Women's Organisation Then And Now

We had a good peace demonstration in Johannesburg yesterday, small, but perfectly formed, the kind that people remember for a long time. It was part of a world-wide uprising of demonstrations in hundreds of cities. Let us hope that now we can build a proper independent and democratic mass movement for peace and against imperialism in South Africa. Further to the ANC Today piece on the Progressive Women’s Movement (PWM) Steering Committee launched on March 8th, linked below is an excerpt from “Women and Resistance in South Africa”, a very good book by Cheryl Walker, published in 1982. In particular the second part of the excerpt, called “The Membership Issue”, is very instructive. The Federation of South African Women (FSAW) was founded in 1954 with similar aims to those of the PWM. Although the external circumstances were different, the relationship between the FSAW and the ANC within the Alliance was fraught with problems that look very recognisable today. See the link below. It would be nice to have a statement from the ANC as to how the new PWM will avoid these problems that faced the FSAW more than 50 years ago. Links: FSAW NEC Problems and Membership Question, 1955. Walker (3259 words)