Readings provided by Jenny for this series:

This evening is the first of two Tuesdays
JULY 18 Origins & Theory: The Women’s Liberation Movement is rooted in the Black-led Southern Civil Rights Movement and most of its theory pioneers, white and Black, were full-time workers in that movement. They also drew from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. As the Black Freedom movement turned to Black Power, feminists took theory from Black Power and applied it to their newborn movement. We’ll read original sources from both the Black-led and majority-white branches of women’s liberation.

In one week, part two will be presented.
JULY 25 The Power of History: This class will analyze what made the 1960s Women’s Liberation Movement spread fast and win victories, and also what made it vulnerable to watering down and liberal takeover. We will read analyses from Women’s Liberation Movement organizers written after the height of the movement’s power.

Jenny Brown is an organizer with National Women’s Liberation and has been involved in feminist theory and organizing since 1988, first with Gainesville Women’s Liberation in Gainesville, Florida and then with the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action, a movement think-tank and archive based in New York. She co-authored the Redstockings book, Women’s Liberation and National Healthcare: Confronting the Myth of America and the Labor Notes book How to Jump Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers along with numerous essays and articles. She was also a co-chair of a Labor Party Local Organizing Committee in Gainesville, Florida and is a former editor of Labor Notes.