UPDATE

(PD)The AKRON ABORTION ORDINANCE has been momentarily halted by Federal Judge Leroy Contie, Jr., who issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the law for at least a month. (James L. Bickett, Akron assistant city law director, opposed this move by the ACLU to block enforcement, contending that the city wants to safeguard public health.) Judge Contie set a hearing for May 30 on the ACLU request for a permanent injunction against the law

(HerSay) ASSATA SHAKUR, who has been transfered from an all-male prison at Yardville, New Jersey to the maximur .rity prison for women at Alderson, West Virginia has filed a $15 million dollar suit asking for damages she has suffered as a result of F.B.I. and state and local law enforcement agencies who conducted a massive Cointel-pro dragnet effort against Shakur and other black activists in the 60's and early 70's.

(LNS)FEMALE PRISONERS at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel are protesting the tyranny of a fanatically religious warden. Women prisoners there who agreed to attend Warden Victor Walker's regular Friday night prayer meetings are meted out favors in the prison. And while Walker actively recruits whites for the meetings, he discourages Black women from coming.

The American Civil Liberties Union, acting on behalf of the prisoners, filed a suit on March 3 demanding that the warden cease using his position to accept his religious beliefs. The suit charges that the warden's practices violate constitutional separation of church and state and are doubly discriminatory because of the patronage and racism connected with church attendance.

Walker's activities first drew public attention in February when the New Orleans Times Picayune published reports that he had conducted exorcism. rites on prisoner Jacqueline McCrary, promising to "purge her soul of the devil," and refusing to release her despite her protests.

SEAMAN

The Ties That Bind

Irving Trust Company

JPSTEVENS & COING

CHEMICAL

NEW YORK CORPORATION

MANFACTURERS

HI HASOSER TRUST

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DRY DOCK SAVINGS BANK

"PROADENTICE & YBNLINNAR

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The NLRB sought an injunction against Stevens last January, stating that the company had carried on a "massive, multi-state campaign to deny its employees their rights."

Linda Pacquette, of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, says that agreement settles only the first of seven suits brought recently against the giant corporation by the NLRB. She says that the Stevens issue is important to women because 40 to 50 percent of the 45,000 workers in Stevens' southern plants are women, and because Stevens products sheets and towels purchased mostly by women.

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The average earnings of textile workers are 31 percent below those of other manufacturing workers. Despite a 15-year drive to unionize the industry, only 10 percent of textile workers have union contracts.

In a related matter, U.S. authorities have reportedly asked Stevens for information to determine if affirmative action programs are needed at Stevens plants. The company has gone to court to prevent the government from obtaining that information, A Pacquette says.

Page 6/June, 1978/What She Wants

running...a sense of power

Feminists often speak about power, especially the necessity of power for achieving change. Running has enabled me to experience a very personal sense of power. When I first ran ten miles, I felt incredibly high, joyful and strong. I could do it! This physical energy is terribly important in generating a whole new set of mental stimuli. It creates a mental energy, discipline and confidence that carries over into many parts of my life. I keep thinking about the obvious example shown in the Joanne Woodward film about the running the Marathon. She starts out as a mousey school teacher and after running is able to punch out a would-be rapist. A little blatant but the message comes across strong. Running does strange things to you!

Running has also helped me to develop a sense of discipline and confidence in my abilities to accomplish goals I set for myself. When I say running is a sense of power I mean more than the physical strength it's the power than comes from finding new ways of feeling good about myself. Kostrubala is a psychiatrist on the West Coast who has begun to incorporate jogging in his therapy sessions with clients.

I have been running for about a year now and I have begun to realize more and more than running is an important extension of my feminism. It has become a consciousness-raising exercise intensified by sharp gut level feelings. It's as if the physical input and bodily reactions of running have opened a clear and direct pipeline to experiencing the mental stimulation that results.

Women have been programmed to maintain their figures so they will be attractive to men. Hopefully. the women's movement has enabled many women to move beyond this. However, running has put me in touch with my body in a totally different way and given me a new awareness of the pleasure I can receive from knowing my body is working well. Through running on a regular basis I can generate this control and strength. With the pleasure also comes a responsibility to maintain this healthy body. for me -because I like how it feels when it's working well. Mental health workers encourage us to tune into our body signals of stress, tension or anxiety so we can learn to deal with these feelings. Running encourages me to tune into these positive body signals.

As a female child my participation in athletics was very limited. When I started running this past winter, I returned indoors to a track and locker room. Even a locker room felt like a foreign territory. I started to think back on my experiences with sports

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"What did you learn in school today?!

while I was growing up. It was something beyond my ken; men were athletic not me. When I entered an all-male college as the second class of females, the physical education department was not coed. Since the "boys" swam in the nude, young women were not allowed to use the pool and besides there were no locker room facilities anyway. By the time I graduated not much progress had been made in integrating these facilities.

Obviously the women's movement has made great strides in these areas.

The first woman ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, though she needed to conceal her identity by using her first initial only on the entry form. Presently

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many women still face discrimination in local races that refuse to provide equal age categories, prizes and sometimes simple recognition for women runners. In some races women have crossed the finish line and not had their names announced be. cause they're women. The men had their names called in the same race. It seems that the male sports establishment has relegated them to the status of non persons.

Cleveland Women Running is a running club that has about 100 members in the Cleveland area. One of their goals is to promote the equal participation of women in the sport, but primarily to provide support to women who run. To the many women who lack the basic exposure to physical exercise and training and to the women who want to share their highs and lows. this support is fundamental. I have been especially impressed by the spirit of feminist support evidenced at the meetings of Cleveland Women Running. The club also provides a network of runners' times and mileages, so that a "buddy system" can be formed, an important safety consideration in running at night.

If you want more information about Cleveland Women Running, contact Linda Creighton at the Complete Runner, 2218 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

..M. Rosenshein