The Best Decision of My Life by Susan Hawthorne
“My radical feminist and lesbian journey has often been surprising. It is a mix of political and literary activism. My joys have been sharing a life with Renate Klein and our dogs, travelling in Australia to lots of out of the way places, having the chance to travel overseas, and meeting so many wonderful women who have enriched my life many times over. I love to work with women, to read women’s stories and to participate in feminist activism with women.”
A Tale from the Autonomous Women’s Liberation Movement or How the Sydney Women’s Liberation Banner Went to Cuba by Margot Oliver
“We were informed that we were allowed to carry the banner after all – but only this once! We were definitely not allowed to use it again during the rest of the festival.
And so. it transpired that, in front of a crowd of about 90,000 Cubans lining the parade route, four young Australian women discovered the serendipitous advantage of coming from a country whose name starts with A, and the raised fist inside the women’s symbol first saw the light of day in Cuba in spectacular style.“
Women’s Liberation Now and Then by Sheila Jeffreys
A new wave of feminism is taking place and I never thought I would see one. I was involved in the women’s liberation movement (WLM) in London in the 1970s and 1980s before moving to Australia. Like all my sisters who continued to care about the WLM I experienced serious grief for a lost movement in the 1990s and particularly in the 2000s. It did seem that feminism would not rise again as all our women’s facilities disappeared, our discos, bookstores, publishers, women’s centres, bands. But then I was invited to speak at a radical feminist conference in London in 2012 and realised that a new wave of radical feminism was beginning to rise there.
Activism Comes in Waves by Elaine Hutton
As well as demonstrations, writing and theorising, we need to take up the mantle of practical hard work – the slog of influencing public bodies (which we’re doing), and/or setting up on our own, free of official restraints. And younger lesbians are stepping up, to recreate lesbian feminist culture, which gives some hope for renewing work with girls and young women in the future. We need to get the next generation of girls on their bikes, in their canoes, and on the route to sanity, independence, freedom and sisterhood!
Angry Women by Lynne Harne
Women’s liberation was a grassroots collective movement where women got together locally in women only groups in cities and large towns. Some of these groups were consciousness raising discussion groups, others were direct action groups or a mixture of both. These small groups enabled many women to participate and gain confidence to speak out as well as to organise together. There was no passive sitting back and allowing a few women to speak for us; every woman had a voice.
Maintain the Rage by Renate Klein
When we had the idea to put together an anthology of old women’s writings, Susan and I hoped from the very beginning that this volume to celebrate the 30th birthday of our publishing company Spinifex Press would be our present to young women. The result Not Dead Yet: Feminism, Passion and Women’s Liberation exceeded our expectations. Many of the 56 women over 70 writing in this book, want the exhilaration, stresses, anger and joy they experienced through their 40 or more years of feminist activism passed on to younger women. The passing on of feminist knowledge in our increasingly fast-read, fast-experienced and fast-forget-everything time is truly of the utmost importance.
Finding my Voice by Angela Neale
I joined the fledgling Women’s Liberation Movement in early 1971. It changed my life forever.
Welcome to the Not Dead Yet Blog
In our anthology Not Dead Yet: Feminism, Passion and Women’s Liberation, released as part of our 30 year celebrations, we asked readers to share their own stories…