CWLU Herstory Blog

Jo Freeman is a feminist scholar and longtime Democratic Party activist. In this essay reposted from her website at JoFreeman.com, she reflects on the the recent and often acrimonious Democratic Primary.

As we emerge from the miasma of the primaries, let us not forget that this has been an historic Presidential selection season and it will be an historic election.

The voters in the Democratic primaries and caucuses chose as their favorites two extraordinary candidates – Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- who are both extra-ordinary individuals in many, many ways.

They chose them out of a field of exemplary candidates for the Democratic nomination for President, who in other years would have had been excellent choices in their own right.

It's no secret that feminists are on both sides of the fence in the Democratic primary.

Despite the media stereotype of a vast leftwing feminist conspiracy made up of goose-stepping fembots, the actual women's equality movement is very diverse. Being the independent-minded people that we are, feminists tend to resist being forced to toe a party line.

However the rivalry between Obama feminists and Clinton feminists has challenged that idea. Some of our earnest sisters-in-struggle are demanding not simply that we vote for their favorite candidate, but that we pass their loyalty test. The penalty is the explusion from the their sisterhood.

Now why does this remind me of junior high? Or even kindergarten for that matter?

The feminist blogosphere has been filled with postings about this split. Some attribute it to race. Some say it's generational. Some even say (perish the thought) that there are very real issues that need to be discussed with passion and intellect, rather than vitrol and group-think.

Whatever happens during this election cycle, something tells me the issues that divide us are not going away anytime soon. Below are some links to articles I think are useful in this debate. Feel free to comment and add your favorites.

• Goodbye to All That (#2) by Robin Morgan
• Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave. by Alice Walker
• Women are Never Front-Runners by Gloria Steinem
• Yo Mamma by Linda Hirshman
• Thinking Outside of the Ballot Box by Aurora Levins Morales
• Obama and race: our country is so confused by Pam Spaulding
• Careful, Obama. Humorless Feminists Are Watching by Debra Dickerson
• The Obama Feminists: Why Young Women Are Supporting Obama by Ariel Garfinkel
• A Vote of Allegiance?: In the Obama-Clinton Battle, Race & Gender Pose Two Great Divides for Black Women by DeNeen L. Brown
• Feminists for Clinton by Ellen Carol DuBois, Christine Stansell and others.
• Hillary Clinton: I really wish she was on our side by Bob Simpson
• Why I'm Endorsing Barack Obama by Kate Michaelman
• No Crystal Ball-- Still, We Wonder by Erica C. Barnett
• Hillary's Scarlett O'Hara Act by Melissa Harris-Lacewell

We received these passover reflections from poet, writer and historian Aurora Levins Morales. We asked her to share them with you. Aurora and her mom Rosario were both members of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.

Dear Friends: Like other Jews around the world, I am preparing for Passover, our annual feast in celebration of freedom. I've been cleaning house, chopping nuts and fruit, and if I were not allergic to wheat anyway, I'd be getting rid of my bread. But in the midst of this work that I love, I can't get my mind off all the people who are taking to the streets this month, in country after country, to demand changes in the food policies that are starving them. The prices of wheat, rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples have skyrocketed in the last three years and hundreds of millions of people can't afford to eat them. Although the Haitian people's protests brought down their government, people are still eating patties made of salted mud.

From the Chicago Abortion Fund's First TV Appearance

The Chicago Abortion Fund(CAF) is made up of a diverse group of women who firmly believe that affordable abortions are part and parcel of the fight for reproductive justice. Not content with simply raising money to financially assist women to obtain abortions, CAF has been doing some serious outreach efforts into the communities of Chicagoland.

Now CAF is on cable. To view them on your TV set, you can tune into My Voice, My Choice, as the CAF's leadership group host their own TV talk show/hotline on CAN TV's Channel 21. look for them on the last Wednesday of every month at 8pm.

If you miss them on cable, you can see the broadcasts on YouTube. The main CAF website is at www.chicagoabortionfund.com and they also have a MySpace page where you can friend them and add your supportive comment.

Because the need for their financial assistance far exceeds their available funds, please consider giving them a generous donation.

Feministing.com is a bold brash feminist blog site where many women and some men start their day by reading the articles and opinion pieces and then posting their comments.

The youngish organizers of Feministing represent a generation of women who are fighting the complex 21st century battle for gender equality. They are web-savvy, very smart and refreshingly outspoken.

Now they are trying to create network of likeminded groups through an online initiative called the Feministing Alliance.

According to Feministing.com:

Feministing has partnered with Meetup to form a Meetup Alliance - a tool that will help feminists all over the country meet and organize in person. Here's the cool part: it's all up to you, dear readers, to get this shit moving!

If you want to start up a feminist group in your area, or if you want to promote your existing local feminist group, this is your chance! Our new Feministing Meetup Alliance will act as a kind of umbrella for organizers of local feminist Meetups - connecting feminists who want to meet, talk and even organize.