Love & Rage Archive

by Carolyn

To the Editors:

In an article in the November/December 1994 issue of Love and Rage, I wrote that white people are those who enjoy the privileges of the white skin, among which are "expecting, if they are female, that the state will protect them from strangers." In a note appended to my article, the editorial board wrote that the women on it "strongly disagree" with my statement, which "runs contrary to the newspaper's commitment to recognizing the way in which state power is used to uphold patriarchy."

Dear Love and Rage,

Noel Ignatiev's attempt to defend his claim that white women can expect "that the state will protect them from strangers" demands a response. Noel replies to the evidence of the experience of "white" women on the Love and Rage Production Group to the contrary by asserting that by their apparent refusal "to be the property of any man" they have placed themselves beyond the shield of whiteness.

by Carolyn

By Reb

The welfare state is a product of capitalism - not an alternative to it - yet many leftists, including communists and anarchists, are currently involved in struggles to defend it. Is this a contradiction? At the same time, many opponents of welfare are often described by some as anti-government “anarchists” because they’re generally against “government intervention.” Of course there’s no real puzzle here: The people posing as “anti-government reformers” or even “anarchists” are actually two groups: the leaders are old style “robber-baron” capitalists who don’t want the government to interfere with freedom of profit, and the others are fed-up tax payers whose “anti-government” ideas against welfare, taxes, and social programs might be better described as a revolt against communal values in general. This group doesn’t want scant resources being spent on “other” “less-deserving” people.

By Suzy Subways

Two-thirds of all the work in the world is done by women. Women in the Third World sew the clothes, put together the stereos, and produce the food for people in the First World. But a hard day’s labor is still considered a masculine thing. It is the invisibility of women’s labor, along with women’s isolation from each other, that keeps the exploitation of women going. Patriarchal exploitation has fed the expansion of capitalism for hundreds of years. On top of the work women do to support themselves and children, women do unwaged work like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids. This work makes it possible for themselves, husbands and boyfriends, and future generations to go out and work. Bosses profit from this unwaged labor but women remain economically dependent on men.

By Laura W.

January 22, 1998 marks the 25th anniversary of legal abortion in the US. A quarter century after women won this basic right on paper, the ability to control our reproductive lives is not a reality for most women. Cutbacks on welfare, lack of child care, dead-end jobs, lack of healthy birth control alternatives, men that won’t use condoms, lack of health insurance, lack of access health services including abortion and prenatal care, harassment and violence at our clinics, in our homes and in the streets are just a few of the obstacles to this critical aspect of women’s freedom. In anticipation of January’s anniversary I look forward to an ongoing dialogue about how to take back this battle, reframe it in terms of women’s lives and health—and win.