Two New England Women's Papers by mc5 8/11/92 Maoist Internationalist Movement PO Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 The Third Wave: A Voice for Rhode Island Feminist Women c/o Feminist Resources Unlimited Box 3090 Wayland Sq. Station, RI 02906 $10 for 12 issues payable to Feminist Resources Unlimited She: For the Mindful Woman Vol. 1, no. 9, July 14, 1992 fax: (617) 426-8264 $55 for 6 months weekly This is an interesting contrast of two papers for women in the New England area. *She* features an interview with cartoonist Sylvia Edwards and a full-page ad of a model in her underwear on the back cover. In contrast, the Third Wave has the word feminist right in the masthead. As one would expect, *Third Wave* is the more challenging paper. *She* is for women, but it does not claim to be feminist. From our perspective this is honest because *She* is really a paper for women focussing on femininity. It is entirely and unabashedly for adjustment to society rather than radical change. Articles about Sylvia Edwards, theater, taking music lessons, photography (in a section called For Art's Sake), starting exercise, cats, recipes and investments all provide a way for women to avoid issues of power and heirarchy. In these articles, we come to understand the theme of "mindful." The paper is basically a call on women to develop those aspects of life having to do with internal or emotional development. "Art for its own sake" should really be relabelled "art for its own escape" in this paper. Rounding out the paper is a favorable review of Gloria Steinem's new book exalting self-esteem and an article by a Harvard psychology professor dividing the world into "logical" and "linear" people on the one hand and "mindful" people on the other hand. The paper is really miraculously consistently petty-bourgeois, white and feminine--with not one bit of challenge to the patriarchy. No wonder it sells so many ads and comes out weekly. The Third Wave on the other hand proclaims itself a paper published by "a networking system and clearinghouse for feminist organizations and individuals throughout Rhode Island. . . . FRU members embrace a philosophy which includes, among other things, the following five critical issues: reproductive freedom, lesbian and gay civil rights, ending all forms of violence against women, passage of an all inclusive ERA, and true diversity in the feminist women's movement." (p. 2) With one exception, the articles about art, music and other escapes all have an aspect addressing the role of women in society. For example, an article about Campfest and the National Women's Music Festival points out that at these events, women or even just lesbians see that they are capable of organizing every aspect of their own lives. Another article by the Third Wave mourns how mainstream the "women's candidates" are this year--the ones making all the New York Times headlines. "It probably will be the year for the onomatopoetic 'women's candidates.' 'Chained lightening.' 'Permanent wave.' A few women will succeed in pinching the seats of a few men, riding in on what passes for radical change on a technicality. Trim, flat, bright, and juiceless, twisted all out of all natural shape for public consumption. 'Dried apricots'; the less delectable, the more electable." (p. 3) On the negative side, the paper celebrates "diversity" instead of opposing national oppression. It provides an ad for a "pow- wow," but does nothing in relation to the particular oppression of national minority or Third World women. Of course, the program of FRU does not really claim to be accomplishing such. >From MIM's perspective, the Third Wave's greatest weakness is its lack of an anti-imperialist perspective, a sense of who friends of women's equality are and what works to create change and what doesn't. For this reason, Third Wave is not able to effectively contribute to women's liberation despite its goals. An example of where a lack of "strategic confidence" in the Third World proletariat as the vehicle of revolutionary change will end up is the lead article. Titled, "Phonesmart: How a Telephone Can Kill You," this article is by the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence. As we have shown in our MIM Theory magazine (2&3), the Amerikan movement against violence against women has failed miserably and would benefit from a good look around the world for better strategies--namely a revolutionary strategy in the tradition of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Readers should get the magazine for the detailed evidence for this point. In any case, the lead story features a violent graphic and a telephone. So here it is once again that supposed women's liberation fighters portray women as hopelessly weak, so weak they can be killed by a telephone. The telephone technology in question in front of the Rhode Island state legislature allows consumers to know the phone number of number of people who call and automatically dial back people who called you. According to Third Wave, this technology is a grave threat to battered women because after all batterers "thrive on control" (p. 1). It boils down to saying that wives should have privacy in the phone-calls they make and that husbands should have no way of knowing who the wife calls or is called by. "Privacy has long been an esteemed American value." (p. 1) In not so many words, Third Wave believes women should have the "right" to deceive their husbands as the solution to battering against women. The Third Wave does not ask what it means that women are in relations where deception is the supposed necessity to begin with. Nor does it ask how men might also use privacy to deceive women. In contrast, MIM believes that Amerikan women should take a hard look at what they are really saying about relations between men and women--patriarchy--even if and especially if Third Wave is correct that deception through using the telephone is a central part of women's lives. We at MIM believe none of these elaborate reformist ruses will ever eradicate the problem: only power-struggle to abolish inequality between men and women will. Ironically, while expressing the classic American value that MIM has argued against in connection to the abortion struggle as well (See MIM Theory #2&3), Third Wave concludes the article attacking the material basis for those privacy values! Third Wave says that in the end the telephone companies "will profit" from Phonesmart technologies. How contradictory! On the one hand Third Wave criticizes privacy and then on the other hand Third Wave criticizes the institution of private property in an "un-American" way. We at MIM believe the rednecks will see through the flag-waving behind "privacy." It's time to put women's liberation on an unabashedly anti- Amerikan footing--the most secure one there is. Hence, Third Wave's strategy is mistaken on two levels. First, women's liberation does not succeed from championing privacy "rights." Women's liberation needs to be about power struggles of groups, not individual privacy, or so MIM gathers from feminist movements more successful in world history. Secondly, the result is, as often is the case in incorrectly organized anti-rape and anti-battering work--an instillation of a new kind of femininity. Women are being told once again to fear technology instead of conquering it. They are told that Phonesmart will automatically benefit the batterer and not be used by the oppressed. In fact, in the end, a mere telephone can kill a woman. This is an image of women as hopelessly helpless and feminine- -something right out of the movies--"The Perils of Pauline" or Polly in the "Underdog" cartoons. For a counterexample of how to organize women, MIM recommends the Sendero Luminoso. Sendero women engage in armed struggle, co-edit the newspaper and lead prison struggles. Although the Peruvian women must also fight famine, the PCP never depicts women as helpless. _____________________________________________________________ If you had been reading MIM Notes, the newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, you would know all this already. Subscriptions: Send $12 for 12 issues of MIM Notes MIM Distributors PO Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 Make checks out to "ABS" or send cash.