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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2007Woman As ReasonNeed to dig into revolutionary theoryBy Terry Moon The 28th National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) Conference, June 28-July 1, was held just outside Chicago. Of the over 1,400 who came, 600 were first-time attendees, highlighting how many young women first meet feminism through women's studies. Having attended NWSA Conferences for over 20 years what was striking to me was that the Conference had no plenary that took up an important topic of the day. Last year, for example, one plenary was on "Empire, Global Political Conflicts and Resistance," other years took up "Women and Globalism," women and war, the state of feminist theory, etc. This year heard an inspiring talk by breakthrough Chicana feminist writer Sandra Cisneros, which contained explicit feminist and anti-racist messages but didn't set forth a view of the world or a specific topic that the body as a whole could discuss. Neither did the second night's "Tribute Panel: Bridge Inscriptions: Radical Women of Color Envision-Pasts, Presents, Futures," where several women of color gave moving accounts of their encounter with the groundbreaking 1981 book, This Bridge Called My Back. NO POLITICAL PLENARY The political plenary was replaced with four "Engaging Scholarship Sessions" held at the same time, billed as offering "scholarly perspectives on the various conference themes." The best was Barbara Ransby's on “Past Debates, Present Possibilities, Future Feminisms,” the theme of the entire Conference. But even here, the emphasis was on trying to re-create “teaching like [civil rights activist] Ella [Baker] did, by quilting strands together” among the academy and communities on the move for freedom. The stress was on ameliorating our present circumstances, not envisioning how to create a totally new world. (For more reports on NWSA see Readers' Views, page 9.) The lack of a plenary, the dearth of explicit workshops on revolutionary theory, and NWSA's emphasis on "performance" which dominated the agenda, reveal a serious depoliticalization and show how both postmodernism and pragmatism have pervaded women's studies. This retrogression in theory can't be separated from the retrogression in the movement itself. NWSA is struggling with being the "academic arm of the Women's Liberation Movement" when women's liberation can hardly be characterized as a movement. Yet many were looking for a more radical direction and were interested in revolutionary theory—as seen by those attracted to three Marxist-Humanist workshops and the News and Letters literature table where a number came to engage in further discussion. The workshops were titled: "From Consciousness Raising to Creating Revolution: The Building of Future Feminisms"; "G. W.F. Hegel's Philosophy Debated Within Feminist Theory"; and "Revisiting the Relation of Feminism to Marxism." DON'T SHY AWAY FROM PHILOSOPHY At these panels and many others, conference attendees shared their experience in every aspect of the struggle: abortion rights and fighting the theocratic Right—Muslim or Christian; mobilizing an entire community to stop the savaging of immigrants; environmental justice; post-Katrina reconstruction (see article this page); queer issues and much more. While NWSA has always been good on trying to bridge the gap between academia and the struggles of women worldwide, what needs to be comprehended is that can never be done by shying away from revolutionary theory and philosophy. No one can manufacture a mass movement, but NWSA—as an explicit intellectual segment of feminism—needs to do more than reflect the present state of women's liberation. When a movement is quiescent, or struggling to throw off retrogression, theoreticians don't help by retreating into do-nothing theories of postmodernism, or a pragmatism that is incapable of challenging what is. Rather, now is the time to dig deep into revolutionary theory and philosophy that take off from the highest point reached by the women's movement and in thought. One of those high-points was when women were confident in our ability to transform all of society, including the Left's narrow concept of revolution. We demanded so deep and total a transformation that all segments of society would be free. That is still what needs to be done, but it will be impossible if revolutionary philosophy is no longer on the agenda. Next year's NWSA conference title shows promise: "Resisting Hegemonies: Race and Sexual Politics in Nation, Region, Empire." Time will tell if that challenge will be met. |
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