Political CV

POLITICAL CURRICULUM VITAE

The following summaries of my activism are limited to actions which I initiated, or in which I played a considerable role, or in which I participated in civil disobedience, or in which my plans to participate in civil disobedience were thwarted, or which resulted in sanctions such as being harassed or victimized by violence, sued, arrested, or incarcerated, or in which I risked being sanctioned.

Because my books are included in my academic cv, they will not be cited here unless they meet one or more of the criteria above -- despite the fact that I consider them to be a form of activism. However, they differ from the kind of activism to be described below.

ANTI-RACIST ACTIVISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

1962: Joined the Liberal Party in Cape Town when I was 23.

The Liberal Party was a multi-racial, non-communist political party which was against all manifestations of apartheid and which subscribed to universal suffrage. It was a fringe party without representation in Parliament. I was 23 years old when I was elected to the Activities Committee. Among other actions, we organized the protest described below.

1963: Arrested in Cape Town along with all the other participants in a peaceful demonstration protesting the Government's banning of Peter Hujl, the leader of the Liberal Party, as a communist. Our picket signs included slogans such as, "HUJL DENIED HUMAN RIGHTS;" "BANNING HUJL WITHOUT A TRIAL IS A VIOLATION OF THE RULE OF LAW;" "CALLING HUJL A COMMUNIST IS A LIE TO LEGITIMIZE THE GOVERNMENT'S SILENCING HIM. ("Banning" was frequently used in South Africa to muzzle political radicals and liberals, by forbidding them from being quoted in the press, or in any other publication or public forum, as well as prohibiting them from making public speeches.)

Before the trial, I left South Africa to attend graduate school in the United States. I was therefore guilty of contempt of court, and I was supposed to be tried for this offence if I ever returned to South Africa. However, much to my annoyance, my father used his considerable influence to have the charge against me quashed without informing me.

1963: Joined the African Resistance Movement (ARM), an underground sabotage organization in Cape Town.

The ARM was founded by disillusioned members of the Liberal Party and others who came to question the efficacy of non-violent strategies. The ARM's major strategy was to bomb selected government property sites in an effort to destabilize the South African economy. Our assumption was that this would discourage other countries from investing in South Africa.

Ten years of incarceration was the typical sentence for those caught with a supply of weapons -- even if they had not yet engaged in any sabotage.

Among other actions, I recruited a surgeon to treat any ARM members who were injured when setting off bombs; mapped the terrain where a few ARM saboteurs planned to bomb a pylon which happened to be close to where I lived with my parents; persuaded my parents to leave their home on the evening the bombing was planned so the ARM members involved could shower and change their clothes before escaping the scene.

Before the ARM was busted, I left the country to pursue my education in the United States. When the police caught the man who had recruited me along with other members of the organization, they detained him and used torture to break him down so that he gave them the names of other members of the ARM. Several were caught, imprisoned and tortured while awaiting trial. Meanwhile, several of the leaders managed to escape to other countries.

ANTI-APARTHEID ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

1964: Participated in a pro-divestment multi-racial student organization at Harvard University.

1967: Participated in a pro-divestment multi-racial student organization at Princeton University.

Newspaper picture of me and others in this organization

1985: Initiated a faculty pro-divestment group at Mills College, Oakland.

1987: Encouraged a student to initiate a student pro-divestment group at Mills College that participated in radical actions such as camping next to the Administration buildings for a few weeks to dramatize their divestment demands.

Pro-Divestment Camp-in at Mills College

I worked closely with the student leader of this action, and I was one of the few members of the Mills faculty to camp overnight with the students.

BECAME A FEMINIST

1967: I became a feminist during the year that I was hired as an Associate at the Center of International Studies at Princeton University because of the extreme misogyny I experienced there.

FEMINIST ACTIONS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

1969: Co-taught the first women studies course at Mills College, Oakland, California.

I became a feminist after moving from the East coast to San Francisco in 1968 when I was 29. During my first year as an Assistant Professor at Mills College, I co-taught the first course on women ever offered at the college. I subsequently continued to teach this course on my own at Mills for 22 years -- until I took early retirement in 1991.

I also introduced new courses on the Sociology of Sex Roles and Violence Against Women, and I taught other courses with a feminist perspective e.g., The Sociology of Marriage, Family and Kinship and Human Sexuality (which I co-taught).

1971: Demonstration against an unjust rape trial, and planning an illegal destruction of property.

I participated in a demonstration outside a courthouse in San Francisco to protest the fact that the victim appeared to be on trial rather than her rapist, Mr. Plotkin.

After Mr. Plotkin was acquitted, three of us (all feminists) planned an act of sabotage involving hurling a brick through the window of Mr. Plotkin's jewelry store on Market Street in San Francisco. We intended to attach the following message to the brick: "As long as there's no justice for rape victims, we will have no choice but to take the law into our own hands."

However, my two female collaborators got cold feet and decided against risking incarceration by participating in this illegal action. Since I was unwilling to engage in this act alone, our plan was aborted.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN LONDON, ENGLAND

1974: Arrested for participating in civil disobedience outside the American Embassy in London, to protest the 20-year sentence given to a rape survivor for killing one of her rapists in California.

I was in London when Inez Garcia was convicted of first degree murder for fatally shooting one of her rapists. Because of the outrageously severe 20-year sentence she received for this offence, U.S. feminists stormed the court. An American feminist and I organized a protest demonstration outside the American Embassy in London to protest Garcia's unjustly long sentence.

Of the approximately 40 women who participated, six of us refused to disperse when police ordered us to stop blocking the sidewalk. They arrested us and detained us in prison for a few hours before charging us with obstruction of passersby and refusal to obey their orders.

Our demonstration in front of the American Embassy

Before being released, we were informed that we would be tried in court at some future date. A feminist barrister volunteered to defend us, and the case culminated in our receiving small fines.

FéMO, DENMARK

1974: Initiated the first International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women at 34 years old.

I attended a 10-day international feminist camp at Fémo located on a small Danish island in the summer of 1974. Approximately 200 feminists -- mostly from Western Europe and the United States -- had camped there every year for a number of years.

Fémo

I attended a workshop on suggestions for international feminist actions that would provide feminists with alternatives to the United Nations-initiated Conference to be held in Mexico City the following year (1975). At this conference, representatives of all the patriarchal governments that were members of the United Nations would be engaged in developing a plan of action for the improvement of women's status worldwide.

At one of many workshops offered at Fémo , I came up with the idea of organizing an International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women at which personal testimony would be presented by women from all over the globe about "crimes" that discriminate against, exploit and oppress women. Since no one else at Fémo shared my enthusiasm for this idea, I set about organizing the International Tribunal myself. I started by initiating a workshop on the Tribunal at a forthcoming feminist conference in Frankfurt, West Germany.

FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY

1974: Set up an organizational structure for the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women.

I initiated a workshop on the Tribunal at an international conference in Frankfurt in the fall of 1974 at which a some of the women participants volunteered to organize national committees in the countries where they lived. One of the major tasks of these committees was to decide which crimes against women they wanted to send survivors to testify about at the International Tribunal. The committee members would then have to locate survivors of these crimes who were able and willing to testify about their personal experiences. The committee members would also have to raise funds for the survivors' travel to and from the Tribunal as well as for their accommodation -- if needed.

I was one of a handful of women on the volunteer coordinating committee to make decisions about the most suitable country in which to hold the Tribunal, where to locate international interpreters, how to handle the international media, how to conduct the event, how many days it would require, how to publicize the Tribunal, where to find the space for the international speakout, how to prevent women with nationalistic interests from sabotaging the tribunal, and so on. (To be continued below.)

MEXICO CITY

Presentation: Torture-Femicide: The most extreme form of misogynistic violence against women and girls. The International Femicide, Law and Justice Seminar, Sponsored by the Camara de Diputados' Special Commission to Inform and to Track the Investigations Related to the Feminicides in Mexcio as well as the Procurement to resolve Linked Justice. Mexico City, December 8-9, 2004.

1975: Another U.S. feminist (Judy Friedlander) and I organized two international speakouts at the United Nations'-sponsored "People's Conference" in Mexico City during the so-called International Year of the Woman.

The purpose of these mini-international speakouts was to help develop and test the Tribunal model, to publicize the forthcoming 1976 International Tribunal, and to raise the awareness of the women who attended the workshops about crimes against women in many countries other than their own.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

1976: The International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women and its impact.

Instead of taking place in 1975, as we had intended, the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women took place in Brussels, Belgium, during four days in March 1976. Approximately 2,000 women attended from 40 countries. Volunteers conducted simultaneous translations in five languages. The Tribunal was a resounding success. Simone de Beauvoir, who sent a personal letter of introduction to the Tribunal, described it as "the beginning of the radical decolonization of women."

The Tribunal inspired many of the feminist participants to create organizations and engage in actions in their home countries that they had learned about at this massive international consciousness-raiser. At least one Tribunal was also organized in New York in support of the International Tribunal in Brussels.

Some feminists believe that the International Tribunal was the beginning of the movement against violence against women in Western Europe. For example, numerous battered women shelters were started by feminists in Germany and other countries after hearing several angry and articulate British women testify about the battering to which their husbands or ex-husbands had subjected them, and how they had been able to escape with their children (for those who were mothers) to the safety of battered women shelters. They were permitted to stay at these feminist-invented institutions for varying lengths of time for their recovery and their preparation for a new husband-free life.

In addition, the tribunal model based on personal testimony has become a popular and effective method of public education and mobilization of women to try to combat the crimes against women about which the testimony is focused. The Center for Women's Global Leadership organized the Global Tribunal on Violations of Women's Human Rights, Vienna, Austria, 1993, and the Global Tribunal on Accountability for Women's Human Rights, Huairou, China, 1995. In addition, the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery, was held in Tokyo in 2000.

Cover of Bunch's book on Tribunal in Vienna

These amazing achievements culminated from my inspirational dream that I had in an all-women, all-feminist environment in 1974. Many other radical feminist actions also incubated at Fémo, revealing the tremendous empowerment and radicalization of women that can occur in all-women environments.

1976: Proposed the organization of an International Feminist Network (IFN) at the end of the meetings of the International Tribunal.

My assumption behind the creation of IFN was that "Sisterhood is Powerful," but "International Sisterhood is More Powerful!" The purpose of IFN was to mobilize international feminist letter-writing campaigns requested by women in different countries who believe that a barrage of letters from their international sisters would shame those responsible for whatever anti-women actions concerned them. I assumed that such an international spotlight would help to empower the women in their efforts to remedy crimes against specific women and women as a whole.

Women in an organization called ISIS in Carouge, Switzerland, volunteered to organize and run the IFN. They diligently fulfilled this responsibility for many years, often publishing articles about these issues in their monthly magazine (also called ISIS), which was distributed to women in many nations. In the first few years, the IFN was partially funded by the royalties for a book co-authored and edited by myself and Nicole van de Ven entitled Crimes Against Women: The Proceedings of the International Tribunal

At some point, the responsibility for running IFN was transferred to women in Uganda -- which they still have to this day. Gladys Siwela is the publications co-ordinator and editor, and her address is : ISIS - WICCE, Box 4934, Kampala, Uganda. Tel/Fax: 256-41-268-676

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

1975: Co-proposed a major in Women's Studies at Mills College which the faculty voted to institute.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

1976: A founder of WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE IN PORNOGRAPHY AND MEDIA in San Francisco.

Inspired by the International Tribunal, a group of women organized a conference in San Francisco about violence against women.

A large display of pornography was arranged in the room in which a workshop on this subject was held. Horrified by the misogyny reflected in this material, several women there (including me) decided to start the first feminist organization in the United States with a focus on combating pornography. We named our organization, WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE IN MEDIA AND PORNOGRAPHY (WAVPM), and started meeting on a weekly basis.

We immediately set about organizing a protest outside the Mitchell Brothers' live porn shows in San Francisco. Next we organized a march through the porn districts of this city. Because we were such a novelty, our actions got great media coverage in the early months.

Among other things, we invented the idea of having "Take Back the Night" marches; these marches have subsequently been organized throughout the United States, as well as in other countries. Laura Lederer, a gifted and dedicated member of WAVPM, started publishing an excellent professional-looking monthly newsletter about our actions. It also included excellent articles attacking pornography as misogynist propaganda.

1978: In 1978, we organized a national conference in San Francisco intended to attract feminists who wanted to learn about how to build an anti-porn organization.

Many important substantive workshops were offered on pornography and how to combat it at this national conference. Susan Brownmiller, who attended the conference, was greatly impressed by the conference and by WAVPM. She offered to pay one of our two paid organizers to move to New York and help found a feminist anti-porn organization in that city. This resulted in the birth of what was to become the best-known feminist anti-porn group in the country: WOMEN AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY (WAP).

WAVPM continued it's anti-porn activities for many years. I left this organization after several years of intense involvement, but several years before it disbanded. I don't know what year this was, but I understand that it closed down for lack of support and efficacy as a result of the overwhelmingly libertarian culture that developed in the San Francisco Bay Area. WAP and a few other feminist anti-porn groups outlasted WAVPM, but most of them also came to an end -- defeated by the escalation and mainstreaming of pornography. Nevertheless, I and several other anti-porn feminists, continue to speak out against this misogynist propaganda and degradation of women.

HOUSTON, TEXAS

1977: Wrote and edited the text for dramatic readings based on a selection of testimonies published in my co-authored/edited book Crimes Against Women (referred to above).

I was the narrator in a production based on Crimes Against Women which was directed by Brazilian feminist Gilda Grillo, produced by Gloria Steinem, and performed at the National International Women's Year Conference in Houston, Texas. (Audience: approximately 1,000).

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

1983: Initiated the formation of an activist organization called FEMINISTS ANTI-NUCLEAR GROUP (FANG).

I was greatly concerned about the failure of the peace movement to recognize the role of patriarchy in the development of nuclear arms and the terrifying danger that male leaders in the United States and the Soviet Union might use these weapons to engage in nuclear war. Hence, I invited other feminists to come to a meeting to discuss what we should do about this problem that threatened the survival of the entire planet. This meeting led to the formation of FANG -- a small group of about eight women activists.

FANG's major strategy was to don Reagan masks, male attire and raincoats, and then to attach large "missiles" between our legs to make the point that many male leaders appear to think of nuclear weapons as phallic objects which they strive to make larger than those possessed by other nations, particular those they perceive as their greatest enemies.

We would open up our raincoats and "flash" painted signs attached inside them saying things like: "Nuclear Weapons are a Big Phallacy;" and, "The MX is the Biggest Phallacy of All." Dressed in this fashion, we demonstrated in several locations, including inside the Federal Building in San Francisco. The police threw us out of this building on the grounds that we were "obscene," despite our defense that the real obscenity is nuclear weapons and the risk of nuclear war. On another occasion the police claimed that we had to remove our masks because they were otherwise unable to identify us.

We also played the part of sexual exhibitionists flashing our phallic weapons when we participated in demonstrations and marches organized by other political groups. Anyone who looked at even one of us, immediately understood our point, and typically laughed in appreciation of the humorous way in which we conveyed our deadly serious message. In all likelihood, they also remembered our "analysis" for a long time to come.

SOUTH AFRICA

1987: Interviewed about 50 women revolutionary activists in the liberation struggle in South Africa for a book, Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa.

In 1987, I traveled to Cape Town with a friend to interview women who had undertaken significant risks for the anti-Apartheid struggle. My hope was that the heroic stories of these women would humanize people that the American Government dismissed as "terrorists," and that the book would contribute to a more progressive (or less reactionary) American policy toward the liberation movement.

Because the Government had declared a State of Emergency, our project would likely be considered illegal. The tapping of phones, arrests and detentions based on whim, confiscation of mail, etc., were considered lawful practices during the State of Emergency. We were therefore at risk of being detained or deported by the Special Branch (the so-called Security Police) if we were caught interviewing dedicated and risk-taking women in the liberation struggle -- particularly those who were banned or house-arrested.

A member of the Special Branch contacted me near the beginning of my stay in Cape Town, demanding to see me. I managed to talk my way out of granting his demand -- a feat that would almost certainly have been impossible if attempted by a black person.

After leaving our base in Cape Town, we traveled to Port Elizabeth, Umtata (in the Transkei), Durban, Johannesburg, then on to Zimbabwe and Zambia where the African National Congress in Exile had their headquarters -- interviewing everywhere we went. My friend taped every interview, made duplicate tapes, and mailed the tapes to the United States in different mail boxes. All our tapes except those sent through the University mail system in a small town, arrived at their destinations safely.

We were always highly anxious that our car was being followed by members of the Special Branch, particularly because of the possibly harmful repercussions for the women we'd interviewed if our tapes were confiscated before we'd had a chance to mail them.

After spending four months on this project, we left South Africa with our mission accomplished.

My publisher agreed to send about two thousand copies of Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa to a South African publisher for distribution in that country. Although I had included the story of a woman who was under a banning order forbidding her to be quoted, the government did not ban the book. The only compromise made in the hope that the book would escape the banning process, was that the generous praise of Oliver Tambo, the President of the African National Conference in Exile, was not included among the endorsements printed on the back cover.

1987: Photographed about 50 women revolutionaries and activists in the liberation struggle in South Africa when interviewing them for Lives of Courage.

Some of these photographs were selected by the International Defense & Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF) in London, England, for their documents library. Fees were paid by the media and authors to publish these photographs.

Many years later, photographs of 20 of the women whose pictures were published in my book, Lives of Courage: Women for a New South Africa, were exhibited in the Castle (a well-known historic monument) in Cape Town.

BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON STATE

1991: Arrested and incarcerated for participating in civil disobedience with two other women involving destroying pornography in two stores.

I went to Bellingham, Washington to testify as an expert witness in a trial of feminist activist Nikki Craft. She had spent about a month in jail for ripping four covers off a particularly sexist edition of Esquire magazine.

After Craft agreed to pay a fine for her act of civil disobedience, I and two other local anti-porn activists also engaged in two acts of civil disobedience. First we went to a grocery store in which pornography magazines were sold, and we tore up several copies of these magazines. Our acts were witnessed by a woman cashier at the store who reported what we had done to the police after we left.

Next, we entered the only porn store in Bellingham which was owned by a child molester. Craft had exposed some of of this man's acts of child sexual abuse in her publication, The Iconoclast. A pornographic video was blaring loudly from a TV on the counter. We immediately began tearing up several porn magazines. We had been advised that if we exceeded a certain quantity of magazines, our offence would qualify as a felony; otherwise it would be a misdemeanor. We tried to gauge how much we could destroy, and stopped before we estimated that we would be committing a felony.

Craft, who remained outside the porn store, had called a radio station to inform them about what was happening. Meanwhile, the owner of the porn store locked the front door of his business so we couldn't escape, and called the police. One of the women ran toward the back door in an effort to escape. A loyal customer who tried to stop her from fleeing, ended up falling on the floor as she charged for the door. He responded by repeatedly yelling that she had assaulted him.

Because the other woman had been physically attacked by the porn store owner during a previous demonstration, she became very alarmed when we were locked in the store. She repeatedly beat on the front door as she yelled in agitation, "Let us out! Let us out!" As she continued her frantic banging, the police arrived. Unable to enter the porn store, they beat on the door, shouting "Let us in! Let us in!" By this time, a reporter from the radio station had arrived, and recorded for his live show the dramatic banging on the porn store door and the shouting by both parties.

After the owner of the porn store unlocked the front door, he pointed to the piles of torn-up porn on the floor as he told the police that we were responsible for this destruction. A policeman had also entered the back door, preventing the fleeing woman from escaping. The police then read us our rights, after which they handcuffed us and drove us to the local jail in two police cars.

After being separated from each other to make our statements to the police about the motivation for our action, the distraught woman who had banged at the front door was released on her own recognizance because she was a resident of Bellingham. The police led the other woman and I to a cell incarcerating approximately 30 sleeping inmates. The next day we were delivered to a courtroom, represented by an attorney who had been assigned to us (because we were unable to pay for our own lawyers), then finally released after the judge gave us a trial date.

Some time before our trial date, the charges against us were withdrawn because the owner of the porn store had been arrested and charged with sexually abusing children, partly as a result of the information Craft and other local anti-porn activists gave to the police.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

1991: Participated in an ad hoc group of feminist anti-porn activists who protested a read-in of Playboy magazines organized by Hugh Hefner at a Berkeley restaurant called Bette's Diner.

In 1991, a waitress at Bette's Diner refused to serve a male customer because he was reading Playboy. She was fired for her act of rebellion. Hefner responded by flying in a large quantity of issues of his magazine for a read-in. Issues of the magazine were distributed free to all the Diner customers to read.

A crowd of about 150 women and men representing pro and con positions on pornography, were gathered outside Bette's Diner. Our ad hoc group of about 15 feminists, most of whom were dressed in humorous anti-porn, anti-Playboy, and anti-porn-consumer costumes, participated in a boisterous protest against the read-in and the dismissal of the waitress. For example, about six of us dressed as waitresses, serving cut up, ketchup-covered wieners and tennis balls on plates, and singing a raunchy rap song written for the occasion titled "Sperm-Brain." We also waived "bloody" dildos and wieners at pro-porn men who were surprisingly upset about these irreverent acts.

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

1993: Founded an organization called WOMEN UNITED AGAINST INCEST (WUAI) to support incest survivors who decided to participate in legal proceedings against their perpetrators.

1993: Participant in the forcible entry by members of Cape Town RAPE CRISIS into the Attorney General's office to protest his decision to give bail to a dangerous rapist.

I was one of the group of about 50 women who forced our way into the Attorney Generals' office while he was meeting in private with several local journalists about his bail decision. He did his best to get us to leave and stop waving our signs around, but we refused to do so. My sign read, "IF ALL RAPISTS WERE INCARCERATED, SOUTH AFRICA WOULD BE RULED BY WOMEN!" Our demonstration was reported in the Cape Times accompanied by a photograph of our group in the Attorney General's office.

Surprisingly, we were not charged with any crime for this action. I believe our demonstration had some influence on the Attorney General, who was making a real effort to try to reform the laws regarding violence against women and the sexual abuse of children.

1993: Spray-painting anti-porn slogans on the windows of stores selling porn magazines in a suburb of Cape Town.

I and three other feminists participated one night in spray-painting anti-porn slogans such as "PORNOGRAPHY EQUALS RAPE," on the windows of several news agencies that sold porn magazines. Because we were not caught on our anti-porn spree, we weren't penalized for our night of spray-painting.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

1994: I risked being sued by several different parties when I self-published my book, AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY: THE EVIDENCE OF HARM.

After completing AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY: THE EVIDENCE OF HARM, I attempted to find a publisher. However, because I had included approximately 120 pornographic pictures in my book without obtaining permission from the copyright holders, I was unable to find a willing publisher because of their fear of being sued for breach of copyright laws.

I consulted several attorneys about the likelihood that I would be sued for breach of copyright. A few thought it very likely. One or two also advised me to delete my accusations that Gucionne and Flynt may have been responsible for the perpetration of violent acts against females that occurred in the real world due to perpetrators imitating pictures in particular issues of Penthouse and Hustler magazines. However, I did not follow any of this advice because I was determined not to allow the pornographers to censor my project.

Instead, I accepted the counsel of an attorney who thought a good case could be made for my being exempt from the copyright laws because I am a scholar whose aim in self-publishing Against Pornography was to educate -- not to sexually excite -- readers, and because I was not in competition with the pornographers for their profits from selling this material. However, this attorney also warned me that if pornographers decided to sue me, the cost of defending myself against these wealthy men would likely be extremely high. In the event of this occurrence, I hoped I would be able to raise funds to pay my attorneys' fees.

Strangely, approximately 50 printers also refused to print copies of my book. However, a willing printer was finally found.

As it turns out, I have not yet been sued for breach of copyright or for slandering Gucionne or Flynt for the statements described above.

1997: Two of us initiated a campaign to try to prevent the movie, The People vs. Larry Flynt, directed by Milos Forman, from winning an Academy Award.

Feminist anti-pornography activist and researcher Wendy Stock and I organized a protest outside the theater on opening night of The People vs. Larry Flynt in San Francisco. We were angry because this movie heroized Flynt as a champion of free speech, and gave the false impression that all the women he hired -- and pimped -- to prostitute themselves in pornography enjoyed being required to have sex with him (i.e., being sexually harassed) as well as being photographed for pornographic purposes. Nor did this movie include information about all the feminist protests against Hustler magazine that had gone on for many years.

Stock and I organized a panel of speakers outside the theater where the Flynt movie was playing. Besides the two of us, Tanya Vegas-Flynt, one of Flynt's daughters who had recently charged him with having sexually abused her as a child, flew from Texas to speak on our panel. She frequently spoke out against pornography, and was able to provide unique insight into the lies told in The People vs. Larry Flynt. She also told our audience that night about her father sexually abusing her.

We informed Gloria Steinem about the first step in our campaign, and we were gratified when she decided to participate in it. Steinem wrote a brilliant Op Ed piece for the New York Times which had an enormous impact on their female readers, and which was reprinted in other newspapers. Steinem told me that she had never before experienced the deluge of support from women for an Op Ed article she had written in the past. "It seemed to touch a nerve in all sorts of women," she said.

Steinem's article was also reprinted in a Hollywood publication just before the members of the Selection Committee voted for the winners of the Academy Awards. Although The People vs. Larry Flynt had already received many awards, and although many critics had mentioned it as a likely winner of one or more Academy Awards, this movie failed to win any category of this highly-prized recognition. Milos Forman was furious, blaming us feminists for being responsible for this outcome.

1998: Participated in feminist campaign to urge Leonardo DiCaprio to rescind his agreement to play the lead role in American Psycho, based on the hardcore pornographic novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis.

I was one of a handful of feminists who mobilized other women and women's organizations to warn DiCaprio's agent, Rick Yorn, of the danger to his career and to the lives of women if he played the lead in the savagely violent and pornographic movie, American Psycho. Describing Ellis' book as "psychotic entertainment," the WASHINGTON FEMINIST FAXNET characterized the possibility of DiCaprio's acting in this film as the "Outrage of the Month, if not the Year," commenting that "if he does this he may be killing more than women on film - he'll be killing his career" ( 6/12/98).

Once again, Gloria Steinem joined this campaign. She started her letter to Yorn, by declaring:

"Now, millions of teenage (and younger) women and girls will be led by him into perhaps the most woman-loathing, sadistic, murderous, unredeemed-by-artistic-value novel published in modern times -- all because Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in it" (6/9/98).

Although neither DiCaprio or his agent acknowledged being influenced by our campaign, DiCaprio did decide against acting in this movie.

2000: Engaged alone in a boycott of Pasand Restaurant in Berkeley, California, to educate the public and mobilize protest against Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 62, a wealthy Indian-born Berkeley landlord -- and other members of his criminal family. Their crimes included trafficking young girls from India to serve as Reddy's personal sex slaves and unpaid laborers.

On November 24, 1999, two of Reddy's sex slaves (17-year-old Chanti Prattipati and her 15-year-old sister) suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas leak in an apartment owned by Reddy. Chanti and her younger sister had lived there with another 20-year-old sex slave.

As a result of the intervention of a courageous woman passerby, Marcia Poole, the police arrived as Reddy, some of his family members and employees, all of whom had failed to call an ambulance or the police, were trying to escape with the two unconscious girls and a third sex slave in Reddy's truck. By January 2000, Reddy and his son Vijay were finally arrested and charged with various crimes, then released on bail.

In addition to smuggling the girls into the United States, Reddy, his two sons, his 46-year-old brother Jayaprakash Lakireddy and his 45-year-old sister-in-law Annapurna Lakireddy, were also charged with tax fraud and conspiring to falsify documents in order to smuggle numerous other illegal Indian immigrants into Berkeley to work as indentured servants in Reddy's Pasand Madras Indian Cuisine Restaurant and his other family-run businesses.

On January 22, 2000, I was incensed by the revelations published in a San Francisco Chronicle article describing Lakireddy Bali Reddy's sexually abusive behavior. I tried to find women willing to join me in standing outside Reddy's Pasand Restaurant and advocating a boycott of this popular eating place. To my disappointment, my efforts were unsuccessful that evening and for the next two or three months. So I picketed alone (my sign read, "PROTEST SEXUAL SLAVERY BY PASAND'S OWNER! BOYCOTT PASAND!!") and handed out leaflets urging customers, potential customers, and passersby to boycott Reddy's restaurant and describing the crimes that he had been charged with perpetrating.

I continued my solitary, almost-nightly pickets for several weeks, then cut down to two or three times a week for many more weeks, changing the wording on my signs from time to time, for example, to: "'ACCIDENTAL DEATH' OF REDDY'S SEX SLAVE IS BULLSHIT! PROSECUTE REDDY;" "SUPPORT REDDY'S VICTIMS! STOP THE GLOBAL SEX TRADE."

I was delighted by my success in persuading many would-be customers not to dine at the Pasand. In addition, several individuals agreed not to dine there in the future.

I also picketed alone outside the Federal U.S. Court House in Oakland, California, when Reddy appeared in the Oakland court for the early court proceedings. I carried picket signs, such as, "PROSECUTE REDDY FOR NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE!" "JUDGE ARMSTRONG, GIVE REDDY THE MAXIMUM SENTENCE OF 38 YEARS!"

Several members of a South Asian organization that had mobilized to advocate for Reddy's victims, particularly Chanti, who had died, also picketed outside the courthouse. Sadly, they would not allow me to join them because they disagreed with my focus on demanding a high sentence for Reddy.

After two or three months, my radical feminist activist friend BJ Miller, who had been out of town when I started my boycott, became my committed long-term boycott partner. Others occasionally joined us, but only one of these women became a regular picketer.

In an effort to end the boycott campaign, Reddy and some of his relatives hired an attorney to sue me -- and only me -- on May 26, 2000. The suit accused me of harassing customers and hindering Reddy's restaurant business!

A pro-bono attorney agreed to defend me, and the suit went on for many months, finally lapsing into oblivion. It never influenced my behavior one iota, but unfortunately it had a chilling effect on others.

In June 2000, BJ and I decided to name our tiny group WOMEN AGAINST SEXUAL SLAVERY (WASS) in order to give us more political clout. We worked with Kriss Worthington, a radical member of the Berkeley City Council, to draft a motion to present to this body to endorse WASS's boycott of the Pasand Restaurant, to denounce sexual slavery, and to emphasize the importance of giving heavy sentences to sexual slavers. After Worthington had redrafted the motion, the City Council approved the resolution by a vote of 6 to 3 on December 19, 2000. This was an impressive victory.

Witness Marcia Poole joined WASS in April 2001. She focused on the court proceedings involving Reddy, and we soon shared the leadership role in WASS. Two or three of Poole's friends also joined the organization, and finally we were able to mobilize more women to attend court proceedings. We carried picket signs such as "JUDGE ARMSTRONG, GIVE REDDY THE MAXIMUM SENTENCE OF 38 YEARS!" "DON'T SELL OUT TO REDDY'S WEALTH, JUDGE ARMSTRONG!" "STOP REDDY FROM GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER!!""

Civil Disobedience

We planned for ten members of WASS to be prepared to protest in court if Reddy's sentence was anything less than 15 years. Since we anticipated a substantially lower sentence, each of us concealed in our pockets a sign painted on cloth asserting that, "REDDY HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH MURDER!" Right after Judge Armstrong announced Reddy's sentence, we planned to stand up, raise our signs above our heads, and yell, "Shame! Shame! Shame!" We assumed that Judge Armstrong would respond by demanding that we stop yelling immediately. Poole and I planned to continue yelling "Shame!" until we were removed from the courtroom. We anticipated being arrested, refusing bail and spending time in jail. Two other women planned to leave their decisions about being arrested to the spur of the moment.

Unfortunately, two WASS women were removed from the courtroom because the bailiff saw the signs they had unwisely placed on their laps in anticipation of our action. The bailiff then demanded the signs from the rest of us, but allowed us to remain in the courtroom.

Instead of carrying out the rest of our action right after Judge Armstrong had announced Reddy's outrageously short eight-year sentence, we waited for her to finish explaining her decision. We were then caught by surprise by the rapidity with which she exited her courtroom. I was profoundly disappointed when I realized that it had become too late to carry out our carefully planned act of civil disobedience.

When we picketed outside the courtroom before witnessing Reddy's son Vijay being sentenced, several policemen demanded that we stop our action because we hadn't obtained a permit. When I refused to cooperate, they arrested and handcuffed me, then cited me and ordered me to leave the property. I was fined $100 for my act of insubordination. This constituted another lost opportunity to engage in civil disobedience.

On attending the court when Reddy's oldest son, Prasad Lakireddy, came before the judge in November 2003, we anticipated that he would also receive a very light sentence for his crimes. I came prepared with a sign painted on a piece of cloth reading, "SEXUAL SLAVERY IS A HEINOUS CRIME." When the Judge announced that the attorneys had recommended that Prasad be placed on five years of probation, I leapt to my feet and yelled: "Judge Wilken! Stop giving such scandalously light sentences to sexual slavers! Sexual slavery is a heinous crime!!"

A bailiff snatched my sign from me, then grasped my arm and started to pull at me -- presumably to eject me from Judge Wilken's courtroom. Before he had succeeded, I was non-plussed to hear Judge Wilken loudly instruct him to "Let her Go!!" I sat down wondering if I should continue to shout at the Judge (I had anticipated being arrested and going to jail), but my motivation had suddenly drained away.

Judge Wilken will decide on a sentence for Presad in March, 2004. That event will finally being an end to the criminal proceedings against the Reddy family.

2001: Arrested for participating in civil disobedience with more than 30 other activists protesting against the refusal of many pharmaceutical companies to permit affordable medication to be made available to AIDS victims in South Africa.

On March 5, 2001, 42 pharmaceutical companies took the government of South Africa to court in Pretoria because they wanted to stop this country from importing generic AIDS medication from India, Brazil or Thailand at about 4% of the U.S. price. The former Canadian UN Ambassador referred to the pharmaceutical industries' lawsuit as MASS MURDER. Since the lawsuit was filed in early 1998, 400,000 South Africans had died of AIDS.

Approximately 80 protesters gathered on the sidewalk in front of the offices of Bayer Corporation to participate in the picket-protest-rally organized to denounce Bayer and the other pharmaceutical companies. Many of us carried ready-made signs displaying a large picture of Nelson Mandela accompanied by the slogan "MANDELA SUED BY BAYER CORPORATION." After listening to the speeches of several protesters, about 30 of us -- including Berkeley's vice-Mayor -- engaged in civil disobedience by trespassing onto the property of Bayer Corporation, then sitting down on the asphalt. The police arrested two of us at a time, recorded our names and addresses, finger-printed us, then accompanied us out of Bayer's property where they released us. It was all very genteel. No handcuffs were used, and everyone behaved politely to everyone else.

Those of us who had engaged in civil disobedience were expecting to have to pay a fine, but in the end all the charges were dropped.

2002: Initiated a feminist protest outside the new Hustler Club in San Francisco on their opening night.

On February 20, Larry Flynt's new Hustler Club in North Beach's sleazy porn district attracted a great deal of public and media attention. A long line of predominantly men (95%) kept growing as they waited to be admitted to the celebration party, and guests like Mayor Willie Brown, Francis Coppola, and what the San Francisco Examiner referred to as "other noted Bay Area icons," revealed how mainstream Flynt and the hardcore porn he produces has become.

Flynt advertised this event in the media and all over the city with a full page color photo of two naked blond, blue-eyed young girls who appeared to be no older than 14 years of age. The picture was cropped a few inches below their waists with their breasts mostly hidden by text. Although spokesmen for the club maintained that the girls were of legal age, they were obviously chosen to appeal to men who are turned on by underage girls. Hence, we had made a sign displaying a huge blow-up of this ad and another large vinyl sign that read: "HUSTLER CLUB FOR MEN WHO NEED CHILD PORN AND ABUSE TO GET IT UP!" It was illustrated by two limp penises.

I and other members of a small group of feminists calling ourselves Women Against Pornography, carried signs -- or propped them up on the sidewalk in the case of the two very large ones. As I stood outside the door of the club behind the limp penises sign, a raging man, who looked to be in his 50s, charged into it, apparently intent on destroying it. Attacking the sign entailed attacking me at the same time. I fought back, but was unable to break loose. After what seemed like a long physical struggle, three male bystanders managed to break my assailant's ferocious grip on me. My magnanimous rescuers then sent him on his way without asking me if I wanted him arrested.

Many journalists, and cameramen were milling around, and although at least three newspapers quoted my views about Flynt and his club, none thought the attack on me worthy of mention. Imagine if, instead of an attack on a feminist protester, this had been an assault on a person of color who was demonstrating outside a racist organization. Is it conceivable that such an attack would have been totally ignored by the media? Would the rescuers have released the assailants? Would the incident have been erased from public record?

2003, October: Initiated the formation of an ad-hoc San Francisco Bay Area action group called WOMEN AGAINST ARNOLD FOR GOVERNOR (WAAG), advocating a "No" vote on the recall of Governor Gray Davis, and an even bigger "NO" vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor.

Less than a week before the recall election in California, the Los Angeles Times' published a sensational and well-documented expose of Schwarzenegger's predatory and criminal behavior toward eight women. In response, I hastily organized the first WAAG demonstration outside the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle at noon on October 3, and a second one outside the Oakland Tribune at noon on October 6 -- the day before the election. I chose these locations on the assumption that this would ensure that at least these two newspapers would cover our critiques of the candidacy for Governor of a sexual predator who gets his jollies by groping, propositioning, sexually harassing, and sexually assaulting women.

At the first demonstration we picketed for about two hours with an assortment of hand-painted posters with slogans like, "GROUP SEX? MY FOOT! IT'S MORE LIKE RAPE IN MY BOOK," "WOMEN AGAINST ARNOLD FOR GOVERNOR!" "TERMINATE ARNOLD! SEXUAL ASSAULT IS NOT "PLAYFUL," "IF SHRIVER WAS RAPED, ARNOLD 'WOULD LEAVE ME BECAUSE I'D BE DAMAGED GOODS.'" Huge blow ups of two photo from Hustler magazine displayed a man shoving a woman's head into a toilet bowl, then the woman gasping for air accompanied by the statement: "THIS IS WHAT ARNOLD WOULD LIKE TO DO TO WOMEN!."

Buried on page 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle was a poor photograph of a Code Pink demonstration with two 5-line columns of text below the heading: "Women protest against Schwarzenegger."

That was it! This is what WAAG's press release and demonstration was reduced to. No reporter even stepped out of the Chronicle's building to interview us, or to cover the lively Code Pink demonstration.

[1/21/2004]