The Once and Future Socialist Feminist
Fifty years ago, the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union became the first openly socialist feminist organization in the US. In 1975, more than 1300 women, many affiliated with similar women’s unions, came together for a groundbreaking conference at Antioch College in Ohio. “We thought the revolution was around the corner,” recalls organizer Elana Dykewomon. Two years later, nearly all of the socialist feminist women’s unions were gone; by 1980 Ronald Reagan had been elected president of a country turning sharply rightward. What happened? We look back at those heady days with long-time activists Dykewomon, Lois Helmbold and Leslie Cagan. We also speak with socialist feminist Zillah Eisenstein, editor of the 1979 book Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, and Tithi Bhattacharya, coauthor of the brand new Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto for When Leaning In Is Not Enough, about how the radical feminists of the seventies and eighties laid the groundwork for today’s hopeful movements, including teachers’ strikes, climate activism and the International Women’s Strike.
59 minutes, interviews and archival sound, produced by Kate Raphael and Lisa Dettmer