Nancy Holmstrom, a long-time socialist feminist activist/intellectual in the U.S., recently gave a talk in Toronto on the topic of the “Socialist-Feminism, Then and Now,” the text of which is available on the web site of New Socialist magazine. In her talk, Holmstrom offers both a useful historical survey of the early years of (2nd Wave) socialist-feminism in its North American version, and also a convincing case for ongoing importance in today’s movements.
She writes: “We have made enormous changes in gender relations since the 1960s but the ones we need to make now are more difficult since they push up against the limits of capitalism…. Today’s struggles tend to be fragmented – labor, environmental, anti-war, women’s, so our main challenge is to think of ways to integrate them and try to form alliances with others who share our interests and concerns and try to build the movements capable of making the changes we need. Whatever movements we are in, the women’s movement, labor, anti-war or environmental, we have to try to bring up a socialist-feminist angle, one that addresses the interests of the majority of the women of the world. One thing we know from the ‘60s and ‘70s is that enormous and totally surprising changes are possible and sometimes they come very rapidly – so we need to be prepared with good theory and practice.” (link)
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