Lynne Stewart’s International Women’s Day message

Lynne Stewart, 72, noted activist and “people’s lawyer,” is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence at Carswell Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. She was convicted in 2005 of distributing press releases for a jailed client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Originally sentenced to 28 months in prison, a federal court judge upped her time to a 10-year term. Stewart, who has been treated for breast cancer, entered prison in November, 2009. Her attorneys appealed her sentence in federal appeals court in February; she and her supporters are awaiting a decision.

When one is asked to give a short reflection on a big topic, it is difficult to figure out what is most important. When the topic is women and the listeners are very savvy politically, it is really tough.

Back in the late 1960s, when I was part of a "consciousness raising" group, our issue was mainly one of being able to assert oneself in a world that we had been taught was naturally and rightly male-dominated. All of the women in this group were from the struggles for community control of the schools on the Lower East Side, and we were a seasoned — and we thought — a tough crew. Later, you would have thought from the tears that flowed at these meetings that we were from the DAR or Junior League — girlie girls! Because you see, we found the commonality of our experiences — incidents we thought were personal, decisions made from our worst motivations, participation in soul- destroying "training" by the patriarchy, and much more — made us understand that there were plans afoot.

If we shared so much negative brainwashing, what was it about? We realized, of course, that it made life easier for the oppressor — both individually and societally — but that it wasn't what we were willing to settle for. Our bonds strengthened, and we were all better able to cope and confront what has now been called “sexism" as it affected us personally.

What was not so obvious in those days was that not only were we going to have to reeducate our partners and our comrades in the struggle, we had unmasked the ugly underpinning of the personal and revealed its societal origins. We not only had to deal with men who were near, dear, and basically sympathetic, we were going to have to deal with generations of men preceding, old goats and Pharisees. My dear partner, Ralph Poynter, has remarked many times that all the religions — ancient and modern — have as their goal old men controlling young women.

It is manifesting itself in our time with great immediacy through the [right-wing] campaigns to eliminate or limit reproductive rights. [Right-wingers] believe that they have the right to make decisions for us about matters that are so very personal. They are pushing “bully-boy tactics,” that women must inform their parents, must watch an ultrasound, and must wait 24 hours [before having an abortion]. The very tactics they use show their misogyny and their view that we women are all children in need of paternal guidance. We cannot make decisions. We don't know what we're doing. The patriarchy will make them for us!

Another aspect of this abortion debate, and one that has been part of it forever is the very immediate question of exactly what these guys — who want above all for us to reproduce — are prepared to offer that child? Back in those days of consciousness raising, one of our true Sheroes was a Black woman lawyer named Flo Kennedy. She queried in her usual acerbic tone, "Where are all these friends of the fetus after babies are born?" Are there better schools, better health care services, more safe housing? No. Of course not. This reveals their underlying perverse motivation is not to bring forth beloved babies. It is to make sure that the mothers accept certain bondage while providing and dedicating themselves to those children.

The worst "terror" is not being able to provide for and shelter these little ones from the evils of the consummate corporate society. The same men that howl for abortion rights to be eliminated do not provide one iota, not a drip, not a dab of real help to mothers — financial or otherwise — for these now-born [babies].

When any topic surrounding women is scratched, the ugly patriarchal controls are revealed. How about the military? Want your daughter out there killing Third World people for an imperial U.S. whose greed has never been matched? Even worse than becoming a Condoleezza Rice or a Sarah Palin is facing what women in the [U.S.] service are subjected to by their "fellow" soldiers and "superiors.” Yes. I mean rapes, sexual assaults, improper touching of all kinds, bullying and ultimately murder. This is documented. The loneliness, self-hate and despair of these young women make [changing] this one of our highest feminist priorities.

Our movement must be dedicated to end the wars that make these women into cannon fodder, into throw-aways. We must build awareness every day, in every way that these atrocities to women cannot be tolerated, not from a superior officer, not from a boss, professor, doctor, prison guard, teacher and not from the guy who "loved" you and married you. Consent, a basic human right, must be respected. Romantic love is used to distract us. Hello? Falling in love isn't the reason women were created.

We were created to fight back, to join others who are like-minded and to fight together for a society of equality on every level.

Well, you can't say I didn't warn you that this is a big topic and one that naturally gets me riled up. Before I finish, I must say a word about women in prison. Of course, it is a microcosm of the control exercised in the real world. Guards with arbitrary authority are in charge of hundreds of women who are docile for the most part. Some are victims of the "war" on drugs and are suffering with 10-, 20- or 30-year prison sentences usually due, again, to bad choices of love and loyalty.

We all suffer a tremendous level of disrespect here; sympathy is nonexistent for the most part. All that basically protects us is other women, roommates, friends who will speak out if there is a medical problem. Unfortunately, many of the women are from a [poor] stratum and are used to being ignored or stonewalled.

Even I, a mouthy New Yorker with lawyer connections and a tremendous supporter base — for which I thank you all — have been waiting since October for surgery. Could it be my age? Could it be that it is "just" a woman thing?

I always assume the worst while I still exist in this patriarchy. It also brings to mind when I was first arrested that a friend shouted at me, "If you don't think you are singled out as a woman. you are crazy!" Enough said.

To finish this rambling, I want to say that the problems confronting women as women are as various and serious as those confronting the movement as a whole and that we can never forget our loyalty to both causes. We are dedicated to changing the world. Resolving the "woman question" is still primary on the agenda. Without that resolution, we are only moving the shells in a shell game.

Change must be fundamental — from the roots — and must reorder the so-called society as a whole.

Lynne Stewart
March 2012
Carswell FMC
53504-054