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Secret Storm by the
Secret Storm Workgroup (1976)
(Editors Note: Secret Storm organized sports teams in the Chicago Parks
in the face of determined resistance by people who felt women did not
belong in sports. This 1976 conference report summarizes the group's
accomplishments and suggests strategies for the future.)
Secret
Storm is a workgroup of eight CWLU members who run a women's outreach
program concentrating in park districts and neighborhoods on Chicago’s
Northwest side. When the program started in January, 1972 we organized
junior college and high school women in these same working class areas.
Then, as now, our primary focus has been the political development and
organization of the women we meet through our outreach. Many of them
have become CWLU members. We feel that our work is important both because
of the constituency we reach (working class, gays, housewives) and because
we concentrate on the political development and mass organizing style
of our workgroup members.
We shifted
our emphasis to sports in June, 1974 because we wanted to reach older
more stable women than we were able meet by working around schools.
The neighborhood park districts offered, us one of the few areas where
housewives get together outside their homes and women get together
off the job.
In the past
several months Secret Storm has been re-evaluating its program and
priorities. In the past the long-range goal of Secret Storm has been
the development of a city-wide women's sports program The short range
goal was to fight against: the unequal facilities equipment and programs
offered to women who play in leagues in the park districts. Many of
the people who become interested in our sports teams do so for several
reasons. For some it is a chance to learn or relearn sports skills
that were once discouraged or never developed. For others, it is a
way to be with and meet other women to participate in an activity that
is enjoyable, and to be able to get out of the house(some for the first
time without their husbands!) For many it, is a way to become involved
with women’s liberation
for the first time.
We reach
a large number of women through our paper Secret Storm through
our monthly educationals (attended by 25-30/ month), and through our
sports leagues. This season, in two parks some 140 people are playing
on teams organized through us. A large part of these women are blue
collar; a fair amount are gay; many are mothers; some are Third World.
We are making contact with women the Union wants to reach.
Recently,
Secret Storm has been re-evaluating our strategy of building a sports
organization, and our emphasis on sports as an issue. We realize that
many of the women that play with us and consistently come to our forums,
do so because of their interest in feminism, and our broader politics,
not necessarily because of their interest in sports. Our question is
- should we concentrate on sports or more on women’s issues in
our future work? For example to concentrate on sports could mean a further
focus on winning victories from the parks, childcare facilities, more
sports for women, lower fees for the teams, keeping the same teams together
season after season, and building a regional then city-wide women’s
sports organization.
If we decided
to emphasize women‘s organizing it could mean still playing in
the leagues as a means to get to know women, but we would go on instead
to form rap groups and possibly concentrate on developing women's community
groups in one or two neighborhoods where a large amount of our workgroup
members and contacts live, like Hamlin Park or Norwood Park. And these
community groups could coordinate their focus of activity with another
CWLU program. More on this later.
There is
a difference among the members of the workgroup as to which of these
directions the group should pursue. For the next season, we have decided
therefore to develop both types of work. That means right now that
we are struggling with the Park District around fees and childcare
provision and at the same time doing educationals on general woman's
issues and starting rap groups We hope at the end of the season to
make a more informed decision about which direction to take, and thereby
focus our energies in one direction.
What role
does Secret Storm play in the Union a future organizational strategy?
The first step the Union has to take is choosing strategic issues,
while the second step is the development of program around mass organizing
around those issues. Although our future focus is undecided, our overall
strength is a well developed method of mass organizing that our work
is and will be based on. Which direction we move in will be affected
by the Union's strategic decisions. For example, if Secret Storm moves
towards neighborhood based women's organizing; (like Hamlin Park) we
could concentrate on an elementary school and relate to the Union’s
schools program. Or we could develop another local women's program,
strategically important to the Union. Or if the Union has a healthcare
program, we could organize around neighborhood healthcare problems.
This can be further explored.
In the last
six months we've been the only program of the Union doing general
women's liberation outreach work. This has meant we've had to develop
some of the things; ourselves necessary to an outreach program, like
monthly educational forums, and our outreach newspaper, because the
Union did not provide these functions. In the future we hope the Union
can develop some of these educational and propaganda functions that
will be necessary for the success of our program and any other outreach
program. We also encourage and look forward to the Women's Union developing
programs for us to direct some of the women we organize into.
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