Working Women Convene: A Cleveland First

By Deborah Van Kleef

The challenge to women in the 80's will be to organize in the workplace for economic power, according to Bella Abzug, keynote speaker at Cleveland's first Working Women's Convention. Presented on May 16 by Cleveland Women Working at Cleveland State University, the day-long program included speakers and workshops designed to address the challenges faced by working women.

Abzug, former New York Congresswoman and current president of Women U.S.A., focused her talk on the Reagan Administration's budgetary attack on women, children, minorities and the poor, and the Moral Majority's threat to the right to reproductive choice, religious freedom, and separation of church and state. The attack on women, she pointed out, is a sign that the right understands the potential of the women's movement to generate broad social change. Abzug followed Congressman Louis Stokes, who deplored the mood of "fiscal and social conservatism" that is dominant in the United States today. He exposed the myths that the social programs to be cut serve only blacks, that they have been ineffective, and that government waste is limited to these programs.

Congresspersons Dennis Eckart and Mary Rose Oakar also criticized the Reagan budget and urged the audience to show their opposition to it by lobbying and writing members of Congress.

The conference drew about 350 women, both members and non-members of CWW, who sought to learn about the objectives and methods of CWW and to become acquainted with the issues that concern working women.

CWW used the occasion to launch its "Campaign to Defend Office Workers' Rights," which will target employers and employers' associations which lobby for the weakening of affirmative action regulations. CWW will publicize the danger this represents to

LETTERS

Dear WSW:

The May 3rd march against U.S. intervention in El Salvador can only be seen (at least by the Left) as an outstanding success. Of course, the media did their usual trip by far underestimating the crowd, focusing in on the Sparts and searching high and low for the few dope smokers around.

One incident should be noted for our purposes. A few right-to-lifers were present in the ranks of the marchers with a banner that said, "Destroy Bombs, Not Babies". Seven or eight of us took up the chant, "Right-to-Life Murders Women". But one among us tried to hush up everybody with the argument that we were all there in a coalition effort on El Salvadorfighting over abortion didn't belong,

I believe in coalitions and in setting aside minor differences for the greater good. But let's be realistic. There may be a few right-to-lifers out there who really are pacifists in the truest sense of the word—but they are few. The Right-to-Life Movement, after all, helped elect Ronald Reagan and is clearly supportive of a repressive movement that is out to crush the Left and curtail the rights of women. Let's not be blinded by the desire to organize alongside any group that presents itself. We don't need the right-to-lifers, regardless of what other issues they attach themselves to. Remember, they advocate giving fetuses more rights than women.

Finally, it's interesting to note that the Catholics who marched, those really interested in social justicé, including many communities of nuns, did not carry

Pase 2/What She Wants/June, 1981

women and minorities and attempt to mobilize a coalition on this issue.

Workshops covered such topics as legal rights, assertiveness, organizing tactics, age discrimination, occupational health, crime prevention, sexual harassment and unionization. For example, one session on "Organizing for Working Women's Rights" gave general background on the clerical workforce and the women's movement, presented a legal rights quiz, and provided a description of CWW's tactics and strategies, illustrated by individual office worker case histories and accounts of specific CWW campaigns and events.

Another workshop, entitled "Unionization: What You Should Know," presented the basics of how to start a union, including the rights of workers, what to expect from an employer, and a brief introduction to the Service Employees International Union Local 925, a "national local" for women office workers

formed jointly by the SEIU and Working Women.

Workshops included practical information presented within a clear conceptual framework to enable participants to gain an understanding of the purpose, goals and methods of CWW.

The convention closed with a panel discussion on "The Assault on EEO," by Helen Williams, Administrative Director of Working Women, Jane Picker, Professor of Law at Cleveland State University, and Edward Stege, attorney. Speakers described the gains made by women and minorities during the past twenty years through government enforcement of anti-discrimination regulations, and the crisis posed by the current attack on those regulations. A particular issue of concern is Executive Order 11246, enacted in 1965 and now under attack, which states. that an employer must practice affirmative action to do business with the federal government.

Women Against Violence

Violence against women is rampant. We live in a society in which one-fourth of our female children are sexually abused; where one out of three women is raped; in which two million women are battered each year. These statistics are increasing each year.

We believe that violent sexual images of women in pornography and the mass media promote a climate in which these crimes are possible, by presenting women as passive, non-human objects who are turned on by pain.

Pornography, like rape, is about power. It uses sex as a weapon for the subjugation of women. It is a message of hatred toward all women. We believe that the recent rise in violent pornography is a direct backlash to the women's movement; it is a way of

anti-choice banners. They are very clear on where the so-called "Right-to-Life" movement is.

Dear WSW:

-Christine Link

For several months I looked forward to the Conference for Radical Women for I felt we desperately needed the inspiration and networking that such a conference promised to achieve. I was, therefore, both dismayed and angered at the cost: $35, with no provisions made for lowor middle-income women even if they were willing to forego the cabins and meals. Most women I know could not afford to attend. Even though I presented one of the workshops (for free), I was not allowed to attend any of the other sessions because I cannot afford $35.

I realize that we all have had to struggle continuously with the racist, classist, and other patriarchal values we have been brought up with. At one time or another we have all made mistakes, and through thoughtful criticism been forced to grow. The idea behind the conference is a good one. However, a value system which places a sylvan setting and gourmet meals above the participation of all but the most privileged women is not tenable.

If the planners really want to "encourage local women to attend" future conferences, they must change their priorities. If they really want to work at unifying the women's community, they must look first at the most basic divisive factors that keep us apart. The weekend, no doubt, was informative and inspirational for those few able to attend, but I must reject the validity of any "feminist" vision that is based on the continued exclusion and exploitation of the vast majority of women.

4

Ven

I

-Judie Hinman

keeping women in their place through fear.

Violent pornography is proliferating and is becoming more and more socially acceptable. It has moved from the adult bookstores and theaters into the mass media. Playboy now sponsors the six o'clock news. Supermarket magazines teach young boys that girls want to be raped.

We know that obscenity laws have been used against us more than they have ever been to protect (continued on page 8)

Crisis Centers in Crisis

By Loretta Feller

Proposed government budget cuts in social services have forced most organizations that provide direct service to women to rethink their futures. The loss of federal, state and county money would jeopardize programs such as Title XX day care, Tri-C's Displaced Homemaker Program, and maternal health and family planning services, to name a few. Many direct service, non-income-producing organizations must now reconsider their fund-raising strategies. Among these are rape crisis centers, which must compete with programs directly affected by federal cuts for increasing limited funds.

After its four-year step-down grant from the LEAA (Law Enforcement Administration Agency) expired in October, 1980, the Akron Rape Crisis Center (ARCC) sent out an urgent request for the money needed to continue. Although a number of small grants and donations came in, the center had to lay off its secretary, one of the few paid staff positions. ARCC, previously run on a $45,000 annual budget, must now manage on a $10,000 budget until September 1981.

In spite of FBI statistics for Cleveland showing a 10.9 percent increase in rapes in 1980, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has also found it necessary to decrease staff. With the help of volunteers, both the Akron and Cleveland centers have maintained their 24-hour hotlines and courtroom and hospital advocacy programs. (Cleveland's center is currently in need of more volunteers. The next training session will begin June 8.)

Cindy Slater, Director of the Akron center, notes that federal cuts targeting éducational programs also affect the anti-rape movement. Some of these funds would have paid for preventive and educational efforts around the issues of rape and incest. "Lots of social service organizations are in trouble,'

*

says

(continued on page 8)

ง