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INTRODUCTION 2
D I
RECE.IVED
. .... .. ..
INTRODUCTION
The two lead articles in this issue come from far apart in the globe as well as in their polit
ical concerns. Beaz Evron, an Israeli journalist, criticizes the Israeli government for its reac
tionary use of the memory of the Holocaust; Catharine MacKinnon, an American feminist
lawyer, criticizes the "pro-choice" movemem for the way it has campaigned for abortion
rights. Yet the articles seem to us to share a similar political concern, calling our attention 10
the manipulation of ideology regarding two difficult and divisive political struggles, remind
ing us perhaps of the need to criticize and re-examine even those arguments which may al
first appear to be benefitting OUf side of an issue.
Boas Evron wrote his article for an Israeli audience, examining how Israeli governments
have defined and manipulated a particular version of the Holocaust story to justify its
imperialist policies and to control and suppress criticism of these policies, within Israel and
among Israeli supporters abroad. By dwelling on a false understanding of the Jews as sole
and unique victims of the Nazi extermination policies, Israeli leaders tried to place their
country "above" the normal constraints of national and international politics. Criticism of
state policy, not to mention of Israeli borders as currently defined, could be labelled anti
Semitic; worse, opponenls, including Palestinians who had lost their homeland to the
2
Zionist cause, were identified with Nazis. The question of privacy; arguing for abortion in
Israeli version of the Holocaust ideology terms of "choice," that individual freedom;
worked \0 suppress critical debate about Israeli and de-emphasizing questions of sexuality, sex
economic and social power in the Middle East ual oppression of women, and male dominance
and to mask the function of Israel in US foreign in general. All three tactics, MacKinnon shows,
policy. It helped make possible Israeli alliances represent a significant retreat from important
with South Africa and the Israelis' own geno feminist social criticisms. First, the notion of
cidal policies toward Palestinians. privacy is a class- and sex-biased one, benefit
Focussed as il is on Israeli political struggles, ting those with power: for example, the privacy
Evron's article made us yearn for a US-centered rights have been used to prevent legal interven
discussion of the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, tion against wife beaters. Second, the argument
and Zionism. In the US, thinking of the Jews as from individual freedom retreats from the
unique and somehow arbitrary victims weakens understanding that there can be no freedom
understanding of racism and of how inequality without power; hence in the liberal under
and prejudice grow. AI the same lime, in the standing of freedom there is no comradic
US Zionist politics has served as a screen, hid lion between making abortion legal but pre
ing the existence of anti-Semitism, just as, vice venting state monies from helping poor women
versa, the failure to confront anti-Semitism in get abortions. Third, withdrawing from discus
western countries promotes a channelling of all sions of sex and what sexual freedom means
Jewish consciousness and emotion into Zion specifically for women creates the kind of con
ism. We would welcome readers' responses to tradictions that we see in the fact that Playboy
this issue. has consistently supponed pro-abortion legisla
While abortion has been an equally divisive tion. This image of sexual "revolution," as it is
issue in American politics generally, radicals of commercially called, of sexually "liberated"
our (that is, Radical America's) stripe have not women, does not guarantee any greater sexual
usually admitted or discussed ils troubling power for women and may only remodel
aspects, so concerned have we been to permit women's sexual subordination to men.
no sliding away from commitment to abonion MacKinnon's article naturally leaves many
as one of women's fundamental rights. Mac things unsaid, some of which would modify her
Kinnon's critique of the major legal and polit arguments. we think. For example,the "sexual
ical defenses of abortion rights surprised and ity" in her aTlicle is exclusively heterosexual.
stimulated us, and seemed important for repro The greater visibility of lesbianism as a sexual
ductive-rights supporters to consider. We hope and social option for women today greatly
that our readers will make an effort to tackle affects even the way women conduct hetero
the unfamiliar legal language to confront her sexual lives. Furthermore, we wonder if polit
arguments. ical and social gains women have made in the
Within the abortion struggle, MacKinnon past decades have nOI also altered heterosexual
hows, concern to hang onto our tenuous vic relations. The personal is political, MacKinnon
.
lIIf'ories has led feminists to define the issue in lib reminds us, even when it is as "personal" as
eral terms 10 win the broadest possible support. sex. What women should want, she implies, is
This strategy of argumentation has involved not privacy but more social controls against
three tactics: emphasizing abortion rights as a men who would sexually dominate, and more
3
state intervenlion to help women prOlect them We are also publishing here an article on the
selves sexually. Yct there are questions to be "proletarian" Jewish writer Michael Gold. It
asked about how far we can trust the might be considered part of our biography ser
"political" state to meet women's "personal" ies, which we are continuing (in an upcoming
concerns, and we have to be concerned with issue we wiil publish a biography of Marie
abandoning the protections that come even to Equi, a classic example of a "lost" radical
women from privacy rights. activist in the IWW, the World War I peace
')
Still, Catharine MacKinnon has re-invigor movement, the birth control movcmCnI, les-
ated a debate about the connection between bian, feminist, physician from Portland, Ore
abortion rights and the overall issues of gon). But the Gold article also comes from our
women's oppression. We would like to contin interest in radical culture and writing. We hope
ue this debate, and we will hope that others readers working on other figures and topics in
involved in reproductive rights will respond to this tradition of uniting art and politics will
MacKinnon's article. send us their manuscripts.
IIlue I A,,«IIMly 1082 Illue 02 Juno/July 1i8� 11I��'3 5f:Pltm�e,'OCIOb" 1882 Inut'� M.,c� 1063
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4
Jose Delgudo�Gllitarl
Boaz Evron
Two awful things happened to the Jewish people in the present century: the Holocausl
and the lessons drawn from it. The unhislorical, oftcn patently false interpretations given to
the event have in themselves become a menace to the Jewish people and to the State of
Israel.
The very term "Holocaust" is objectionable. It has an undertone of oratorical glibness, it
seems to cover up and hide the terrible reality behind. "Holocaust" is a nonspecific word; it
could as well be an earthquake or an epidemic. It is something thai hits you all of a sudden,
out of a clear sky, outside the historical context. You are under no obligation to understand
it and analyze its causes. As a matter of fact, you may even conveniently evade and rorget iI,
thanks (0 this very non·speciricity. In this sense, there is not such a great dirrerence between
the evasive Nazi (erm "Final Solution" and {he evasive Jewish term "Holocaust." BOlh
terms serve to avoid calling things by their proper names. The first was meant to hide rrom
(he murderers, and rrom public opinion, the meaning or the deed. The second blunts and
neutralizes the memory or the murder in the minds or the survivors. "The massacre or the
JewS or Europe" is, iinguisticaly speaking, a much clumsier expression, bUI it denotes exact·
iy what happened, states thai there have been murderers and victims. specifies the location
7
where the crime took place, and describes a policies toward the Jews and the Slavs. On the
historical event. which must be conceived and other hand, it can also be argued that the even
understood in historical. nOt mystical or wal extermination of the Slavs was only a ques
pseudo-religious terms, which amount to tion of time, that all signs pointed to that even
avoidance of the issue. tuality, and that it was thwarted only by the
The first false premise is that the Nazi policy Allied victory. At any rate, there are good
of genocide was directed almost exclusively at grounds to suppose that the Slavs were slated,
.
Jews. Indeed, the Jews were its main and fore for enslavement and extermination by stages.
most victims, as well as the only group painted Furthermore, the inner logic of the Nazi
in diabolical colors. and as such not merely sub dynamic, toward the end of the war, culmin
human but antihuman. As such, too, they were ated in the application of extensive murder and
the only group on which total annihilation was terror to the German population itself in order
practiced. But one should view the Nazi policy "to curb defeatist tendencies."·
in this matter as a process. The Jews, to begin Anti-Semitism served as a catalysl, as a focal
with, were "merely" deprived of their civil point for the extermination machinery-but
rights; later, they were deported. Only in the this machinery was an essential part of the end
final stage were they exterminated. Six years less "selection" process, which was meant to be
passed from the promulgation of the Nurem
*As regards the preparations for the eventual turning of
berg laws to the implementation of the "Final
the e)ltermination machinery on segments of the German
Solution." Then other groups began to follow
nation itself. it is a well-known fact that gassing began in
the Jews. The Gypsies were also butchered, and sanatoria for German mentat patients, and was copied in
nOt only they. The Poles began to be massacred the extermination tamps. Hannah Arendt. in The Origins
en masse loo-altogether Ihree million non O/TOlotir(JriOllism, quotes additional examples: one is from
Leon Poliakov's Breviaire De La Hlli!!e. wherein he relates
Jewish Poles were murdered. Hannah Arendt.
that a Reieh health bill, drafted by Hitler himself for imple
in Eichmann in Jerusalem, notes Ihal Ihe pro
mentation after the war, states that all families with cases of
cedures previously applied to the Jews began to heart and lung ailments should be "isolated" from the Ger·
be applied also to the Poles. Mass murder was man population, their physkal liQuidation being of course
practiced against the Russian people, 100: mil· the next step in this program. Himmler stated that "in this
process of sdection there can never be a standstill" (N. 16.
lions of Russian war prisoners and slave labor
p. 310).GoebbeJs declared in J934. "Who are the people to
ers were murdered, and entire communities
criticize? Party members? No. The rest of the German peo
were annihilated inside Russia itself. Nazi pol ple? They should consider themselves lucky to be alive still.
icy toward "inferior races," first and foremost It would be too much of a good thing altogether. if those
the Slavs, is a complex issue. Apparently no who live at our mercy should be allowed to critkize." Hitler
declared during the war, "I have often stated that the time
specific directive was ever issued to exterminate
will come when all worthwhile men in Germany are going to
them, of the sort that inspired the Wannsee
be in my camp. And those who will nOI be in my camp are
Conference with regard to the annihilation of worthless anyway." Arendt comments: "Even then it was
the Jews. From this and other considerations, clear to Hitler's immediate environment what would hap
Prof. Saul Friedlander draws the conclusion (in pen to those who are 'worthless anyway· .... Himmler
meant the same when he said: "The Fuhrer does not think.
"The Historical Significance of the Holo
in German. but in Germanic terms, e)lcept that we know
caust," The Jerusalem Quarterly. No. I,
from Hillers Tischengesprache . ..1hat in those days he was
Autumn 1976) that there was a difference in already making fun even of the Germanic 'clamor' and
kind between the Nazi auiwdes and projected thought in 'Aryan terms'" (N. 32. p. 360).
8
a permanent central feature of the peacetime The murder of European Jewry was not a
Nazi empire. Hatred and dislike of the Jews characteristic and exclusive phenomenon of
had been prevalent in Europe for many cemur� Jewish history, but rather one symptom of the
ies, without leading to quite such gruesome collapse of the European system. The result was
results. The Zionist comention that the catas the dissociation of the Jewish people from the
trophe was a result of the peculiar position of human race, aimed for by the Nazis, on the one
the Jews within European society also is unsat hand, and by extreme Jewish nationaliSIS on the
isfactory, for it fails to explain the fact that other. This broader view leads 10 the conclusion
other groups began to follow the Jews to the that any attempt to exclude one human group
gas chambers. The events can be understood from the definition of humanity may result in
only in the context of German and European an attack on the human race as a whole.
history and ideology. We may find food for Many Jewish interpretations, mainly the
thought in the fact that genocide had been prac Zionist leadership. wanted this insighl sup
ticed by Europeans in the non-European world pressed in order to present the Jewish people as
for centuries (in the Americas, the Congo, etc.). the sole victim, as a memenlo of the world's
The Nazi innovation was the introduction of guilt. It was, of course, the natural reaction of a
these practices inlo the family of European victim, and in this case it also coincided with
nations. deeper psychological and ideological interests;
the sense Ihat it habituated the world to the pired that this central Zionist tenet is meaning
institution of genocide, by applying it first to less, and thai the ultimate guarantee against
alien and unliked (or actively disliked) groups extermination (if such a guarantee is possible)
such as the Jews and the Gypsies. Objective lies in the eradication of ideologies which
analysis and description would have demon exclude any human group from the definition
strated that if even the Poles and the Russians, of humanity. This imples joint struggle and
well-rooted territorial nations both (Ihe laller international cooperation that seck to over·
aclually one of the world's mightiest military come differences and barriers, not to heighten
powers), are liable to extermination, then and strengthen them, as urged by powerful ele
sovereignty and military prowess are no secur ments within Israel and in the Zionist move
ity against it. Objective reflection would have ment.
brought us to the further fact that the Israeli But others have been party to the Zionist pol·
Jews were not saved by Zionism but by the un icy of promoting a nonhistorical presentation
related fact that the Nazis failed to conquer of Ihe facts. First of all, the Germans them-fJ
Palestine. We would, moreover, have recog selves. They were interested in this presentation
nized that most territorial peoples in history so as to dispel the feelings of hatred, vengeance,
have vanished, through assimilation, conquest, fear, and suspicion with which the outside
or annihilation. It would therefore have trans- world, mainly the Slav peoples, who had been
10
slated for enslavement and annihilation, readmission of Germany as a member in good
regarded them after the war. By suppressing the standing of the European community.
facts and by limiting the memory of genocide to With regard to the Slav peoples, presumably
the Jewish people, it could be represented as a next in line for the Nazi treatment, the situation
singular insane seizure, not necessarily of the is more complex . In the East European coun
German people, but of the Austrian dictator tries, notably in the Soviet Union, the central
;J' who ruled it, and who had acquired his anti role of the Jews as victims of Nazi genocide has
Semitic notions in the gutters of Vienna. been played down, and their ethnic identity
Indeed, the extermination policy did contain an often hidden among the Soviet or Polish citi
individual Hitlerian ingredient, but the exter zens murdered by the Germans. Some claim
mination of the Jews could hardly have taken that this fact, anti-Semitic on the face of it,
place except in the COntext of an overall ideol admits of a further interpretation: anti
ogy advocating the subjugation and even anni Semitism being still endemic in parts of the
hilation of "inferior races," as the Slavs were USSR (mainly in the Ukraine), an emphasis on
held to be by "pan-German" ideOlogists long Jews as the prime victims may not arouse much
before Hitler. This ideology was itself a typical of a reaction among non-Jews, so that the expo
byproduct of the "Orang nach Osten," the sure of the generally murderous nature of the
drive eastward, which reappears periodically in Nazi regime is a more effective educational
German history. measure against fascism. At any rate, the
The Western powers, too, were anxious to emphasis in these countries is on the guilt of
confine the memory of the Nazi extermination German fascism, care being taken to
policy to the "Final Solution. " They were eager distinguish it from the German people. There
to restore West Germany as soon as possible to are, of course, ideological principles involved,
the "family of nations," in order to establish but another factor is the need to accept East
with its help the present West European-Atlan Germany, the GDR, into the system of Eastern
tic military-political system as a counterweight European nations, and to blunt the feelings of
to Soviet might, a system within which Ger fear, hatred, and vengeance toward it. Lately,
many was assigned a central role from the very not only toward the GDR-the Eastern bloc is
beginning. The Jews being largely "outsiders"
in the European-Christian cultural conscious
ness (even when not actively hated), their
destruction and that of other "outsiders," such
as Gypsies. did not carry the same onus as the
annihilation of "legitimate" members of the
European family of nations, for example the
Dutch or the English. After all, even the Slavs
arc not considered in Western Europe (or in the
.' United States) to be full-fledged members of
the civilized community of nat!ons. Thus the
idea thal lhe extermination was limited 10 Jews,
and the advocacy of restitution 10 the surviving
Jews, more or less prepared the ground for the
also anxious to maintain good relations with roots in the country, and their terrible memo
the Federal Republic, which has reappeared on ries were not yet a living part of the public
the world scene as a political-industrial giant, awareness. Nor had the ritualistic system of
and the mention of the pasl and the raising of commemoration been fully developed as yet.
ghosts from their graves cannot be helpful to Though the "Holocaust and Heroism Day"
this end. was established from the very beginning of
The "Jewish monopolization, II if one may so statehood, "Yad Vashem"· and all that it �
term it, of the Nazi phenomenon, by presenting involves were founded only toward the end of
the Jewish people as it almost exclusive victim, the '50s. Much of the Holocaust literature had
is reprehensible from several points of view. not yet been written or published. No doubt it
Firstly, as noted, it excludes the Jews from the was only a temporary oblivion, like the momen
human race, as if they were inherently different tary paralysis following a severe injury, before
from it, producing a paranoid reaction among a the nervous system reacts and the pain is felt.
section of the Jewish community which feels The decisive turning-point in Israel and in the
divorced from humanity and its rules. Other world came with the Eichmann trial. To the
Jews are driven to utterly irrational reactions best of my knowledge, no study has yet been
toward the surrounding world, as I shall show published of the political background of the
presently. On the other hand the exclusive iden trial, but I think that it would not be far wrong
tification of Naziism with anti-Semitism to assume that, in addition to the desire and the
inclines many people who are not particularly need to punish the chief executive of "the Final
sympathetic IOward the Jews to regard Nazi Solution," thereby announcing to the world
like manifestations lightly, without considering that such crimes will not go unpunished, and
them a danger to themselves-as being, after making Israel inSlrumental in the application of
all, only a "Jewish affair." This identification the highest principles of human justice and
can therefore encourage Naziism, should this international law (despite the legalistic quib
dormant malignancy ever revive. bling concerning the kidnapping in the Argen
Let us now see how the Israeli political lead tine), the trial also had complex political aims
ership, in collusion with the Jewish and Zionist and eXlremely important political conse
leadership in the Diaspora, used the Holocaust quences.
in its relations with the non-Jewish world, the It may be conjectured that one aim was to
Jewish Diaspora, and the Israeli public. renew and reinforce the German sense of guilt,
During the I 950s the "Holocaust awareness" at a time when the feeling was gaining strength
in Israel, as well as in the world outside, was in Germany that by the payment of the repara
somewhat on the wane. Immigration from tions Germany had discharged its debt to the
Islamic countries brought to Israel Jewish com Jewish people and to the world at large.
munities which had been hardly aware of the The most important resull of the trial, polit
catastrophe and tended to view it as "an Ash ically speaking, was West Germany's agree-
kenazi affair." The Israeli nalive felt that Israel
was essentially different from the Jewish
·"Yad Vashem." which may be loosely translated as
Diaspora-that genocide had to do with the
"monument and memento," is a shrine in Jerusalem dedi·
European Jews, not the Israelis. The survivors cated 10 the memory of the Jews murdered by the Nazis,
who landed in Israel had not yet struck deep and to the relevant research.
12
" . '1 (" . -. � c·e
;, ' . ," t 'or -• • •-'"
>�"\'JI'"Y'''M '�l.
J('ws f('(H'ingfor PUff!Slinl' (N('w Yeor's greeting card).
ment to establish open diplomatic relations To elaborate: the Adenauer Government had
with Israel, to add a substantial increase to the avoided the establishment of formal diplomatic
reparations, and to put an end to all talk about relations with Israel for pragmatic reasons: it
"paying off the debt." did not wish \0 jeopardize its relations with the
And this is the point which is so objection Arab world. It viewed the reparations and the
able about it. The trial served not only for the restitutions in a legalistic light-they have noth
symbolic punishment of Nazi crimes (after all, ing to do with present-day political problems,
the hanging of one Eichmann cannot be consid but are compensation for injuries innicted in
ered as a more than symbolic retribution for the the past, a compensation which must by no
murder of millions), not only for the commem means tie West Germany's hands in its present
oration of these crimes and the inculcation of relations with the world.
moral horror of them and their like into the The Eichmann trial forced Germany to aban
"mind of the world-but (llso for the purpose of don this principle, to act against its natural
making immediate polirical capital. It became a imeres\s and to accord Israel a special prefer
tactic of worldly politics, aiming at worldly ence, without Israel feeling Obliged to pay Ger
ends. This mundane intent could not but vitiate many back with the hard currency of reciprocal
the higher moral purposes of the trial. interests, as customary in relations between
Il
states. There is no need to be particularly solici centuries, and because the charges that it
tous about German interests, for a country like remained indifferent during the Nazi extermin
Germany could hardly draw a line under the ation are true (though it should be remembered
past and behave henceforth like a normal state. that the Allies did not bomb the extermination
But these facts had extremely grave and cor camps while hundreds of thousands of non
rupting consequences for Israel, and the inter Jews were also being murdered there, and it
ests that were really hurt were not Germany's, seems that the Soviet leadership was completely
but Israel's. indifferent to the plight of Soviet war pris-'
The constant harping on the Holocaust, on oners).
anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred throughout his Thus a situation has been created in which
lOry, created in the Israeli public and its leader the foremost basis of Israel's policy toward the
ship a strange moral blindness. As "the world" rest of the world is the invocation of guilt and
is always conceived as a hater and persecutor, moral pressure. From this viewpoint, Mr.
Israelis tend to consider themselves free of all Begin's Holocaust rhetoric is a faithful continu
moral obligation in their relations wilh it, while ation of a tradition initiated by Labor govern
expecting to be treated in return on the basis of ments. Incidentally, it is amusing to observe the
moral guilt. While their main arguments rest on difficulties our policymakers have in finding a
an appeal to justice and the world's obligation common language with countries where there
to "the remnants of the Holocaust," they feel are no guilt feelings regarding the Jews, like
free to contract agreements wilh the world's most Third World states. These nations exper
darkest, most repressive regimes, to negotiate ienced no pangs of conscience when they sus
arms deals with the worst governments, and to pended diplomatic relations with us, and one
oppress non-Jews subject to their rule. can hardly accuse Ihe Chinese of anti-Semitism
The exploitation of the memory of the Holo when they have but the vaguest notion who the
caust for these purposes has been developed Jews are!
into a fine art. Almost any Israeli official The net result is that the Stale of Israel,
appearance abroad involves an invocation of established ostensibly to enable the Jews to lead
the Holocaust, in order to inculcate in the lis a "normal existence as a nation-state among
teners the proper feelings of guilt. Similarly, all other nation-states," deliberately adopts a pol
important non-Jewish visitors to Israel are icy which putS it outside the system of power
taken as a matter of course to "Yad Vashem," relationships normal among nations. It insists
as pan of their intiation, sometimes with the on being treated as an abnormal nation, it
addition of Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot· for avoids direct economic and political involve
good measure, in order to inject them with the ment in a world of power and interests, in the
proper mood and the ritual guilt expeCied of historical world, and tries to maintain a 11011-
them. historical existence as a sect divorced from the
The Christian world does have a very bad historical process.
conscience about the Jews, both because of past Needless to say, such a policy, successful as it
has been in the short run, is doomed to fail in
the long, having been initially based on a sense
°A Kibbutz inhabited mostly by former gheuo fighters of past guilt. This consciousness has its limits,
against lhe Nazis.
and it may be compared to a bank account
14
served as a powerful 1001 in the hands of the
which is not replenished but steadily exhausted The memory of the Nazi extermination
by heavy withdrawals. The reserves of guilt
feelings are being steadily depleted: fewer and Israeli leadership and that of the Jews abroad,
fewer people remember the Holocaust, in spite the latter being largely subservienl to the
of the reiterated harping on it. For those who Israeli, to rally and regiment the Jewish
do not remember it, its monotonous invocation Diaspora, above all in the United Slates. This
becomes a nuisance. It would be a hard day for has been achieved by the exploitation and
Israel when it is called upon to perform in the cultivation of two main factors: (a) The
real world, after the final exhaustion of its American Jews' feelings of guilt about not hav
"moral credit," and when all of its structure ing done more to prevent the disaster; (b) The
and outlook have been formed under hothouse insecurity of some Jews about their position in
"
thus providing the Jews with a sense of achieve Arab statesmen and their talk of "eliminating
ment and participation in the heroic events. the Zionist entity," talk which only died down
Israel is also presented in this light to the non after the Six Day War. From this poim of view,
Jewish world, in an attempt to silence criticism the PLO refusal to recognize Israel and to
of its policies with the unanswerable argument: amend the "Palestinian Covenant" are the last
"You, who stood idly on the sidelines during straws clutched at by Israeli policy.
16
Both images have, of course, little relation to future-the same Israel which at the same time
reality. Furthermore, the fact that Diaspora is pictured to them as a candidate for annihila
Jews, mainly those i n America, use Israel 10 tion. It would be useless to argue that this is a
view themselves as "vicarious heroes," while contradiction in terms, for we deal here with
they would not even dream of immigrating to utterly irrational attitudes. These Jews also
participate in the "heroic battles," intensifies tend as a rule to place a blind trust in Israel, and
ttheir sense of guilt and enhances the moral con· unlike the average American Jew, with whom
trol of the Israeli establishment. I would even the subject is more or less open to discussion,
hazard a guess that Ihis establishment is not one can hardly argue with them. Any Israeli
really interested in their immigration to Israel, action, however stupid or aggressive, wins
but prefers their guilty unstinting support from instinctive agreement and identification on
afar. their part. Thus, whereas many American Jews
It should be noted further that this massive experience an acute sense of discomfort,
transfer of Jewish (and non·Jewish) American embarrassment and even shame at Mr. Begin's
funds into the hands of the Israeli power elite behavior ahd rhetoric (not unlike the feelings
takes place without Ihe donors having any say many Israelis have about him), the laller iden
or right to criticize the ways that the money is tify with him completely, much more than they
spent in Israel itself. Only the Israelis, who, it is did with Mr. Rabin before him. For Begin is so
said, are on the spot and are more familiar with thoroughly a Diaspora Jew, one of their own, a
the situation than foreign Jews-being after all Holocaust survivor like them, that they say:
on the very firing line, facing the threat of the "To hell with what the Goyim think about his
new Holocaust-are entitled to express any style and personality. Anyway, who are those
opinion on the subject. Were not the danger of Goyim, if not actual or potential murderers?
a new Holocaust invoked again and again, Didn'l lhey rejoice in their hearts while we were
Diaspora Jews might have demanded more say being gassed and burned? So why should we
and participation in these decisions. Thus a sit care what they think?"
uation has been created in which the Jews of the I have tried to show how the invocation of
Diaspora, mainly those of the United States, the Holocaust is one of the main instruments by
have been converted into a kind of colonial pos which the Israeli power establishment controls
session of the Israeli power establishment, serv Diaspora Jewry and converts it into a tool of its
ing as an inexhaustible source of revenue, with economic policy, in addition to its use as a
out the right 10 exercise any control over its means of pressuring the non-Jewish world. The
expenditure, the sort of silUation which caused funds collected in this manner, without being
the British colonies i n North America to revolt controlled by their donors, are distributed
against the British crown under the slogan "No among the various institutions of the Israeli
laxation without representation!" power elite according to an agreed ratio, and in
This pattern is further reinforced by harping their turn serve as a means of manipulating the
J>n the feelings of insecurity of some American Israeli public, which has no say about their dis
Jews, mainly of the first and second genera tribution, either, since it has not contributed
tions of immigrants, concerning their position them. This process actually began in the '20s,
in American society. Again, Israel is presented when the Labor Movement denied the Zionist
as a refuge in a storm, as insurance against the organization any say about the allocation of the
17
funds entrusted to its care (d. J. Shapiro's milled to follow their natural course, the new
book The History of A"dut fla 'avoda). But Israeli nation would have developed indepen.
only after the war and the founding of the State dently of the Jewish Diaspora, and would even·
of Israel did the process reach its highest refine· {ually have formed a distinct and separate enti·
ment. In reality this means that it s
i a structural ty. The ties between this nation and the Dias·
haeresl oj Ihis syslem 10 perpelllafe Israel's pora would gradually have become feebler and
dependence on OIlIshle help, since if enables the vaguer, thus attentuating the ideological and
Israeli power eWe fa exploit Diaspora Jews, all the power basis of the ruling establishment . The l'J>
the one "and, (lIId maintai" its COII/roi over 'he leadership therefore set out to block and reverse
Israeli public, on the other, by means of the the process.
incoming contributions, without beillg obliged The most effective ideological tool for the
to rel/der an accoullf ofIllese resources 10 allY' achievement of this objective was the exploita·
body. This may lead us to view with a certain tion of Arab hatred, the drawing of an analogy
skepticism the talk about "economic indepen. between the Nazis and the Arabs, with the
dence," which has indeed almost disappeared corollary that Jewish destiny is the same every·
since the Six Day War. The country's economic where, in Israel or in the Diaspora, like a mark
dependence benefits the power eli Ie and helps of Cain branded on Jewish brows from the
to perpetuate it in power. This is irrespective of beginning of time by mysterious, supernatural
whether the government is that of the Align. forces; We are always an object of hatred and
ment, Mapam, Likud, the NRP, etc.-they all the urge to annihilate, here and everywhere,
are members of the system. Though the fore· now and always. The only difference between
going is a side issue of our theme, it deserves Israel and the Diaspora is that in Israel we can
fuller elaboration and treatment. fight back, whereas in the Diaspora we have no
I have stated before that the goal of Zionism alternative but "to be led to slaughter like
was to put an end to Jewish dispersal and to sheep." Inevitably this led to various historical
turn the Jews into a sovereign territorial nation. theories and conclusions about the unique,
And, indeed, in conformity with classical Zion· mystical course and meaning of Jewish history,
ist prediclions, according to which establishing to Messianic illuminations and so on, conclu·
the Jew on his own land would creale a new sions which the nationalistic right wing was
type of Jew and a new Jewish mentality, an quick to embrace, though in the Labor move·
independent national consciousness, distinct ment, where some vestiges of its rationalistic
from the Jewish one though having an affinity origins still persisted, there was a reluctance to
with it, began to develop in Eretz Israel. follow the inner logic of this argument. It need
Already in the '4Os and the '50s the leader hardly be said that in the writings of the found·
ship became aware of this process, which as a ers of Zionism there is vinually no trace of such
matter of fact began in its own ranks, as for an interprelatiion, as initially Zionism was an
example in Ben Gurion's transfer of emphasis attempt to provide a rational solution to the
to Eretz Israel, and his reversal of priorities frightful problems facing the Jewish people of
instead of the Hebrew Yislluv in Palestine servo Eastern and Central Europe during the crisis 0
ing the needs of the Jewish people, the Jewish the dynastic European systems. Had the found·
people were to become an instrument in the ers of Zionism conceived the Jewish problem in
hands of Ihe Yis/lllv. If mailers had been per· this light, they would hardly have arrived at the
18
•
Zionist solution. Their main aim was 10 put an fact that the Nazis invented the myth of the
end 10 "Jewish destiny," to the Jewish "Jewish Conspiracy" for the purpose of
"uniqueness as victims," and to create a mOTe inflaming an irrational, psychotic hatred of the
just society. If the purpose of Zionism had been Jews in the German people. whereas the Arabs
merely the establishment of a morc effective are engaged in a struggle against a real enemy
self-defense organization, they would not have whose might really threatens them, who has
considered the effort worthwhile. Thus the already caused the night of more than a million
-.
murder of Europe's Jews, which, as [ have of their brethren from their homes, and who is
argued earlier, should be IIl1derSlOod /1/ain/y in now subjugating another twO million. More
20
other side harbors intemions of annihilation
implies. in most cases, the presence of such
intentions toward the other side. An honest per
son should be extremely cautious before
endorsing such a thesis. as it may in reality
mean endorsing the massacre of innoccnts. (It
goes without saying that there are cases in
• which exterminatory intentions do exist, so that
a thorough examination of the facts is always in
ordeL)
The third result may be the gravest : A leader
ship cannot be divorced from its propaganda.
Sooner or later it too begins to believe in the
reality of Ihe propaganda image. This is panic
ularly true in the case of the present Israeli lead
ership, which is immeasurably more naive than
its predecessor, and also more a captive of
ideology and hallucination. Thus the leader
ship, 100, operates in the world of myths and
monsters which it has created in order to main
tain and perpetuate its power. It is no loger
capable of understanding what is happening in
the world, and the nature of the historical proc
esses in which its country is involved. Such a
leadership, in the deteriorating political and
economic situation of Israel today, constitutes
a grave danger to the very existence of the
Stale.
Thus, paradoxically, the "Holocaust con
sciousness" inculcated by propagandistic
means has produced a real danger of destruc
Isra(,1i soldIers.
tion. A precondition to the healing and revival
(he grounds that they displayed "chauvinist, of Israeli society is a realization of the country's
counter-revolutionary tendencies." Also, true historical and political status. As in psy
although such comparisons may be shocking, it choanalytical therapy, a recognition of your
should be remembered that the basic argument real condition is the beginning of the cure.
which the Nazis used to justify the murder of
the Jews was that the Jews were planning the
.' Boaz Evron is an Israeli philosopher and jour
ruin and destruction of the German people, so
nalisr; this arricle will be part of (J forthcoming
that the choice was between the destruction of
book critiquing Zionism.
the Jews or the destruction of the Germans.
Any argumentation based on claiming that the
21
TH E MALE IDEOLOGY
-O F PRIVACY:
A Fe m i n i st Pe rspective o n
t h e R i g h t t o Abort i o n
Catharine MacKinnon
t I argue thai privacy doctrine affirms what feminism rejects: the public/private split. Once the
sexuality is centraLJ Next, the legal concept of privacy is examined in the abortion context.
ideological meaning of the law of privacy is connected with a feminist critique of the public/
This paper was originally given as a sJ)«'Ch on a panel emitIe<!, "R(W v. Wade: A Retrospective" 31 a Conrerence on Persons.
Morality and Abortion at Hampshire College, January 2 1 . 1983.
23
private division, the Roe approach looks con and strategic as well as deep theoretical issues,
sistent with McRae's confinement of its reach. is to misassess where much of the opposition to
To guarantee abortions as an aspect of the pri abortion is coming from, and to make a lot of
vate, rather than of the public, sector is to guar mistakes. The second question I bracket is one
antee women a right to abortion subject to that, unlike the first, has been discussed exten
women's ability to provide it for ourselves. This sively in the abortion debate: the moral rightness
is to guarantee access to abortion only to some of abortion itself. My view, which the rest of tl)
women on the basis of class, not to women as what I say on abortion reflects, is that the abor
women, and therefore, under conditions of sex tion choice should be available and must be
inequality, to guarantee it to alf women only on women 's, but not because the fetus is not a
male terms. The rest of this is an attempt to form of life. The more usual approach tends to
unpack what I mean by that. make whether women should make the abor
I will neglect two important explorations, tion decision somehow contingent on whether
which I bracket now. The first is: what are the fetus is a form of life. Why shouldn't
babies to men? Sometimes men respond to women make life or death decisions? Which
women's right to abort as if confronting the returns us to the first bracketed issue.
possibility of their own potential nonexistence The issues I will discuss have largely not been
-at women's hands, no less. Men's issues of discussed in the terms I will use. What has hap
potency, of continuity as a compensation for pened instead, I think, is that women's embat
mortality, of the thrust to embody themselves tled need to survive in a system that is hostile to
or the image of themselves in the world, seem to our survival, the desperation of our need to
underlie their relation to babies, as well as to negotiate with whatever means that same sys
most everything else. The idea that women can tem will respond to, has precluded our explora
undo what men have done to them on this level tion of these issues i n the way that I am about
seems 10 provoke insecurity sometimes border to explore them. That is, the terms on which we
ing on hysteria. To overlook these meanings of have addressed the issue of abortion have been
abortion to men as men is to overlook political shaped and constrained by the very situation
that the abortion issue has put us in a position
to need to address. We have not been able to
risk thinking about these issues on our own
terms because the terms have not been ours
either in sex, in social life in general, or in
court. The attempt to grasp women's situation
on our own terms, from our own point of view,
defines the feminist impulse. I f doing thaI is
risky, our situation as women also makes it
risky not to.
So, first feminism, then law.
Most women who seek abortions became
pregnant while having sexual intercourse with
men. Most did not mean or wish to conceive. In
contrast to this fact of women's experience, the
Cartoons from Sour Cream, Slrebo Fell/illiSI Pllblishl'rs. 183 S""lIon Rd .. L ondo" E3
repeat offenders, high on the list of the Right's life-threatening procedure, than it is to protect
villains, their best case for opposing abortion as oneself in advance, sex doesn't look a whole lot
fcmale sexual irresponsibility. Ask such womcn like freedom . Yet the policy debate in the last
why they are repeatedly pregnant , they say twenty years has not explicitly approached
something like, the sex just happened. Like abortion in the context of how women get preg
every night for over a year.· 1 wonder if a nant, that is, as a consequence of sexual intcr
woman can be presumed to control access to course under conditions of gender inequality, Il)
her sexuality who feels unable 10 interrupt that is, as an issue of forced sex.
intercourse to insert a diaphragm; or worse, Now, law. In 1973, Roe against Wade found
Canl/Of even lV(lnf (0, aware that she risks a the right to privacy "broad enough to encom
pregnancy she knows she doesn't want. Do you pass a woman's decision whether or not to ter
think she would stop the man for any other rea minate her pregnancy. '" Privacy had previous
son, such as, for instance-the real taboo-lack ly been recognized as a constitutional principle
of desire? I f not, how is sex, hence its conse in a case that decriminalized the prescription
quences, meaningfully voluntary for women? and use of contraceptives.- Note that couns
Norms of sexual rhythm and romance that are implicitly connect contraception with abortion
felt interrupted by women's needs are con under the privacy rubric in a way tha parallels
structed against women's interests. When it the way I just did explicitly under the feminist
appears normatively less costly for women to rubric. In 1977. three justices observed, "In the
risk an undesired, often painful, traumatic, abortion context, we have held Ihal the right to
dangerous, somelimes illegal, and potentially privacy shields the woman from undue state
26
intrusion in and external scrutiny of her very sense of protC<"ting personal self-action on the
personal choice. •
.. In 1980, the Supreme Court other. This is a tension, not just two facets of
in Harris against McRae decided that this did one whole right. This tension is resolved from
not mean that federal Medicaid programs had the liberal state's point of view-l am now
to cover medically necessary abortions for poor moving into a critique of liberalism-by deline
l of the woman's choice was not unconstitution extent of penetration (a term I use advisedly)
women. , 0 According to the court, the privacy ating the threshold of the state as ils permissible
ally burdened by the government financing her into a domain that is considered free by defini
decision to continue, but not her decision to tion: the private sphere. By this move the state
end, a conception. The Supreme Court rea secures what has been termed "an inviolable
soned that "ahhough the government may not personality" by insuring what is called "auton
place obstacles in the path of a woman's exer omy or control over the intimacies of personal
cise of her freedom of choice, it may not identit y . " " The state does this by centering its
remove those not of its own creation . " " self-restraint on body and home, especially bed
Aside from holding the state exempt i n any room. By staying out of marriage and the fam
issue of the distribution of wealth, which is ily, prominently meaning sexuality, that is to
dubious, it was apparently a very short step say, heterosexuality, from contraception
from that which the government had a duty 110/ through pornography to the abortion decision,
to intervene in, as in Roe, and that which it has the law of privacy proposes to guarantee indi
110 dUly to intervene in, as in McRae. That this vidual bodily integrity, personal exercise of
discinction has consistent parallels in olher moral intelligence, and freedom of intimacy."
areas of jurisprudence and social policy-such What it actually does is translate traditional
as in the distinction between negative and posi social values into the rhetoric of individual
tive freedom'l and in the state action require rights as a means of subordinating those rights
ment "-does not mean that the public/private to social imperatives. 1 6 In feminist terms,
line that rorms their common dimension is not, applied to abortion law, the logic of Roe con
there as well as here, the gender line. The result summated in Narris translates the ideology of
of government's stance is also the same the private sphere into individual women's
throughout: an area of social life is cordoncd �ollective needs to the imperatives of male
off from the reach of explicitly recognized pub supremacy.
lic authority. This does not mean, as they think, This is my ten-year retrospective on Roe
that government stays out really. Rather, this against Wade. Reproduction is sexual, men con
leaves the balance of forces where they are trol sexuality, and the state supports the interest
socially. so that government's patterns or inter of men as a group. If Roe is part of this, why
vention mirror and magnify, thus authorize, was abortion legalized? Why were women even
the existing social divisions of power. imagined to have such a right as privacy? It is
The law of privacy, explicitly a public law not an accusation of bad faith to answer that
} agaillsf public intervention, is one such doc the interests of men as a social group converge
trine. Conceived as the outer edge of limited here with the definition of justice embodied in
government, it embodies a tension between pre law. The male point of view unites them. Tak
cluding public exposure or governmental intru ing this approach, one sees that the way the
sion on the one hand, and autonomy in the male point of view constructs a social event or
27
-
legal nOlion is the way 1M! event or nouon IS becomes clear why the struggle for reproductive
framed by state policy. For example. to the freedom, since Freud, has not included a
extent possession is the point of sex, illegal rape woman's right to refuse sex. In the post-Freud
will be sex with a woman who is not yours ian era, the notion of sexual liberation frames
unless the act makes her yours. If part of the the sexual equality issue as a struggle for
kick of pornography involves eroticizing the women to have sex with men on the same terms
putatively prohibited, illegal pornography as men: "without consequences." .
'
obscenity-will be prohibited enough to keep The abortion right, to the extent it has been
pornography desirable without ever making it admilled to have anything to do with sex, has
truly illegitimate or unavailable. If, from the been sought as freedom from the unequal
male standpoint, male is the implicit definition reproductive consequences of sexual expres
of human, maleness will be the implicit stan sion, with sexuality defined as centered on
dard by which sex equality is measured in dis heterosexual genital intercourse. It has been as
crimination law. In parallel terms, the availabil if it is biological organisms, rather than social
ity of abortion frames, and is framed by, the relations, that have sex and reproduce the
extent to which men, worked out among them species, and sex itself is "really" a gender-neu
selves, find it convenient to allow abortion-a tral, hence sex-equal, activity. But if you see
reproductive consequence of intercourse-to both sexuality and reproduction, hence gender,
occur. Abortion will then, to that extent, be as socially situated, and your issue is less how
available. more people can get more sex as it is than who,
The abortion policy debate has construed the socially, defines what sexuality-hence pleasure
issues rather differently. The social problem and violation-is, the abortion right becomes
posed by sexuality since Freud" has been seen situated within a very different problematic: the
as the problem of the repression of innate desire social and political problematic of the inequal
for sexual pleasure by the constraints of civil ity of the sexes. As Susan Sontag said, "Sex
ization. Gender inequality arises as an issue in itself is not liberating for women. Neither is
the Freudian context in women's repressive more sex . . . . The question is, what sexuality
socialization to passivity and coolness (so shall women be liberated to enjoy ? " " To
called frigidity), in women's so-called desexual address this for purposes of abortion policy,
ization, and in the disparate consequences of from a feminist perspective, requires reconceiv
biology, that is, pregnancy. Who defines what ing the problem of sexuality from the repres
is seen as sexual, what sexuality therefore is, to sion of drives by civilization to the oppression
whom what stimuli are erotic and why, and of women by men.
who defines the conditions under which sexual Most arguments for abortion under the
28
----
more than our bodies singular, something "you" has no obligation to be a life support
closer 10 a net of relations. relations in which system for the famous violinist ("he") Olle is
we are (so far unescapedly) gendered, might be forcibly connected to. On Ihis basis, "one" is
al stake." Some feminists have noticed thaI our argued to have no Obligation to support a
"right to decide" has become merged with an feIUS." Never mind Ihat no womall who needs
overwhelmingly male professional's right not 10 an abortion, no woman period, is valued, no
have his professional judgment second-guessed potential an actual woman's life might hold
by the govcrnment,lO But most abortion advo- would be cherished, comparable to a male
.. cales have argued in rigidly and rigorously gen famous violinist's unencumbered possibilities.
dcr-neulral terms. In the crunch, few women look like unborn
Consider, for instance, Judith Jarvis Thom Beethovens, even to sex-blind liberals. Not to
son's celebrated hypothetical case justifying mention that the underlying parallel 10 rape in
abortion, in which a gender-neutral abducted Ihe hypothetical-I he origin in force, in abduc-
29
tion, that gives it weight while confining its
application to instances in which force is recog
nized as force-is seldom interrogated in the
abortion context for its apQlicability to the nOT-
mal case. And abortion policy has to be made
for the normal case. While the hypothetical
makes women's rights depend by analogy on JJ)
what is not considered the normal case,
Thomson finds distinguishing rape from inter
course has "a rather unpleasant sound" princi
pally because fetal rights should not depend on
the conditions of conception. My point is that
in order to apply even something like Thom
son's parallel to the usual case of need for an
abortion requires establishing some relation
between intercourse and rapc-sexuality-and
conception. This issue has been avoided in the
abortion context by acting as if (lssuming
women arc persons sexually will make us per
sons reproductively, as if treating women in
gender-neutral terms analytically will remove
the social reality of gender from the situation.
By this sentimentality, liberal feminism
obscures the unequal gender basis on which it
allempts to construct women's equal person
hood.
Abortion without a sexual critique of gender
inequality, I have said, promises women sex
with men on the same terms as men. Under
conditions under which women do not control
access to our sexuality, this facilitates women's
heterosexual availability. It promises lIIell
women on male terms. I mean, under condi
tions of gender inequality, sexual liberation in
this sense does not free women, it frees male
sexual aggression. Available abortion on this
basis removes one substantial legitimized
reason that women have had, since Freud, for .
refusing sex besides the headache. Analyzing
the perceptions upon which initial male support
for abortion was based, Andrea Dworkin says:
"Gelling laid was at stake. "H The Playboy
30
Foundation has supported abortion rights from allow force in private-the " why doesn'\ she
day one; it continues to, even with shrinking leave" question raised to battered women-is a
disposable funds, on a level of priority com question given its urgency by the social meaning
parable to its opposition to censorship. There is of the private as a sphere of equality and
also evidence that men eroticize abortion choice. But for women the measure of the inti
itself. " macy has been the measure of the oppression.
• Privacy doctrine is an ideal legal vehicle for This is why feminism has had to explode the
the process of sexual politics I have described. private. This is why feminism has seen the per
The democratic liberal ideal of the private holds sonal as the political. In this sense, for women
that, so long as the public does not interfere, as such there is no private, either normatively
autonomous individuals interact freely and or empirically. Feminism confronts the reality
equally. Conceptually, this private is hermetic. that women have no privacy to lose or \0 guar
It mealls that which is inaccessible to, un antee. We have no inviolability. Our sexuality is
accountable 10, unconstructed by anything not only violable, it is, hence we are, seen in
beyond itself. By definition, il is not part of or and as our violation. To confront the fact that
conditioned by anything systematic or outside we have no privacy is \0 confront the intimate
itself. It is personal, intimate, autonomous, degradation of women as the public order.
particular, individual, the original source and In Ihis light, recognizing abortion under the
final outpost of Ihe self, gender-neutral. Pri legal right 10 privacy is a complicated move.
vacy is, in short, defined by everything that Freedom from public intervention coexists un
feminism reveals women have never been easily with any right which requires social pre
allowed to be or to have. as well as by conditions to be meaningfully delivered. If in
everything that women have been equated with equality, for example, is socially pervasive and
and defined in terms of me" 's ability 10 have. enforced, meaningful equality will require
The liberal definition of the private does not intervention, not abdication. But the right to
envisage public complaint of social inequality privacy is not thought to require social change
within it. In the liberal view, no act of the state to be meaningful. It is not even thought 10
contributes to, hence properly should partic require any social preconditions. other than
ipate in, shaping its internal alignments or nonintervention by the public. The point for
distributing its internal forces, including in the abortion cases is not only that indigency,
equalities among parties in private. Its inviol which was the specific barrier to effective
ability by Ihe state, framed as an individual choice in McRae, is well within public power to
right, presupposes that il is nOt already an arm remedy, nor that the state, as I said, is hardly
of the state. It is not even a social sphere, exact exempt in issues of the distribution of wealth. It
ly. Intimacy is implicitly thought to guarantee is rather that Roe against Wade presumes that
symmetry of power. Injuries arise in violating governmental nonintervention into the private
the private sphere, Ilot within and by and sphere in itself amounts to, or at the least pro
" because of it. motes, woman's freedom of choice. When the
In private, consent tends to be presumed. It is alternative is jail, there is much to be said for
true that a showing of coercion voids this pre this argument. But the McRae result sustains
sumption. But the problem is gelling anything the meaning of the privacy recognized in Roe:
private perceived as coercive. Why one would women are guaranteed by the public no more
31
than what we can secure for ourselves in pri have provided a choice these women did not
vate. That is, what we can extract through our have in private. The women in McRae. poor
intimate associations with men. Women with women and women of color whose sexual refus
privileges get rights. al has counled for especially Iiltle, U needed
Women got abortion as a private privilege, something to make their privacy real. The logic
not as a public right. We got control over repro of the court's response to them resembles that
duction that is controlled by "a man or The by which women are supposed to consenl to
Man, ":0 an individual man or (mostly male) sex. Preclude the alternatives, then call the sole t))
doctors or the government. In this sense, abor option remaining "her choice." The point is
tion was not simply decriminalized, it was legal that the woman's alternatives are precluded
ized; Roe set the stage for state regulation of prior to the reach of the chosen remedy, the
the conditions under which women can have legal doctrine. They are pr('Cluded by condi
access to this right. Much of the control that tions of sex, race, and class-the conditions the
women got out of legalization of abortion went privacy frame not only assumes, but works to
directly into the hands of men socially-hus guarantee. These women were seen, essentially,
bands, doctors, fathers . Much of the rest of it as not having lost any privacy by having public
women have had to fight to keep from state funding for abortions withheld, as having no
al1empts, both legislative and administrative, to privacy to lose. In the bourgeois sense, in which
regulate it out of existence.ll you can have all the rights you can buy, con
It is not inconsistent, in this light, that a verging with that dimension of male supremacy
woman's decision to abort, framed as a privacy that makes the self-disposition money can buy a
right, would have no claim on public funding prerogative of masculinity, this was true. The
and might genuinely not be seen as burdened by McRae result certainly made it true.
that deprivation. Privacy conceived as a right The way the law of privacy restricts inlru
from public intervenlion and disclosure is the sions into inlimacy also bars change in control
conceptual opposite of the relief McRae sought over that intimacy. The existing distribution of
for welfare women. State intervention would power and resources within the private sphere
will be precisely what the law of privacy exists
to protect. Just as pornography is legally pro
tected as individual freedom of expression with
out questioning whose freedom and whose
expression and at whose expense, abstract pri
vacy protects abstract autonomy without
inquiring into whose freedom of action is being
sanctioned, at whose expense. I think it is not
coincidence that the very place (the body), the
very relations (heterosexual), the very activities
(intercourse and reproduction), and the very
feelings (intimate) that feminism has found cen- •
tral to the subjection of women, form the core
of privacy law's coverage. In this perspective,
the legal concept of privacy can and has shield-
32
ed the place of battery, marital rape, and NOTES
• enforced.
through which male supremacy is expressed and WOn/l'n in ClI/l!lre a'ld Socil'ty 7. no. 3 (Spring 1982):
515-44.
4. Sa' D.H. Regan, "Rewriting Roe v. Wade, " Michigan
To fail to recognize the meaning of the pri
Low RI'�il'w 77 (August 1979): 1569-1646. in which the
vate in the ideology and reality of women's Good Samaritan, by analogy. happens upon the fetu5.
subordination by seeking protection behind a S . As or 1973. ten states that made abortion a crime had
right 10 Ihal privacy is to cut women off from exceptions for rape and incest: al Icast three had exceptions
for rape only. Many of these exceptions were based on
collective verification and state support in the
Model Penal Code Section 230.3 (proposed Official Draft
same act. When women are segregated in pri
1962). quoted in DlN v. Bollon, 410 U.S. 179. 205-7, app. B
vate, separated from each Olher, one at a time, (l97J). permitting abortion. inter alio in cases of "rape,
a right /0 that privacy isolates us at once from incest, or other felonious intercourse." References to Slates
each other and from public recourse, even as it with incest and rape exceptions can be found in Roe �.
Wade, 410 U.S. 1 1 3 , n. 37 (1973). Some versions of the
provides the only form of that recourse made
Hyde Amendment. which prohibits use of public money to
available to us. So defined, the right to privacy
fund abortions. have contained exceptions for cases of rape
has included a right of men "to be let alone"l1 or incest. PUb. L. No. 95-205, § 101, 91 stat. 1960 (1972):
to oppress women one at a time. It embodies Pub. L. No. 95-480, § 210, 92 Stat. 1567, 1586(1978); Pub.
and reflects the private sphere's existing defini L. No. 96-123. 109. 93 Stat. 923. 926 (I979); Pub. L. No.
96-536, § 109. 94 Stat. 3166. 3170 (1980). All require imme
tion of womanhood. As an instance of liberal
diate reporting of the incidelll.
ism-applied to women as if we are persons,
6. Kristin Luker. Taking Chm,ces: Aborlion ond the Deci
gender-neutral-Roe against Wade reinforces
sioll NOI 10 COnlracept (Berkeley: Uni�ersity or California
the division between public and private, a divi Press. 1975), p. 47.
sion that is not gender-neutral. It is at once an 7. Roe, 410 U.S. at 153.
ideological division thai lies about women's 8. Griswold �. Connecticm, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).
shared experience and mystifies the unity 9. H.1.... 11. Matheson, 450 U.S. 398, 435 (dissent) (1981);
See also Whalen �. Roe, 429 U.S. 589. 599-600 (1977).
among the spheres of women's violation, and a
to. Horris 11. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980).
very material division that keeps the private I I . Harris, 448 U.s. at 316.
beyond public redress and depoliticizes 12. Isaiah Berlin. "Two Concepts of Liberty," in Berlin,
women's subjection within it. It keeps some Fortr Essays on Uberly (Oxford, 1969).
men out of the bedrooms of other men. ll. See Paul Brest, "State Action and Liberal Theory: A
Cascnote on f'logg Brothers 11. Brooks. " llO U. Pa. L. Rev.
There seems to be a social perception that the
1296(1982).
Right has the high moral ground on abortion 14. Tom Gerety, "Redefining Privacy," Harvard C;\·i/
and the liberals have the high legal ground.1t I Righls-Civil Uberties Law Re�iew 12. no. 2 (Spring 1977):
have tried to sketch a feminist ground, a polit 236.
11
Virgi/lia. 388 U.S. 1 ( l 967) (marriage partners). Skinller I'. 20. K. Glen. "Abortiou in the Courts: A Lay Woman'S
Oklahoma. 316 U.S. S35 (1942) (n13le fertility), as well as Historical Guide to lhe New Disaster Area," Fl'lIIinist Swd
ROf' I'. Wadt'o OM 1'. Common...t'I1llh's Altornl'),. 403 F. if'S 4 ( 1 978): L
Supp. 1199(D. Va. 1975) (homosexual conduct not protect 2 1 . Judith Jarvis Thomson. "A Defense of Abortion,"
ed. since "no part of marriage. home or family life. ") For Philosoplry and Public A//oirs I , no. I (1971): 47-66.
the second, Ne ... York �. Ollo/r(', 424 N.Y.S_ 2d 566 22_ A. Dworkin, Righl- Willg Womell (New York: Pcrigee.
( 1 980) (invalidating criminal sodomy statute). It is consis 1983). YOl/ lIl1/Sf reod lhis book. The support of men for
tent with this analysis that homosexuality. when protected abortion largcl� evaporatcd or became very equivocal when
or found officially aceeptable, would primarily be in pri the women's movement produced. instead. women who
.
'
vate (i.e. in the closet) and primarily parodying rather than refused sex with men and left men in drov(5. The fact that
challenging the heterosexual model. Kenneth Karst Jane Roe was pregnant from a gang rape. a fact which was I
attempts to include both approaches 10 privacy in his for not part of the litigation (" 'Jane Roc' Says Shc'd Fight
mation of " intimate association." yet implicitly retains the Abortion Battle Again." Milllleapolis Star &: Tribune. lan. ,
heterosexual model as celUral to his definition of the mean 22. 1983), is emblematic of the se�ual dimension of the
ing of intimacy. "By 'intimate association' I mean a close issue. As furtller evidence, see Friedrich Engels arguing that
and familiar personal relationship with another that is in removing private housekeeping into social industry would
some significam way comparable to a marriage or family " remove all the an�iet� about 'consequences,' which today
relationships. _ _ but in principle the idea of imimatc associ is the most (5sential social-moral as well as economic
ation also includes close friendship. with or without any factor that prevents a girl from giving herself completely to
sllch links." K.L. Karst, " The Freedom of lmimate Assod the man she loves." Origil' 0/ lire Family, P';I'ole PrOI)f'rty
alion," Yult' La", Journal 89, no. 4 (March 1980). p. 629. allt/ lhl' SIOII' (New York: International Publishers, 1973).
On pornography. see Slo/lley I'. Georgia. 394 U.S. 557 p. 139_
(1969) and Lovisi �. SllIylOlI, 539 F. 2d 349 (�th Cir. 1976). 23. Andrea Dworkin's analysis of the Marquis de Sade's
Taken together. these cases suggest that Mr_ Stanlcy's pri statements on abortion revcal that "Sade e�10lled lhe sex
vacy rights encompass looking at pornography rcgardless ual value of murder and he saw abortion as a form of mur
34
ute requiring physicians to notify parents of "depcndelll,
CATHARINE A. MacKINNON is a leacher,
unmarried minor girl" prior to performins an abonion),
8elloui �. Baird, 443 U.S. 672 (1977) (Bellotti II) (holding
lawyer, wriler, ond activist cllrrelltly leaching 01
that parelllS may not have absolute veto power over their the University of Minnesota Law School,
minor daughter'S decision), /Joe v. Gerslein. 5 1 7 F. 2d 787
/'d 417 U.S. 281 (1974) (mandatory writ
(5th Cir. 1975). af
..
ten consent requirements of husbands' parelllS unconstitu-
lional). In Planned Puremflood of Mo. 1'. DUllforlh. 428
U.S, S2 (1976) the Supreme Coun held that a SlalC cannol
by statute allow a man to veto a wifc's abortion choice in
part ba;ause the state cannot givc a husband riShts over the
,,'oman's reproductil'c choicc that thc statc itself docs not
have, This leads one to wonder wherc thc stales gal their
power to regulate (under some circumstancC'<; preclude)
abortions in the second and third trimesters, where appa
rently "public" considcrations can wcigh against Ihe
woman's "private" choice. Could states, by statues, allow
husbands 10 vcto abortions Ihen? Whelher courts can do by
injunction what states cannOt do by statute is discussed if
and /Junny A 1111 Frir� �, Chris A 1/1'1/ Frilz. 295 Md. 268, 454
not rcsolvcd in l-/ugerSIOl>'1I Repmdllcril'e Healrh Sf>rl'ices
44 pages of oems by
CIII (girls younger than 15). what doctors have to tell women
recognized andanonymous
prior to the procedure (e.g.. tactile sensitivitics of a fetus). p
when a abortion can be performed (24 hours afler oonsent),
and how the "fetal remains" mUSI be disposed of.
poets of Asia. Africa
and the Americas
26. The following statistics were reported in 1970: 79 per
celli of New York Cily's abortion deaths occurred among
black and Puerto Rican woman; the abortion death rate
was 4.7 times as high for Pucrto Rican womcn, and 8 limes
as high for black women as for white women. Lucinda Cis
ler, "Unfinished Business: Birth Control and Women's
Uberation." in SiSlerhood is PO"'erful: All Alllhology of
Wri/illgs froll/ Ihe Women's Li/)('ru/iOIl /110\'/'11/1'111. cd.
Robin Morgan (New York: Vintage 1970), p, 291.
27. The classic anicle formulating privaty as "the right \0
d''I1i1..I,'�
{postpaid) to Rnou.c. "I "t"" WIRE
(Mass, 1981). ",,,,,, i"l.
Exchngf
28. l owe this conception of public debate to Jay Garfield.
2700 Broadway "" '�'!"'"
Hampshire College, Amherst, /l.Iassachuse!l$.
Nfw York. N.Y,
100"
35
..
Write Legibly
1
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� ��
=.. � . .- .
.
J, -+--+-+
.
. ,. -t
·f-t -t--'0'--.. '/-----1-+
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,
- _,.
- 1
Paul Berman
Look for insights into the question of radicalism and the Jews, and even loday. half a
century after his moment, you must turn back to Michael Gold. He was no genius. His col
umns for The Daily Worker were thoroughly lamentable; year after year he vilified his liter
classic, Jews WithoUl MOlley, reads as if meant to be played by Rumanian violins. But what
ary betters on behalf of (he Communist Party. Oflen his stuff was sentimental-his single
What writer has better evoked the emotions of the old Jewish working class of 60 or 70 years
other writer has put his finger on the exact spot where Jewishness and socialism converge?
ago, the weepy bitter emOlions which led to dreams of revolution and utopia and which left
a residue thai still survives? Even Gold's dreadful qualities conjure the atmosphere of the
historic Jewish left, for he was a representative figure, and if he strikes us today as mawkish,
awful, a disgrace and a fool, you can be sure he was, at least, the real thing.
Gold certainly played a role in the development of American literature, which makes it
)' hard to understand why there's so liltle you can read about him. During the 1920s he teamed
up with John Dos Passos and John Howard Lawson (who remained his disciple for many
years) in a radical theater venture. He was the man who pushed Edmund Wilson and all sorts
of other liberals into Marxism at the beginning of the 30s; his literary criticism counted for a
RcprinlC'ti wilh permission from Ihe March. 198), Lilerary SuppLemcm of Ihe Villagi' VoiCl' (New York). 1983 Vil/agi'
V()iCl'.
J9
good deal during the brief period in the Depres the left-wing movement. He wandered up to
sion when the middle class was thought to have Union Square and found Emma Goldman,
died. Jews Will/olll Money is itself a landmark: Alexander Berkman, and other anarchists har
the first Jewish novel to make a dent on Amer anguing a crowd of anti-unemployment demon
ican culture. After Gold, the deluge, so to strators; or maybe it was Elizabeth Gurley
speak. Flynn doing the haranguing-the story varied.
Nevertheless. the best writings on him Either way, the cops charged. Gold was ..
remain a couple of essays by clubbed, and his literary-revolutionary career
Michael Folsom, the son of an old associate of began at once.
Gold's, which came out more than a decade Here, however, his experience started on an
ago. John Pyros has done a brave thing in pub idiosyncratic course. Historians have often
lishing his own critical study, Mike Gold, after remarked that for a good many immigrants in
several publishers turned it down; but Pyros's this period, radicalism held the promise of
scholarship is shaky and his book makes only a assimilation. If you became a leftist, you could
tiny contribution. No one at all has produced a stop being a Jew. The old socialist ideals
full-scale biography. No one has even looked at atheism, plus the universal brotherhood of the
certain of the major research sources, for international working class, regardless of race
instance a long manuscript by Gold's brother, -relieved the pressure of Jewish tradition and
Manny Granich, describing Manny's career as meant you could throw yourself into life as an
Communist agitator, anti-Japanese publisher in international proletarian without fear of
China, Earl Browder's chauffeur, etc. becoming a Christian-type apostate. Accord
But we do know enough about Gold to see ingly a good many radical Jews abandoned the
how he got his insights into Jewish radicalism. ghetto, abandoned their Yiddish, abandoned
His home and turn-of-the-century childhood their names, and assimilated. Today, in our age
were the standard fare of the old left. Poppa of exaggerated ethnic sensibility, we can see the
was evidently not quite so poor as Gold made holes in this notion of left-wing universalism.
out. Instead of an unemployed wage-slave. he For what did these assimilated radicals assim
was a storefront manufacturer of suspender ilate into? They swarmed into environments
fixtures, until the business folded and he that were barely less Jewish than what they had
became an unemployed ex-manufacturer left behind: the old Marxist parties, the Jewish
which was poor enough. The family lived in a labor movement, the cafeteria at City College,
tenement on Chrystie Street in what was then environments where they could fool themselves
the Rumanian-Jewish district on the Lower into thinking that Jewishness lay in the past and
East Side. Gold went to P .S. 20, but his teach that the plight of the Jews was easily solved.
ers there were from a world too remOte for him Yes, they would say to one another-in their
to appreciate. He received some religious edu Yiddish-tinged accents, while looking up from
cation, but his instructors and rabbis were from their deep Talmudic study of the ancient Marx-
the middle ages; Judaism as an intellectual sys ist texts-now that we are free of Jewishness, •
tem seemed dead as a doornail. how do we solve the problem of Negroes in the
Not until he was 21 did he stumble, almost South? This was not an atmosphere conducive
literally (if we are to believe his account), onto to insights into Jewish experience.
4{)
Gold was also an assimilationist. "I am one Raids and a period of police-state repression
of those who see only good in assimilation," he arrived, he decided to Americanize still further;
liked to say, and declared himself "willing to but the name he chose-"Michael Gold"-was
surrender all that I know is good in the Jewish remarkable because while definitely more
tradition in return for a greater good." But the American-sounding, it was not less Jewish.
course he followed made self·deception in these He kept up this theme of Jewish affirmation
)' matters a little more difficult. On one hand he even after he became a big-time literary critic.
kept coming back to stay with his mother (his He was a conspicuous opponent of literary anti
father had died) on Chrystie Street, and instead Semitism. He attacked Archibald MacLeish for
of feeling ashamed of his old home, enjoyed a mildly anti-Semitic poem (which MacLeish
showing it off; his friend Hugo Gellert, the afterward changed), he attacked Theodore
artist recently told me about visiting Gold and Dreiscr, and he made these attacks with a lot of
eating one of his mother's dinners. On the other force, not to say venom. He was really a first·
hand he assimilated into an environment that rate street fighter; if he decided to compare you
was genuinely non-Jewish: the Greenwich Vil and your reactionary ideas to Adolf Hitler, you
[age literary radicalism of The Masses maga· stayed compared. Looking through Gold's
zine, whose leading lights were old·line WASPs writings today, these anti-anti·Semitic bashings
like Max Eastman and John Reed. Greenwich loom as some of the best things he did. The rest
Village put him in touch with the larger world. of his criticism had little to do with Jews and
One of his literary contacts got him admitted to the Jewish question. He Iried to pioneer a seri
Harvard for a semester as a special student, ous Marxist approach; he emphasized issues of
which was not like going to CUNY. He took to social class; he attempted to project a working
wandering around Massachusetts as a labor person's resentments into his literary analysis.
agitator; he met Vanzetti; he called himself a But even here his fizz and crackle may have
Wobbly. come from a Jewish sense of indignation. In his
These circumstances seem to have encour recent book, Foreigners, Marcus Klein makes a
aged in Gold an awareness of Jewish identity pretty good case for this. Klein points to Gold's
unusual among left-wing assimiialOrs. Perhaps single most influential Marxist essay, a blanket
he also noticed an advantage in coming from a bombing mission across the complete works of
background that struck his unprejudiced gentile Thornton Wilder, in which Wilder was ridi
comrades as colorful. In any case, he staned culed for writing prissy Christian escape fanta
strumming the Jewish string. He sang Yiddish sies. The ridiculing sparked an uproar which
songs to Dorothy Day, in the period when they took up a good part of 1930; it was the occasion
were hanging out together and working on the which prompted Edmund Wilson to announce
Socialist Party newspaper. His by-lines in them that class war was breaking out in the field of
selves hit a Jewish nOle. Originally his name literature; it marked the beginning of Marxism
was hzok Isaac Granich, which he American- as a force in American criticism. But Klein has
) ized to "Irwin Granich." His first work in The gone back and looked into this uproar, and has
Masses-a poem commemorating the three noticed that many of the people who objected
anarchists who blew up themselves, instead of to Gold opposed him not as a Marxist, but as
Rockefeller, on Lexington Avenue in 1 9 1 4- an iIl·mannered Jew harassing the Christians.
was signed "Irwin Granich." When the Palmer (And no question about his manners.) Is it pos·
41
sible that Gold didn't realize what meaning his Yard. That's where they keep the American
Marxism would acquire in a Christian culture? warships. Sailors are a lot of Irish bums. Once I
Not to push too hard on his Jewish side. He had a fight with a sailor and knocked his looth
was, in his essays, a straight-out Marxist first, out. He called me a Jew.'
and most of his writings on Jewish issues simply " 'Ain't you a Jew?' I asked timidly. as my
plugged in the right Marxist doctrine concern greedy eyes drank in the panorama.
ing anti-Semitism (down with racism, the Jews " 'Of course I'm a Jew,' said Nathan, in his
.,
aren't all moneylenders, indeed most of them rough iron voice. 'I'm proud I'm a Jew, but no
are working people). He made sure not to look Irish bum can call me names, or call me a Jew.'
like a Jewish nationalist. The lines embracing .. 'Why?' I asked.
assimilation that are quoted a few paragraphs "I was very logical when I was seven years
back appeared in one of his attacks on anti old.
Semitism; he didn't want to compromise his " 'Why?' Nathan mimicked me with a sneer.
Marxist orthodoxy. 'Why? You tell a kid something, and he asks
Only in Jews Wi/how Money did he let him why? Kids give me a headache.' Nathan spat his
self go, let himself depart from the conven disgust into the river. The blob of spit fell a
tional or mechanical Marxist line. He began by third of a mile."
putting Jewishness in a sympathetic light. That blob-representing the hopelessness of
Though not 100 sympathetic: he sends little explaining anything so ambiguous as Jewish
"Mikey Gold," his fictionalized autobiograph ness, but also the sense of dignity a working
ical hero, on jaunts through the streetS, and one man might derive from it-was Gold's most
of the main things Mikey encounters is the vivid image.
ignorant primitivism that constitutes Jewish He didn't write about the class struggle,
ness for the East Side masses. A mob of Jews in except indirectly. The Communist critics
front of a Second Avenue church laughs hilari weren't thrilled about this. They wanted to sec
ously at a church sexton scrubbing down a strikes and barricades in Communist novels,
statue of Jesus. "Jesus is taking a bath!" they and pointed out that the real-life East Side dur-
jeer. That's pretty primitive. But at the same ing Mikey's years was full of real-life picket
time Gold was careful to show that even the lines. Instead Gold paid closer attention 10 the
crudest national pride among these lowly immi slTuggle between generations. But this struggle
grants has an element of justified protest, con too had historical reality and yielded a very
tains a seed of admirable self-esteem and dig good theme, which in general terms can be
nity; and Ihal Jewishness cannot be slotted into described this way. Immigration doomed the
easy political categories. His achievement was greenhorn generation to a lifetime of unhappi
to work this view into the city landscape. One ness. Their poveny was tOO great, their oppor
of his best scenes shows little Mikey riding tunities were tOO small, and their lives were
across the Brooklyn Bridge on a funeral horse defined by the kind of neighborhood Gold so
coach with Nathan, the driver, who is deliver redolently described-a neighborhood where .
ing a corpse to the cemetery; and while this is dead horses in the Street gathered flies and chil
happening the vagaries of Jewish identity prac dren, where prostitutes crowded the sidewalk
tically fall into the East River. and thugs hung out on rooftops and where. in
.. 'Look Mikey. down there. That's the Navy another of his brilliant images, even the tene-
42
ment buildings groan with pain. The one hope not only to make their own way through the
for these people was to abandon hope, give up ghetto but to justify their unhappy parents as
even the tiniest ambitions for themselves, deny well.
themselves even the smallest comforts-and This was a fine theme, and no one who reads
stake everything on the children. For if they Jews WirhoUl MOlley is likely to forget how
gave the children everything, maybe this next Gold deals with it in the central episode of the
.,' generation would have a better chance. And book. He describes peddling papers as a kid on
thus the whole emotional tragedy of the immi the Bowery during a big snow storm. Quitting
gration passed from beaten-down Old World at dusk, he sets off for home and runs into his
greenhorns to the almost equally beaten-down father, who is tending a banana cart in the snow
little graduates of P .S. 20, who were obliged near Cooper Union. The East Side masses are
43
streaming past on their way home from work sorrow of the children, the ruined lives, the
"a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home" deformed misfits, the squalor, the vast sea of
-but no one stops to buy bananas. His father groans encompassing the entire neighborhood
is tOO proud and depressed to holler out his -all this will lead to social change. The Mes
goods like other peddlers, and lillIe Mikey feels siah is the revolution.
with a surge of guilt how badly his father's life Gold's linle stroke of genius in Jews Without
has gone, how miserably he has failed in his Money was to evoke this Jewish socialist emo
.'
ambitions. So he offers to do the hollering for tion, yet nOl seem to; to make socialism central
him and, overwhelmed with feelings, screams 10 the novel, yet never bring it on stage. He sup
his lungs out. Still no one buys, and his father plies all kinds of political references-to Zion-
starts to speak. He confesses he is a failure: "a ism, to Teddy Roosevelt, to William Jennings
poor lillIe Jew without money." "Pappa, lots Bryan-but almost never mentions the left
of Jews have no money," Mikey says, desper wing movement. The left comes up only in an
ate to comfort him. " I know it, my son, but odd l2-line pOStscript, in a sort of curtain call.
don't be one of them . . . . Promise me you'll be Yet though socialism keeps away from the
rich when you grow up, Mikey!" "Yes, action, it exerts a pressure. You get the impres-
Pappa." "Ach," Pappa says, "this is my one sion that everything Gold has depicted is merely
hope now! This is all that makes me happy ! " a prelude to a revolution, and the revolution is
I don't think it too much to say that in scenes so inevitable it doesn't need to be described.
like this Gold stumbled on one of the bigger Socialism does figure in one place, however;
themes in Jewish literature. It is the idea that it is part of the narrator's personality, part of
suffering has meaning, that the Jews muSt suf the image Gold drew of "Michael Gold," thai
fer, but not forever; for suffering has a pur literary creation. He never lets you forget that
pose. This idea is liable to three interpretations. the little ragamuffin Yid whose adventures he
Poppa offers the bourgeois interpretation: rich describes has grown up to be a big radical and
es in the next generation wiII redeem misery in undertaken to redeem the misery of the East
the present. There is also of course the religious Side. If the bug-infested tenement produced
interpretation, which Mikey entertains for nothing else, it produced the narrator's left
awhile: the Messiah (looking like Buffalo Bill, wing vocation. Here then is where Jewishness
in Mikey's American imagination) will come and socialism finally converge: they converge in
and redeem everything. The book's narrator, the character "Michael Gold." This is moving.
Michael Gold the grown-up author. rejects It is also, Gold being Gold, sentimental. For
both of these interpretations. He has no use for who is the human inspiration behind the narra
religion. He thinks riches in the next generation tor's adult career? Who is the ultimate source
are a pipe dream; he doesn't believe in the myth of socialist aspiration, the Jewish heart that
44
taught me that!" of literary theory. But he early on adopted a
And the vat of schmaltz tips over. spirited style from the old Masses, a bad-boy
• • • romanlic-rebel posture, which didn't require a
The mystery of Michael Gold is why, having big repertoire of profound ideas. You could
accomplished this much, he never accomplished count on him to stand up and say the opposite
more. He was 37 in 1930, when Jews Wilhour of what everyone else was saying. He asked
MOlley came out, and he had a great deal going obnoxious Marxist questions: that was his
) method, and in his younger days, that was
for him. The book sold well and for the first
time in his life there was money in the bank; he almost good enough. In 1928 everyone else was
bought a farm in Pennsylvania. He was estab saying Hemingway was wonderful and terrific,
lished as the leading Marxist literary critic in but Gold asked how Hemingway's characters
America. Sinclair Lewis talked him up in his made their livings. How were they able to ram
Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Edmund Wil ble around Europe the way they did? Did they
son wrote sympathetic articles about his opin have a mysterious income, or what? He called
ions in the New Republic. He seemed to repre Hemingway a "White Collar Poet"-a spinner
sent the coming wave in American writing of daydreams for the white-collar class. That
indeed more than a coming wave, a golden age was obnoxious, but it made good Marxist
of literature that many writers earnestly sense, and was original, besides.
expected. The literary enthusiasms he cultivated in the
His reputation and influence continued to early period had some of the same virtues. His
grow. But he wasn't able to write much else that manifestos for a "proletarian" literature were
was good, either in fiction or in criticism. His splendidly imaginative, if you didn't take them
difficulties with fiction are easiest to under too literally. The image he propsed for his liter
stand. He never had great powers of invenlion. ary proletarians was marvelous. "A new writer
Jews Wilholll MOlley was a fictionalized mem has been appearing." he wrote, "a wild youth
oir and successful for that reason. Perhaps if he of about 22, the son of working-class parellls,
had been willing to go on in this one vein he who himself works in the lumber camps, coal
could have done more; but no doubt he hated mines, and steel mills, harvest fields and moun
the idea of writing the same son of thing over tain camps of America. He is sensitive and
and over. His non memoir fiction always impatient. He writes in jets of exasperated feel
seemed geared to Marxist formulas. Possibly ing . . . . He is violent and sentimental by turns
the criticism he received from fellow Commu . . . . He is a Red but has few theories. It is all
nists about Jews Wirhoul MOlley-not enough instinct with him . . . . .. Gold wanted to attach
class struggle-inhibited him. Wilson thought these wild youths to the labor movement; they
this was Ihe case. were going to be industrial correspondents and
The decline in Gold's criticism is anOlher write strike propaganda.
malter. The stuff he wrote in Ihe '20s, his But the trouble with boyish high-spirited
45
youths into the labor movement was fine as a tened eventually into a dull formula, a formula
utopian enthusiasm and fine as a program for in which bourgeois writers arc always prissy,
the labor movement: but after a while Gold's tea-drinking, dithering, and homosexual; in
insistence that these youths would replenish which proletarians are always manly, virile,
civilization got hard to take. His potshots at clear, and from Missouri; in which capitalism is
first-rate middle-class writers were sometimes always a rotting, stinking, maggoty corpsc.
on the mark; but after a while they began to And alas for Gold-alas for intellectual Marx
•
look thuggish. His literary theory-no new ism-it was just at this point, in the early 1930s,
ideas came his way, no inspirations from what that he ascended into a position of influencc.
ever was alive in the literature of the time-flat- How to interpret Gold and the American
46
Communist literary movement in the years especially critics who had formerly been Com
which followed is a matter for debate. Gold and munists or Communist-sympathizers and who
his comrade critics did of course substitute now worried about Stalin, got shriller and wild
political for aesthetic judgment, which is the er. In this the Communists were mirroring Rus
charge usually thrown at them. The praise Gold sian developments: for as Stalin consolidated
heaped on his wild proletarians was so shame- his power, he became ever more terrorized by
less and partisan it managed to taint the prole the thought of plots against him and started
)
tarian movement as a whole. He revised up murdering his opponents, and everywhere
ward his opinion of Hemingway when Heming Stalin had influence the tenor of discussion slid
way came into the Communist Party's good into hysteria.
graces, and when Hemingway quarreled with Gold began to echo the Stalinist accusations.
the Party, revised him back down again. He Just as former leaders of the Russian Revolu
expressed admiration for his old theater com tion were plotting with Hitler to destroy Stalin
rade Dos Passos in the '20s and early '305; but and seize power for themselves as lackeys of
when Dos Passos began saying the Party had fascism (this was the Stalin theory), so the lib
turned sour, Gold declared he had "merde" in eral and radical critics of Communism in the
his soul. All this represented a peculiar kind of United States were in their own fashion agents
literary corruption-corruption not for money, of the Nazis or, at any rate, just as bad. On one
but for political advanlage (of course, corrup hand, the "Zinoviev-Bukharin-Trotskyite gang
tion like this is not exactly unheard of among of wreckers. assassins, saboteurs and Fifth Col
non-Communist cliques and faclions). Rather umnists." On the other, American writers who
more sinister was the obligation of writers like had lost their sympathy for the Communist
Gold 10 lie about certain events-about the Party. The Zinoviev-Bukharin-Trotskyite gang
Moscow Trials and conditions in Russia gener of wreckers "despise the people and bowed
ally, about the Communist role in the Spanish before the masters," Gold wrote. "This is the
Civil War. Though here too something can be central core of all their vile and enormous
said to diminish the scale of his sins: Gold may treason; and it is also the heart of all petty
not have known he was lying. He may have bourgeois renegadism, from the Granville
believed his own propaganda, may even have Hickses and Edmund Wilsons down to the
believed it wholeheartedly. He was not too mangiest yellow dog who ever peddled his
shrewd about the Soviet Union. honor and his 'Confessions of an Ex-Commu
In any case, the thing that strikes a modern nist' to Hearst and the Dies Committee for thir
reader is how shrill Goldian Marxism gOt, how ty silver dollars. Ernest Hemingway is another
hysterical, perhaps even a little insane. The example of this same historic process . . . "
social crisis in the United States grew ever less The low point came in 1 946, during the last
severe as the New Deal wore on, and by all logic months of Communism's popularity among
the tone of Marxist criticism should have grown American liberals and radicals. The Commu
!
tive and the policy of smearing political critics, New Masses proposing a liberalized view of art.
47
He thought Communist writers should worry down before Gold, just as John Howard Law
less about the Party line and more about art; son and so many others had done over the
they should be able to acknowledge things that years. Gold was right, he declared. James T.
were patently true, for instance, that James T. Farrell had indeed lost his talent by criticizing
Farrell, the author of Siuds Lonigan and some Stalin. " I know of the manner in which a poi
excellent Marxist criticism, was still talented soned ideology and an increasingly sick soul
even though he had come Out against Stalin. can sap the talent and wreck the living fiber of a
•
Gold, in his Daily Worker reply, hit the roof. man's work," Albert Maltz wrote, referring 10
Farrell? That "vicious, voluble Trotskyite" Farrell-and was thereupon symbolically wel
who "was in on the movement to vindicate the comed back into the Communist Party's good
traitors who sold out to Hitler and were tried at graces at a mass meeting chaired by Lawson
Moscow," i.e. the gang of wreckers-Farrell, and named, after a dear old Pany slogan, "Art
who was practically an agent of Franco during -Weapon for the People."
the Spanish Civil War and was comparable to a Gold's clobbering of Maltz marked the end
"Nazi rat" like Ez.ra Pound? (In fact, he had of Communist influence in American literary
been an independent Marxist opposed to the life, and also of his personal influence. The
Communist Party.) Farrell, whose writings Party itself crumbled over the next few years
were part of "the reign of terror against Marx and the remaining intellectuals departed, one
ist ideas that prevails in the American publish by one, or in small herds. By the middle '50s,
ing field?" (He had advocated a purer Marxism every distinguished literary intellectual con
against Gold's "revolutionary sentimen nected to the Pany had departed . Even Albert
talism. ") Did Albert Maltz favor "esthetic Maltz departed. There was only one exception.
immunity" for a man like that? Never. one writer of talent and literary note who
"Anyone who would grant esthetic immunity stayed in the Party come hell or high water.
to this obvious enemy has lost sight of the Com This was Michael Gold.
• • •
munist polar star."
What has made this attack famous is that, by Why? Why didn't he wake up and save his
1946, Goldism had become more or less institu talent from " poisoned ideology"? Why was he
tionalized in one sector of the left and enjoyed a the only literary notable in America to keep his
definite moral authority-not among the top Red card? You might point to the weakness of
writers. to be sure, and not among the shrewder his health (he suffered from nervous break
left-wing political analysts, but among secon downs in his youth. diabetes when older), the
dary groups like the left-wing Hollywood writ limitations of his inteiligence (so much more
ers. And in these circles Gold's views counted constricted than his talent), the narrowness of
for something. Maltz felt the pressure keenly. his education. His failure to surpass his early
He was a sincere but perhaps not very bright achievements may have frozen him into immo
man and hadn't realized that his call for intel bility. But I think the most fruitful way of
•
lectual honesty ran against Party policy (you understanding him is to go back to Jews Wilh·
can see his explanation in Crealive Differences, Ollt Money and remember what happened to
a book about the Hollywood left, by David Tal some of the real-life people who grew up in the
bot and Barbara Zheutlin). But as soon as it all same lime and place and under the same condi
clicked in his mind, he recanted and bowed tions as little Mikey.
48
For Gold was part of an extraordinary and enough to get its candidates and leaders sent to
iII·fated Jewish generation, the generation of Congress and the State Assembly. And when
working·class idealists born at the turn of the this Party, along with its spin·offs and compeli·
cemury or a few years on either side. These tors, went into decisive decline after World War
were the last people who saw Jewish radicalism I, the generation of younger radicals couldn't
49
States was tapering off, they convinced them decades and deslToyed whole chunks of the old
selves that America was on the verge of a Rus social-democratic community. Al one point in
sian revolution. Their own emotions told them the '20s they preHy much captured the biggest
this, and so did their brand new organization, Jewish union of all, the ILGWU, and folowed a
Ihe Communist Party. cockamamie strategy that left it in tatters. They
All over the United States, the 1920s was a adopted foreign affairs positions, on account
reactionary decade: radical organizations fell of the Soviet Union, which compromised their .
apart, unions declincd. In a general way this ability to speak for the Jewish masses abroad,
was happening in the Jewish community in New or even to hold up their heads among the Jew-
York City as well. BUI within this decline, a ish masses at home. In 1929 the Jewish Com
generation of young radicals from the poorer munists were obliged by the Soviet Union to
Jewish neighborhoods took to marching endorse an Arab massacre of Jews in Palestine.
around the garment district with red nags and Ten years later they endorsed Stalin's pact with
hammers and sickles. getting their skulls Hitler. They had to defend Stalin's social poli
cracked by goons and cops and screaming slo cies in the Soviet Union (for details on these
�ans about a Soviet America. They were fierce, policies, see an important new Russian-dissi
50
An invention of the capitalist press. These peo late fifties, at the stage in life where Edmund
ple had made a commitment, back in their Wilson retired to his ancestral home in upstate
youth, of a sort that allows no second thoughts. New York. and Dos Passos retired to his ances
Here is the explanation for Michael Gold's tral farm in Virginia. Gold moved to the Bronx.
career. You cannot understand him if you think He was very poor. In his novel he described
You
always been somewhat middle class. Maybe
they came from the middle class originally and
had never cleansed it from their souls. or in any
Have
case they had middle-class instincts which ulti
mately drew them away. The people who
stayed, on the other hand, were real proletar
ians. And there was indeed truth in this. for
these hard-core militants certainly didn't come
from the social register.
• • •
Inevitably Gold's last years were hard. His Mike Gold, the Communists,
assault on poor apologetic Maltz was the last and the Jews
noteworthy thing he did; no one paid attention
to him after that. In 1948 his house in New Jer
sey burned down (destroying his letters from
famous writers, which he had hoped to sell). He
took his French-Rumanian wife and two sons
to France so the boys could meet their grand
"
.
He went to work in a factory making window felt a little burned by all that stuff about the
blinds. but couldn't keep his mind on the job. gang of wreckers. Manny Granich has told me
j'he lunch-counter proprietor found one of his he thinks Gold actually left the Party, as Gran-
"boys a job with an optometrist. Then the old ich himself did; but this seems unlikely. Paul
labor network putJed through, and Gold's son Novick doesn't remember it. Hugo Gellert says
landed a union job in San Francisco. The fam that Gold never had any disagreements with the
ily moved back out there (Gold had worked as a Party or any serious disillusionments. Gellert, .1
reporter in San Francisco for awhile in the who knew Gold for 52 years (they met at a
'20s), and his wife went to work in a movement meeting of The Masses), was indignant when I
bookstore. He resumed his "Change the asked about Gold's views on Soviet anti-Semi-
World" column, writing for a syndicate of the tism. "There never was any anti-Semitism in
three Communist papers, The Daily Worker, the Soviet Union-all {hat bunk is just dreamed
,he People 's World (in California), and the up, it's a big lie. Could this have been the true
Morning Freiheil. where the column was trans voice of Mike Gold? Perhaps an accurate pic-
lated into Yiddish. ture would be a composite of these recollec
His health was bad, his energy low, and he tions: Gold felt burned by some old Communist
didn't go out of the house much. Paul Novick, positions; but he didn't take much interest in
editor of the Freiheit, has told me that when he politics in his later years; and in public he
visited Gold in San Francisco. or when Gold wasn't repudiating anything. Mostly he was
visited in New York', he showed lillie inclina sick.
tion to discuss weighty mailers. After 1956, the Not everything was grim in the later years. In
aging Jews in the Communist Party began to 1959 Gold contributed a 12-week series to the
wonder whether they had made a mistake about People's World about his childhood on the East
Soviet Communism. They passed manifestos Side (republished in Folsom's anthology). It
back and forth. They held urgent meetings; was a sequel to his novel, a meandering after
they were finally preparing to make their own word, without focus, cut up into the short seg·
break with Communism. (The preparations ments appropriate for a newspaper-yet not
took a long time: the Yiddish wing of the Amer without punch. Gold reminisced about adoles
ican Communist Party formally announced its cence, his work as a teamster, the neighbor
repudiation of the Party in 1977, 10 years after 'hood gangsters, and most interestingly of all,
Gold died. SuPPOrt for Israel was the principal about the "sweatshop poets" of the old ghetto.
reason for the split. The political evolution of who were authentically loved by the Jewish
the Freiheit, incidentally, has continued since workers. He remembered his father stopping to
then, and today you can read on the Freiheit's point out one of these poets passing in the
English-language editorial page thoughtful street : "Look and remember him!" his father
analyses of Jewish issues from an independent whispered. "That is Morris Rosenfeld the
Marxist perspective.) Gold seems not to have poet. " He remembered the inscription on the
•
cemetery: "0 Passerby, pause in reverence.
participated in these discussions. tomb of another of these poets in a Brooklyn
Michael Folsom, who spent time with him at
the end, writes in one of his essays that Gold H.:re, silent in the dust, lies the faithful voice of
became cynical about things he had fiercely his people. " It is moving to see this because
defended, such as the Moscow Trials. Maybe he Gold himself sought to be-succeeded in being,
l2
in his classic novel-just such a voice.
Paul Berman is a slaff wri/er for /he Village
In these reminiscences he showed he had
Voice (New York). His arlicles have also
never lost Ihe ability to weep over the Jews of
his childhood. He slill wrole like a Rumanian
appeared in In These Times and orher publi.
violin. And he retained his wry humor. He
ca/iolls.
H.
Joseph North, which contains some pieces by Gold. minces and civil liberties organizations, as well as
The only book-length account of him is John Pyros's
prisoners themselves, \0 wrile Charles Kerr Com
Mike Gold: Dean 0/ American Prolelorian Writers
pany, 1740 Greenleaf Avenue, Suite 7, Chicago, Illi
(Dramatika Press, 63 W. Orange Street, Tarpon
nois 60626 with information on such cases.
Springs, Florida 33589, $3).
o
----------- - - - -----
o
I �ncJose £81st6 (individuals) for a vear'. 5ut..cdpllon to R.ce &. Ct...
I encJ.- £21$4 for BrlU.h ,.cls....: the ro.d to 1984
N�me__
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Addr�ss __
____
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________
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Serw;lto the In.Utule of R.c:c Relallon•• 241 Pentonville Road. london NI 9NG. U.K.
jPlea� wnd cash with Ofder, cheque. to be made PfoVabt.. to 1.."lIute of Rue
Relation.). Df:tatls ofbaek t,"ues �vaitable on request. 53
)
FOR A FUTURF
EliI'll SIIIIO
SE PARATISM AND
DISO B EDI ENCE:
The Se n eca Peace E n ca m p m e n t
Lois Hayes
"Non-violenl direct ocrion seeks /0 create a crisis and Joster such a lension lho/ a com
munity which has conslonlly refused (0 negotiate is forced to con/rolll the issue. I, seeks so
(0 dramatize rite issue that if can no longer be ignored. . , -Martin Lllfher King, Jr.
Being a lesbian or gay man is an act of non-violent direct action, an act of civil disobedi
ence in many paris of this country and around the world. We live our lives in direct COnlra
diction to the laws and customs that forbid two people of one gender to look at each other as
central SOUfces of excitement and gratification. By refusing to hide OUf intimate truth, we
"fosler a tcnsion" within the heterosexual world which has "constantly rerused to negoti
ate" new concepts or gender and sex relations. The gay liberation movement has succeeded
in "dramatizing the issue so that it can no longer be ignored."
Lesbians joined the Women's Peace Encampment to use non-violent direct action to dramatize
their awareness or the threat posed by the nuclear weapons stored al the Seneca Army Oepol. We
wanted to show that women oppose these nuclear weapons and all violence, that our reelings
were so strong that we would use everything-our minds and hearts and bodies-to make the
most powerrul statement possible. We didn't go as commando saboteurs to wrest the weapons
away from the guards. We agreed that only by maintaining a discipline of complete renunciation
"
of physical aggression could we effectively decision to come to the women of the camp in
demonstrate our opposition to all the violence pained self-awareness on the anniversary of the
that confines our lives. bombing of Hiroshima, to apologize for their
At Seneca, because many of us are lesbians, hostility and to offer their help in communicat
our lives were violated in a much more personal ing with their still-hostile neighbors. That we
w3:Y than a mixed group of protestors would were all women had to be central to that
have experienced. The countless taunts of dramatic change.
•
"dykes," "Iezzies," and "queers" thrown In our lesbian and feminist lives we say that
from cars driving past our land showed us that men must change before we will include them
the local community felt our presence deeply. fully in our lives. By choosing to exclude men
They could not ignore us. And when we heard from the encampment, the organizing women
"pinko" and "commie," we knew that the locals asserted a connection between the sexist behav
understood the degree of change we felt would be ior of individual men and the patriarchal
necessary to finally gut the military mentality behavior of the American military. The camp's
that strangles this country. Because we chal separatism was the most powerful illustration
lenged and engaged the local community to that of its feminist analysis but that tactic is not
greater degree, I believe our action will have a much beller appreciated in the peace movement
more profound impact than protests focusing than it was in downtown Romulus.
simply on peace or the nuclear freeze. Our mes There is a long history of women organizing
sage, voiced very simply in one of our songs, for peace in separate, all-women groups.
goes to the complex core of feminist non-vio Increasingly in the last few years, the peace
lence: personal anger within a discipline of movement has been prodded to recognize the
respect: "We are gentle, angry women and we anger and insight of a specifically feminist anti
are fighting, fighting for our lives." militarist analysis which challenges the natural
Initially, it was our anger that engaged the ist "woman as mother/earth mother/pro
local people and eventually it was the discipline freeze" image promoted by Helen Caldicott
of our gentleness that seemed to be persuading and other non-feminist female peace activists.
some of them that our anger was just. That we Third World groups are likewise prompting the
refused to answer taunt for taunt impressed peace movement to overcome its racist and
them. And they were impressed by our com middle-class bias to join with a progressive
plicated mutual self-respect, that we didn't try movement that seeks international justice as
to trivialize our differences of age and "life well as the cessation of warfare.
style," that we stood together in appreciation Feminist anti-militarists have also pushed the
of our different attitudes and strategies. That feminist movement to recognize that the mili
we came together clearly to take suppon with tary's domination of the domestic budget and
each other so that we might go on to talk with its perpetuation of a system of dominance and
hostile people about our strongest fears and hierarchy around the globe is anti-female in
desires, this too made them think twice about practice and philosophy. The anti-militarists ..
their judgments of us as frivolous or remind feminists involved in fighting aspects of
merely strange. For the women who had worn patriarchal violence such as rape, or economic
the "nuke the bitches" t-shirts and screamed at discrimination or even the most awesome exten
us, it must have been an immense, difficult sion of such thought-the technological capac-
56
•
ity to make eXlinct all human civilization and rosters of "Who's Who for Peace."
most other life on earth in a maller of minutes. The Greenham Common Women's Peace
The massive weight of the nuclear threat has Camp had demonstrated, if nothing else, the
swelled the ranks of the peace movement. Femi tenacity of women committed to physical sur
nists joining the peace movement have been vival and the political muscle that can be flexed
able to wield significant degrees of power with when 40,000 women show up to say "no" to
in some peace coalitions, because we have spent more U.S. weapons in their country. The
the last 1 5 years building networks. Women Greenham camp has become an inspiration to
only actions at the Pentagon, at Greenham the more radical members of the peace com
Common in England and around the world munity across Europe. It is clearly seen as a
have brought new emphasis to participatory foremother of the Seneca encampment.
protests emphasizing personal, emotional In every women-only demonstration, sexism
�nvolvemenl, creativity and direct action. is an inherent, if not overt, object of protest. I n
Women-only actions push back the boundaries mixed demonstrations men are still too oflen
of "politics as usual." They make space for assumed to be the leaders while women end up
wailing and Quiet conversations-strategies running errands and coordinating everything
which can be morc productive than parading backstage. Women-only actions demonstrate
57
that we can mobilize ourselves and speak for townspeople we have had to choose between
ourselves and wield our collective power with turning into our supportive circle or reaching
effective, even revolutionary results. out to confront their anger with the force of our
Within the peace movement, it is especially vision. We must have the option of our circles,
important for women to speak as one of the but if we are going to make change happen we
groups that is cut off from the white, male must also learn to face other people's anger.
ideology and structure that plan strategies and Seneca County had seen peace demon- •
allocate funds for warmaking. And because strations many times before but they never
women's economic power is so small, we are had seen a women-only encampment talking
the hardest hit when social programs are cut for about peace and justice all summer long. They
military spending. Women have an obligation were angry that we were taking up so much
to expose the lie of the "little wife" who needs space in their corner of the world and they were
security from the rapacious invaders. As Amer angry that we didn't accept one of the
ican lesbians, we know that living under the most basic assumptions in their lives: that
world's biggest nuclear power contributes noth women belong at home, or at least within the
ing to our security. It only brings us the con confines of assumed heterosexuality.
demnation of all peace and justice loving peo Not having men with us raised the level
ple worldwide and the privilege of greater prox of outrage in the local community. Men who
imity to complete annihilation in the climax of had sacrificed years of their lives as soldiers
the superpower's stupidity. protecting the "women at home" had to
Separatism within the peace movement is confront women telling them we didn't want
seen as divisive, but the fact is that the divisions their protection in the first place. If men had
already exist. For feminists not to put forward been with us that message would have been
a feminist analysis of militarism is comparable totally obscured. The mere physical strength of
to black activists not speaking about the draft's pro-peace men would have made it emotionally
disproportionate effects on people of color and easier for the local men to unleash the violence
the poor of all races. For lesbians to pass as that was held somewhat at bay because we were
merely "peaceniks" in Seneca County would "only" women and therefore too vulnerable or
require a change in appearance and behavior on not threatening enough to attack physically.
the scale of making a black revolutionary invis Perhaps at this point a non-violent direct action
ible at Harvard. Why would anyone suggest we by men alone would challenge the men and
try to be quiet when so much provocative think women of Seneca County to see the sexual basis
ing comes from our being open about who we of their violent reactions even more clearly
are? Queerbaiting was one of the most popular tac-
One of the strongest principles of non-vio tics of our local harassers, and it provided quite
lence is honesty-about who we are and what a test of our non-violent commitment. It's a
we think, and about our "opponent," who she fine line between "Yeah, I'm a dyke" and
is and what she thinks. In Seneca County we "Whatcha gonna do about it?" It's hard to •
lesbians who came out within the assumption of say, "J'm a lesbian and J'm here because I
lesbian separatism have had to listen to hetero don't want my lovers blown up in a nuclear
sexual women who felt "left out" and angry at war." I doubt it was ever said as plainly as
our exclusiveness. When faced with angry that. But slowly I think we let them know who
l8
-
we are, and slowly I think they figured out we sing patriotic songs and taunt women: "Pinko
weren't as bad as they'd expected us to be. dykes should camp with their comrades in Mos
lt was scary at the Depot protests and on the cow. "
land itself. There was some deep-down confron About 150 women are arrested for civil dis
tation going on and we were out there, not back obedience. All first offenders are given "ban
A Seneca Chronology
"Nuke the lezzies," "Kill the Jews," and "Go
59
July 31: Fear and outrage build at the camp
with rumors of violence from local residents
and lack of reassurance from local police and
fire personnel. The camp considers a morator
ium on actions for the day. Long discussions
about the Waterloo events and connict between
supporting the "Waterloo 54" and proceeding
.
with plans for August I . Some argue that the
mass civil disobedience should be cancelled.
Camp women vigiling outside the Interlaken
school jail are forced to nee by nag-waving
townspeople while local sheriff's deputies stand
by. New York Governor Mario Cuomo declares
a state of emergency, allowing state police and
sheriff's deputies from other countries to be
brought in.
60
All first offenders are released within three to Twenty-six women blocking the explosives
six hours after receiving ban and bar leiters. entrance are arrested after successfully IUrning
back two trucks carrying military supplies. AU
Twelve second offenders are held overnight, 26 are released with ban and bar letters, includ
61
must return for a future court date. A support Aug. 4 and 5: Eighteen second offenders (the
woman stands and says, "This woman is being total to date) and 50 supporters appear before
required to return for trial. This is not what the District Court Magistrate Larimer i n
women want." Supporters begin to sing and Rochester. The judge refuses t o accept pleas of
surround the Jane Doe as the judge orders the "nolo contendere." The women refuse transla
courtroom to be cleared. A close friend of the tion of "nolo" to "guilty." Lenghty creative
Jane Doe comes and holds her, while a jail pleas ("I plead for the jobs that would be creat- •
matron rests her hands on the tearful reunion. ed in the conversion of the Depot") arc pre
The tuneful disruption continues for 30 to 45 sented. "Not guilty" pleas are entered. The
minutes until police eventually drag all support women are released until unspecified future
62
Two local women very involved in counter
protests earlier (they had made t-shirts with a
picture of two women hugging and the slogan
"nuke the bitches") apologize to camp women
for their past hostility. One initiates a discus
sion between 25 townspeople and 75 camp
flWomen the next day. Meetings between camp
women and local people begin to be held in pri
vate homes and at Nicastro's, a sympathetic
local restauranl.
with the camp's local outreach coordinator Aug. 20: Fifteen women climb the Depot
wanting to know what they can do to help. An fence and walk to the airstrip. All, including
open meeting is planned in one of the churches second offenders, are released with ban and bar
63
March on Washington and camp in Lafayette Oct. 21-24: A coalition of New York peace
sylvania Ave. for 45 minutes. Women eventual December: The planned deployment of the
then move into a circle dance, blocking Penn communications center.
ly dance back onto the sidewalk to avoid arrest. Cruise and Pershing I I missiles to Europe. The .
request a trial date or pay a $50 fine within 1 5 Postscript: The author would like to extend
Park. They are released with seven days to
days. Women form a feeder march from Lafay thanks 10 "the community," and my affinity
Rcprilllcd from
after eight hours of arguments based on the
Nuremberg "crimes against humanity" princi Goy CQlllmlmily New$, Vol. II, No. 8,
land.
Paid staff positions end by mid-September
but volunteers remain on the land taking
responsibility for bookkeeping, resource inven
tory, correspondence, preparation of a report
on the summer, continued local outreach, and
64
SUBSCRIBE NOW TO
ICAI,
") AMERICA
1967. Anieles feature the history and cur
RADICAL AMERICA is an independent socialist-feminist journal lbat
has published continuously since
rent developments in the working class. the role of women and
World people, with reports on shop noor and community organizing,
history and politics of radicalism and feminism, and commentary and
analysis of current socialist theory, popuJar culture, and social movements.
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this tcanheet.
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M. B4rtm • Four Dcc.tdcs of Change: Black
Workers in Southern Tuuio:s, 1941-1981, by
Mflry Fmirncitson • The Stop Walch and the
WlXXIcn ShOt: Sclcntifk Mamgcmcm and the
I
• Un
OrgMliung the Unernplo)·((i: The Early Years intelleCtuals and acm ist hIstorians. Long
"
I
of the G�al DepressIOn, b:T RIlJ R(lmrz� • before mainsrream scholars of Ameriun
NO W ONL.Y ;6. 50
Fon:c:s, by Sf/In Wnr ' IXfendmg the: No.-Strikc:
Pledge: CIO Polino dunng World War II,
by Ntlstm LuhuNSftln • The Lc:ague of
to a. present SII.DScrijJtion.
wther, Tanning Hido: Health :1.nd Safery
Struggles In a Lc:athcr Factory, by AnimP
Rowl#lId · Worken' Control and thc NO=WI: The
Madison, W,sconsm Pms Qmnmi<m, by DaN SEND V .2 1.50 BY CHEC�
W'W""" ani Palll Buhk · The Past and Fururc
of Workers' Control, by DaVId Mtmt8f»HtI'Y OR. MalEY' O�DE"� WITH THE'
TE.AESI-IETT ON TIlE �EVIDUS
437 pp. t�,�l.lple PAC?rE