At National Council Meeting (NC)
Eileen Klehr, Chicago
At the December NC, SDS, a well known male chauvinist organization, passed a proposal dealing directly with the question of Women's Liberation. The original proposal was written by a man, Noel Ignatin. At a woman's caucus, called soon after the NC had begun, the majority of women felt that, while Noel's proposal had many good points, it was still incomplete and needed re-writing. From that point on, women devoted their time to ideological arguments around how the new proposal was to be written.
To understand the basis of the women's arguments, it is important to have some knowledge of the current SDS situation. The action at the NC greatly consisted of debate between two factions engaged in a power struggle. One of these factions is the Progressive Labor Party and friends; the other is known as the National Collective or "Klonskyites".
The main argument centered around what were called "primary" and "secondary" contradiction. The ''primary" contradiction in capitalist society is between the social nature of production and the private ownership of the means of production. (cont. p. 7)

Marlene Dixon, assistant professor at the University of Chicago has not been offered a 3 year appointment to the university faculty, the polite term universities use when firing people. Following standard university policy, reasons for the decision have not been disclosed. Large numbers of students and faculty are speculating that Marlene was fired because she is a woman, a political activist, a Marxist, and a devoted teacher.
Marlene holds a unique joint appointment from the Department of Sociology (DoS) and the Committee on Human Development (HD). Recommendation for reappointment first came from HD but was denied by the DoS, a more powerful department. Although HD pays Marlene's full salary, the word of DoS was final. HD chairman William Henry stated, "I think it was certainly a clear straight forward recommendation. HD regrets very much that this was the outcome. This was not our recommendation. We have always looked upon her teaching with considerable enthusiasm. (cont. p. 2)