggle for liberation. In addition to the book Women in the Struggle for Liberation, the packet includes: short stories and biographical excerpts of women in many countries, a study guide, a list and description of available films about Third World women, and a brochure on women in rural development.

CANADA

Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal, Box 294, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. BOP 1 XO Canada.

A bilingual (French/English) interdisciplinary women's studies journal published twice a year, devoted to critical and creative writing on the topic of women. Welcomes ^ manuscripts and subscriptions (overseas S 10 individual, S 15 institutions; North America, S 7 and S 12).

MATCH, 204A, 151 Slater. Ottawa, Ontario Kip 5H3 (tel: 613/238 1312).

Match is a centre designed to match Third World needs with resources available from Canadian women's groups or the skills of Canadian women, and in some cases will match Canadian needs with skills and experience of Third World women. It is designed to act as a "switchboard" through which people share experiences and work on mutual concerns. At the moment Match is establishing contact with, and inviting the participation of, a broad variety and great number of individual women and women's organizations and agencies. The intent is to support and promote the extension of existing programs rather than to duplicate them. Projects will normally come from indigenous Third World women, and Match will attempt to find them a sponsor.

INTERNATIONAL

Gala's Guide Available from 115 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 94105, USA and 1, North End Road, London W. 14, U.K. Price: S 7,00.

The 1978 edition of this guide contains over 3000 listings of lesbian, gay and women's centers, organizations and clubs in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other countries around the world.

International Roster of Women Scholars and Professionals, coordinated by Beverly Woodward, 148 N. Street, S. Boston, Mass 02127, USA. Executive secretary: Anne Handle, 30 Baker St., London W1M 2DS, U.K.

The organisers of this project write: "The Principal objective of the project is to facilitate greater participation by women with special competencies and skills in public policy research, decision-making, and administration, especially at the international/transnational level. It is hoped that the Roster will be of assistance to the various agencies of the United Nations, to other intergovernmental groups, and to nongovernmental organisations and institutes concerned with public policy issues". Inquiries should be sent to the above addresses.

Crimes Against Women: proceedings of the International Tribunal, compiled and edited by Diana E.H. Russell and Nicole Van de Ven, Millbrae, Ca. Les Femmes, 1976, 298 pp. Reviewed by Elise Boulding.

This is an extraordinary book. It documents a significant but little noted counter-gathering to the 1975 International Women's Year Conference held in Mexico City a few months earlier. The Tribunal on Crimes Against Women was organized by an international feminist group that "did not subscribe to the espoused IWY goal of giving women equality with men in the system as it exists today - a system that requires radical restructuring, not the integration of women into its patriarchial structures." (p.218). The distance between the earnest officialese of the IWY documents and the passionate articulateness of the Tribunal proceedings is the distance between two worlds. The first signals the faint twinges of governmental conscience, the second is the apocolyptic dawn of an entirely .new consciousness about the human condition...

This was not just a cozy gathering of Euro-Northamerican feminists. They did make up over half the countries represented, but 4 Latin American, 4 African, 4 West Asian countries were also represented. The Tribunal was organized to give maximal country voice to each type of crime. Reading through the testimonies, and the graphic accounts Russell provides of the actual proceedings, including the daily heights of turbulence and heights of inspired insight, is a battering experience. One can only imagine what the experience was for those who were present. In the first place, it was an intense experience of self-discipline for shy and mostly inarticulate victims to prepare and present verbal testimony about types of crimes not recognized as such by legal structures or public opinion in most societies. The crimes described were the more painful, physically and psychically, because they had never been spoken of even among women. Second, there was the need to recognize and give respect to types of crimes and violence that had never been dreamed of by some of the women present. Women were there from all class backgrounds and cultures. For some the concept of forced motherhood was the major shock; for others, of forced sterilization; for others the persecution of unmarried mothers, or of lesbians or prostitutes, of of third world women in first world countries.The crimes of the medical profession and of "the economic system", and of the heavy family hand of patriarchy, were more universally experienced though suffered in privacy. The crimes of overt violence were the hardest to endure in report: rape, woman battering, forced incarceration in mental hospitals, assault, femicide, female castration, political torture and prison brutality. It became clear that many of these were the everyday rule, not the (comforting) exception.

The tribunal was committed to testimony, consciousness-raising, mobilization and future action, but not to analysis. The importance of Russell's book is that it provides both lay persons and social scientists with the raw material for more adequate conceptualization of the structural sources of violence in all types of society, and for more adequate reconceptualization of sex roles in relation to social structure...

ERRATUM-APOLOGIA

In Isis Bulletin No. 4, page 9, we reproduced a graphic by Anne Quigley without giving due acknowledgement.

This is the cover graphic from a pamphlet entitled "Motherhood, Lesbianism, and Child Custody" by Francie Wyland, published by Wages Due Lesbians Toronto and Falling Wall Press.

HEALTH DIRECTORY

Dear Sisters,

A publication is being planned which will present a women's perspective on women and health internationally. The proposed publication, to be coordinated jointly by ISIS and the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, will include material from as many countries as possible, and will appear in English and Spanish.

During the preparation period over the next five or six months, we will be working with many groups and individuals to make the finished publication as useful as possible. We are now soliciting information and suggestions from you. Our working definition of women and health includes the following topics as part of an overall relationship between women and health:

•  women as paid and unpaid health workers
•  women's health and medical care issues
  • abortion
  • birth control
  • childbirth
  • menopause
  • sexuality 
  • venereal disease
  • sterilization 
  • women and drugs
• analyses of social, political and economic forces affecting the relationship between women and health
• organizing efforts and alternatives to improve health and medical care, as developed by women

Provisional plans call for several different types of basic materials to be included in this publication, as follows:

• Annotations and reviews of available books, films, periodicals, pamphlets and bibliographies.
• Essays and reports on selected aspects of the relationship between women and health, as defined above.
• A directory of information and referral resources listing all groups which wish to be so listed, by self-description.

We are writing to ask if you will participate in this publication by sending us any of the following:

• a description of your group/your work for listing in the directory
• any publications (books, periodicals, pamphlets etc. including information about films, videos) which should be listed
• analyses, reports and essays about any aspects of women and health listed above
• your comments, suggestions, criticisms and feedback.

Replies may be sent in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish. We're looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for you interest.

Replies from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Scandinavia, Spain and the United Kingdom should be sent to: Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Box 192, West Somerville, Ma. 02144 USA.

Replies from Africa, Asia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and any other country not specifically mentioned above should be sent to: ISIS, CP. 301, Carouge/Geneva, Switzerland.

In Sisterhood
Boston Women's Health Book Collective
Isis

IF YOUR PUBLICATION, ARTICLE or GROUP DOES NOT APPEAR IN THIS BULLETIN AND YOU THINK IT SHOULD, IT'S PROBABLY BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT IT. IF YOU WANT TO BE IN ISIS INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN SEND US YOUR INFORMATION!