by Fran Rominski
Although there is a multitude of summer projects springing up around the country, one of the most exciting seems to be Summer of Support. Briefly, Summer of Support is a program aimed at establishing coffee houses outside army bases in the nearby towns. The coffee houses are seen as ''cultural antidotes or alternatives to the militaristic, drab, occasionally violent army town environment. " The coffee houses will be staffed by movement people but are not designed to organize soldiers; rather, to provide soldiers with a resource institution through which they might organize themselves, when they are ready.
However, the coffee house idea presents some frightful possibilities for women. From the inception of the idea it has been considered important to have women staffing the coffee houses. The reason stated is that guys will open lip more easily to women, who would be warm and sympathetic listeners. (The reason deduced by many women is that they would be valuable attractions. ) The prospectus on the program lists women as one of the commodities to be brought along for the celebration of the G. I 's return home- -". . . those who have successfully served the soldiers' interests
(cont. on p. 2)

by Mary Nelson
(Mary Nelson recently returned from a three-week visit to Cuba.)
"What difference has the revolution made in your life?" I was speaking to a Cuban woman walking out to the fields where she does her voluntary agricultural work. She folded her work gloves into the pocket of her militia trousers and smiled. ''Before, the black people couldn't go to the beaches, but now we can go wherever we want. The second change is that, before, women couldn't do anything, we didn't have any right. Now men and women work together; we are all revolutionary companeros.
One afternoon in Havana I had a long, chat with a young woman. She is a buyer for chemicals for one of the ministries, is active in the Women's Federation, and helps support a family of her own. "We have heard a lot about the New Man Cuba is creating, " I said. "Who is the New Woman?"
"Like the New Man, she develops her abilities so that she can contribute as much as possible to the collective effort. The New Woman is a fully productive companera."
These two conversations reveal some of the changes the revolution has brought in the lives of Cuban women.
Before the revolution in 1959, few Cuban women were employed. The rural labor force worked for wages, and very few had land for subsistence farming. Women could not work in the fields or factories because the level of unemployment was chronically at a crisis level, even for men. So there was little a woman could (cont. on p. 3)