She's Beautiful When She's Angry Page #7

There is no possibility

for me to be liberated

except that all women be liberated,

and that means power and control

on a political, economic level.

Having had nothing,

I will not settle for crumbs."

Rebel girl, rebel girl

ROXANNE:
We formed a group called Cell 16.

We had a motto that we were gonna

change the world forever and totally.

We didn't tone it down at all.

There were murders that summer in Boston,

and it was headlines... more slain girls.

We started street patrols for

the factories down by the river.

Very dark when the women got off,

and they were constantly being

mugged and assaulted and raped.

The first time something

did happen on a patrol,

these guys yelled at

us, "Bunch of lezzies!"

F*** you!

I went up and punched him.

And Abby did an upper block.

The guy ran.

He was the most terrified

man in Boston that night.

(shouts)

This convinced us all we really

needed to make self-defense a priority.

(body thuds)

So we started recruiting

women for an all-women's class,

and we went from just our

group to about 100 people.

It was important to all of

us that we owned the streets.

One evening in my Tuesday night

consciousness-raising group,

West Village-1,

of New York radical feminists,

Diane Crothers walked in with a newspaper,

It Ain't Me Babe from San Francisco,

and said, "There's an article

here we all have to read."

And it was a story about

a woman in Marin County

who'd been raped during a hitchhike.

We read the article, and

we went around the room,

and it turned out one

woman, Sarah, had been raped.

And the police said to her,

"Who'd want to rape you?"

A friend of mine was raped at knife-point

in her bed in off-campus housing.

I went with her to the

student health service,

and she was given a

lecture on her promiscuity.

It was very common in a courtroom

to blame the woman for the rape.

And rape was looked at

as a crime that occurred

because a man had strong sexual urges

that he couldn't satisfy any other way.

No!

And it was only with the feminist movement

that it came out that rape

is not a crime of passion.

It's a crime that expresses

the urge to dominate.

BROWNMILLER:
People were

not used to thinking of rape

as a political crime against women.

That was our slogan.

"Rape is a political crime against women."

Well, Papa, I ain't

your friend no more

- I ain't gonna make your bed

- Yeah, yeah, yeah

Papa, I ain't your friend no more

- Better get a dog instead

- Right on!

Well, "Back Street

Girl," "Under My Thumb"

Start looking out

where you're coming from

WOMAN:
The Chicago Women's

Liberation Rock Band was huge.

And, Papa, don't

lay that sh*t on me

The fun and games are gone

In those days, you had to have

balls to be a rock musician.

Well, guess what. No.

Seeing women being smarter and tougher,

and the Rock Band was a

fabulous example of that,

'cause of being loud on

top of everything else.

- Go down to the corner

- Get yourself fixed

Whoo! Can't stop

doing what you do to me

You're just gonna drive me wild

Chicago was a hotbed

of feminist organizing.

There were a lot of people

doing a lot of things.

ROTHSTEIN:
And there was

no communication amongst us.

There was no structure

to bring us together.

And at the same time, there

were a lot of new people

who were interested in

the women's movement,

women who were reaching out.

And so we decided to form the

Chicago Women's Liberation Union

as a way to network us all together.

There was the Chicago

Women's Graphics Collective,

the Action Committee for Decent Child Care.

We built a Speaker's Bureau,

the Liberation School for Women.

And we would have an

open orientation session,

and we would put about 30 chairs out,

and we would get over 100 women.

We didn't know who these women were.

We didn't know how they learned about us.

But they kept coming and they kept coming.

ARCANA:
They had classes

on stuff women need to know.

Automobile repair, women's history,

the facts of women's lives.

Why have a school? Because these things

are not being taught in the schools.

I taught women's sexuality,

contraception, abortion.

Abortion was a very important

issue to both groups at that time,

with NOW doing more of the legal work

and the Women's Union doing

more of the direct service work.

In 1964, a friend mentioned

that his sister was

pregnant and nearly suicidal.

Could I do anything about it?

And I was referred, through a

series of connections, to a doctor.

Asked him if he would perform

an abortion. He said yes.

And a few weeks later, someone else called

and said they also were

looking for an abortion.

The word had spread.

At that point, I decided

to set up a bit of a system.

I was living in a dormitory at the time.

So I told people to ask for Jane.

(line ringing)

I could tell within the first

minute what they were calling about,

because there was a pause, there

was a hesitance, there was a tension.

Many were frightened.

Because three people discussing

an abortion in those days

was a conspiracy to commit felony murder.

COLLINS:
Jane was this service

that was established in Chicago

that provided abortions

when abortion was illegal.

- (ringing)

- We would have women call us

who were in need of the abortion service.

And of course, having Jane available,

without having to refer them to the mob,

was a godsend.

BOOTH:
The group would take in the

calls, and we would do counseling.

Then women would be

brought to specific houses

on a rotating basis

where the procedures would be done.

The service moved every day from

somebody's home to somebody's home,

which is quite amazing.

ARCANA:
I joined the abortion service

because I knew that women

are sometimes desperate,

and they are going to hurt themselves

in order to end their pregnancies.

When I began Jane work,

a few dozen women a

week were coming through.

After about six months, there were

at least 100 women coming through.

Ultimately, one really good abortionist

taught Janes how to do abortions

with skill and care,

and then those Janes taught other Janes.

All of us were always aware

that what we were doing was illegal,

that we could go to jail.

You might have to throw everything in

your bag and run down the back stairs

at any moment.

But we understood that

it was important work,

useful work, necessary work.

(people chattering)

MALE REPORTER:
What is the

relationship of the movement

to the whole question of motherhood

and the affection of mothers

for children and so forth?

It's about being able to

have children if you want them

and being able not to have

children if you don't want them,

and if you want to have your

kids at day care centers.

If you want to work,

then you can do that too.

In the women's movement, the

myth was that we hated men,

that we hated marriage, we hated children.

That's not right.

The group I was in, we

talked mostly about child care

being the absolute precondition

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