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THE JEANETTE RANKIN BRIGADE: WOMAN POWER?
by Shulamith Firestone
(Editors Note: In January of 1968 with the SE Asia War raging, the
Jeanette Rankin Brigade came to Washington to pressure Congress to end
the conflict. The Brigade was named for Jeanette Rankin, the first woman
to be elected to Congress. Rankin voted against US entrance into both
WWI and WWII and was a well known feminist and peace activist. Shulamith
Firestone analyzed the Brigade from a radical feminist point of view.)
A lot of
energy and a good few months of our early formation period were spent
preparing an appropriate action for the Brigade peace march in Washington,
D.C., the largest gathering of women for a political purpose since the
heyday of Jeanette Rankin (the first woman elected to Congress from
Montana in 1917). The brigade was a coalition of women's groups united
for a specific purpose: to confront Congress on its opening day, Jan.
15, 1968, with a strong show of female opposition to the Vietnam War.
However,
from the beginning we felt that this kind of action, though well-meant
was ultimately futile. It is naive to believe that women who are not
politically seen, heard, or represented in this country could change
the course of a war by simply appealing to the better natures of congressmen.
Further, we disagreed with a women's demonstration as a tactic for
ending the war, for the Brigade's reason for organizing AS WOMEN. That
is, the Brigade was playing upon the traditional female role in the
classic manner. They came as wives, mothers and: mourners; that is,
tearful and passive reactors to the actions of men rather than organizing
as women to change that definition of femininity to something other
than a synonym for weakness, political impotence, and tears.
So that
we came as a group not of appeal to Congress, but to appeal to women
not to appeal to congress. Rather we believed that such a massive gathering
should be used to devise ways to build up real political strength.
To drive
this home, we felt that a dramatic action would be least offensive
and most effective. In addition to a speech written and delivered to
the main body of the convention on Jan. 15, and reprinted below, we
staged an actual funeral procession with a larger-than-life dummy on
a transported bier, complete with feminine getup, blank face, blonde
curls, and candle. Hanging from the bier were such disposable items
as S & H Green
Stamps, curlers, garters, and hairspray. Streamers floated off it and
we also carried large banners, such as "DON'T CRY: RESIST "
Kathy Barrett of the Pageant Players, a New York street theater group,
worked with others on simple but effective costumes for the funeral
entourage. We had a special drum corps with kazoo, and a sheet of clever
songs written by Beverly Grant and others. Peg Dobbins wrote a long
funeral dirge lamenting woman's traditional role which encourages men
to develop aggression and militarism to prove their masculinity. There
were several related pamphlets, including one written by Kathie Amatniek
which elaborated on the following Progression:
TRADITIONAL WOMANHOOD IS DEAD.
TRADITIONAL WOMEN WERE BEAUTIFUL...BUT REALLY POWERLESS.
"UPPITY" WOMEN WERE EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL...BUT STILL POWERLESS.
SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL!
HUMANHOOD THE ULTIMATE!
Finally,
by way of a black-bordered invitation we "joyfully" invited
many of the 5,000 women there to attend a burial that evening at Arlington
"by torchlight" of Traditional Womanhood, "who passed
with a sigh to her Great Reward this year of the Lord, 1968, after 3,000
years of bolstering the egos of Warmakers and aiding the cause of war..."
The message
inside read:
Don't Bring Flowers...Do be prepared to sacrifice your traditional
female roles. You have refused to hanky-wave boys off to war with
admonitions to save the American Mom and Apple Pie. You have resisted
your roles of supportive girl friends and tearful widows, receivers
of regretful telegrams and worthless medals of honor. And now you
must resist approaching Congress playing these same roles that are
synonymous with powerlessness. We must not come as passive suppliants
begging for favors, for power cooperates only with power. We must
learn to fight the warmongers on their own terms, though they believe
us capable only of rolling bandages. Until we have united into a force
to be reckoned with, we will be patronized and ridiculed into total
political ineffectiveness. So if you are really sincere about ending
this war, join us tonight and in the future.
Later,
500 women split off in disgust from the main body of the convention
to call a counter congress. Although predictable under the circumstances,
nevertheless it was unexpected. We were not really prepared to rechannel
this disgust, to provide the direction that was so badly needed. There
was chaos. The women were united only in their frustration, some calling
for militancy of any kind at that late date, others for more organization
for the future. They were all keenly disappointed, and fully aware of
their impotence.
It was
a great moment. But we lost it. And we learned the value of spontaneity,
of quick and appropriate political action, the value of learning to
size up a situation and act on it at once, the importance of unrehearsed
speaking ability. For I think one good guiding speech at the crisis
point which illustrated the real causes underlying the massive discontent
and impotence felt in that room then, would have been worth ten dummies
and three months of careful and elaborate planning.
The measure
of that impotence was the very fact that the number of marchers was,
for the first time in years, accurately reported: the march was no
threat at all to the Establishment. By the same token general coverage
of such a large march was slight or nonexistent, handled by minor reporters
who had to work or wring some human interest value or slight sexual
titillation from the fact that a few younger women could be spotted
at this dull and hennish hotel teaparty. But where minor reporters
failed, Ramparts succeeded. They had to use odd agile photography
distorted quotations, and a whole lot of incorrect facts, granted, but succeed
they did. (Even Life couldn't have done better, had they been interested
in trying.)
Letters
of protest poured in from women in radical groups around the country.
But Ramparts just chuckled patted the little women on the cheeks
published a few (out of context) and went on its more important radical
business.
Despite
all this discouragement and the small returns on all our labors, the
Washington experience was not entirely wasted. We learned alot. We
found out where women, even the so called "women radicals" were
really at. We confirmed our worst suspicions, that the job ahead, of
developing even a minimal consciousness among women will be staggering,
but we also confirmed our belief that a real women's movement in this
country will come, if only out of the sheer urgent and immediate necessity
for one.
This document was obtained by the Herstory Project from the Women's
Studies Resources | Duke Special Collections Library-A project of The
Digital Scriptorium, Special Collections Library, Duke University.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm
. Please contact this collection for information about reproducing this
article.
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