Code Pink

[JBrown72073 at cs.com]

Yoshie quotes:
>At 6:23 PM -0500 2/16/03, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote Re: mighty in pink:
>>Good going, esp. quoting NOW.  They normally get short shrift in the Nation.
>
>At 8:33 PM -0500 2/16/03, Liza Featherstone wrote Re: mighty in pink:
>>But it's true that much of the Nation-reading left doesn't realize 
>>what a grass-roots organization NOW is, or how much work they do on 
>>materialist/economic issues.
>
>At 11:44 PM -0500 3/8/03, Chuck0 wrote:
>>The Code Pink action in Washington, DC today turned into a fun, 
>>colorful event. The turnout was pretty good--at least 5000--helped 
>>in part by the first day of nice, sunny weather that we've had since 
>>last Fall
>
>Just 5,000 in DC?
>
>*****   _Monthly Review_ 53.1, April 2001
>What Happened to the Women's Movement?
>
>by Barbara Epstein
>
>  ...[T]here is no longer a mass women's movement. There are many 
>organizations working for women's equality in the public arena and in 
>private institutions; these include specifically women's 
>organizations such as the National Organization for Women, and in 
>environmental, health care, social justice and other areas that 
>address women's issues. But, where there were once women's 
>organizations with large participatory memberships there are now 
>bureaucratic structures run by paid staff....Why is there so little 
>discussion of the near-disappearance of a movement that not so long 
>ago was strong enough to bring about major changes in the social and 
>cultural landscape? What are the causes of the movement's decline?
>
><http://www.monthlyreview.org/0501epstein.htm>   *****

Haven't waded through the Epstein (I think I read it before and just don't 
remember it) but two quick things: A lot of feminists don't think peace is a 
feminist issue and get queasy at the sight of 'women's marches for peace,' 
nor are we all jazzed about the five zillion readings of Lysistrata and other 
suggestions that women's power is primarily pussy power.  (What next, 
resurrecting 'girls say yes to boys who say no?')  I did march in the 
international women's day march we had here yesterday (Gainesville, FL), 
around 500 came.  But I had to force myself with such arguments as 'low 
turnout will be seen as weakness in the anti-war movement.'  I was tempted to 
use the reworked Irish slogan, "Women unfree will never be at peace" on a 
sign but I was afraid people would misinterpret it as pro-war.  It's an 
insult to both the anti-war position and International Women's Day to insist, 
as the IWD organizers here did, that they weren't 'against war in Iraq but 
for peace.' Code Pink is much better than that, but I bet many feminists felt 
like I did about the actions Saturday.

I'd disagree with Epstein that the mass movement that made major changes in 
the social and cultural landscape (and is currently holding the line on some 
of these) was one of all-woman formations working on the environment, health 
care or 'social justice.'  The changes she's excited about came about when 
women stopped focusing on the plight of every other poor downtrodden creature 
on the planet and started focusing on our own liberation.

Second, there is a battle within NOW between those who think it's most 
effective as an inside-the-beltway lobbying organization whose members are 
mostly a fundraising base, and those who believe its power comes from an 
active membership in chapters all over the country.  You can probably tell 
which side of the split I fall on.  But this is not the answer to the 
perennial 'what happened to the women's movement?' because NOW has largely 
stayed a chapter-based member-activist organization, despite the tendencies 
of recent leadership.

NOW opposed the first Gulf War, and opposes this one, but NOW tends to join 
big anti-war coalitions rather than do separate actions based on our 
femaleness.

Jenny Brown