Women speak out against fascism (Episode 3 of 12, Part 2); United front against fascism conference

Continuing on in the order. I wish to introduce you to sister. Mary Sue. On the question of male supremacy and male chauvinism. As an Asian woman I can speak well in law. I can speak well longer than Hugo it is women who have died combating racism and imperialism. I could speak to women. Like I would to goor you Duckie know who spent 16 years in an American race's prison for a crime for which. She had no. Part in it. I could speak of. A sister who died in the 1950's struggles in Tokyo died in the struggle against the re ratification of the United States Japan security pack.

And I could speak well in law of the heroic struggles of our courageous Vietnamese sisters. Close example. I hope. All women. Can well follow and learn from. But I will not. What I came here to speak of today is a story that many of you may not know may have forgotten and. May not remember. The story begins in 1942. Many of the elements of the story are duplicated here today and in the year 1969. The dates 1940 to. 1950 1969 taking together as a sum total equated American fascism. To today.

Yet in case many of you have not caught on to what I'm referring to. I'm speaking of the incarceration of. More than one hundred and ten thousand. People human beings for the crime. I am. Having yellow faces. Of having Asian names in World War 2. The story goes like this. There was no laws there was no 1950 McCarran Internal Security Act at that time. To put my people are people. Into the. What was then euphemistically termed relocation camps. There were 10 of those camps. I will not call the relocation camps. I will not call them detention camps. I will call them the concentration camps. That they were. And are and still exist today. I come from a generation. Of children born in

concentration camps. Many of these places you will find no longer exist on the map. They were born in in places with names like Manson are a topaz grower. And on and on. In 1942 a presidential mandate issued by President Roosevelt empowered the racist military under the leadership of General de Witt to incarcerate one hundred and ten thousand people more than two thirds of whom were American citizens. Many of these people remained in these concentration camps for the duration of the war. All of them received between 24 and 48 hour notice to report to the nearest military authority to report their belongings to dispose of their beloved possessions.

Within the span of 24 and 48 hours. How generous. How magnanimous our government was. How magnanimous our government will be when it calls on us to report but when it calls on us we will not be sitting in our homes talking. We will be repaired to act. Are you prepared to move. The lesson that. I hope we can learn from 1942. Is not to wait not to wait until. We have positive. Irrevocable proof. Of the racism. END. And the all encompassing determination of our monopolistic capitalistic system to suppress all movements all peoples who will work for social change who work for

liberation who will work for division of fascism and imperialism. Thank you thank you. Card to the people. To the people. People that only work at the staff. They have experience they live it. Certain. Christian educational fun I'd like to introduce to you to stick your old timers will be women and some of her experiences. Thank you. Good evening brothers and sisters in struggle. Because of the economic and legal powerlessness the women they have little or no

control over their lives. They have little or no control over their children or what happens to them. Their sons their brothers and their husbands are disposed of by the ruling classes. Either as cannon fodder in war. In which these same people are asked to make total commitments and give their lives. While the fascist capitalists. Reap profits or they see their sons their husbands as workers an industrial machine which is not for the welfare of the workers but for the profit again. Of the fascist capitalists. Mostly what I want to talk about is some of the experiences that I had. When. We women in Gainesville Florida came together around certain issues. First of all in the summer of 1967. The

welfare mothers the mothers on welfare. Many of them organized into a Welfare Rights Union. They went to the welfare department and demanded the necessities of life. They were only getting 66 percent of what was supposed to be basic needs. That was their response. We went back two weeks later after having presented our needs. And again the pigs came. The women then took their requests to the county commission in Gainesville. And the reaction to that was. To have the police come out and pick me up as an agitator and warn me that that these women if they continue to go to the county commission and agitate in the way they were doing. For the necessities of life for their children.

Were going to start a riot. I dont think we quite realized our power at that time. We happened to have a we have to do in a few concessions like you know of a food stamp plan or a distribution program. But the power still remained with the pigs. Later well for several years I have heard women who come to me out of the city jail and said they were being sexually molested by jailers in there. I took this information on their behalf. Very naively to the police department thinking they were going to do something about it. I then took it to again very naively to a Human Relations Commission and they expressed the proper horror and it was all covered up. None of the women brought me these stories were willing. To verify.

Any of this in writing for fear of reprisals. By people in the power structure. Whom the pigs represented. In one thousand sixty seven we had some beautiful sisters come out of that jail med hell. They were getting tuned into who they were both racially and as women and the power that they could command. We got up an affidavit. Which a brother Jack then read to the city commission after the women had organized and gotten their sisters to the city commission and many of the brothers also. Read the affidavit and the immediate reaction was to cite him for contempt before the city commission. Failing this they call for a grand jury investigation of practices into the city jail where there were no matrons and where women died.

Several of the men almost died having miscarriages. When I feel like walking up and attending to them. Well. We got the people there. The grand jury investigation was called whore. The women came to the grand jury investigation and they tried to testify. Instead of allowing the truth to come out their relationships with various organizers in the community was pried into. Dawkins and I had written a paper. Analyzing. What we expected to happen. In other words nothing. No action was going to be a big white wash. Well sure you with pigs were. The state's attorney Xeroxed a copy of the paper in took it into the court room and said that we had taken it

in and he arrested us for contempt of court. We spent four months four months and six months well. You know in jail the conviction has been recently overturned. But while we were in jail. We did a bit of organizing. The men organized the men cellblocks the women organizing women so far. Thank you. Yes. And we found we had such tremendous strength in the motto One for All and all for one. And every confrontation we had. That's the way we carried it out. We got to leave little things like you know maybe heat when it was freezing. We got a change and die at a little less starch. We had to practically make a riot in the jail to get sick prisoners to the hospital which we did.

The very thread of our organizing. Made the jailers here to the last of the juveniles were to be kept separately from adults. But again also before this was over. Prisoners with problems were sending them to the women's cell blocks. And. We sort of changed the policy about how trustees were made in this kind of thing. And before it was over. There was a big riot in jail and nobody knew why. It seemed that we were not allowed to really solve anything ourselves. It was all doled out to us. Piecemeal tokenism and we got out of jail. All of us had undergone this experience realized that this was the same way it was on the outside. In fact it didn't really make any difference whether you were in jail or out the bars were the same.

All right. We were out of jail and the women stuck together. During the time we were in jail. A number of fire bombs got thrown in protest. They tried to blame it on black people. The people who were for so long suffered the indignities in the oppression and the exploitation by the white power structure. The only thing they could think to do was to arrest the people who were most militantly protesting the situation in Gainesville the time which they did. The women organized. And harassed the hell out of the pigs. They had student help. A number of fire alarms got pulled. A number of phone calls were me in which the pigs just you know. Well they could use their phones anymore. As the lines got. Tied up.

The analysis was that. Since one of the students had gone to Cuba that he had brought back Cuban sabotage techniques and were applying them against. Things to a power structure. And they predicted they were going to have a long hot summer that summer. And they did. You know it's funny how they always know they're going to have one. They plan it. The subject of my talk was supposed to be how to control the police in the community. I don't think you can control who is part of a larger question. As to how the power is going to be distributed. I we're going to let the pigs in the Pentagon. Send our men to Vietnam. Are we going to organize. And educate our sisters. And engage in political struggles.

And resist or are we going to let stand by helplessly and cooperate. In the repressive powers. That are in the communities in our lives. No we can't gain control. In the present framework. We can only organize to resist the authority of the police in the courts. The courts which are the ball work. For the fascist. Exploiters. For too long the victims of exploitation repression and racism have been asked to pay the price to maintain a system which rewards and promotes the real criminals in society to positions of great wealth and power. Again. Organize organize and resist. Power to the people. I am. Thank you very limited time.

Not because of chauvinism but because of fascism. They want to put the lights out on time we unwrap the. Banana and we come out and live it. This time without further ado I'd like to introduce to you from Welfare Rights Association here in Oakland. Sister Evelyn. Sam Harris. Thank you. Greetings brothers and sisters. I'm here on behalf of you my brothers and sisters. I'm here to speak to you. And behalf of the poor people. Which is welfare recipient. I want to talk to you about some of the experiments. As well as

education path. I am the chairman of the Welfare Rights Organization. And I will purpose. To help the recipient to gang they pry. And be as independent as anyone else. I have had the experiences working with the head of the wealthy other karma. We have private attorneys. Legally. The district attorney. The probation officers. And etc.. You'd be surprise. I have little. Knowledge that they no. Special the board of supervisor. And the welfare commissioners. These are peoples that sit and make a budget. For individual to live

on. France and I would take is the budget full for a family of four. Everyone talk about they tax payers. The tax they money coming out of the chair. You'd be surprised what little money. That a family receives to live on. And the DA is 6 faces there. The prize the real mother. Of her personal. Problems. To expose her to make ashamed. But I want to let you know. If any of you in here. That have problems that is on welfare. There is no shame. You have a right to that money as well as the head of the department. Other social workers.

First though we're axin that we have qualified social worker which can be replaced by. Recipients. Everyone. Everyone that is on welfare is not ignored. They have the knowledge. To my computer budget. They have the knowledge to interview. People. And this is why we are trying to get over that. We welfare recipients sit on the board of supervisors. Can't compute the budget. The welfare recipients sit on the commissioners. And help make the law. The welfare recipient can thank you. No but these some lie. And be just as proud as the next working man. Also I would like to speak briefly. That. The problem that I

can go on and go on but the time is limited. That we have an problem with the school where. The children in the school is branded. Because they are on welfare. The meal tickets that they receive. You'd be surprised at the food that they eat. A minute the children don't eat the food because it's not written. This is why there I will fight until I drop because no one else in China has any body and that welfare building. And I can do just as much original body else can do concerning the budget. Can no one ever on a mother of four can live on a budget of two twenty one. There's PJ need to come out of there in your utility bed mother and one of those children are not being taken care of. This is the problem that we are faced with. And when they buy food or clothing they pays tax on it because they are a welfare

recipient they don't get nothing for free. So they are a tax payer just like you I or anybody of their words. They are taxpayers. Thank you. I. Played one gentleman. This isn't brothers while I can still read the light fell on our last speaker is none other than Jim or Lane Dixon. Doctor of sociology UCLA. Yeah. We're short on time. Yeah and I want you go trip. It's true that I have a gift for being stubborn. University of Chicago had occasion to discover. Which is not unrelated to a talent for and proud of her popularity either.

And I can't make the little talk that's going to give tonight that saying something about what happened tonight. And I think that it's important for people to understand that white women learned to be better and to be skeptical. And they have learned that from white radical male dominated organizations. So tonight I know. That. The majority of women moved not as provocateurs and not in bad faith but they moved as militant women. And if you're not a militant woman you don't belong in the revolution. But. They acted out. Of their long experience with bad faith of white men. Yet and this is important. Yes they acted wrongly with regard to the Black Panther Party. Then let us forgive and understand one another so that we may have a trusting comradeship. In a common struggle.

Can I have a. Format. OK I'll try. I'll try for minutes. I want to. Talk about the. Rise of the Women's Liberation Movement and we'll see if we can beat the lights. The radical women's liberation movement was created by an international revolutionary movement in this part of it. It was created by the myth of freedom which was destroyed by the reality of oppression from the beginning that women fought beside the man in the struggle. She gave strongly and courageously to the cause of everyone's freedom. But very often in the past it was for everyone else's freedom and never her own. Yet we all know that missionaries make untrustworthy revolutionaries. So it was of the greatest significance that women and most particularly white

women began to wake up began to see that they were oppressed. We we are oppressed the women cried full of early rage at this astounding discovery. We are not free. We are exploited we are used and told to be happy and are enslaved. You know our inferiority our so-called biological inferiority which has to some of our years a very familiar ring. And over all of us stands the white man. Racism so long blinded women so long hid from the white woman the truth of her oppression. The white man hid from the white woman. Her great strength her kinship sisterhood with all others like her with all the oppressed peoples of the world. The white man taught his women to be passive to be sexy to be stupid to be lonely to be reactionary to be the bastion of racial racism and fascism. In fact what Marx called a whore.

Stood in the place of a living vibrant and precious human being full of rage and love strength fanned tenderness humanity will not be denied in revolutionary times and these are revolutionary times. The humanity and dignity dignity the freedom of women cannot be denied and will not be denied for women no longer ask. Now women are ready to struggle for their freedom. One half. The pack of women will move and must move then from there back of the missionary to the revolutionary. Women must be made to disbelieve in their own inferiority and the acceptance of them. If they are ever to be set free and if in their just rage they are to become the new army the new soldiers in the common struggle to destroy what is

a corrupt. And evil society and to construct what will be a just and free society. That is they will be soldiers in their own right and against their own oppression. In this way we may construct the steel bands of revolutionary Conrad ship in this way engage the battle. For people fight back when they fight for their own. Freedom to gather as equal comrades recognizing the solidarity of all oppressed people. We shall withstand repression. We shall endure and we shall win. Each seeming failure only ensures the strengthening of our people and the broadening of the struggle. Hardly an oppressed group today including women is one without the dream of freedom or without the determination to struggle for it. As a very great woman assassinated by the German government as a dangerous revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg.

Once said. The history of Revolutionary Struggle is a history of failure. But you only need to win once. And we shall. All Thank you.