WOMEN PUBLISHING IN ZIMBABWE
"After nearly a century of colonial and settler rule, a progressive publishing house must provide a channel through which Zimbabweans can speak their own experiences, struggles, problems and triumphs... Material for the Women of Africa series is considered in relation to the position of women in Africa, and their history of double oppression - as Africans and as women.
"Women of Africa is the title of a new series of books by and for women being published by the Zimbabwe Publishing House (ZPH), founded in 1981.
The series will concentrate on three areas: handbooks designed for the extensive network of women's groups in Zimbabwe; creative writing; theory an«d research.
The first books appearing in the series are handbooks written and/or edited by Kathy Bond-Stewart. She writes:"The books were developed directly through leadership courses with representatives of rural women's groups, and English courses with ex-combatant women. There were no suitable materials for the courses so we created our own. Some books emerged from the day to day excitement of learning together, for example, books such as Women's Problems, English as a Weapon in the Struggle for Life, Young Women in the Liberation Struggle, and Organising." Creative writing covers a wide range of possibilities. Jester Tshuma and Anni Holmes write: "We are publishing a play by Bertha Msora, I Will Wait, about a young woman who has to marry her sister's.
husband when her sister dies. A collection of poems by Christina Masuwa is also due to be published.
"We hope to encourage women novelists, story-writers, playwrights and poets. We want to publish creative writing by women who are not usually heard. Young Women in the Liberation Struggle was written by ex-combatants, and the authors of Women's Stories include a domestic worker, a student and a spirit medium. Intellectuals do not have a" monopoly on literary creativity. Women's publishing houses elsewhere point to *an inspiring precedent: making women's creativity available encourages other women to write and express themselves. We would like to bring out a magazine specifically for young and newly literate women to help sustain the impetus of literacy training and school."
The Women of Africa series will also focus on theory and research. "Like working class and Black women internationally, African women are challenging the definifions of their oppression articulated by 'mainstream' feminism (i.e. white, middle class, Western women). While we do not wish to denigrate the work done by other .women around their own sites of oppression, we hope that our series will provide a forum for analyses and strategies developed by and for African women."
For more information contact:
Jester Tshuma and Anni Holmes, Zimbabwe
Publishing House, P.O. Box BW 350,
Bonowdale Harare, Zimbabwe.
ALGERlAN FEMINISTS ARRESTED FOR OPPOSITION TO NEW FAMILY LAW
Released after International Pressure
A wave of repression of people's democratic organizations has been renewed in Algeria. A large number of people are being detained in military prisons. Since December 1983, the number of arrests has increased dramatically. A significant proportion of those arrested are well-known feminists who are seeking basic freedoms for Algerian women. In 1982 Algerian women fought a successful battle against the introduction of a Family Law which the government wished to implement. The proposed Family Law would have denied Algerian women their civil rights as it would have required women to be legally represented by male family members in matters relating to marriage, divorce and the right to work.
This proposed legislation was suspended through the efforts of Algerian women. This was the first time since independence in 1962 that Algerian women took to the streets to fight for their rights. During this struggle a group of women emerged, expressing feminist positions and demanding human rights for women.
Quotes are from the article "Publishing for Women in Zimbabwe" in 259 - An Introduction to i world of women s books compiled by the Feminist Book Fair Group 7 Lodden House, Church Street, London NWS, England.
Many women have been arrested for their ideas and opinions. The exact number is not known. A group of lawyers is investigating these cases. Among those arrested are Fattouma Ouzagane, Louiza Hannoun and Leila Souidi. They have not violated any law. They were arrested in December 1983 but this was not revealed until March 1984. When the international press began writing about their cases, they were transferred to other prisons.
After an international campaign was mounted for the release of these women, they and others were freed from prison. The Committee for the Liberation of Algerian Detainees says that the international campaign was the significant factor in their release. In this sense it was a great success. Nevertheless, the Committee is also stressing that the political situation has not changed substantially; more people are being arrested, and some form of Family Law which denies women their rights will most likely be approved in the near future.
For more information contact:
Committee for the Liberation of Algerian Detainees,
c/o Marie-Aimee Helie-Lucas,
251 Badhuisweg, 2509 LS, The Hague,
The Netherlands
GABRIELA: filipinas unite in a women's movement for change
On 10 and 11 March 1984 almost three hundred women from 65 organizations gathered in Manila to attend an assembly. This assembly, dubbed as GABRIELA, or General Assembly Binding Women for Reform, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action, formed part of the celebration of International Women's Week. It was a historic event for this was the first time that a women's gathering of such size and representation was held in the Philippines for the specific purpose of articulating and discussing conditions affecting women. The assembly was able to arrive at a call for united action in recognition of the need for a women's movement for change.
Reviewing the history of the women's movement in the Philippines, one of the assembly papers noted that;
"the notion that class liberation will have to precede women's liberation was, and to some extent still is, the view that pervaded women's and men's consciousness, so that women's concerns became mere appendages to the broad economic and political demands being espoused by these groups. This view has stymied the efforts of individuals and groups genuinely concerned with feminism...
"To expose the various exploitative mechanisms that render women second class citizens wherever they are, in the developed or developing economies, is one thing; and it is another thing to develop alternative consciousness and structures for women that shall make us realize our own potentials, individual and collective. Somehow along the way, we have managed to segmentize our view of women's oppression, thus diverting ourselves from the core of the problem: women are exploited through class and gender. To attack only one of the two is to solve only half of the problem. At this crucial point of our history as a nation, we have no need for half solutions to a problem that is disarmingly simple and yet so complex in its implications".
Dividing into workshops, the delegates set about working out concrete programs for the education, organization and mobilization of women for the elimination of all forms of oppression against women. Delegates from women's organizations present at the Assembly reconvened later in March to draft the summary of the workshop reports and the Assembly's plan of action. On 27 March 1984, GABRIELA was formally launched as a coalition. The workshop reports, background papers and plan of action were published and circulated, together with a statement of Gabriela's basic objectives:
GABRIELA is a coalition
* for women from various sectors and organizations
* for the education, organization and mobilization of women
* towards
- the elimination of all forms of oppression against women;
- equipping each woman with the consciousness, motivation, and skills to institute socio-cultural transformation;
- actualizing each woman's potential for political leadership; and
- tapping and consolidation of the organized strength of women for political action
* as part of-the struggle for the emancipation of the Filipino women and the liberation of the Filipino nation.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S PEACE MOVEMEMT: Comiso women on trial
On April 14, 1984, after a two day trial before a Magistrate's Court in Sicily, Italy, twelve women were found not guilty of blocking the road at the Magliocco NATO base near Comiso, Sicily in March 1983. The women had been facing possible prison sentences of two to twelve years. Judges dismissed the charge of blockade and replaced it with a lesser charge of "private violence against workers and employees of the base at Comiso". They conceded the fact of extenuating motives of "particular moral value". The three man court passed a suspended sentence of twenty days in prison or a fine of five hundred thousand lire (about USS 300).
While this is a partial victory for the international women's peace movement, the twelve women from several different countries object to the imputation of "violence against workers". They have been part of a non-violent direct action movement protesting the installation of Cruise missiles in Sicily. They are appealing the charge. The court heard detailed and passionate statements from each of the women about their reasons for taking non-violent direct action against the installation of the missiles. The women and the eight lawyers representing them spoke of the illegality of weapons of mass destruction in international law, of the unconstitutionality of the Cruise missiles in Sicily, of their fear for their own lives and the lives of their children. They spoke of the toll of human life taken by the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the ecological toll caused by uranium mining and nuclear weapons testing. They pleaded for the rights of people to act as effectively as possible to prevent nuclear war.
The women told of the sexual harassment and gratuitous violence they experienced at the hands of the police during their five day imprisonment. One women said she felt under constant attack as a woman and as a lesbian.
During the trial the women received hundreds of messages from all over the world. There were demonstrations outside the courts in Rome, Florence. Padua and Vicenza and outside the Italian embassies in London and Ottawa.
Following the trial, the women were expelled from Italy. They are now working with the Women for Peace Movement in Holland and at Greenham Common in England.
On 11 May 1984, the Italian police raided the Women's Peace Camp, La Ragnatela (The Web), and closed it for "illegal activities". Three women from Australia, New Zealand and England were arrested and expelled. The camp was reopened after a few days.
The Women's Peace Camp in Italy is now planning activities for the summer which will probably include seminars on peace and training in non-violent direct action.
For more information contact:
La Ragnatela,-Donne per La Pace, CP 150,
97013 Comiso (RG), Sicily, Italy.
ITALY: Women in development organizations join forces
In 1983 the women from Italian non-governmental (NGO) development organizations felt the need to come together to make their opinions heard within their organizations and to study the impact that the projects sponsored by these NGO's have on women.
To launch their concern they organized an international seminar at the end of 1983 on "Women and the Third World." The more than 300 participants in this seminar, recommended closer relations with women's groups in the Third World in order to understand the role that women have in development and to be able to evaluate the impact of the NGO sponsored projects on women.
After the seminar the women from the development organizations formed a Coordinating Group to continue their activities. In May, 1984 the official inauguration took place and three permanent working groups were formed: 1) a study group to evaluate projects; 2) an information group to study the needs of the organizations for information on women, and 3) a study group to see the training needs of the volunteers going to Third World countries. They also decided to support the Isis International/ICDA meeting on Women and Development to be held in Italy (for more information see Conference pages).
Ten organizations participate in the Coordinating Group. Isis International has been asked to join to contribute its experience in networking and information skills.
Coordinamento delle Donne tra le ONG del
Volontariato Italiano
Via Padova 33, Rome, Italy.
March eight in Chile: Struggle and Repression
March eight in Santiago, Chile was a day of meetings- for me. I had just returned two days before after an absence of several years. The meetings took place in a special situation: the first familiar face 1 saw was among a group of women fleeing from the spray of a water cannon. We recognized each other as we both took refuge in a doorway crowded with terrified passers-by. A few moments earlier the police pushed us into the building, threatening us with their machine guns. A few meters further on, in front of the Government Palace, a group of women had been demonstrating, joining their specific demands to those for freedom in the country. They were beaten, insulted and detained. Several journalists, who were trying to capture images of what was happening on this unique International Women's Day in Santiago, were also assaulted.
The second meeting took place just half an hour later. The expression on our faces changed from fright to surprise as my friend and I recognized each other, after a group of special forces police went running furiously down the center of the street, their clubs swinging. In the square in front of the church of San Francisco, the Feminist Movement was demonstrating. They just managed to unfurl a few banners and pass out a few pamphlets which demanded: "Democracy in the country and at home." The hand of repression swept down quickly overwhelming everything and everyone.
Early in the morning the women of the Women's Department of the National Union Coordinating Committee went out in small groups, handing out red carnationsto passers-by with a card calling upon them to join the national strike being called in the next few months. They were arrested and forced onto the floor of police wagons, face down, one on top of the other. The trampled carnations colored the streets with red, almost a symbol of the toll of the day: more than fifty women arrested, some of them injured from being beaten, a labor unionist, Patricia Medina, • suffered a miscarriage after five days of detention, a youpg woman was raped in a police precinct. There were five demonstrations chronologically coordinated in Santiago on March 8. The frustration and anger of this day were mixed with hope in the common struggle. The enthusiasm of this day was only a sign. A sign of how much the women's movement has grown in the past year. During 1983 when a small opening came in the Chilean political arena, the women's movement came out in force. A coordinating committee was formed of the many women's groups which have grown up in spite of the dictatorship. The Feminist Movement, incubating since 1978, came out into the light of day. At the end of December 1983, the women's movement held a big united demonstration in opposition to the regime, using a new style of political action which it developed for itself. This is probably why orders were handed down to brutally repress International Women's Day. A regime, like that of Chile, cannot allow movements which aspire to social transformation.
CIDHAL WOMEN'S CENTER VICTIM OF REPRESSION APPEALS FOR SOLIDARITY
On 30 March 1984 at 12 noon, the head of the Health Department of the state of Morelos, Mexico accompanied by government and police agents burst into the CIDHAL clinic and interrogated for more than an hour Dr. Guadalupe Mainero, who works there. The clinic was searched and closed even though no irregularities were found.
This is a clear violation of human rights and of the democratic movement of Mexico. The staff of CIDHAL took immediate steps to attain the reopening of the women's clinic, going as far as the Governor of Morelos. We were told by the Governor and his assistants that we had gone beyond the limits of the law, that we must bring our record books up to date and that we must give up certain "subversive" ideas which incite others to subversion, for example our support for the legalization of abortion in Mexico. We were also told to forget supporting people's struggles as there is no reason for the demands being made by the peasants and poor people. V/e should avoid associating with those who express discontent with the government. In short, we should step aside from what is happening in the lives of the people in Morelos.
CIDHAL is an organization which works with women, especially the poor slum dwellers, peasants and workers, giving them information, support, training and solidarity in raising their consciousness of their situation as women and in the struggle to change this situation. We have given our support for the legalization of abortion because we believe it is inhuman that thousands of women, mainly poor women, die every year from illegal and unsafe abortions. Our work involves solidarity with women peasants, workers and slum dwellers who are denouncing injustice and struggling to improve their lives.
Our center was reopened on the 9th of April under the following conditions:
- A financial audit must be done-(This has already been completed.)
- We must remain within the limits of the law. The judicial department has been given the task to see to this.
We appeal to the solidarity of all women and of people in general so that we can continue to develop our work in peace and without obstacles from anyone.
CIDHAL
Apartado 579
Cuernavaca 62000
Morelos, Mexico
