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March, 1968 voice of the women's liberation movement   Vol. I, No.1

WHAT IN THE HELL IS WOMEN'S LIBERATION ANYWAY?

With 51% of the population, women are the largest "minority"in this country. A woman must work twice as hard, on half the opportunity, for a fraction of the success, and respect as a man of similar abilities. Then, if she should succeed, she is told she is "unfeminine".
To list all the ways in which our society exploits women would be overwhelming and unnecessary. There are so many, and they are so endemic to our social organization, that women can be liberated only with a total restructuring of this society. Likewise, because this exploitation is so intrinsic, restructuring or society can be significant only in so far as it incorporates the changes necessary for women to be liberated.
Women's liberation does not mean equality with men. Mere equality is not enough. Equality in an unjust society is meaningless. Inequality in a just society is a contradiction in terms. We want equality in a just society. And this means the encouragement and opportunity of all individuals to be fully themselves to explore, express and develop their human potentials to the greatest extent possible unconfined by the narrow bounds of societal stereotypes.
Spread evenly thruout all social classes, women are still one of the most exploited single groups. By organizing women around their very real and very immediate grievances one can work directly on the inherent inequities of our society and do a great deal toward developing the mass base necessary for any substantial social change.
Organizing women is a challenging and exciting potential that has not been tapped by the radical social movement. It is also a challenge to that movement to live up to its own ideals and liberate its women by restructuring itself. (Continued on page 4)

CHICAGO WOMEN CELEBRATE MARCH 8

International Women's Day was celebrated March 8 by the Chicago chapters with a film,"Salt of the Earth" (to be reviewed next month), and an all-Movement party—the groups first integrated function.
March 8 commemorates the 1908 struggle of women on the Lower East Side of New York to gain the right to vote, an end to sweatshops and an end to child labor. It is also celebrated in many countries as the anniversary of the South Vietnam Women's Liberation Union, founded in 1959.
"Salt of the Earth," a free-lance effort by the Independent Film Producers made during the early fifties, centers around a strike by Mexican-American mine workers that is almost lost when they are enjoined from picketing by Taft-Hartley Act. The strike is eventually won when the women, technically not mine workers, replace the men on the picket line-over strong male objections. At the same time the women win new respect, dignity and understanding for themselves, and an inclusion of their demands with those of the union, when the men are forced to take over the women's jobs at home.