New women's organization formed

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SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1992 3 By Here's some encouraging news: New women's rights groups and actions are springing up all over the place, and the activists involved are not willing to stop organizing for women's rights during the election period.

This writer had the good fortune to attend the first meeting of a new organization, the Women's Action Coalition (WAC).

It took place in San Francisco, on Aug. 5.

Four to five hundred women packed the Southern Exposure art gallery, where the organizing meeting took place. Hundreds had to stand; there were only 200 chairs set up.

The new group, selfdescribed as "an open alliance of women committed to DIRECT ACTION on issues affecting the rights of all women," began in New York City last January.

Organizers at the S.F. meeting reported that ACT-UP, the AIDS action group, is the inspiration for WAC's organizing style.

After a description of the New York organization and its committee structure, as well as a report and some discussion about direct action and what it means (which is many different things to different people, the first action was decided by unanimous vote-a picket line ation convention currently meeting in San Francisco.

Last year the lawyers' organization failed to adopt a pro-choice resolution by a very narrow margin. This year, women inside and out of the association are determined to reverse that stand It is still unclear what strategies, ideas, and politics will govern WAC. The organizers were clearly more interested in the "direct action" tactic than any other considerations. Mark Ludak/Impact Visuals The positive aspect of this project is that hundreds of women are angry and want to act on that anger.

The "mission" statement from the New York group says, "WAC insists on economic parity and representation for all women, and an end to homophobia, racism, religious prejudice, and violence against women. We insist on every woman's right to quality healthcare, childcare, and reproductive freedom."

A possible explanation for the explosive growth of a new feminist organization, alongside the National Organization for Women (NOW), which is the largest feminist group in the country, could be that NOW is not organizing any new actions since its giant April 5 national demonstration of three quarters of a million in Washington, D.C.

Instead, NOW is throwing its resources into the election campaigns of several Democrats.

Another explanation is that NOW is organized in a highly top-down fashion, whereas the women want their movement to be organized democratically.

Women want to be in control of their own lives; it follows therefore that they would want to control their own organizations. campuses. It will be even easier to use the campuses as mobilizing centers to defend public education.

Already, the educational crisis has had a direct effect on the working class as a whole. A huge portion of the population is sympathetic to student demands because they are either students themselves or the parents of students. The time is right for students to organize a mass action campaign in defense of public education, including demands for:

• A university education for everybody who wants one, to be fully paid by the government.

Decent housing tor all students and alarv adequate to student needs, safeguarde against inflation by automatic cost-of-living adjustments.

• Guaranteed jobs for students upon graduation.

• The right to utilize university facilities for students and professors to promote the organization of a mass action campaign in defense of public education for all.

These are just a few of the legitimate demands students can raise in the framework of a campaign in defense of public education. In order to succeed in such a campaign, students will need to organize not just themselves; they will need to participate in coalitions representing working people as a whole.

Such coalitions should include all student organizations; labor unions and professional organizations of teachers and other campus workers; community organizations and organizations of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and others; women's groups; religious organizations; and every community organization that supports public education.

Students should resist a tendency to defend their own programs exclusively. All programs are under attack and an injury to one is an injury to all. Thus, music students should align with women's studies students, African American history students, and so on. Primary, elementary, and secondary school programs should be defended alongside college and university programs. Students unite!— The editors.

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Catherine Smith/Impact Visuals

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WAC WOMEN demonstration Aug. 8 at the Bar Associ-