Resources on Anarchist Feminism

The following WMST-L discussion from April 2006 describes resources for learning
about Anarchist Feminism.  For additional WMST-L files now available on the Web,
see the WMST-L File Collection.

Hi all,

A student of ours has a passionate interest in anarchist feminism, and 
access to an archive of 'zines.  She and I are in the process of 
designing an independent study for the fall with the aim of giving her 
(and me) broad historical and theoretical exposure to anarchist feminism 
as a framework for analyzing the 'zines.  We've started a list of 
obvious foremothers--Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, Voltairine de 
Cleyre--and she has found some recent texts (I don't have the titles 
from her yet).  But I'd like to tap into the collective savvy of this 
list for other ideas.  Specifically (but not exclusively):  
mid-20th-century anarcho-feminist writings?  Historical overviews?  
Essay collections?  New scholarship?

Thanks!
Janet Gray
gray  AT  tcnj.edu

You may already know about this, but there's a website called Anarchy  
Archives.  It bills itself as an on-line research center on the  
history & theory of anarchism.

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/index.html


Joan

******************************************************
Joan Sitomer, J.D.
Ph.D. Candidate
Political Science Department
Women's Studies Program
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI   48109
jsitomer  AT  umich.edu

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,  
signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are  
not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

There might be some material in the "HERSTORY" microfilm collection that
could be classified as zines.

"HERSTORY" was produced by the Women's History Library at Berkeley, with
the Micro Photo Division of Bell and Howell Company.

Here's the description provided in its index:

"The International Women's History Periodical Archive includes women's
liberation, and women's civic, religious, professional and peace
journals, newspapers and newsletters from all over the world."

HERSTORY 1 covers from 1956- Sept. 1971
HERSTORY Supplement Sets I & II cover Oct. 1971- June 1974

Some of the materials preserved in the HERSTORY collection were produced
on manual typewriters, using carbon copies and mimeograph machines --
literal kitchen table presses staffed by activists.

Ask your academic library's reference department if they have the
HERSTORY microfilm set, if it doesn't appear in the library's online
catalog with a TITLE search.

The WorldCat database would identify libraries by state that own this
microfilm set, if your own campus library doesn't.

http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/top3mset/05342a94f934c79d.html


Betty
_____________________________________

Betty J. Glass
Resource Analysis & Support Librarian
Getchell Library/322
University of Nevada, Reno
1664 N. Virginia St.
Reno, NV 89557-0044

glass  AT  unr.edu

Black Rose was an anarchist-feminist collective that published a zine I 
think.  They existed in the 70s.  Try to locate their stuff.  Plus a number 
of the groups active around the WTO demonstrations were anarchists.

marge piercy

I recommend Ursula K. LeGuin's novel *The Dispossessed*, which is
about a society founded on anarchist principles. She has written an
essay about it in which she said she was influenced by Emma Goldman,
Paul Goodman, and Peter Kropotkin (Russian social theorist who is
known for the concept of "mutual aid" and who also influenced
Charlotte Perkins Gilman).

Charlene

M. Charlene Ball, Ph.D., Academic Professional
Women's Studies Institute
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3969
Atlanta, GA  30302-3969
Atlanta, GA   30303-3083
mcharleneball  AT  gsu.edu
http://www.gsu.edu/womensstudies

In the 1970s there were many underground presses (read:
mimeographed/ditto'd sheaves of paper) I would direct  your student to any
of the wonderful archives of women's history--at Smith, at Duke, at
Radcliffe, the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, etc.  Some sources
are on-line, some necessitate a road trip.  I would also suggest that you
and your student identify some of the writers, and interview some...they
may have a treasure trove of resources in their attics, that have not yet
been donated to a, archive...ciao, JAM

   A lot depends on, I think, one's definition of "anarcho-feminism." 
Goldman and de Cleyre represent historical anarcho-feminism, and theirs was 
a very interesting, still-informative, and relatively lonely path.  Then 
there is the anarchism of the second and third waves of the American 
feminist movement--that includes both radical 'zines, Cell 16 (publisher of 
"No More Fun and Games).  See, eg.,: 
http://www.greenlion.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.100.exe/nmfg.html?E+scstore

   However, from what I have been told by eyewitnesses, one wonders who in 
the Women's Liberation movement after and before 1968 were not "anarchist." 
What about the "SCUM Manifesto" of Valerie Solanas?  What about "Mother 
Right" by Jane Alpert?  http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/mother/  I think 
that the first question to ask is "what is anarchism?"-- and what isn't? 
The second is what historical period, and can one effectively connect 
movements and actions separated by three and four generations?

Property is Theft,
Hannah Miyamoto
hsmiyamoto  AT  msn.com

Hi, folks--

You can try out An Introduction to Anarchist Feminism by 
Jeanine Pfahlert. AK Press has a wide variety of anachist 
feminist books/ zines, as well, I think. The site is: 
http://www.akpress.org. Pink Bloque, www.pinkbloque.org, 
too, 
does anarchist feminist work, as does Green Anarchy. Noel 
Sturgeon's work on ecofeminist, especially Ecofeminist 
Natures, references a number of anarchist feminist theory 
and activism, too.

All best,
Amy Washburn
washburn  AT  umd.edu

Amy L. Washburn
Department of Women's Studies
University of Maryland
2101 Woods Hall
College Park, MD 20742