> Below is an article entitled "Sexism in the Anarchist Movement" by Angela
> Beallor from ONWARD #1, which is out now!! ONWARD contains news about the
> upcoming conventions, the execution of Shaka Sankofa, an indepth look at the
> sanctions on Iraq, Vieques, the grand jury system and other news of revolts
> worldwide! It also contains history, opinion and theory, (the article below
> is from the theory section) and a whole lot more!
> Issue 1 is out! Get your copy today! Single issues are $2 postage paid,
> subscriptions are $7-10 annually (4 awesome issues). Checks/money orders to
> ONWARD or well concealed cash.
> Interested distributors get in touch for rates!
>
> In Solidarity,
>
> ONWARD
> PO Box 2671
> Gainesville FL
> 32602-2671 USA
> Theonwardcollective at hotmail.com
> ****
>
> Sexism in the Anarchist Movement by Angela Beallor
>
> This article is an attempt to add to the discourse that is (or should be)
> occurring around sexism within the very movements that purport to be
> fighting it. It was a hard process to distinguish between sexism within the
> Anarchist movement and the general sexism within society because so many of
> the criticisms that can be leveled against the Anarchist movement are
> criticisms of the greater society. There is a void where critical Anarchist
> feminist/anti-sexist critiques should be which has lead to a lack of
> dialogue and concrete action around sexism. This critique will be based upon
> many of the weaknesses within the Anarchist movement, which are often
> compounded around issues of sexism (and other forms of oppression). There is
> a continuum of thought and concrete action which Anarchists must address or
> take up in order to combat our own sexism and sexism in the greater society.
>
>
> Challenging Ideas and Behaviors
>
> The continuum begins with our personal thoughts and behavior. Growing up in
> a sexist society imbues within us the idea that women are inferior to men.
> Unless these ideas are thoroughly challenged, in every aspect of our lives,
> every waking minute, then these ideas are allowed to flourish in our
> behavior. Many may feel this is an obvious point, but as Kevin Powell wrote
> in a recent Ms. Article, =93Everyday I struggle within myself not to use the
> language of gender oppression, to see the sexism inherent in every aspect of
> America, to challenge all injustices, not just those that are convenient for
> me.
>
> Anti-sexism is not just about fighting overt forms of sexism, violent rape,
> domestic violence, overtly sexist words, it is also about challenging our
> relationships, the ideas that create a rape culture, the way people are
> socialized, etc. These are not convenient issues to struggle around for they
> involve digging deep within ourselves, traveling back in our development,
> and dedicating time to the difficult process of self-change. We must
> challenge the ideas and behaviors that promote sexism to other men and
> alienate women both in personal relationships and in organizations.
>
> Recognizing that anti-sexist work is a deep, hard process is very important
> but a point many miss. All too often men who are genuinely against sexism
> fail to acknowledge and challenge the sexism that lies within themselves.
> I AM an anti-sexist, they proclaim. But it is said so loudly that many men
> fail to hear the voices of women. It becomes a label to proudly sport
> instead of a serious and difficult process. Don't get me
> wrong, if a man is indeed anti-sexist, he needs to display it, but this is
> accomplished through his actions and in his explanations of our current
> reality, especially to other men. Men must become examples to challenge the
> mainstream notions of masculinity and that takes more than a simple label.
>
> Often complexities arise, however, when women challenge anti-sexist men.
> Men get defensive when women critique their oppressive and sexist
> behaviors. Rather than listening, digesting, and benefiting from the
> criticism, a defensive stance is taken and women's voices are ignored once
> again. As Anarchists, we should hold criticism and self-criticism as
> extremely important. No one is above being questioned, as there should be no
> unnecessary hierarchy. The lack of principled criticism and self-criticism
> within the Anarchist movement is the first problem that is then compounded
> when applied to issues of sexism and other forms of oppression. Women must
> be genuinely listened to and, if the criticisms are valid, men should seek
> to change their thoughts and their actions.
>
> Political Study
>
> Understanding sexism is important to all within the Anarchist movement.
> However, as a woman, it is not my duty to always answer questions and
> educate men on how sexism affects my life. Many Anarchist groups already
> have a program or project in place that could be utilized to gain a better
> understanding of sexism without burdening women with the task of explaining
> our lives: the political study group. When was the last time you or your
> group read something on women, sexism, feminism, or women's liberation?
> Many times, and I have been guilty of this, we feel that readings on women's
> issues are not as important as readings on capitalism or anarchism or
> anti-colonial struggle, etc. We have to stop considering women's liberation
> as a side project or issue and view it as an integral part of the liberation
> struggle. These writings do not have to be specifically Anarchist or even
> revolutionary to give us good insights. When was the last time you read
> something by Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Barbara Smith, Angela Davis, Patricia
> Hill Collins, or Emma Goldman? When was the last time you read something on
> women in liberation struggles, rape, homophobia and sexism, etc? We must
> take the initiative to read that which women have placed before us.
>
> Encouraging Women
>
> Since I was a little girl, I was socialized to feel inferior to men. I was
> socialized to recognize where my place was in society and it was not
> participating in an equal dialogue with men, certainly not in any type of
> politics, and it was definitely not on any kind of front line of
> revolutionary struggle. Even growing up in a radical political household, I
> was instilled with this mentality and I know other women are as well. I
> often look around at meetings, workshops, events (that are not
> women-centric) and see that I am one of a handful of women in attendance or
> worse yet, the only woman there. Alternately, even when there are a lot of
> women in the room, I find that I am the only woman contributing to the
> dialogue.
>
> When examining women' s involvement in political struggle, we have to
> examine the root causes. Women are socialized to look at politics as
> outside of our realm. When the politics are radical or revolutionary, the
> level of intimidation increases. Because of this reality, we have to exert
> a lot of time and energy into creating a more anti-sexist/pro-woman movement.
> We have to start by involving more women within our organizations and
> movements. This first involves putting sexism as one of the main points of
> organization alongside the other issues affecting women (and all humans):
> racism, homophobia/heterosexism, ableism, colonialism, and class oppression
> (capitalism). While we cannot place all of our energy into all of these
> problems at once, we must ensure we are dealing holistically with all of
> these issues within our focus. Second, we must actively recruit women into
> our organizations. This takes various forms such as tabling at women's
> events, consistent outreach to women and participating in women-centric
> struggles.
>
> Once women are in our organizations, we must look at the level of
> participation of women within the organization. I have been involved with
> politics for seven + years. It has only been within the past year and a half
> that I have fully participated in politics. This is because I have had to
> learn that I could speak in meetings, that I could contribute in meaningful
> and positive ways, and that it is my place to contribute and participate. I
> have had to overcome the intimidation I felt when I was working with men who
> I looked up to and respected. I had to overcome the mental chains that were
> holding me back.
>
> A couple factors contributed to this change. A dear comrade helped me
> realize that I am fully capable of participating and that no one can say
> different. For him, it was crucial that I participate on an equal level and
> he put a great deal of time and energy in encouraging me. He continues to
> put forth this effort for other women. I will forever thank him for how much
> he has helped me and I would love to see more men take up this task. Then,
> my level of commitment, seriousness, and sense of responsibility to
> liberatory politics forced me to put my level of involvement above my sense
> of comfort. This was not an easy task at all and one that I still struggle
> with to this day. This is something that we all have to battle within
> ourselves; Men can help women get to this point by treating women equally
> and respectfully.
>
> We also must analyze our organizational behaviors. Are we consistently
> encouraging women to take up leadership positions? Is it mostly men or women
> who are taking up speaking engagements? Who talks at meetings? Who
> facilitates meetings? Who does the work of the organization, and then, who
> gets credit for it? (I was involved in organizing a conference once with two
> men and four women. One man was credited with the entire conference and we,
> (the women), were treated by him and others as his helpers. We did the
> majority of the work, though!). We have to be very perceptive of men talking
> over women, invalidating and/or ignoring a woman's words and contributions.
> We all must make an extra effort to look at the gender dynamics of our
> functions and meetings. Without the direct leadership of women in any
> movement, our important voices are left out of the dialogue and the fight
> against sexism.
>
> Anarchist Organizational Structures
>
> One of the biggest challenges to the Anarchist movement is creating viable
> Anarchistic/anti-authoritarian structures for our organizations. We are
> struggling to create new ideas of organization from the examples we have had
> and through new ideas and innovations. Not only are we trying to organize
> our movement in an Anarchist fashion but it is also a testing ground for a
> potential future society.
>
> Anarchism seeks to create a society based on a great sense of personal
> responsibility and accountability to ourselves and each other. We want a
> society based on mutual aid and communalism. This cannot happen out of
> spontaneous activity; it must result out of a highly organized society based
> on democratic, decentralized structures. I hope the Anarchist movement
> realizes the need to work out new structural ideas for our organizations and
> a new society. I know many feel creating structure inherently runs counter
> to the ideas and principles of Anarchism. I would argue that not sitting
> down and forming democratic structures is counter to the ideas and
> principles of Anarchism.
>
> Jo Freeman wrote in The Tyranny of Structurelessness that the idea of
> structurelessness does not prevent the formation of informal structures,
> only formal ones. A laissez-faire ideal for group structure becomes a
> smoke screen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony
> over others. Thus structurelessness becomes a way of masking power. As long
> as the structure of the group is informal, the rules of how decisions are
> made are known only to the few, and awareness of power is limited to those
> who know the rules.
>
> Structurelessness is often a means to perpetuate sexism, racism and class
> stratification. If men are socialized to be leaders and women are not, then
> it is not hard to imagine who would develop into leaders in a non-structured
> organization. A lack of structure provides no means of balancing those with
> certain privileges with those who are oppressed. We must create
> organizational structures that inherently guard against these
> forms of power imbalance.
>
> In forming Anarchist organizational structures, we must also form structures
> to specifically deal with sexism in our organizations. One very sensitive
> issue that we have to be dealing with is sexual assault (and domestic
> violence). I have heard of many situations where a politically active male
> has sexually assaulted a fellow activist. It would be impossible
> to plan out all of the steps of dealing with this type of
> situation especially since the survivor of sexual assault should largely
> control what happens but we need a skeleton of steps to help handle this
> type of situation. Members of any organization should all have political
> education on both rape and sexual assault and how to deal when you or
> someone you know has been raped. Organizations should have a framework so
> that they are not fumbling around when sexual assault happens. Not having a
> framework could leave a survivor with little to no support from those whom
> should be providing as much support as she or he needs.
>
> What can Anarchist organizations do in these situations? What do we do if
> one amongst us is sexually assaulted? What do we do if one amongst us has
> sexually assaulted someone else? What do we do when both parties are in our
> organization? I challenge all organizations to consider how to prevent
> sexual assault from occurring in the first place, how to deal with it if it
> does, and how to support survivors of sexual assault to the fullest extent
> possible.
>
> Taking up Womens Struggle
>
> The struggle against sexism is everyone's struggle. It affects everyone:
> men, women and transgendered peoples. It is especially important that
> anti-sexist men, who benefit from sexism, take up the struggle for womens
> liberation. Just as it is especially important for white people to dedicate
> themselves to anti-racist struggle and straight people to dedicate
> themselves to anti-homophobia/heterosexism work, men must dedicate an
> intense amount of time to anti-sexist work.
>
> For Anarchist men, the question is, are you involved with struggles
> spontaneously taken up by women, led and organized by women, and primarily
> aimed at other women? If not, why? I have heard the claim that many of the
> struggles are too reformist or mainstream.=94 In some cases this is my
> critique as well but I do not see a revolutionary struggle in the United
> States that is able to aid women in the ways these movements do. The answer
> is not to ignore these movements but to build new movements within or
> without that which already exists. Are Anarchists creating alternate
> structures for survivors of sexual assault? Are we able to aid abused women
> in a revolutionary fashion at this point in time? We cannot just throw up
> our hands, mine and all women's lives depend on it.
>
> Others brush anti-sexist struggle off as women's work. Others do not see
> anti-sexist struggle as central to the struggle for liberation. Others
> believe we can wait to challenge sexism when revolutionary change occurs.
> These analyses must change. If we truly want an egalitarian society then we
> must begin creating a more equitable movement along lines of race, class,
> gender, and sexuality. We must make the Anarchist movement a women's
> movement. If we want an end to sexism, our work should have began yesterday.
>
> Forward Always, Backwards Never
>
> Anarchists often have a good analysis of the way sexism is =93a mesh of
> practices, institutions, and ideas which have an overall effect of giving
> more power to men than to women. Beginning with an institutional analysis
> is correct, however, we must also translate this into our own thoughts and
> actions. Only then can all Anarchists work together most effectively (at
> least along gender lines but we must also deal with homophobia, racism and
> class issues). To create an egalitarian society, our movement must be
> egalitarian and presently it is not. Working to create revolutionary change
> must begin today by challenging our sexist, racist, and heterosexist
> capitalist society. It means challenging that which is in ourselves, our
> families, our neighborhoods, our communities and our movements. As Kevin
> Powell said, Just as I feel it is whites who need to be more vociferous
> about racism in their communities, I feel it is men who need to speak long
> and loud about sexism among each other. The Anarchist movement needs to be
> more vocal and active in the struggle against sexism. All our lives depend
> on it.
> ___________
>
> .1. Powell, Kevin. 2000. Confessions of a Recovering Misogynist. Ms.
> (April/May): 77.
> 2. Freeman, Jo. 197-. The Tyranny of Structurelessness. Second Wave 2 (1).
> pp. ?.
> 3. Blood, Peter, Alan Tuttle and George Lakey. =93Understanding and Fighting
> Sexism: A Call to Men. In Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology, Margaret
> Anderson and Patricia Hill Collins, ed., pp. 181-187. California: Wadsworth
> Publishing Company.
> 4. Powell, Kevin. 2000. Confessions of a Recovering Misogynist. Ms.
> (April/May): 77.
> ____________
>
> Contact Angela c/o Kent Anarchist Black Cross at: PO Box 942, Kent, Ohio
> 44240.