August 2008

Let's build a lasting movement for freedom and justice!

¡Bienvenidos a todos! Let's hear it for all the unconventional folks who refuse to sit by while establishment politicos cut deals, war rages in the Middle East, and anti-abortion woman-haters besiege our clinics!

It's been 40 years since the 1968 protests outside the Chicago Democratic National Convention — a year that was filled with antiwar and civil rights rebellion, women's liberation upsurge, student strikes, and lively debates about ideas.

Much has been achieved in the last four decades, but many hard-won gains have been eroded. The U.S. political climate is still hostile to the goals and dreams of women, people of color, workers, queers, immigrants, young people, the elderly and the poor. Though women won the constitutional right to abortion, it has been so undermined that many women have little control over their bodies. Though the civil rights movement won voting rights, countless numbers of people of color are still deprived of the ballot.

Why do previous gains continue to be rolled back or altogether slashed? A major reason is the influence of the Democratic Party, whose primary concern is the interests of big business. Their program doesn't seek to change capitalism, which promotes discrimination and inequality so that corporations can make an extra dime. Regardless of the gender or race of the Democratic Party's candidates, their basic platform is always based on defending the status quo — it's been the same old story for 40 years and more.

As a multi-issue, socialist feminist, grassroots organization, Radical Women looks for anti-capitalist alternatives to the twin parties of war and reaction. We want to work with others to build a militant, independent feminist movement that responds to the needs and the leadership of society's most oppressed and subjugated.

Join us in building that movement! Come to Radical Women's national conference, "The Persistent Power of Socialist Feminism," in San Francisco on October 3-6. The conference will develop an action plan to fight for survival issues such as 24-hour childcare, nationalized healthcare, reproductive justice, rights on the job and an end to war, poverty and bigotry. Activists and scholars from China, Australia, Central America and the U.S. — including courageous civil liberties attorney Lynne Stewart — will offer their insights and wisdom. Plan to attend and add your thoughts and experiences to the mix.

Let's make 2008 a year of militant action and change that goes to the root!