Freedom Socialist Bulletin • Number 36 • Summer/Autumn 2007

Your Say

The Freedom Socialist Bulletin welcomes your letters and campaign reports. Send contributions to PO Box 266, West Brunswick Vic 3055, Australia.
Email: freedom.socialist.bulletin@ozemail.com.au
Contributions may be edited for length.

Iranian feminists mobilise for 1 million signatures
Iranian feminists are calling on international women's groups, human rights organisations, activists, academics and social justice organisations to express support for their effort to achieve equal status within the Iranian legal system. The One Million Signatures campaign is a follow-up to mass protests with the same aim which took place in Tehran on June 12, 2006.
Iranian law considers women to be second class citizens and actively promotes discrimination. This legal discrimination is being enforced in a society where women comprise over 60% of those being admitted to university.

According to penal codes, a girl nine years of age is considered to be an adult. If she commits a crime which is punishable by execution, the courts can sentence her to death. If both a man and a woman become paraplegics as a result of an accident, the punitive damages provided to the woman, according to law, is half that provided to the man. If a man and a woman are both witnesses to a crime, the law recognises the man as a witness to the crime but not the woman. The law allows fathers, who obtain the permission of the courts, to wed their daughters, even before the age of 13, to a 70-year-old man. But the same law does not allow mothers to serve as financial guardians for their children or to make decisions regarding their child's place of residence, foreign travel, or medical care. The law allows men to practise polygamy and gives them the uncontested rights to divorce their wives at whim.

These are only a few examples of the inequities and discriminatory practices against women found in Iranian law.
Iranian feminists have launched the One Million Signatures campaign to demand the elimination of all forms of legal discrimination against women in Iranian law.

The campaign aims to promote cooperation between activists who advocate positive social change. It is building connections between a broad base of women's groups representing women from diverse backgrounds. Please help the voice of Iranian women to be heard.

To sign the petition or for more information on the campaign, please visit: www.we-change.org or contact the campaign organisers at: forequality @ gmail.com

Roya Sharai

Socialist feminism made Weiss unique

Thanks to Bryan Sketchley for his review of the new Red Letter Press booklet, Weiss on Women's Emancipation and the Future of the Fourth International. Sketchley's review is very positive about how the writings cast light on Trotskyist theory and the history of the Fourth International. But there are two intertwined points that readers of the FS Bulletin should also know to get a full picture of Weiss's contributions.

Murry Weiss, the "quintessential revolutionary," wrote the articles as a leader of the Freedom Socialist Party to promote and advance its socialist feminist program. Weiss joined the FSP in 1978 after a distinguished revolutionary career beginning at the age of 11, which included being a founder and major theoretician of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party and fighting its degeneration in the 1970s.

Bryan Sketchley describes the third essay in the collection as a must-read for anyone wanting to understand Permanent Revolution. But he does not make it clear that the essay's central focus is a unique extension of the theory of Permanent Revolution to the movement for women's liberation. Weiss even states emphatically, "Permanent Revolution will grind to a halt without the momentum of women's accelerating
struggle for equality." He explains this conclusion by revisiting the origins of the Russian Revolution and examining working women's often overlooked but instrumental leadership in sparking the revolution. Weiss extends this analysis to the present day, finding that working women are the antidote to the conservative, largely white male labor aristocrats; they are "radical catalysts within all other oppressed groups." He audaciously concludes that women's emancipation is "the connecting link and detonator of proletarian, race, and national liberation struggles."

Sketchley is absolutely correct in commending the booklet to those seeking to understand Permanent Revolution. It is also crucial that people who are familiar with Trotsky's theory grapple with Weiss's groundbreaking message that the leadership of workingclass women must be recognised, not as an interesting sidelight, but as a fundamental feature of the dynamics of revolutionary struggle today. This is one of the unique features of Weiss's and the FSP's socialist feminist vision.

Helen Gilbert
Red Letter Press

Amal Raising Hope

Thank you for publishing Tony Dewberry's Amal Basry's life inspires hope in the Winter/Spring 2006 publication. This is a follow-up.

We cannot wait for governments to act with integrity; we must rely on ourselves and our friends. It is time to begin new traditions of inclusive cultural visions that tell the stories of those silenced and disadvantaged. But how can we do this?

As the SIEV X plunged below Australian waters, Amal Basri held her breath. She kicked, rising like a bubble breaking the surface. In October 2001, 353 people ignored by the Australian navy drowned. Amal bobbed clinging to the body of a dead woman, hoping to be seen, hoping for a better life. Rescued finally by a passing fishing boat, she made it to Australian shores where she refused to keep quiet. Sharing her story and speaking for those who couldn't, Amal made connections as people rallied around her.

Sue Brooks and Steve Thomas began filming Amal's story, Hope. But their funding applications were repeatedly rejected because, apparently, "Australian people aren't interested in that sort of thing." Watching Brooks' disappointment, her friends, Rosaline Flynn and Joan Nestle, raised $10,000 towards initial filming costs. Although financial support is still needed, the film is scheduled for completion in late 2007.

In April 2006 in their Brunswick backyard, Nestle and Di Otto launched the first People's Performance Project (PPP) — "we will use our homes and collective resources to share the work of artists to renew lost hope." Sixty people gathered among the bottlebrush and gums, sharing stories, food and performances. It was the 150 year anniversary of the winning of the 8-hour day and, although many audience members left early to celebrate, a vision was shared and alliances made. Now focusing on a theme of "bubbles of resistance rising," a fourth PPP is scheduled for February 2 at the Melbourne Midsumma Festival.

Amal's story continues to be told through the PPP. Her resistance has given rise to many movements, making clear that even when faced by injustices and efforts to silence, we can rely on each other for strength and inspiration and imagine new possibilities beyond borders and boundaries.

Enquiries: Film project Hope Email: flyingcarpet @ pacific.net.au
People's Performance Project Email: callmesquare @ yahoo.com.au

Pippa Kirwan