To subscribe or unsubscribe: irenestuber@delphi.com !^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^! ! Catt's Claws ... a feminist newsletter ... March 23, 1995 ! !^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^! Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy water and newts. ....................... * ........................ Extracts from a recent op-ed piece by Jimmy Carter: "Fourteen years ago, I signed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the principle international treaty that guarantees women's equality. Now three administrations later, inaction from the U.S. Congress has resulted in the U.S. being the only industrialized democracy that has not ratified the convention. This unfortunate fact, if uncorrected, will be highly noticed at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women which will take place in Beijing next September ... a renewed call should be made to our representatives in Washington to take decisive action in favor of protecting the rights of this half of the world's population that is more vulnerable now than we would like to admit. "Admirably, the Clinton Administration introduced the Women's Convention into the Congress last year where Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed a floor vote forcing the process to start from the beginning this year." ->Women's rights are just another thing that the republicans can't be bothered with as they go for tax cuts to the wealthy. ->Lookie here - there are political groups starting all over the country to combat the religious right republican attempts to turn the U.S. into a religious-military dictatorship - Would you send me the names of the groups in your area? I will be glad to make up a list to be sent out like I did the calendar of women's accomplishments and a sample letter to the editor. -->Your assignment for today, if you choose to fight for your rights, is to contact your senators and insist that the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the principle international treaty that guarantees women's equality be ratified. ->The life your protect is your own. ....................... * ........................ You are invited to the WOMANIST THEOLOGY (symposium) : Good News for Everyone - a roundtable discussion, Saturday, April 22, 1995, at the Anacostia Museum / 1901 Fort Place SE / Washington, DC 20020 For more information and reservations, please call 202-287-3381 or fax 202-287-3183. Moderator will be Dr. Marsha J. Darling and panelists Rev. Amityah Elayne Hyman (Black Women and the Church), Rev. Dr. Delores Carpenter (Academia & Womanist Theology), Dr. Diana L. Hayes (Womanist Theology & other Theologies of Liberation), T/B/A (Practical Impact of Womanist Theology, Jelani Cobb, Jr. (Afrocentrist & Womanist) and Marjani Dele (The Holistic Nature of Womanist Theology). -> (Ed. Note: As one pale face who marched with those of all shades and colors and sexes in the 1960s and 70s before hatred-made-incarnate with things like thrown rocks and filthy epitaphs, I just HATE the continued division between black, and white, brown and yellow women intensified with the use of the word *Womanist* instead of *feminist* as if the black *woman's* experience as a woman is somehow different than other women. As Flo Kennedy said years back to a rich white women who had been abused: "The man does it to us all, honey." -> As I have said often, blacks may get their rights, gays may get their rights, but when you leave the room, unless you have WOMEN'S RIGHTS you ain't got nothing that you ain't got now ... remember the *first* thing they said about you when you were born: It's a girl! And "they" never forget it. ....................... * ........................ From Peace-Net: "Human Rights Watch documented the widespread use of rape by security forces in a 1993 report, Untold Terror: Violence against Women in Peru's Armed Conflict. After the publication of that report, President Fujimori publicly conceded Peru's failure to investigate and punish rape committed by soldiers and police. He vowed to"drastically punish" soldiers and police who commit rape. Nevertheless, almost three years later, rape continues to be common. We are not aware of any serious investigations into charges of rape, or prosecution of policemen or soldiers who have committed these crimes. This lack of accountability is responsible for that fact that rape continues unchecked. " ->Widespread use of rape in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in Brazil - my, aren't they the greatest macho men in the world to abuse and injure someone smaller than they are, especially while those women are helplessly being held captive ... Now if the Republican religious right that controls our U.S. Congress were REALLY for what they claim is religious compassion (sic!), why don't they stop all money to those countries or get up and start screaming about rape being wrong, not manly - or don't they think rape is wrong unless it occurs to their sons? What is it one of the old men of the republican radical religious right said" "rape doesn't hurt women, they're built for it." ....................... * ........................ SATURDAY: "The UN has capitulated to an all-male 'state' that wants to silence women at a conference discussing women's rights and women's health." -- Catholics for Free Choice President Frances Kissling FLASH -- A VICTORY from the jaws of defeat because of the groundswell of objections to the UN accepting the Vatican view: The religious supremacists were confident the issue was closed and the Catholics for Free Choice would not be on the list of preliminarily approved organizations to the Beijing Women's conference. The Vatican, the bastion of old white men, had objected on the grounds that CFFC uses the word Catholic in its name while publicly opposing church dogma. But Monday evening, the Catholics for a Free Choice was duly accredited, over the Vatican's protest. Then came efforts by the Vatican to attach an asterisk to the name CFFC in Beijing-related information saying that the Vatican did not approve of their participation were also turned back. Onward to China ??? China for women's rights ??? Where millions of baby girls are killed at birth because they are girls ??? Oh, this is a strange world we live in. ....................... * ........................ "Don't marry a man to reform him, that's what reform schools are for." -- Mae West. ....................... * ........................ Esquire magazine editors were amazed last year in a poll that showed more women would rather win Pulitzer Prizes than wear the Miss America crown. But what really sent them back to their drawing boards to find new ways to straighten women out was the fact that women preferred having girl children to boys. Thousands of years of brainwashing and women still haven't learned. I know, fellows, it gets discouraging. ....................... * ........................ Frank Rich, the somewhat irreverent columnist for the New York _Times_ and the Dallas _Morning News_, wrote: "There is no way for a Republican libertarian to support the pro-life position and look ideologically consistent: If you are in favor of getting the government off of everyone's back, why make an exception for pregnant women? "Since polls now show that even 71 percent of Republicans favor some degree of abortion rights, you have to wonder why every major GOP presidential candidate, including supposed moderates like Bob Dole and Lamar Alexander, is anti-choice." Phil Gramm reaffirmed his desire to roll back abortions right for women, for the poor to the raped, on the 60-Minute show with helpmate Mike Wallace doing the questioning. Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson's front man for the Christian Coalition, has convinced the republicans (according to columnist Rich) that they can't win without the CC and if both halves of the rep ticket aren't anti-choice, the CC will stay home. "In the days since Mr. Reed's ultimatum, the GO{ has been almost farcically trying to cover up its Faustian pact with the anti-choice religious right," says Rich. "...Reed...has been running from Tom Snyder to Charlie Rose in an unconvincing effort to downplay his attempt to dictate a pro-life GOP ticket." ....................... * ........................ With the Vatican and the Christian Coalition being stymied or defeated in these last weeks, it shows that WE CAN WIN - stop reading the headlines and read the small print - With your letters to the editor (where LOTS of people read it) and phone calls and faxes to your congressional reps and senators (most have local offices around your state or in-state 800 numbers), YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. Yes, I'm still looking for a cheap (or donated), old laptop for note-taking at libraries, etc.<<<