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Monday, February 28, 2011
Another Blight under Scrutiny!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Ol Phyllis and her same ol Screed: Laugh along w/us
PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY STRIKES AGAIN
Share02-24-2011 by L. S. Carbonell
There are hypocrites, and then there is Phyllis Schlafly.
In 1952, Schlafly ran for Congress. In 1960, she firmly attached herself to the right wing of the Republican Party, and spent years denouncing the “Rockefeller Republicans” she thought weren’t conservative enough. In 1967, she ran for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women. She had a husband and six children at home while pursuing her political career and authoring numerous books. And she hates “feminists.” What is it with career-minded, successful conservative women? Sarah Palin, while running for the vice-presidency, denied being a feminist.
Well, according to Schlafly’s newest book, The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know – and Men Can’t Say, co-authored with Suzanne Venker, having a career has nothing to do with being a feminist. We didn’t fight for equality in the workplace or more equal representation in government. According to Schlafly, we fought for the right to get divorced, be liberated from raising children and destroy America.
Schlafly believes that the first legislative goal of the feminist movement was easy divorce. Really? Let’s examine the time frame here. The feminist movement dates itself back to the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, on February 19, 1963. Twelve years later, our niece was waiting out a two-year required legal separation from her first husband, again. They had briefly reconciled half-way through the first one. In the end, it took her four years to end that marriage. Divorce laws are state-by-state, not national. Some states instituted no-fault divorces before the end of the 1960’s, but most states lagged well into the 1970’s. Divorce back in the dark ages could require proof of adultery, and no other acceptable reason. The laws were oppressive for both men and women. It was men who pushed this legislative agenda, since women had damned little political power back then.
Schlafly also believes that the feminist movement has offered women nothing that they didn’t have before. She was a very vocal opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, and still says it would have taken rights and benefits away from women, like the right not to serve in the military and the right to be supported by a husband. Her book makes the claim that the feminist movement has taught women to hate men and demeaned motherhood. Schlafly never has understood that there are women who choose to serve in the military. The weird part is that she’s 86 years old. She was a teenager during World War II. She grew up with women who worked in defense plants, who served in the military. What did she think, that Rosie the Riverter was a guy in drag? Schlafly is still hung up on the idea of women being drafted, instead of an all-volunteer Army. As for hating men? Well, there are days, aren’t there? But feminism hasn’t done nearly as much to demean motherhood as women like Schlafly who preach anti-feminism while leaving their kids behind to pursue their own careers, or who use them as props in their public appearances like Sarah Palin. The big bitch in the feminist movement is the way men have been taught that they get to make babies but don’t have to take care of them. We didn’t so much demean motherhood as we insisted on a redefinition of fatherhood.
Let’s not forget the conspiracy theory. Don’t all conservative positions involve a conspiracy by liberals? In this one, the decline of marriage is the fault of special interest groups and that nasty liberal media, with massive help from Hollywood. Something that resembles facts would be appreciated here, like which special interest groups? Is this whole thing the result of pressures from divorce lawyers or the secret guild of nannies? And of course, Hollywood must be behind all this. We’ve all seen those movies where divorced women are living in luxury….um, sorry, can’t think of any off the top of my head.
Schlafly and Venker claim that all of America’s problems started with the feminist movement. America would be just peachy keen if women had stayed unemployed, married, pregnant and barefoot, just the way Schlafly did. Oh, I forgot, she’s been pursuing a career for 58 of her 85 years. It takes a really well-honed ability to deny reality not to be able to see that she is a contradiction of her own positions.
Tunisian, Iraqian, and US Women have disdain for their personhood as common denominators , Ed.
February 24, 2011 at 13:42:36
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A Tale of Three Nations: Freedom, Religion and the Rights of Women
As the youth-led Freedom Movement of 2011 spreads rapidly across the Middle East and around the world, one can only wonder what would be happening in Iraq today if the U.S. had not invaded eight years ago. What does the movement portend for the rights of women in other nations, such as Tunisia and in the United States?
The rights of women continue to deteriorate in Iraq under the U.S. installed Shiite government; their status is now threatened by Islamists in Tunisia, the most secular of Arab nations; and their personal liberties are under a full-scale assault in the United States by Christian fundamentalist politicians.
Iraq
Under the Ba'athist government led by Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women enjoyed greater freedom than women in most other Arab nations and they played an active role in the political, economic and educational development of the nation.
The 1970 Constitution formally guaranteed equal rights to women and ensured their right to obtain an education, own property, vote and be elected to political offices. Iraq acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1986.
At a cost of more than one trillion dollars, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has slaughtered more than 100,000 Iraqis, including thousands of children, and taken away the existing rights of women.
President Bush often bragged that "Iraq is free of rape rooms;" however, his illegal invasion of Iraq not only exposed its women to rape by U.S. soldiers and mercenaries, but rape is "increasingly used as a weapon by warring tribal factions."
The new Iraqi constitution adopted after the invasion requires that women hold 25% of the seats in the parliament; however, it also provides that no law can contradict the "established rulings of Islam." Thus, the personal rights of women are subject to the interpretation of religious leaders, and they are being officially curtailed by the Shiite-controlled government.
Iraqi women must now submit to any male authority, including boys as young as 12 years old, and they are being attacked and murdered "for working, dressing "inappropriately" or attending university." There are more than three million widows in Iraq today, and sex trafficking has become widespread, as there is no little or no opportunity for other employment.
Opposition to the corrupt and failed Iraqi government has led to recent freedom demonstrations by thousands of protesters in the cities of Sulaimaniya, Falluja, and Nassiriya Province, and Baghdad. These demonstrations are being suppressed by the Iraqi security forces using U.S. supplied weapons and intimidation tactics, including raids on the office of the Iraqi organization that monitors press freedom.
The U.S. mainstream media and the Obama Administration have been largely silent about the Iraqi demonstrations; however, fair-minded Americans, liberal and conservative alike, should conclude that, absent the invasion, the young people of Iraq would be in the forefront of the Freedom Movement of 2011.
Given other choices, thousands of human lives would not have been wasted; billions of dollars would have been better spent in the improvement, rather than the destruction of those lives; and the United States would enjoy greater respect for the freedoms it purports to support and defend.
Tunisia
The site of ancient Cartage and the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, Tunisia obtained its independence from the "protection" of France in 1957. Habib Bourguiba, the leader of the independence movement and the Destourian Socialist Party, was elected president, and for the next 30 years he presided over a largely secular government.
Bourguiba was succeeded in 1987 by Zine Ben Ali, the minister of national security, who had been trained as a military officer in France and the United States. Receiving financial support from the United States, President Zine established a repressive police state and used police action again militant Islamic groups.
Relying upon a broad anti-terrorism law passed in 2003, President Zine supported the U.S. war on terrorism by making hundreds of arbitrary arrests and engaging in official torture. Zine increasingly controlled news, information, and the Internet, and he targeted journalists with harassment, violence and constant surveillance.
Originally founded upon socialist principles, modern Tunisia developed a large middle class and encouraged the liberation of women. One-third of its university professors are women, as are 58% of its university students, more than one-fourth of its judges, and 23% of its members of parliament.
Even since its independence, Tunisia has promulgated the most progressive policies on women found in Arab nations. The Code of Personal Status adopted in 1956 abolished polygamy, prohibited husbands from unilaterally obtaining divorces, gave their wives greater custody rights and allowed them to vote. Tunisian women can legally obtain government-subsidized abortions without their husband's permission.
The liberal nationalists who established the government believed that the improvement of women's rights was an integral part of creating a modern country free from "anachronistic traditions and backward mentalities."
Tunisia signed the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1980 and ratified it in 1985.
Educated women with a mature appreciation of their civil rights were at the vanguard of those marching for freedom in Tunisia; however, they are also the ones with the most to lose, if religious fundamentalists come to power and those freedoms are erased. Concerned protestors carried signs that read, "Politics ruins religion and religion ruins politics."
Security forces have already been deployed to protect legally-sanctioned brothels from a mob of religious zealots, and there is concern about the rights of women who wear western dress, including bikinis on beaches. The unsettled conditions have caused many women to be afraid to walk outside alone at night.
The leadership of Ennahdha, a political movement allied with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, has stated it is opposed to the imposition of Islamic law in Tunisia. However, women have witnessed the loss of progressive women's rights in three other Islamic nations, including Iran after the fall of the Shah, Afghanistan with the rise of the Taliban, and Iraq following the U.S. invasion.
To a certain extent, Tunisian women were protected from Islamic extremists by the repressive Zine government; however, for now, they can only wait and see how the Jasmine Revolution evolves.
United States
Ronald Reagan once said that "America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere;" however, the reality is that the United States has come to be controlled by a military-industrial oligarchy to which both major political parties are subservient.
Instead of a beacon of liberty, the United States supports the suppression of freedom in other countries and increasingly denies the constitutional rights of its own citizens, particularly women.
The United States Constitution was established by the "We the People;" however, neither it nor the subsequent Bill of Rights embraced slaves or women within its protection.
The Civil War resulted in the 13th and 14th Amendments that abolished slavery and prohibited the states from abridging the rights of their "citizens," and the 15th Amendment that guaranteed the right to vote to former slaves.
Efforts to guarantee the right of women suffrage was blocked by Southern conservatives in the U.S. Senate, forcing women activists to secure the amendment of every single state constitution! After almost 800 separate political campaigns, women received the universal right to vote in 1920 with passage of the 19th Amendment.
Today, 90 years later, the U.S. Congress only seats 17 women senators (17%) and 72 women representatives (16.6%). These percentages are far less than the number of women legislators in either Iraq or Tunisia.
In 1980, former President Jimmy Carter signed the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; however the treaty has never been brought before the full Senate for a vote! Indeed, the U.S. is one of only seven countries which has not ratified the treaty. (The other nations are Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Palau, Nauru and Tonga.) Although President Obama proclaimed the treaty to be a priority in May 2009, he has made no visible effort to secure its ratification by the Senate.
After gaining the right to vote, many women activists continued to believe the U.S. Constitution needed to be amended to ensure freedom from legal sex discrimination against women and to ensure the equal application of the Constitution to all citizens.
Commencing in the early 1940s, both Democrats and Republicans added support for an Equal Rights Amendment to their platforms; however, it was not until 1972 that pressure from organized labor and other mainstream groups caused Congress to pass ERA legislation.
As proposed to the states for ratification, the 27th Amendment simply says, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
The usual seven-year deadline for ratification was not included in the words of the ERA itself, but in its proposing clause. Congress subsequently extended the deadline to 1982, but thus far only 35 of the required 38 states have ratified it.
The ERA continues to be reintroduced in each Congressional session, and a coalition of women's organizations are now working on a "3-state strategy," in which, because of the ambiguity in the deadline language, ratification by only three of the remaining 15 states could add the amendment to the Constitution.
During the 1970s, one of the main objections to the ERA by conservative religious and political organizations was that women would no longer be exempt from compulsory military service and combat duty; however women are now fighting in almost every element of the "War on Terrorism," except "close combat" troops including infantry, armor and special forces. The Congressional Military Leadership Diversity Commission is currently preparing to recommend that even these restrictions be lifted.
Women are flying strike fighters and helicopter gun ships, they are "manning" machine guns and mortars, and they are protecting convoys being attacked by roadside bombs. More than 134 women soldiers have been killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and more than 721 have been wounded in action.
Perhaps the most grievous injuries suffered by women in the military is the widespread incident of rape and murder by fellow soldiers. The Department of Defense (DoD) reports that one in three women in the military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. Of these, an alarming number are dying after being raped.
"8 women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) have died of "non-combat related injuries' on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious "non-combat related injuries' on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as "suicides.' (Ann Wright - Common Dreams)
The rate of sexual assault and rape in the military is double the civilian rate. Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Calif.) has testified that, "Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq."
Harman's testimony is confirmed by the DoD, which admits that 80% of all rapes in the military are not reported because the victims fear ostracism, punishment and loss of careers. Half of all reported cases receive no official action, a third are dismissed, and only 8% are referred to Court Martial. Even then, the majority of those ultimately convicted receive only mild punishments.
It is often heard in the United States that "Muslim men abuse their women;" however In 2006, almost a quarter of a million American women reported to the police that they had been raped or sexually assaulted. Women suffer 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes annually in the U.S., and one-third of the more than 1,100 women who are murdered each year are killed by an intimate partner.
In spite of these gruesome statistics, legislative efforts are directed toward the further punishment and humiliation of women and are more driven by religious fundamentalism than logic. Women are being denied basic contraception and are being punished for becoming pregnant:
A South Dakota legislature bill would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include the killing of abortion providers, and the Ohio legislature is entertaining a law which would make it illegal for women to seek abortions as soon as 18 days after conception.
Although Planned Parenthood does not currently spend any federal money on abortion services, House Republicans just voted to deny any funding to the organization, cutting money for contraceptives, HIV test, cancer screening and reproductive health services.
A Republican-sponsored bill in the House of Representatives would deny any federal funding for abortions except in cases of "forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest." Under the law, a 12-year-old girl coerced and impregnated by her step-father or a young woman subjected to date rape would be forced to bear the child.
The Health Care Reform act contains provisions that are likely to cause the elimination of all private as well as public insurance coverage for abortions, and President Obama issued an executive order supporting the anti-choice provisions.
Lady Liberty Weeps
Twelve-year-old boys can tell an adult woman what to do in Iraq, while 12-year-old girls in the United States are forced to suffer rape and sexual assault and to endure the pregnancies that result.
The evils of the Iraqi rape rooms that Bush boasted about eliminating were merely transferred to the actions of warring soldiers, both U.S. and tribal, and by the rape and murder of innocent civilian women and fellow female soldiers.
The United States is already a nation which requires women to work outside the home in order to support an adequate standard of living for a family, without providing safe and nurturing daycare for their young children.
Now, as sexual education for women regarding their bodies and reproductive health and choices is eliminated, punishment for becoming pregnant is increased by making abortion illegal and shameful, and by eliminating funding for organizations that provide contraceptives and health care for pregnant women.
The U.S. uses images of the plight of women in the Middle East to justify its illegal wars of aggression, while figuratively stoning its own women and cutting off their noses by curtailing their rights to determine the fate of their own bodies and by failing to protect them from sexual assaults.
Once again, the banner of Christianity leads another crusade -- this time against women and children in the United States. For women subjected to medieval practices, there is little difference between Christian and Muslim fundamentalism.
As the tsunami of freedom spreads around the world and upon American shores, women and girls can only hope and pray that it can deliver them from the repression and violence that victimizes them in their Citadel of Freedom.
http://www.votersevolt.com
William John Cox authored the Policy Manual of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Role of the Police in America for a National Advisory Commission during the Nixon administration. As a public interest, pro bono, attorney, he filed a class (more...)Saturday, February 19, 2011
1989 Historic Video of ERA Congressional Bill Introduction
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/NewCa
Don't forget that we file our bill in partnership with United for Equality within the next 4 weeks! Know any Congresspeople personally? Tell us NOW at sandyo@PassERA.org
Friday, February 18, 2011
SIT DOWN, AND READ THIS from 1975: antiERA virulence
Tactics change as the
advocates of the so-called
Equal Rights Amendment continue
to make war on the American family.
Behind
The War
On Women
by Jean Belsante and Rita Mahan 1975
• WOMEN'S LIB activists have
lately begun to rea lize that their pet
project, the Equal Rights Amendment
(E .R.A.) , is in trouble. Although
E.R.A. was ratified by the Senate and
House of Representatives in 1972 after
having been rejected by every Congress
since 1923, it must still be confirmed
by 38 states in order to become the
27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
To date, 34 states have ratified
this Amendment, two have rescinded,
and further passage of E.R.A. is pres ently
in doubt. So a new strategy has
been adopted - the push for establishment
of E.R.A. on the state level by
referendum . Voters in some states are
now being asked to go to the polls to
November 12, 1975
decide whether the controversial
E.R.A. should be added to their state
constitutions. The measure had been
slipped by in 15 states until last week,
when the battle was joined by Conservatives
and both New York and New
Jersey rejected state E.R.A. referenda.
The E.R.A. promoters consistently
trill on the theme that this legislation
will bring equal pay for equal work.
But that guarantee already exists under
such laws as the Equal Pay Act,
the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968,
the Equal Opportunity Employment
Act of 1972, and current interpretations
of the 5th, 14th, and 19th
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
As we shall see, E.R.A. pretends to
improve the status of women but, in
reality, it takes away the rights that
women now possess.
Radical Consequences
Rarely publicized is the maze of
more ominous and far-reaching consequences
that will be realized, should
E.R.A. be passed, including the fact
that it will nullify thousands of state
laws in America that currently protect
women and insure an orderly society.
For example:
• E.R.A. will eliminate privacy
between the sexes in such areas as
public rest rooms, prisons, reformatories,
schools, and the military.
Those who favor E.R.A. claim that
a constitutional "right of privacy" will
prevent this from happening. However,
Supreme Court Justice Potter
Stewart has stated, "I can find no such
general right of privacy in the Bill of
Rights, in any other part of the Constitution,
or in any case ever decided by
this Court."
The E.R.A. supporters often cite the
ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut,
handed down in 1965, which they say
supports a citizen's right of privacy.
But this ruling dealt only with the use
of contraceptives by a married couple,
and as the attorney general of Virginia
has stated, this decision relates only to
sanctity of the marital relationship
and nothing more.
Further, only four months after the
E.R.A. was proposed by Congress as
the intended 27th Amendment, the
U.S . Department of Labor presented
in the Federal Register for July 15,
2
1972, an E.R.A.-based directive proposing:
"All provisions relating to separate
facilities based on sex are eliminated.
Separate facilities for each sex
have no basis in sanitation standards."
• E.R.A. will subject young
women at the age of 18 years to the
draft, should one be reinstated.
Although there is no military draft
in the United States at the moment,
such a draft for military service could
be reinstated on a moment's notice.
The E.R.A. would put women on warships,
subject them to combat duty,
and could ultimately result in some
being placed in the P.O.W. camps of
brutal enemies.
• E.R.A. will strike down sodomy
and seduction laws; statutory rape,
prostitution, and obscenity laws;
and, it will eliminate adultery laws
that the courts judge to contain sex
discriminatory provisions.
All of this has been substantiated in
detail by pro-E.R.A. scholars in the
Yale Law Journal for April 1971, and
again in its January 1973 number.
• E.R.A. will give equal rights to
homosexuals to marry, adopt children,
teach in public schools, and
serve in the Armed Forces.
Since E.R.A.'s passage in Colorado,
for example, Assistant District Attorney
William Wise has ruled that
homosexual marriages are legal there
under E.R.A.
• E.R.A. will wipe out many protective
labor laws which currently
benefit women.
Those who favor E.R.A. contend
that protective laws will be extended
The Review Of The NEWS
I'.
IA
Donald Wood - Ozark Sunbeam
to men also, but the facts show otherwise.
Take California, for example,
where the Bank of America was giving
taxi rides to its female employees who
had to work after dark - a thoughtful
gesture to protect the women against
rapes and muggings. A state court,
citing sex discrimination, ruled that
the bank was discriminating against
male employees and the bank stopped
furnishing these taxi rides .
• E.R.A. will invalidate all state
laws which require a husband to
support his wife and children.
Already the effects of E.R.A. on
wives can be seen. For example,
in Colorado the law that required
a husband to support his wife and
family was declared unconstitutional
after the state E.R.A . was ratified
in 1972. On June 8, 1973, in
November 12, 1975
the case of Colorado v. Elliott , the
judge threw out a charge of felony
non -support against Larry Elliott,
ruling that wives are not legally entitled
to financial support from their
husbands under E.R.A . In Pennsylvania,
where voters approved a
state E.R.A. in 1971, there has been
more of th e same. On December 19,
1973, in the case of Weigand v . Weigand
, the wife lost her lawsuit for a
legal separation, lawyer fees, court
costs, and support money during the
trial. All of these had been available
to wives under previous Pennsylvania
laws, but E.R.A. had wiped
them out.
Given the above consequences of
E.R.A., we could soon expect increasing
rates of divorce and desertio
n, social di srupti on, and moral
3
chaos. And, further, since men
would be relieved of the primary
responsibility of supporting their
families, it is entirely possible that
the destruction of the conventional
American family would follow.
Who Supports E.R.A.?
Unknown to many is the fact that a
major thrust behind E.R.A. is an organizational
network of militant
atheists laboring to abolish the traditional
Judeo-Christian code of morality
upon which America was founded .
This network is directed by an antiGod
leadership that manipulates such
organizations as the International
Humanist And Ethical Union, the
American Humanist Association, the
American Ethical Union, and the Unitarian-
Universalist Association. These
are part of a coalition of scores of
atheistic front groups working together
to promote common radical goals.
Within its own circles this movement
is known as Humanism . It is an ideology
t hat denies God, deifies man instead,
and has as its target the destruction
of Christianity and all institutionalized
religion. For a shocking perspective
of Humanist beliefs, including a
description of how they strive for control
of our traditional institutions, especially
our churches and church
groups, see Humanist Manifestos I and
II, available at most public libraries.
Among the openly declared objectives
of Humanism, some of which
have already been achieved, are the
removal of Bible reading and prayer in
the schools; the teaching of the evolu-
4
tionary theory of man's origin as fact;
and, the promotion of sex education,
drugs, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality,
pornography, and Women's
Liberation.
Spearheading the movement for
E.R.A. passage are two major Humanist
fronts: the National Organization
for Women (N.O.W.) and the American
Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.),
which have formed statewide coalitions
with other like-minded groups.
Discussing the Women's Liberation
movement, N.O.W. official Warren
Farrell explained in the New York
Sunday News for June 25, 1972, that
"Ultimately, this is a humanist movement
. . . ." The founder and first
president of N.O.W. was Betty Friedan,
a recipient of the Humanist Of
The Year award for 1975 and signer of
Humanist Manifesto II. Other prominent
Humanists in the Women's Lib
movement include Gloria Steinem,
Margaret Mead, Alice Rossi, Gina Allen,
* Miriam Allen deFord, Florynce
Kennedy, and Del Martin and Phyllis
Lyon, both admitted lesbians.
Not surprisingly, Women's Lib is
deeply entrenched in the promotion of
homosexuality and, particularly, lesbianism.
So much so, in fact, that two
weeks ago N.O.W. formally endorsed
so-called "lesbian rights" at its annual
convention. Also noteworthy is the fact
that N.O.W. leadership was among the
inner core of Humanist activists who
"Gina Allen serves on the board of the
Ameri can Humanist Association and is also
a member ofN.O.W.'s National Task Force
on Sexuality.
The Revle. OfThe IIEWS
I
I
I ,
I,'
launched the successful campaign to
legalize abortion on demand.
Like N.O.W., the A.C.L.U. was also
founded in large part by Humanists.
Just to name a few: Professor John
Dewey, Clarence Darrow, Roger Baldwin,
Norman Thomas, and Jane Addams
(also a founder of the League of
Women Voters). This is not to minimize
the fact that the founders and
leaders of the A.C.L.U . included such
radicals as William Z. Foster, former
head of the Communist Party, and
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party,
U.S.A. As of 1961, the top 15 past and
current leaders of the A.C.L.U. had a
combined record of over 1,000 Communist
Front affiliations and citations.
Over the years, the American Civil
Liberties Union has maintained a
steady influx of Humanist leadership
that includes Ramsey Clark, Karl
Menninger, Stuart Chase, Erich
Fromm, S.LE.C.U.S. director Harriet
Pilpel, and radical attorney William
Kunstler. Having aided Humanist
Madalyn Murray (O'Hair) in her crusade
to remove prayer and Bible reading
from public schools, the A.C.L.U.
has more recently directed its efforts to
such Humanist objectives as the legalization
of marijuana, abortion,
pornography, prostitution, and homosexuality.
Of interest is the fact that one of the
major financial supporters of the
A.C.L.U. is Humanist Hugh Hefner's
Playboy Foundation, which has also
made substantial cash payments to the
E.R.A . campaign.
November 12, 1975
Is It A Red Game?
Literature being widely circulated
by E.R.A. supporters states (with no
proof or documentation) that the
E.R.A. is opposed by the Communist
Party. This statement is misleading. In
1970, U.S. Communist Party Secretary
Gus Hall declared in the February issue
of Political Affairs:
For us Communists . . . the entire
cornerstone of the entire struggle . . .
rests on the relationship between the
fight for the liberation of women and
the class struggle, the tie-in between
the forces of women's liberation and
the working class . . . . the struggle
for women's liberation must be uniquely
tied to the struggle against U.S.
imperialism.
An editorial in a March 1974 issue of
The Call, a Marxist-Leninist newspaper,
strongly urged ratification of
E.R.A., contending: " 1974 should be
the year in which the ERA becomes
law .. . . SUPPORT THE ERA!"
In fact, the roots of the entire Women's
Liberation movement extend as
far back as The Communist Manifesto,
wherein Marx and Engels denounced
the institution of the family. Writing
in his Letters From Afar, Lenin explained
the principle:
If we do not draw women into public
activity, into the militia, into political
life; if we do not tear women away from
the deadening atmosphere of household
and kitchen; then it is impossible
to secure real freedom, it is impossible
5
even to build democracy let alone socialism.
And in November of 1918, Lenin
to ld the first All-Russian Congress of
Women Workers: "It has been observed
in the experience of all liberation
movements that the success of a
revolution depends on the extent to
which women take part in it." That is:
Wherever it is possible to radicalize the
women, as through Women's Lib and
the E.R.A., Communist revolution is a
serious possibility. Over the years, a
recurrent theme in Communist literature
stresses that the experience of all
Communist liberation movements
shows that the success of revolution
depends on the extent to which women
take part, and urges that women cannot
assume a true revolutionary role
unless they are relieved of their primary
responsibilities in the home. This
is intrinsic to all Socialist societies,
including that of Red China where
Communist Party leadership has been
hitting at the liberation theme in response
to Mao's command that "to
build a great socialist society, it is of
the utmost importance to arouse the
broad masses of women to join in productive
activity."
Main revolutionary purposes of the
Women's Lib movement are to take
women out of the home , restructure
their thinking in favor of an atheistic,
Socialist ideology , and mobilize them
into a powerful political lobby that can
be used for Communist revolutionary
purposes. It should, therefore, come as
no surprise to discover that riding the
crest of the original wave of feminist
agitators in America during the early
1900s were such radical Socialists as
Crystal Eastman, Henrietta Rodman,
and Margaret Sanger; and such Marxists
as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Jane
Addams, Kate Richards O'Hare, and
Rose Pastor Stokes.
The Socialist threads in the tapestry
of the Women's Lib movement
have become increasingly visible in the
contemporary writings of such activists
as Simone de Beauvoir, Shirley
Chisholm, and Bernadette Devlin. As
Women's Lib activist June Sochen has
openly acknowledged in her book
Movers And Shakers:
.. . Most women's lib groups accept
both the class and sex analysis of
the women's dilemma in American society;
that is, they share with the
Marxist-Leninist perspective of the
evils of a capitalistic society . . . .
The drive for so-called Women's
Liberation is clearly pro-Communist,
anti-family, and anti-American - but
it is primarily anti-God. Atheism is the
common bond that links the Communist
and Humanist movements together
in this revolutionary assault on
Western civilization. The Equal Rights
Amendment will "liberate" women :
liberate them from the cherished
place they hold in the divine plan
of God's universe, reduce them to physical
and spiritual bondage, and destroy
them as preservers of the heart of
our society -the traditional American
family. • •
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