The Socialist - IWD 2005socialistparty-usa.org/socialist/ts200503.pdf · 2005-01-24 · INAMUJER organizes educational campaigns on sexual and reproductive rights and prevention of

March • April 2005 | The Socialist | 1

InternationalWomen’s Day2005

SOCIALISTMagazine of the Socialist Party USA

March • April 2005, Volume 31, Number 1 $1.00

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InternationalWomen’s Day2005

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Editorials

International Women’s Day is a daysocialist feminists everywhere can beproud of, and should organize around,

for three good reasons: its past, its present,and its future.

Its past is a tribute to the dedication ofthe socialist women of the first decade ofthe 20th century who founded it.

They remain powerful models for us intheir willingness to confront numerousdangers in order to help achieve for allwomen such basic civil rights as suffrage,such basic economic rights as good wagesand safe working conditions, and suchbasic human rights as control of one’sbody.

Its past is a tribute, as well, to the Rus-sian women whose courageous protests onInternational Women’s Day in 1917 led tothe downfall of the czar and soon after-wards Russia’s decision to withdraw fromWorld War.

Its present is testimony to the continu-ity between the struggles then and now.Sad but true, nearly 100 years after thefounding of International Women’s Day,women throughout the world continue tofight for economic, social, political, andinterpersonal justice and equality.

We still suffer the most from war, mili-

INTERNATIONAL

WOMEN’S DAY 2005tary occupation, and the deterioration —or just plain lack — of health and socialservices, and educational and employmentopportunities. But like the radical womenof the last century, we persevere, and takeevery opportunity to present our vision ofpeace, our strength as women, and our his-tory as activists.

Its future is our potential to replace pa-triarchal global capitalism with a differentkind of society. One that is truly democraticand egalitarian. One that is nurturing, co-operative, compassionate, and non-violent.One that finally brings to an end the grossinequities and dire circumstances current-ly facing most members of our world com-munity.

Coming together for InternationalWomen’s Day actions and events this Tues-day, March 8, will not only energize ourcurrent efforts for the immediate withdraw-al of the United States from Iraq and Af-ghanistan, to redirect national revenuefrom military spending to education andsocial services, and to build solidarity withradical women on all continents.

It will bolster our link to those whocame before us, and strengthen our resolveto continue to move forward to a worldfree of U.S. imperialism.

1909 — The Woman’s National Committee ofthe Socialist Party calls for a national day ofprotest on the last Sunday of February. Its goalis to connect the issues important to workingwomen to the middle-class dominated suffragemovement.

1910 — The Women’s Congress of the Social-ist International meets in August in Copenhagenand approves the call for an international dayof protest. The specific date is left open to theparticipants in each country.

1913 — Russian socialists begin celebratingInternational Women’s Day. Their intention isto organize rallies for the same day as that setin the United States, but since the Gregoriancalendar lags several days behind the West-ern calendar, the events take place in earlyMarch by our reckoning.

1917 — In Petrograd, the capital of Russia, tu-multuous demonstrations are sparked by the cel-ebration of International Women’s Day. Defying agovernment ban, tens of thousands of womenmarch to demand an end to World War I, spark-ing a revolution that topples three centuries ofczarist autocracy. The initial demonstration takesplace on March 8, by the Western calendar, whichthen becomes the internationally accepted day ofprotest.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

F eminism is a social movement to confront, counteract, and eradicateeons of oppression towards women. This oppression is rooted insocieties dominated by men, money, and competitive values and takes

many forms, including discrimination in many areas of economic, social, andpolitical life — leading to the loss of educational, employment, and leadershipopportunities; stereotyping — leading to severe restrictions on personalfreedom; and pervasive violence — from belittling to battering to murder. Theoppression of women is an outgrowth of the twin evils of patriarchy andcapitalism, and can only be overcome through the awareness, actions, andsolidarity of women of all classes and ethnicities, on a worldwide basis, inconjunction with a movement for fundamental social change toward the replacement of capitalismwith democratic socialism.

— A Statement from the Women’s Commission of the Socialist Party USA


WOMEN ADVANCE SIGNIFICANTLY INVENEZUELA’S BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTIONBy Sarah Wagner‘FEMINIST AID’ SPONSORS BENEFITBy Ann FergusonMASS MURDER IN CIUDAD JUAREZ /EL ASESINATO EN MASA EN CIUDAD JUÁREZBy/Por Eric ChesterREARRANGING MINDSBy Tina PhillipsSEXISM, LANGUAGE AND THE CULTURE WARBy Martin SchreaderSOCIAL SECURITY AND SOCIALISMBy Mary Alice Herbert‘COUNTER-RECRUITING’ IN HIGH SCHOOLSBy Jane PetersRESISTANCE TO OPPRESSIONBy Viji SargisCONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY FEMINISTSFORM COALITION FOR WOMEN’S LIVESBy Susan DorazioSISTER ACT IN ACTIONBy Loranne Borwick

The SocialistEditorial Staff SOCIALISTT

HE

March • April 2005, Volume 31, Number 1

IWD2005INTERNATIONALWOMEN’S DAY

The International Women’s Day issue of The Socialist was produced by the EditorialCollective of Socialist Women, the publication of the Women’s Commission of the

Socialist Party USA. Send correspondence to: Socialist Women, 43 Taylor Hill Road,Montague, MA 01351; e-mail: [email protected].

To join the Socialist Party Women’s Commission e-mail list, send a message to [email protected], with “Subscribe” in the subject line.

The Socialist is always looking for interesting, insightful, well-written stories. In particular, we are looking for works thathighlight the struggles and triumphs of the working class. We will accept news articles, stories about organizing and protests,but we are also looking for short fiction, poetry, and music/arts/theater/film reviews for our Red Arts section. Please markLetters to the Editor as such and limit them to 250 words; articles should not exceed 2,500 words. Submit as e-mail attachmentsin MS Word (.doc) or Rich Text (.rtf) format to [email protected], or by mail to: The Socialist, 339 Lafayette St.,No. 303, New York, NY 10012.

Editorial Collective forIWD 2005 Issue

Susan Dorazio, Ruth Greenberg-Edelstein, Tina Phillips, Viji Sargis,

Edith Wilson

LayoutMartin Schreader

Special ThanksLorrane Borwick, Sarah Wagner

© 2005 The Socialist.All rights reserved.

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Cover Art: Venezuelans, primarilythe poor and women, rally in supportof President Hugo Chavez after hisvictory in the August 15, 2004,referendum.

FEATURESWOMEN ADVANCE SIGNIFICANTLY INVENEZUELA’S BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTIONBy Sarah Wagner‘FEMINIST AID’ SPONSORS BENEFITBy Ann FergusonMASS MURDER IN CIUDAD JUAREZ /EL ASESINATO EN MASA EN CIUDAD JUÁREZBy/Por Eric ChesterREARRANGING MINDSBy Tina PhillipsSEXISM, LANGUAGE AND THE CULTURE WARBy Martin SchreaderSOCIAL SECURITY AND SOCIALISMBy Mary Alice Herbert‘COUNTER-RECRUITING’ IN HIGH SCHOOLSBy Jane NewtonRESISTANCE TO OPPRESSIONBy Dr. Viji SargisCONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY FEMINISTSFORM COALITION FOR WOMEN’S LIVESBy Susan DorazioSISTER ACT IN ACTIONBy Loranne Borwick

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With the election of Hugo Chavezin 1998, Venezuelan womenhave taken the first step towards

regaining social, political and economicrights so long denied to them under theirpreviously pacted democracy.

In one of his first acts as president,Chavez called for a Constituent Assemblyto draft a new Constitution that wouldserve as the catalyst to change the stag-nant and exolusionary fabric of Venezue-lan society.

Women played a key role in the pro-cess of drafting this Constitution, achiev-ing an unprecedented social and politicalvictory, as well as one of the most ad-vanced constitutions in the world with theincorporation of gender perspective andnon-sexist language.

The Constitution guarantees full equal-ity between men and women in employ-ment, recognizes housework as an eco-nomically productive activity thus entitlinghousewives to social security benefits, ac-knowledges the sexual and reproductiverights of women, and obligates the state toprovide accurate information about fami-ly planning, as well as addresses discrim-ination, sexual harassment and domesticviolence.

MarIa del Mar Alvarez, the NationalDefender of Women’s Rights notes, “Inthis revolution women have participatedextraordinarily. Usually feminism caters tothe upper and middle classes. However,this revolution has woken women up and

WOMEN ADVANCE SIGNIFICANTLY IN

VENEZUELA’S BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTIONBy Sarah Wagner

feminism is reaching the popular sectors.Now all women know they have the rightto participate.”

The National Institute for Women(1NAMUJER), an organization created bythe Chavez government in 2000, is current-ly in the process of educating women todefend the political rights that they havethus so far achieved and building/expand-ing on these rights in order to achieve atruly democratic society, not only politi-cally, but also socially and culturally inwhich men and women are valued asequals.

INAMUJER organizes educationalcampaigns on sexual and reproductiverights and prevention of violence againstwomen. It has also set up a free telephonehotline for victims of domestic violence,as well as a shelter, Casa de Abrigo forwomen in fear of their lives.

According to Maria Leon, the Presidentof 1NAMUJER, the fight for women’srights in Venezuela has taken on a newmeaning within the Bolivarian Revolution.

“We have a president who understandsthe problems of women. Chavez has sup-ported this organization and its projects.He never stops speaking about the prob-lems of women. For the first time, we area social issue. Women recognize him astheir leader. One can see this because thereare more women actively participating inthis revolution than men.”

1NAMUJER also evaluates public pol-icies directed towards women in order toassure that they guarantee equal opportu-nities. Together with a network of lawyers,social scientists, intellectuals, and femi-

nists, the organization is drafting amend-ments to the Social Security Law, fightingto surpass the 30 percent quota of womenin government positions, sensitizing policeofficers, lawyers, and doctors to genderand violence issues and promoting theabolishment of the Penal Code and thedrafting of another that incorporates gen-der perspective and does not contradict thelaws in the Constitution.

Through the creation of the Women’sDevelopment Bank (BANMUJER), Ven-ezuela has also taken steps to eradicate thegrowing phenomenon of feminization ofpoverty.

Currently, over 70 percent of impover-ished Venezuelans are women. BAN-MUJER recognizes that unless economicconditions for women improve, it will bealmost impossible to establish themselveson equal ground with men, legally, politi-cally, and socially.

Therefore, it has developed a networkof promoters that visit the 149 most im-poverished and densely populated districtsthroughout the nation on a weekly basis inorder to offer women low interest loanscalled microcredits.

As a social development bank, its mis-sion is to empower women politically, so-cially, economically and culturally.

BANMUJER is unique to all financialinstitutions because in addition to grant-ing loans and providing administrativetraining and creating jobs, it promotes in-tegral development of its clients by pro-viding workshops on a wide range of is-sues, including women’s rights, discrimi-nation and violence against women, sexu-


al and reproductive rights, integral health,gender perspectives and feminism.

It also stimulates the participation ofwomen in the construction of a more justand equal society in accordance with theConstitution, thereby fulfilling the objec-tive of reducing poverty and improving thequality of life for impoverished women.Since its creation in 2001, BANMUJERhas granted over 40,000 microcredits andgenerated over 80,000 jobs in the country.

Along with Barrio Adentro, a programset up by the government in which Cubandoctors provide free health care and med-icine to impoverished areas, free schoolbreakfast programs, the redistribution ofidle lands and adult education programs,women’s poverty and issues are each be-ing aggressively addressed, and women arechanging the complexion of Venezuelansociety.“We are amidst a profound social trans-formation in which discrimination, preju-dices, and the injustices against women arecoming to the forefront. This revolutionhas recognized women as human beings.But we still are unable to say that we haveeradicated discrimination against womenin society or even in the minds of women.Discrimination is a phenomenon that hasexisted for centuries and it is impossibleto eradicate within five years. Our valuesdo not change overnight. However, Vene-zuelan women now know that this revolu-tion is for them too and they are beginningto wake up.”

Under the government of Hugo ChavezFrías, women have been instrumental ininitiating legal and institutional reforms,and have made significant and rapidprogress in creating NGOs, increasing theirrepresentation in politics, and defendingtheir democracy.

In the participatory democracy of theBolivarian Revolution, in which the rightsof citizens are not defined as purely polit-ical but instead embark on encompassingsocial justice and gender equality, womenhave the potential to construct a new hu-mane society which could not only changetheir reality but also set an example for theworld in terms of gender equality. �

Sarah Wagner is a researcher and writerfor the website Venezuelanalysis(www.venezuelanalysis.com) who iscurrently living in Venezuela.

On the evening of October 24, 2004a non-profit solidarity groupcalled Feminist Aid to Central

America and the Hispanic Caribbean in thePioneer Valley of Massachusetts sponsoreda benefit dinner for a women’s center inPuerto Rico called Woman and New Fam-ily (Mujer y Nueva Familia). This center,directed by Onelia Perez, is located in Bar-ranquitas, a poor rural town located in themountainous region of the island. Its workwith local women concentrates not onlyon family planning for women but also otherissues, particularly domestic and sexualviolence against women. It sponsors con-sciousness raising groups on self-esteemfor women and violence against women,and sees itself as aiding women not just assurvivors of patriarchal practices, but aspotential activists in a movement againstdomestic violence in their families and com-munities and in favor of more just treat-ment of women and children.

The Center for Woman and the NewFamily has a partnership with ProfessorLiliana Cotto of the University of the WestIndies in Puerto Rico. This partnershipprovides student interns and helps withpublicity and fundraising. Although thecenter has received some government aidin the past, the new governor of PuertoRico has refused to release funding alreadypromised. The center has been attemptingto restore the funding by outreach to pri-vate donors to fill in the shortfall. Raisingsome funds was one of the goals that thebenefit dinner sponsored by Feminist Aidhad in mind, but the dinner also aimed tospread the news about how women in Pu-erto Rico are organizing against a problemalso faced by women in the U.S.

The dinner, cooked by group membersand hosted in his home by a supporter,raised $1,200 to contribute to the center.This was a great success, given that Fem-inist Aid is a very small group of only fiveactive members and no paid staff. Theevent, however, is a typical one for Femi-nist Aid, whose annual budget, complete-ly made up of donations from small donors,is about $2,500. Since its inception in 1990,the group has raised funds for small dona-tions to self-help and social justice projects

of women’s groups in Central America, andmore recently, the Spanish-speaking Car-ibbean, that are explicitly feminist in theirgoals. These have included women’s cen-ters and economic cooperatives, sex edu-cation, family planning, feminist radiogroups, labor union women organizers,women’s peace and human rights groups,and writers and artists recording women’shistory and art.

Feminist Aid started after a successfuldelegation of women construction work-ers, called Brigada Companeras, went toCondega, Nicaragua to build a school, andhired and taught local women constructionskills in the process. They left behind theirtools for the local women who started theirown carpentry and construction workshop.

When they needed start up money tobuild their shop, Feminist Aid was orga-nized to collect contributions from friends.In the 1990s when the newly developingindependent Nicaraguan women’s move-ment started creating other self-help groupsand political coalitions, Feminist Aid alsoraised money for them, as well as expand-ing through activist networks to fund smallwomen’s empowerment and movementprojects in Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba,Haiti and now Puerto Rico. The group alsosponsors visitors from these countries toinform the community about women’sgroups and projects in these poor Span-ish-speaking neighbors to the immediatesouth of the U.S. whose social movementsare usually invisible to North Americans.

Members of the group feel strongly thatpersonal solidarity across borders whichincludes material support and education ofNorth Americans about women’s self helpand social justice movements in other partsof the world, particularly poor countries inthe south, is key to the struggle for wom-en’s liberation both home and abroad. �

‘FEMINIST AID’ SPONSORS BENEFITBy Ann Ferguson

Ann Ferguson, a teacher and writer fromWestern Massachusetts, is one of thefounding members of Feminist Aid, andcurrently one of the organizers of aconference on women and globalizationfor the new Center for Global Justice inSan Miguel De Allende, Mexico. Websiteat www.globaljusticecenter.org.


Ciudad Juarez is an industrial cityof two million people, located onthe border of Mexico and the Unit-

ed States, directly opposite from El Paso,Texas. During the last twelve years, morethan three hundred and fifty young wom-en have been brutally murdered in that city,and the killings continue to this day. Al-though Mexican police have arrested sev-eral suspects, no one believes that most ofthose responsible for the murders havebeen discovered or prosecuted.

Over the years it has become increas-ingly clear that these killings are not thework of a single serial killer. Most of thevictims were raped before being killed.Many victims were also savagely beaten,and their bodies mutilated. The murderersare deliberately seeking to terrorize theyoung women of Ciudad Juarez.

These hundreds of deaths are not theresult of the demented fantasies of a sin-gle insane individual, or even of a few iso-lated individuals. Instead, the killings shinea glaring light on the destructive impact ofthe flinging together of cultures and econ-omies, as the entire planet becomes fusedinto one integrated capitalist market econ-omy.

Transnational corporations, most ofthem U.S. based, have moved into north-ern Mexico looking for low-wage laborand lax environmental controls. More than150,000 residents of Ciudad Juarez are cur-rently employed in maquiladoras, factoriesproducing exclusively for the U.S. market.Since NAFTA went into effect, thesegoods are allowed into the United Statesduty free.

The maquiladoras keep out unions,while paying less than $5 a day with nobenefits. Seventy per cent of the workforceis made up of young women, who the cor-porations believe are the most easily in-timidated and exploited. Most of theseyoung women come from small peasantvillages in the interior of Mexico. So far,the corporate strategy has worked. Themaquiladoras are highly profitable andworker resistance has been minimal. Most

of those murdered since 1993 had beenworking in the maquiladoras. Many of themwere last seen either going to, or leavingfrom, their workplace.

Increasingly, investigators have becomeconvinced that the killers a acting out ofdesperation and rage. The invasion of tran-snational corporations into Ciudad Juarezhas turned the traditional culture of Mexi-co, a culture that was greatly affected byhundreds of years of Spanish colonial rule,upside down. Men find it difficult to findemployment, their skills devalued and de-meaned.

At the same time, women are no longereconomically dependent on men, and aretherefore more willing to assert their rightsas equals. The murder.s in Ciudad Juarezare, in effect, casualties in an unannouncedconflict, as some men seek to restore thetraditional role of women through an all-out war of terror. This would account forthe disinterest shown by the Mexican au-thorities. It is not only that women’s lives,especially the lives of single working classwomen, are under-valued in a society thatesteems bravado and the worship of theinnocent virginal mother. Since the killingsuphold the subordination of women, theyhave attracted the tacit sympathy of ele-ments within the power structure.

The police have so mishandled the con-tinuing investigations that many observ-ers are convinced that the authorities aredeliberately covering up for the killers, inpart because some of the killings may havebeen committed by police officers.

Amnesty International recently issueda report denouncing the Mexican federalgovernment for its reluctance to actively

pursue the murderers. Certainly as social-ist feminists we must add our voices tothose demanding that the killings imme-diately end, and that those responsible bebrought to justice. Yet the killings in CiudadJuarez are indicative of a far deeper set ofproblems. The border between Mexico andthe United States is a flash point.

Nowhere else can the harsh contrastsand horrific consequences of globalizationbe so clearly seen. Indeed, the disintegra-tion of Mexican society has become so pro-found that mass terror has become accept-able. Of course, violence against women isa problem that extends far beyond Mexico.In the United States, authorities have beenwilling far too enough to turn a blind eyewhen it comes to the homicide of poor andworking class women. The recent wave ofsocial service cutbacks has left an evengreater need for increased funding of shel-ters for battered women.

On International Women’s Day, social-ist feminists reaffirm our belief that the cre-ation of gender relationships based on re-spect and equality is a central componentof our movement to build a new, egalitar-ian society.

Creating a safe space for the women ofCiudad Juarez and all other cities and townsaround the world will require a struggle thattightly links the issues of class and gen-der. Building a new society will involve bothan end to class exploitation and a defeat ofpatriarchy in all its forms. �

MASS MURDER IN CIUDAD JUAREZBy Eric Chester

Women march in Ciudad Juarez for justice for their murdered sisters.

Eric Chester is a member of the TomMooney/Western Massachusetts Local,Socialist Party of Mass., and author ofthe new book, True Mission (Pluto, 2004).


Ciudad Juárez es una ciudad industrial de dos millones de personas,localizado en la frontera de Méxi-

co y los Estados Unidos, al frente de ElPaso, Texas. Durante los últimos doce años,más de trescientas cincuenta mujeresjóvenes han sido asesinadas brutalmenteen esa ciudad, y la matanza continúa hastaeste día. Aunque la policía mexicana ha de-tenido a varios sospechosos, nadie creeque la mayoría del los responsable de losasesinatos han sido descubiertos o proce-sados.

Al pasar los anos, es cada vez más cla-ro que estos asesinatos no son la obra deun solo asesino. La mayor parte de las víc-timas fueron violadas antes de ser asesi-nadas. Muchas de las víctimas también fu-eron salvajemente golpeadas y sus cuer-pos mutilados. El objetivo de los asesinoses aterrorizar a las mujeres jóvenes deCiudad Juárez.

Las centenares de muertes no son el re-sultado de las fantasías dementes de unsolo individuo loco, ni aún de unos pocosindividuos aislados. Al contrario, las ma-tanzas son un ejemplo deslumbrante del elimpacto destructivo del choque de cultur-as y economías, al fundirse el mundo enuna economía integrada de mercado capi-talista.

Las corporaciones trasnacionales, lamayoría de ellos basados en los EE.UU.,han traído sus operaciones al norte deMéxico en busca de la mano de obra bara-ta y de las leyes del medio ambiente pocoexigentes. Actualmente, más de 150.000 res-identes de Ciudad Juárez son empleadosen las maquiladoras, las fábricas que pro-ducen exclusivamente para el mercado es-tadounidense. Desde que el TLC entró envigencia, el producto de la maquila entra alos Estados Unidos libre de tarifas de im-portación.

Las maquiladoras impiden los sindica-tos y pagan menos de cinco dolares al díasin ningunos beneficios. El setenta porciento de la fuerza laboral esta compuestade mujeres jóvenes, ya que los corpora-ciones creen que ellas son mas fácilmente

intimidadas y explotadas. Lamayor parte de estas mujeresjóvenes vienen de las áreasrurales en el interior de Méxi-co. Hasta ahora, la estrategiade las empresas ha trabajado.las maquiladoras han sidosumamente lucrativas y habi-do un mínimo de resistenciapor parte de los/as trabaja-dores/as.

La mayor parte de lasmujeres asesinadas desde1993 fueron trabajadoras en laindustria de la maquila. Mu-chas de ellas fueron vistas porultima vez yendo o viniendode las maquilas. Los investi-gadores han llegado a ser con-vencidos que los asesinatos son un actode desesperación y rabia. La invasión delas corporaciones trasnacionales en CiudadJuárez han afectado la cultura tradicionalde México, una cultura que por siglos fueafectada por el colonialismo español. loshombres difícilmente encuentran el emp-leo, ya que su valor como obrero es des-valorizado.

Al mismo tiempo, las mujeres ya no de-penden económicamente del los hombres,por lo tanto están más dispuestas a afirmarsus derechos de igualdad . Los asesinatosen Ciudad Juárez son, de hecho, el resulta-do de un conflicto imprevisto,al ver hom-bres dispuestos a restaurar el papel tradi-cional de las mujeres a través de una guer-ra de terror sin cuarteles. Esto puede ser larazón del desinterés mostrado por las au-toridades mexicanas. no es sólo que lasvidas de las mujeres, especialmente las vi-das de las mujeres solteras de la claseobrera, son infravaloradas en una sociedadque venera el machismo y el marianismo.Ya que los asesinatos apoyan la subordi-nación de mujeres, han atraído la simpatíatácita de elementos dentro de la estructuradel poder.

A habido tanta negligencia por parte dela policía en las investigaciones, que mu-chos observadores tienen la convicción deque las autoridades encubren deliberada-mente a los asesinos, en parte porque al-gunos de los asesinatos pueden haber sido

cometidos por la misma policía.La organización Amnestia Internacio-

nal publicó recientemente un informe quedenuncia al gobierno federal mexicano porsu desgana en la captura de los asesinos.Ciertamente como socialistas feministasnosotros debemos agregar nuestras vocesa aquellos que demandan un fin inmedia-to a los asesinatos , y que los responsablessean traídos frente a la justicia.

Los asesinatos en Ciudad Juárez son in-dicativos de problemas mucho mas pro-fundos. La frontera entre México y los Es-tados Unidos es una área a punto de estal-lar. En ninguna otra parte son tan claroslos contrastes y las consecuencias horri-bles de la globalización . la desintegraciónde la sociedad mexicana es tan profundaque el terror en masa ha llegado a ser acept-able.

Por supuesto, la violencia contra lasmujeres no es un problema único a Méxi-co. En los Estados Unidos, las autoridadestambién están dispuestas de hacerse de lavista gorda cuando viene al homicidio delas mujeres pobres y de clase obrera. Lareciente onda de recortes en los serviciossociales ha dejado una necesidad masgrande para aumentar la financiación de losalbergues para las mujer victimas de la vio-lencia.

En el Día Internacional de las Mujeres,Las/os socialistas feministas reafirmanla

EL ASESINATO EN MASA EN CIUDAD JUÁREZPor Eric Chester

Seguido a página 14


Reading the last few chapters of1984 were much more scary thanany horror movie I have ever seen.

As I read about Winston being tortured intosubmission my heart began to beat rapidlyand I found myself in a terrible bind: I didnot want to read another word, yet couldnot put down the book, desperately want-ing to know if he could escape his tortur-er.

No, instead of the liberating ending Ihad been hoping for, the dystopian classicshowed me the most horrible thing I couldever imagine: being tortured so much thatyour mind set is permanently changed.

I kept thinking Winston could find away to kill himself, at least then hewouldn’t have to become what he spentthe whole book fighting against being: alover of big brother. Unfortunately, 1984is not just a book, and torture is not just aliterary tool of fright.

In the case of Latin America, torture wasa harsh reality. Latin American dictator-ships used torture on dissidents to eithershut them up or gain information fromthem. Torture was also used as a systemat-ic tool to oppress the citizens and makesure they would send a message to othersnot to fight against the government.

Even more sickening is that the United

Rearranging Minds By Tina Phillips

States played a part and still does. Accord-ing to Lars Schoultz, a leading academicspecialist on human rights in Latin Amer-ica, “[aid] has tended to flow dispropor-tionately to Latin American governmentswhich torture their citizens.”

The U.S. government has been train-ing Latin American military officers at theSchool of the Americas (SOA), whosegraduates include some of the most noto-rious dictators and human rights abusers.

A few of them include: “Gen. LeopoldoGaltieri, former president of Argentina,accused of perpetrating the ‘dirty war,’ inwhich an estimated 30,000 disappeared;Gen. Hugo Banzer, the Bolivian dictatorwho developed the Banzer Plan, whichbecame the blueprint for repression in Lat-in America; Robert D’Aubuisson, founderof the death squads in El Salvador; Gen.Hector Gramajo, Guatemalan DefenseMinister, notorious for instigating the deathof thousands; and, of course, [buddy] Gen.Manuel Noriega of Panama, now servingtime in a US prison on drug charges,”(www.a4a.mahost.org/soa.htm1). TheSOA trains military officers who learn “in-terrogation techniques,” what people whobelieve in human rights call torture.

Torture has been defined many ways inthe past including inducing physical pain,

mental stress, and/or suffering on a per-son (for various reasons including punish-ment or to obtain information).

It has also been defined by the GenevaConvention (which lays out proper con-duct towards military officers and civiliansduring an armed conflict) as: any act bywhich severe pain or suffering, whetherphysical or mental, is intentionally inflict-ed on a person for such purposes as ob-taining from him or a third person infor-mation or a confession, punishing him foran act he or a third person has committedor is suspected of having committed, orintimidating or coercing him or a thirdperson, or for any reason based on discrim-ination of any kind, when such pain orsuffering is inflicted by or at the instiga-tion of or with the consent or acquiescenceof a public official or other person actingin an official capacity.

It also states that no exceptional circum-stances whatsoever, whether a state of waror a threat or war, internal political insta-bility or any other public emergency, maybe invoked as a justification of torture.Since the U.S. has signed onto the GenevaConvention it is part of our constitution.

The Convention against Torture andOther Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treat-ment or Punishment within the Declara-tion of Human Rights was also signed bythe United States. It states, “No one shallbe subjected to torture or to cruel, inhu-man or degrading treatment or punish-ment.”

The torture used in Latin America in-cluded suffocation, electric shocks, repeat-ed beating, and rape. Many were alsodropped from helicopters into rivers, wherethey drowned.

Many women suffered under the op-pressive tyranny of Latin American dicta-torships. Many were simply “disappeared.”One day someone would be there and thenext they were gone; never to be seenagain. Some were women who were work-ing against the government and some weremothers of those taken.

Mothers in Argentina formed an orga-nization, Mothers of the Disappeared. Ev-

Continued on page 12


SEXISM,LANGUAGE

AND THE

CULTURE WAR

There is no such thing as a “prefab”Socialist. That is, no one enters theSocialist movement with a fully de-

veloped political consciousness. Everyonecomes to our movement with a certainamount of political “baggage” they gotfrom their experiences in capitalist soci-ety.

Sometimes that “baggage” is relativelybasic, like mistaking Stalinism for social-ism or judging social class solely by in-come. Most of the time, these problems canbe handled in an easy manner — some-times before the new comrade even signsthe membership form. Other times, how-ever, the “baggage” is more subtle and in-grained, and it takes a longer, more sys-tematic struggle to overcome.

Such is the case with language and itsrelationship to fighting institutionalizedsexism.

Every day, we are bombarded with sex-ist imagery and messages in the media, theeducational system, politics and society ingeneral.

Whether we are talking about commer-cials for home cleaning products, relation-ships between boys and girls on the play-ground, or societal definitions of genderroles, sexist stereotypes and language re-inforce divisions between men and wom-en.

Many Socialists can easily spot andpoint out the more obvious and blatantexpressions of sexism we se in society. Andyet, they may themselves be a link in thechain of sexism in this society. While hav-ing a conscious ability to combat sexismand women’s oppression where they see

By Martin Schreaderit, these comrades may also contribute tothat oppression with their choice of wordsand language.

For example, on more than one occa-sion I have heard comrades use the mostwidely recognized derogatory term forwomen, “b****,” in social settings —sometimes among solely other male com-rades, sometimes in mixed company. Gen-erally, when the term is used, it is not be-ing used to describe women, but rather asa verb, expressing disgust (“quitb****ing”) or as a term of subordination(“he’s acting like a little b****”).

Other derogatory terms, generally as-sociated with women or a woman’s bodyparts, are also found to come out of themouths of comrades who think themselvespolitically advanced and even revolution-ary socialist-feminists. I find no need tolist them all, since I can imagine that read-ers can probably figure these out for them-selves.

In my dealings with such comrades overthe years, I have found that challengingthem on their use of language often leadsto bitter defensiveness on their part, com-bined with a delicate string of rationaliza-tions meant to offset and justify their useof sexist terminology. Even the most care-fully-conceived intervention against suchterms and language couldn’t avoid travel-ing this course — and thus resulting incomrades taking the political criticism as apersonal attack.

What these comrades don’t seem to re-alize is that, even if they are not using theterm as a description of women per se, thecontext in which they use the terms oftenbetrays the inherent backwardness andoppressive character of their speech.

You do not have to be a rocket scientist

to know that terms like “b****” developeda social definition as epithets against wom-en in general (regardless of their specificorigins) . What may require a little morethought is the relationship between thatsocial definition and the use of the term asdefining something or someone as a sub-ordinate.

What kind of message does it send —to people in general and women in partic-ular — when a self-described Socialist usessuch a term, even in this context? Does thatcomrade see all women as subordinate, orjust so-called “b****es?” Does that kindof hairsplitting really matter? In my view,it does not. In spite of all protests to thecontrary, terms like this are not “genderneutral” by any means.

Some comrades might point out thatthey know women who accept its usage oreven use it themselves. Some women com-rades may even make this point them-selves. However, I cannot accept such arationalization as anything more than whatit is: a rationalization.

In any society, the prevailing ideas anddoctrines are developed by and stem fromthe ruling class. In this country, it is theruling capitalist class that develops thosedoctrines, and the capitalists’ media andinstitutions that promote and reinforcethem.

Capitalism needs to keep a divisionbetween men and women in order to max-imize its profit margins. Any look at thegap in the pay that men and women re-ceive for equal work or work of compara-tively equal value, for example, exposesthis reality. Thus, capitalism promotes themaintenance of all sorts of sexist dynam-ics in society — some open, some hidden



— as a means to maintain itself in power.The indoctrination of men and women

in the capitalists’ hierarchical structure ofsociety reinforces each person’s role. Itshould be no surprise that many women,including women Socialists, would be ac-cepting of sexist terminology and lan-guage; they, like the rest of us, have beentaught from birth by capitalist society thatit is the norm.

Nevertheless, the persistence of thisindoctrination should not be celebrated oraccepted. On the contrary, it is the respon-sibility of Socialists, men and women alike,to struggle with our comrades who stillhold these backward views and habits.

Male Socialists have a special role inthis struggle. Building unity that extendsbeyond paper appeals often requires thatthose from oppressor backgrounds gothrough a period of proving themselves tothose from oppressed backgrounds.

Just as white Socialists have to gothrough a process of proving themselvesto their African American or Latino com-rades, so male Socialists have to go

Language...Continued from page 9

through a similar process with womencomrades. Far from it being a specificallywomen’s issue, combating sexism withinour own ranks requires the active partici-pation of male comrades.

The last defense that many who use sex-ist terminology and language rely upon inorder to deflect criticism of their backward-ness is the accusation of political correct-ness, or PC. “You’re just being PC,” theysay. “Stop being so PC.” My reply to sucharguments is: Yes, I am being PC, and Iwill not stop being such.

Political correctness first began in the1930s as an effort by radicals and revolu-tionaries to bring about a cultural changein the relations between people — specif-ically working people — from oppressorand oppressed backgrounds. It was a weap-on in the hands of the left and workingclass, used in the “culture war” of the day.

Unfortunately, few of us were aroundin that time. The “culture war” we knowtoday is the one that has been waged vir-tually unchallenged by the capitalists sincethe 1980s. That war, which has been wagedagainst the efforts of past generations toundo the damaging effects of racism andsexism (and homophobia!), has been moreor less a success for the capitalists.

It has been so successful for the capi-talists because much of the left capitulatedto the anti-PC backlash (buying into thecaricature of PC popularized in the 1980s).Few leftists fought the “culture war”waged by capitalism; fewer understood thelong-term implications of a capitalist vic-tory in this “war.”

But the “culture war” is not over. Onthe contrary, with every generation thebattle has to be renewed. This means thatSocialists still have an opportunity to wagea consistent struggle against these attacks.

The Socialist Party USA’s “SocialistValues” campaign offers us a unique op-portunity to begin organizing and mobi-lizing for this struggle. We need to takeadvantage of the platform we have in thiscampaign to educate people about the im-portance of language and terminology inthe struggle for social equality and libera-tion.

We can start this effort by educating ourown comrades about the use of languageand terminology. �

Astatement Virginia Woolf made, asshe contemplated events leadingto World War I in Europe, has be-

come a mantra of sorts to me.She said, “...as a woman I have no coun-

try. As a woman I want no country. As awoman my country is the whole world.”

When I compare my situation to that ofthe majority of my sisters around the worldI realize how fortunate I am.

As a retiree I receive monthly checksfrom my teacher retirement and from SocialSecurity I mourn the fact that many womenin Latin America have lost similar incomeprotection because their governmentsprivatized the public retirement insuranceprograms.

Now individuals are in the position ofhaving to choose among competing insur-

SOCIAL SECURITY AND SOCIALISMBy Mary Alice Herbert

ance systems out to make a profit. Further-more, the debt incurred by the governmentsto make the changeover has significantlycontributed to economic meltdowns suchas in Argentina.

For me Social Security makes the differ-ence between a bare-bones retirement to acomfortable one, but I know that it is thesole source of income for a quarter of U.S.retirees.

When Social Security was passed herein 1935 as part of the New Deal, it was meantin FDR’s words “to give some measure ofprotection to the average citizen and to hisfamily against the loss of a job and againstpoverty-ridden old age.” It was never in-tended to be the sole income for retireeswho were also assumed to have pensionsfrom their jobs and to be able to save somemoney as well.

The fact that so many U.S. retirees haveonly SS is the result of the loss of pen-

sions for the majority of us and the factthat real wages have dropped so low, as aresult of globalization, that for most of ussaving money has become impossible.

This is particularly true for elderly wom-en. In the face of these realities, Social Se-curity does need to be fixed to provide adecent guaranteed annual income for allretirees and elder citizens. However, thisshould happen not be changing the essen-tial nature of the system,but by puttingmore money into it.

The redistribution of wealth that hastaken place in this country over the pasttwo decades has widened the gap betweenrich and poor and produced more incomethat is not taxed by Social Security. If allearned income were taxed, instead of onlythe first $88,000, there would be plenty ofmoney for the system.

If wealth were also taxed, as it shouldContinued on page 14

Martin Schreader is a railroad worker, amember of the SP-USA’s Labor Com-mission and Chairperson of the DetroitSocialist Party.


As women throughout the worldstruggle to make ends meet in or-der to provide even the basic ne-

cessities to themselves and their families,military recruiters in the United States havea yearly budget of close to $3 billion —more than enough money to maintain asolid on fertile recruiting soil: our localhigh schools.

Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” seesto it that, unless told otherwise, the names,addresses and phone numbers of all stu-dents in their last years of school are giv-en to the recruiters. The ASFAB test, whichmany schools use, gives the military evenmore information about students. The re-cruiters, also through the No Child LeftBehind Act, have unquestioned access toour schools.

Therefore, along with groups all acrossthe country like the American Friends Ser-vice Committee and the Veterans for Peace,some of us in Vermont have formed agroup of people, who, for lack of a bettername, call ourselves “counter- recruiters,”or ARM, (Alternatives to Recruitment bythe Military).

Our group was started in Brattleboro by

people in the Brattleboro Area Peace andJustice Group, and has spread out to thenorth so that we now go into schools asfar up the state as Woodstock. A few daysago we found people interested in goinginto high schools in Claremont N.H., and,because New Hampshire’s Fall MountainHigh has Junior ROTC, we are hoping togo there too.

Until recently, when, because the courtshave become more conservative, we wereasked not to bring a lawsuit against schoolsthat would not let us in, we felt secure inasking principals to let us “table” alongwith the recruiters because a few years agothe Ninth Circuit Court in California up-held the principle of “equal access,” which

‘COUNTER-RECRUITING’ IN OUR HIGH SCHOOLS

By Jane Newtonstates that students must be presented withboth sides of controversial issues so theycan make informed decisions. The courtruled, “The (school) board cannot allowthe presentation of one side of an issue,but prohibit the presentation of another,”and that, “It has long been recognized thatthe subject of military service is controver-sial.” Now we just keep our fingers crossed.

We do not tell students what to do orwhat not to do. We go into schools, two ata time, once or twice a month if we’relucky, hopefully as often as the recruiters.We “table,” usually for an hour duringlunch time, handing out information, someof which counters the often inaccutate orexaggerated claims of the military, and someof which offers information about subjectslike Depleted Uranium that the militaryhopes to avoid. We have information aboutconscientious objection, scholarships andloans, and when possible, alternatives tomilitary service. Sadly for us and for thechildren, but to the delight of the recruit-ers, poverty, unemployment and the soar-ing costs of college have made alternativeshard to find.

Over the year or so that we have beendoing this, things have been changing.Fears about the draft; mixed messagesfrom Canada, increasing numbers of de-serters, talk of making the Delayed EntryProgram (DEP) harder to leave and the sta-tus of Conscientious Objector harder toreach, have caused some of us to changeour tune.

One of our most effective counter-re-cruiters and by far the hardest worker, is aVietnam Veteran from Windham namedGary Cheney. He has begun to ask chil-dren directly if they are willing to kill andif they are not, there is nothing the mili-tary can do about it but throw them in jail;a decision, he tells them, is brave, if notbraver than going to war. We can no long-er make promises to kids in this terrifyingworld. �

The New Jersey Socialist Party has been busy fighting racism on several fronts.1. We have been staging protests and distributing literature to would-be

recruits in front of the military recruiting offices in Paterson.2. We staged protests in front of the armory in Teaneck.3. We also marched in Newark in defense of “undocumented labor” so called

illegal aliens. No human is illegal!4. We have been involved with the detainee issues and enlightening the public

about the illegal detentions.5. We picketed the Bergen County jail and protested the detentions.6. We are also fighting the neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance, based in

Elmwood Park.7. We are also working with a rehab facility to help with their literacy program for

juveniles.8. We are planning to attend the counter-inagural in Washington, D.C.

There are several youth groups who are working with us, including Bergen Action,Students for Peace and Justice from William Paterson University.

— Dr. Viji Sargis

RESISTANCE TO OPPRESSIONACTIVITIES IN THE MID-ATLANTIC — A BRIEF REPORT

Jane Newton is member of the SouthernVermont Local, SP-USA, and was thecandidate for the U.S. House of Repre-sentatives for the Liberty Union Party ofVermont in 2004.


ery week in the central square, these moth-ers would gather wearing black dresses andwhite kerchiefs, they would carry picturesof their loved ones, and they would de-mand answers from the government Theywore a white rose bud if they hoped theirloved one was still alive, and a red rosebud for the dead.

From Argentina the march of the moth-ers spread to El Salvador and other coun-tries. Tens of thousands of Latin Ameri-can mothers have had family membersabducted — “disappeared” — by deathsquads. The Mothers of the Disappearedcontinue to parade on the streets everyThursday at 3:30 p.m., in the famous Plazade Mayo in Buenos Aires.

A good book to read about the disap-

peared is Imagining Argentina byLawrence Thornton. It is about the thou-sands of Argentineans disappeared with-out a trace into the general’s prison cellsand torture chambers. While mothers suf-fered with their children gone, young wom-en continued to fight the actions of thegovernment.

These women fought against their op-pressive government, which tortured thou-sands and forced hundreds of thousandsinto exile. Dictators destroyed their coun-tries constitutions, their political partiesand congress, their trade unions, free uni-versities and other public services, and in-stilled censorship.

Many young women took up the resis-tance to government repression and thepoverty and helplessness that encom-passed them. A good book to read aboutthis is In the Time of the Butterflies by JuliaAlvarez. It is about four sisters fighting

against the Dominican Republic Trujillo dic-tatorship.

Some progress has been made sincethen. The Chilean government has offeredlifelong pensions to more than 28,000 peo-ple tortured by agents of General AugustoPinochet’s military government.

Chile’s Supreme Court has ruled thecountry’s former President Augusto Pi-nochet is fit to stand trial on murder andkidnapping charges. However, it is still inquestion whether the ailing former dicta-tor will ever actually stand trial.

Meanwhile, the United States hasGuantanamo and the Abu Ghraib “scan-dal.” and the U.S. Congress will in all like-lihood confirm Alberto Gonzalez, crafterof the Administration’s torture policy, asthe next Attorney General.

The “war on terror” and the dirty warsin Latin America were said to be fought inthe name of democracy and freedom. Yet

Minds...Continued from page 8

Initiated by members of the Tom Moon-ey local of the Socialist Party, a Coali-tion for Women’s Lives has been

formed in the Connecticut River Valley ofWestern Massachusetts and southern Ver-mont. It is an outgrowth of the March forWomen’s Lives that drew an amazinglymassive and diverse number of people toWashington, D.C. last April 25, and theSocialist Party organizing conference inthe Bay Area of California last July thatresolved to make abortion rights, in par-ticular the repeal of the Hyde Amendment,a top priority of the Party.

The underpinning of the Coalition is theincreasing desire of feminists in our areato make links between each other’s issues,projects, and events. While the necessityof coalition-building has been a givenamong radicals, it’s really since Septem-ber 11 that left-liberals have become con-vinced of the worth of “diversity of tac-tics” as a collective goal.

This recognition has led to better com-munication and cooperation among indi-

viduals and groups on the Left, and morefocused efforts to coordinate our actionsand events.

Another factor behind the viability ofthe Coalition is its organizational frame-work. The design of the Coalition is sim-ple (“low maintenance” is how we de-scribed it initially), and it has steady growthbuilt into it. This is because it follows agrassroots, community-building model,and it does not require the time commit-ment that inhibits many women from join-ing organizations.

CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY FEMINISTS

FORM A COALITION FOR WOMEN’S LIVESThe Coalition is organized around a cal-

endar of vigil/speak-outs that addressmany different, but intimately related, do-mestic and international issues, and thatwelcome a range of ideas and strategiesfor effecting social change.

So far, the Coalition for Women’s Liveshas sponsored vigil/speak-outs aroundRosie Jimenez Day, Veterans Day, HumanRights Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.Day. Coming up are events in honor ofInternational Women’s Day, the Week ofthe Young Child, May Day, the StonewallRebellion, and Hiroshima and NagasakiRemembrance Week.

The whole series takes place nearlymonthly, from October 3 until August 6.Different people step forward to facilitateeach event, dividing up such tasks as writ-ing the press release and e-mail notices,designing and distributing flyers, and han-dling the transition from the vigil to thespeak-out on the day itself.

What those of us currently involved inthe building and maintaining of the Coali-tion find exciting and important is the clearand direct connection it has to the anti-glo-

By Susan Dorazio



America has helped overthrow democrati-cally elected governments and put rightwing dictatorships in their place.

In the mid-1900s, U.S.-sponsoredcoups supporting corporate interests oc-curred all over Latin America, includingNicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Argen-tina, and Chile. Furthermore, when the peo-ple of another country try to democratical-ly change their own government, the U.S.has stepped in to fort their efforts becausethe U.S. government is trying to protecttheir own economic interests.

Currently U.S. soldiers and U.S. con-tractors operate in Colombia to support theColombian military in the country’s civilwar and to protect oil pipelines. In earlyApril 2004, rightwing paramilitary forcesattacked an indigenous Wayuu village, kill-ing and torturing children and adults, caus-ing hundreds of residents to flee theirhomes.

Torture continues to be used as a meansof oppressing people all over the world,and in our own prisons in the United States.It must be rejected and ended based on therule of law and human rights. As peopleliving in the U.S., we must demand thatour government follow its own laws, up-hold human rights, put an end to the SOAand torture around the world.

However, unless we abolish the capi-talist system that drives the systematic useof torture, it will never end. As long as cap-italism and imperialism are U.S. policies, tor-ture will be an unspoken of policy as welland torture will continue to hurt, scar, anddevastate women and girls. �

The Socialist Women’s Network(SWN) was set up to bring togeth-er women both inside and outwith

the SSP, who identify themselves as so-cialists.

We discuss issues that affect womensuch as domestic violence, childcare, wom-en’s history and globalisation.

But we’re not just a talking shop.We want to actively engage against the

injustices in our world, and campaign onvarious issues at a local and internationallevel.

In December 2003, the first SSP Wom-en’s Forum was held in Edinburgh.

This historic event was a fantastic suc-cess — 40 women from all eight regionsof Scotland attended, to debate Prostitu-tion Tolerance Zones, the women’s move-ments of the 1970s, globalisation, asylumand Dungavel detention centre, wheremany women have been incarceratedalongside their children.

We also discussed future priorities,campaigns, education and activism.

The SWN believes that InternationalWomen’s Day (8 March) should be cele-brated as part of the socialist calendar.We’d also like to see everyone — women,men and children — joining in the 16 daysof action against violence against womenin November.

The gatherings are really friendly andtake place in each other’s houses or at lo-cal community centres.

The SWN believes that women experi-ence the world in different ways from men.

We are paid less, one in four of us ex-periences domestic violence at some pointin our lives and we still bear the burden ofhousework, and childcare.

The SWN believes that this kind of in-equality is not natural — therefore it’s vi-tal that we continue to fight for what wemean by “equality.”

To achieve change, we think that it iscrucial that we work alongside men in thestruggle to end violence and poverty.

But women need, and are entitled to, asafe and comfortable space to discuss ideas

and develop our confidence.The SWN aims to provide that kind of

forum. Many of the women speaking upin our meetings are doing so for the firsttime; male-dominated meetings, especial-ly political ones, can be intimidating.

Our aims can be summarised as follows:

• To work with women locally in ourcommunities and workplaces, and tolink up with women’s groups all overthe world

• To develop women’s political confi-dence through education, workshopsand discussion

• To develop a socialist, feminist perspec-tive

• To campaign for a real representationwhich ensures that our voices are heard

• To strengthen the SSP by involvingwomen at every level

• To promote socialism locally and inter-nationally

• To record our experiences, voices andstories

Why not join the SSP women’s e-group,where you can talk to talk to other womenabout socialism, feminism — and knitting!E-mail [email protected] sign up. �

SISTER ACT IN ACTIONBy Lorrane Borwick

The following is from October 15, 2004, edition of Scottish SocialistVoice, the publication of the Scottish Socialist Party.

Scottish Socialist Party Websitehttp://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/

Tina Phillips is a student at CaliforniaState University-Hayward where she isstudying Social Justice. She is a memberof the SP-USA, YPSL and Peace andFreedom Party of Calif.


balization and anti-war efforts of womenactivists over the past five years.

Here in Western Massachusetts, and I’msure in other parts of the country as well,women have become much more open tothinking and talking about the causes ofexploitation and injustice from a system-ic, anti-capitalist point of view since theWTO demos in Seattle and the Stop theWar actions after 9/11.

By adopting a structure like the Coali-tion for Women’s Lives, women activistswill gain exposure to democratic socialistfeminist analysis in a way that accepts, yetchallenges, where they are personally andpolitically.

Also, of course, the exchange of feel-ings, ideas, and experiences with peoplenew to radical politics enriches the workof those of us who are already workingwithin the democratic socialist feministmovement.

Social Security...

Continued from page 12

Asesinato...Seguido de la página 7creencia que la creación de relaciones degénero basadas en el respeto y la igualdades un componente central de nuestro mov-imiento para construir una sociedad nuevae igualitaria.

La Creación de un espacio de refugiopara las mujeresen Ciudad Juárez, y entodas las ciudades y pueblos del mundoentero, requerirá una lucha que liga losasuntos de la clase y el género.

La construcción de una nueva sociedadimplicará un fin a la explotación de la clas-es y la derrota de lapatriarquia en todassus formas. �

I hope this encourages you to form yourown local Coalition for Women’s Lives inorder to 1) honor and build on the grass-roots efforts of the April 25 March ForWomen’s Lives; 2) acknowledge the sig-nificant role of women in the anti-global-ization and anti-war movements of the pastfive years; 3) recognize the enormous anddisproportionate impact on women — es-pecially low-income, elderly, and womenof color — of war, militarism, and the cur-rent economic/social/political crisis (jobs,housing, health care, child care, discrimi-nation); 4) explore the connections be-tween our lives, work, and struggles- lo-cally, nationally, and internationally.

Let’s come together and stand in soli-darity and sisterhood for a democratic so-cialist feminist global society. �

Eric Chester es un miembro de Local TomMooney/Western Massachusetts del Par-tido Socialista de Mass., y el autor delnuevo libro, True Mission (Pluto, 2004).Traducción por Raul Cano, un trabajadorsocial y un miembro del Partido Social-ista del Valle.

be, good benefits could be paid to every-one and less could be deducted from thepay of poorer workers. Indeed, many of ourfull-time workers now are too poor to payincome taxes on their inadequate earnings,but are still hit with high payroll taxes forSSW and Medicaid.

Why is the Bush administration so ea-ger to privatize a system that has workedwell, despite its problems? Why are Re-publicans pushing for a plan which, ac-cording to Barbara B. Kennelly, Chairwom-an of the National Committee to PreserveSocial Security and Medicare, takes “Amer-icans out of the community pool, where weshare the risk, and puts each of us into ourown pool of one to fend for ourselves.That’s fine if you’re rich.”

I suspect that many neo-cons see thisas the last of the “socialistic” New Dealthat needs to be stamped out once and forall, and others see it as a money makingopportunity.

A local fair economy group I'm active inbrought a speaker from the Economic Pol-

icy Institute, Christian Weller, to give sev-eral presentations. He said that womencould not possibly do better than their in-vestment in Social Security no matter howwell the stock market performs. We tend tolive longer than men, have lower incomesduring our working lives and less in sav-ings, and we are more likely to receive sur-vivor benefits.

Weller also refuted that argument thatmen of color are often “cheated” out ofbenefits because many of them don’t livelong past 65. The fact that many more ofthem collect disability insurance duringtheir working lives and the survivors ben-efits their families receive more than com-pensate for this disparity.

About 30 percent of SS disbursementsare disability and survivor benefits whichcould be difficult to finance if private indi-vidual accounts are allowed and the gov-ernment could go $1 to $2 billion more indebt to finance the transition, according toWeller.

When Social Security was instituted in1935, it had been part of our party’s plat-form, along with most of the rest of theNew Deal initiatives, since the turn of thecentury. The passionate campaign speech-

Coalition...

es that Eugene V. Debs and Norman Tho-mas had made at election time broughtthese ideas into public consciousness andmade them acceptable.

Lets all get involved in protecting thisbit of economic democracy that still existsin the U.S. and become an example for therest of the world. Norman Thomas used tosay that the Democrats were always steal-ing our ideas. Let's give them something tosteal! But let's retain our identity as SP-USA members.

As socialists, we need to expose thescare tactics being used by the would-beprivatizers. We need to make our voicesheard and to do all we can not only to pre-vent privatization of this essential programbut to demand changes that will guaranteeelder citizens the income — the true “so-cial security” — they deserve. �

Continued from page 10

Susan Dorazio is a child care worker andactivist, the convener of the Women'sCommission of the Socialist Party USA,and a member of the Tom Mooney/Western Massachusetts Local of theSocialist Party of Mass.

Mary Alice Herbert (Mal), a retired ele-mentary school teacher, lives in Putney,Vt. She is on the executive committee ofthe Peace & Justice Caucus of the Na-tional Education Association, a memberof the SP-USA and the Liberty UnionParty of Vermont, and was the SP’s can-didate for vice president in 2004.


SOCIALIST PARTY USA NATIONAL DIRECTORYCALIFORNIA

� Socialist Party of CaliforniaState Executive Committee2617 S. Houser BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90016

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� Socialist Party of So. Calif.2617 S. Houser BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90016

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State Executive Committeec/o 2625 Pine St.Boulder, CO 80302

� Denver Socialist PartyP.O. Box 181025Denver, CO 80218

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State Executive Committeec/o 1706 B Lake AvePanama City, FL 32401

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ILLINOIS� Illinois Socialist Party

State Executive Committeec/o PO Box 578398Chicago, IL 60657-8398

� Chicago Socialist PartyPO Box 578398Chicago, IL 60657-8398

IOWA� Iowa Socialist Party

State Executive CommitteeP.O. Box 924Iowa City, IA 52244

MASSACHUSETTS� Socialist Party of Massachusetts

State Executive Committeec/o 43 Taylor Hill Rd.Montague, MA 01351

� Greater Boston Socialist PartyP.O. Box 541468Waltham, MA 02454

� Tom Mooney Localc/o 43 Taylor Hill Rd.Montague, MA 01351

MICHIGAN� Socialist Party of Michigan

State Executive CommitteeP.O. Box 3285Kalamazoo, MI 49003-3285www.mi-socialists.org

� Kalamazoo Socialist Partyc/o P.O. Box 3285Kalamazoo, MI 49003-3285

� Detroit Socialist PartyP.O. Box 19221Detroit, MI [email protected]

NEW JERSEY� Socialist Party of New Jersey

State Executive CommitteeP.O. Box 8622Saddle Brook, NJ 07663www.njsocialistparty.org

� North Jersey Socialist Partyc/o P.O. Box 86Rochelle Park, NJ 07662

� South Jersey Socialist PartyP.O. Box 543Newfield, NJ 08344

NEW YORK� Greater NYC Socialist Party

c/o 339 Lafayette St., No. 303New York, NY 10012www.newyorksocialists.org

� Central N.Y. Socialist PartyP.O. Box 35113University StationSyracuse, NY 13235

NORTH CAROLINA� Socialist Party of N. Carolina

State Executive CommitteeP.O. Box 37533Raleigh, NC 27627www.ncsocialist.org

� Salvador Allende LocalP.O. Box 37533Raleigh, NC 27627

� Art Young LocalP.O. Box 217Richlands, NC 28574

OHIO� Socialist Party of Ohio

State Executive Committeec/o P.O. Box 204Yellow Springs, OH 45387

� Northwest Ohio Socialist Partyc/o Geoff Braasch, Secretary3222 Middlesex Drive, Apt. DToledo, OH 43606

OREGON� Socialist Party of Oregon

State Executive CommitteeP.O. Box 5633Portland, OR 97228

� Clackamas Co. Socialist Partyc/o 16 SW Monticello Dr.Lake Oswego, OR 97035

� Helen Keller Memorial Localc/o 3375 NW Fifth Ave.Ontario, OR 97035

� Lane County Localc/o 1555 W. 18th Ave. #6Eugene, OR 97402

� Multnomah County Localc/o 6035 N. Greeley Ave.Portland, OR 97217

PENNSYLVANIA� Socialist Party of Pennsylvania

State Executive Committeec/o 102 Rachel LaneCoatesville, PA 19320www.sp-usa.org/sppa/

� Berks County Socialist Partyc/o 273 S. Fourth St.Hamburg, PA 19526

� Philadelphia Socialist Partyc/o 2211 Bainbridge StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19146-1130

� Johnstown Socialist Partyc/o 331 Threatre Dr., Apt. 1-B4Johnstown, PA 19526

� South West Socialist Partyc/o 4618 Carroll St.Pittsburgh, PA 15224

TEXAS� Socialist Party of Texas

State Executive CommitteeP.O. Box 2640Austin, TX 78768

� Socialist Party of Rio GrandeValley / Partido Socialistadel VallePMB 117East Ruben Torres Sr., Suite A16Brownsville, TX 78526

VERMONT� Brattleboro Socialist Party

c/o 71 Westminster Rd.Putney, VT 05346

VIRGINIA� Social-Democratic Party of Va.

State Executive Committeec/o 251 Finchingfield Ct.Sterling, VA 20165

WISCONSIN� Socialist Party of Wisconsin

State Executive Committee1001 East KeefeMilwaukee, WI 53212

� Socialist Party of Milwaukeec/o 1011 East KeefeMilwaukee, WI 53212

� Socialist Party of So. Ctl. Wisc.c/o 3206 Gregory St.Madison, WI 53711

NATIONAL OFFICESocialist Party USA339 Lafayette St., No. 303New York, NY 10012(212) 982-4586 • [email protected]

Arts & Culture Commission — Chair: Angel Martinez •www.sp-usa.org/artscommission/Democracy Commission — P.O. Box 541468, Waltham,MA 02454 • Chair: Matt Andrews • [email protected] •www.sp-usa.org/democracy/Faith & Socialism Commission — 477 Jean Street, No.C, Oakland, CA 94610 • Chair: Antonio Salas • [email protected] Commission — Chair: Mark Alper •[email protected] Commission — P.O. Box 8622, Saddle Brook, NJ07663 • Chair: Viji Sargis • [email protected] • www.sp-usa.org/labor/

Native American Commission — 2000 Sandy Lane,Pocatello, ID 83204 • Chair: Hunter Gray • www.hunterbear.org/native_american_commission_page.htmPeople of Color Commission — 1008 El Campo Drive,San Juan, TX 78589 • Chair: Erik Toren • www.sp-usa.org/poc/poc.htmlQueer Commission — 4618 Carroll St., Pittsburgh, PA15224 • Chair: Steve Donahue • [email protected] • www.sp-usa.org/queer/queercom.htmlWomen’s Commission — 43 Taylor Hill Road, Montague,MA 01351 • Chair: Susan Dorazio • [email protected] People’s Socialist League — P.O. Box 204,Yellow Springs, OH 45387 • www.ypsl.org


The Socialist Magazine339 LAFAYETTE ST., NO. 303NEW YORK, NEW YORK10012

The Socialist Party strives to establish a radical de-mocracy that places people’s lives under their own con-trol: where working people own and control the means ofproduction through democratically elected bodies; wherefull employment is realized for everyone who wants to work;where workers have the right to form unions freely, and tostrike and engage in other forms of job actions; and wherethe production of society is used for the benefit of all hu-manity, not for the private profit of a few. We believe social-ism and democracy are one and indivisible.

The Socialist Party fights for socially progressivechanges compatible with a socialist future. We supportunion and electoral actions independent of the capitalist-controlled two-party system to present socialist alterna-tives. We strive for democratic revolutions — radical andfundamental changes in the structure and basis of eco-nomic, political, cultural, social and personal relations —to dissolve the power now exercised by the few who controlgreat wealth and the state.

The Socialist Party is a democratic, multitendencyorganization, with its structure and practices visible andaccessible to all members.

Socialist Party USAStatement of Principles

Name: ______________________________________

Address: ____________________________________

______________________________________________

City: _________________ State: ____ Zip: ________

Phone/E-Mail:_______________________________

I, the undersigned, desiring to bring about by democraticmeans a new society based upon democratic socialism,hereby apply for membership in the Socialist Party USA, andsubscribe to its principles.

Annual Dues❏ Full-Time Students — $15❏ Under $20,000/year — $25❏ $20,000-$35,000/year — $60❏ $35,000-$50,000/year — $125❏ Over $50,000/year — $250

Waiver for poverty or hardship

JOIN THE SOCIALIST PARTY!

Documents

The Socialist - IWD 2005socialistparty-usa.org/socialist/ts200503.pdf · 2005-01-24 · INAMUJER organizes educational campaigns on sexual and reproductive rights and prevention of