"Their view of history was not as past—as static; but of history as movement, as development, as continuing struggle, a history of the present as well as the past—for the future. It is a history of the arguments and the debates, not just to show progress but how it came about. Theirs was a history that sums up in order to move forward, a history not just to give credit, but to record, record attempts and mistakes, a history to use—an ‘arsenal’ for women, as they put it. It was a history by the activists, those who write history to change history."

— Kathie Sarachild describing History of Woman Suffrage, edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Gage, 1881, in "The Power of History" from Redstockings' Feminist Revolution, 1975. 

The Redstockings Women's Liberation Archives for Action, as their website proclaims:

“…is a mostly volunteer, grassroots effort for using and spreading the principle of history for activist use. Through their catalog and larger collection they have been disseminating and restoring to public awareness some of the founding documents of the Women's Liberation Movement, as well as materials that take stock of all the freedom organizing of the 1960s. The Archives for Action emphasizes the distinct power of engaging with primary sources to learn from, analyze, and advance the gains won from past freedom struggles.

“The ‘Redstockings’ name originated in 1969 to represent the union of two traditions: the ‘bluestocking’ label disparagingly pinned on feminists of earlier centuries--and ‘red’ for revolution. Redstockings women would go on to champion and spread knowledge of vital women's liberation theory, slogans and actions that have become household words such as consciousness-raising, the personal is political, the pro-woman line, sisterhood is powerful, the politics of housework, the Miss America Protest, and ‘speakouts’ that would break the taboos of silence around subjects like abortion.”

In 1989 Redstockings established the Archives for Action to make the formative and radical 1960s experience of the movement more widely available. Below, Annie Tummino (organizer and archivist) and Carol Giardina (organizer and historian) reflect upon how the archives have contributed to their feminist work.

Shulamith Firestone designed the Redstockings stamp early in 1969. It was produced by Hopfield Press on the Lower East Side in New York City and was the first use by the Redstockings of the Old English typestyle that became its signature logo. Image from the Redstockings Archives for Action.

Annie Tummino

I was an organizer before I became an archivist. While I always liked history, I didn’t think much about archives until I moved to New York City in late 2003. At that time Redstockings had an “Allies and Veterans” committee designed to bring together multiple generations of feminists interested in continuing the fight for women’s liberation, and I was lucky to be invited to a meeting. Around this time I also got involved with a campaign to win over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill, led by a core group of women who had worked with Redstockings Allies and Veterans, Gainesville Women’s Liberation (the first women’s liberation group in the South, formed in Florida in 1968), and various chapters of the National Organization for Women.

In 2003 the morning-after pill was only available with a doctor’s prescription in the United States, unlike in over forty other countries where it was already sold over-the-counter. The prescription requirement made it impossible and expensive for most women to obtain, especially in the three day window in which it is most effective. The fact that it is now available on the shelf in pharmacies for women and girls of all ages is due to the ten year organizing campaign feminists waged.

Annie Tummino with Kathie Sarachild making victory signs at an archives volunteer day, NYC, July 2017. Sarachild, an original Redstockings member, coined the slogan “Sisterhood is Powerful” in 1968 and founded the Archives for Action in 1989.

Working in a coalition called the “Morning-After Pill Conspiracy” (which provided a foundation for the later launch of National Women’s Liberation), we built a grassroots feminist campaign around the demand for full over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill (also known as emergency contraception or Plan B), relying heavily on lessons and principles from the 1960s abortion rights movement. We did not learn this history in women’s studies classes or through the media; it was the primary sources from the Redstockings Archives that informed the following strategies:

Notes From the Second Year, 1970, edited by Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt. Image from the Redstockings Archives.

Consciousness Raising

The 1960s Consciousness Raising (CR), where women compare personal experiences to try to get to the root of their problems, led to actions like the Ms. America protest in 1968, the first abortion speak-out in 1969, and seminal papers like “The Politics of Housework” and “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm.” Through our contemporary CR on birth control, we learned that women most frequently needed the morning-after pill to back up condom use. Many women testified that they couldn’t tolerate regular birth control pill use due to side effects. We also discovered that many male partners resisted wearing condoms.It was a great relief to understand that this is a widespread political problem, not a personal problem. Because our goal was to get at the truth of our lives, the campaign was much deeper than if it was based merely on marketing  strategies or policy analysis.

Speakouts

Redstockings organized the first abortion speakout on March 21, 1969 in New York City. Women, defying law and custom, spoke publicly for the first time about their then-criminal abortions, sparking the spread of this powerful tactic across the nation and helping to precipitate the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling. Similarly, in 2003, we organized a group of women to testify at Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearings about why we needed immediate access to emergency contraception. Amid the testimony from scientists and public health officials, the voices of everyday women were heard. We subsequently organized many speakouts during the course of the campaign, including this 2013 action where I testified while holding my infant son on a frigid January day (at this time there were still arbitrary age limits on Plan B implemented by the Bush Administration and to the disappointment of many, supported by the Obama Administration).

Flier From the feminist disruption of the New York State Legislative Hearing on abortion reform, January 1969, produced by Redstockings women before they went public with that name. Image from the Redstockings Archives for Action. 

Don’t settle for small reforms

In the 1960s liberal-minded reformers were considering small changes to the abortion laws. For example, you could get an abortion if you already had four kids, if you were raped, or deemed mentally unstable by a doctor. But feminists knew such changes wouldn’t benefit most women. They were fighting for something more fundamental - the complete repeal of all abortion laws. Roe, which instituted the trimester system, was actually a compromise from what radical feminists had demanded - to take abortion off the books and treat it as simple medical procedure like any other.

Similarly, some groups in the early to mid-2000s were prioritizing getting the morning-after pill available in emergency rooms. Others were willing to settle for prescriptions through a pharmacist and/or age limits. But we weren’t willing to compromise. We had read Lucinda Cisler’s brilliant paper from 1970, “Abortion Law Repeal (Sort of): A Warning to Women,” about the dangers of allowing some groups of women to be bought off at the expense of others, which eventually weakens the position of all women. Unfortunately, much of what she predicted came true in the form of parental consent laws, mandatory waiting periods, the elimination of Medicaid coverage in all but a few states, and other curtailments on accessibility.

We stayed strong in the demand for complete over-the-counter access for all ages, and stuck with it until we won. While making the morning-after pill affordable to all women remains a battle, it’s still a great relief to know that so many more people can now pick it up along with candy, toothpaste, aspirin, and other everyday items at the pharmacy.

Carol Giardina

I had the immeasurably good fortune of being recruited into the Women’s Liberation Movement by my political teacher, Judith Brown, in the revolutionary moment of 1968. That same year I represented Gainesville Women’s Liberation, the first women’s liberation group in the South, at the Miss America Pageant Protest.

When I got back to Gainesville I got fired from my job because an article about me at the protest appeared in the local newspaper. I was banned from state and university jobs and was told I had a “permanent record” of what the authorities labeled “sabotage of the Miss America Pageant.” Yeah, I’m proud of that.

In the heady days of the late 1960s, it seemed possible that the revolution-- FULL women's liberation-- was on the verge of happening in one fell swoop. "This time we are going all the way," the 1969 Redstockings Manifesto over-optimistically put it. It was somewhat arrogant, in a youthful sort of way, as Redstockings was implying that earlier generations of feminists hadn't even wanted to go all the way--hadn't been committed to that--instead of what was far more likely: that they just hadn't been able to, because of the objective conditions of the time. Perhaps with one of those conditions being that the Women's Liberation Movement didn't have enough experience yet to learn everything that was needed to get "all the way" to full freedom.

We've come to learn that our own experience in the Women’s Liberation Movement, as well as the history of revolutions generally, show that although a revolution is a big change, a great leap forward as opposed to a little step, none of the revolutions have yet gone "all the way" to full liberty and justice for all.

Carol Giardina holds sign “Can makeup cover the wounds of our oppression?” at the Miss America protest in Atlantic City in 1968. Image from the Redstockings Archives for Action.

In each revolution at least some of the revolutionaries have tried consciously to learn from the earlier ones. In the French Revolution they tried to learn from the American revolution and the Bolshevik revolution tried to learn from the French. This understanding--that trial and error and learning is necessary--is part of a long revolutionary tradition, a radical heritage.

"The word radical comes from the Latin word for root, getting to the root of problems in understanding...in action, in practice."

People who call themselves radicals, as opposed to being called radical by others, know that the word radical comes from the Latin word for root, getting to the root of problems in understanding, and solving problems at their root in action, in practice. But figuring out the root and putting into practice what you've figured out isn't easy. It takes time, many attempts, and evaluating the outcomes of those attempts.

In the early stages of realizing all this, I remembered that Gainesville Women’s Liberation had given a women’s liberation class in 1969, and I came up with the idea of doing it again. This new women’s liberation class has been given almost yearly since 1991, and it depends on the primary source materials made available by the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action. The class teaches the radical ideas and methods that sparked the rebirth of the feminist movement in the 1960s through a combination of lecture, discussion of readings, consciousness-raising testifying, and taking action.

Carol Giardina teaching the community education class “Women’s Liberation: Where Do I Fit In?” in New York City, 2014.

As the announcement for the class states:

"This class is not about personal liberation through improved self-esteem or an alternative women’s culture, nor is about recalling a golden age of matriarchy. It is not about how feminism can save the planet, nor is it about achieving status in the present corrupt system through individual self-improvement or lifestyle changes.

“This class is for women who want to understand basic truths about how we are held back on the job, in the classroom, in public life and in the home; how a feminist movement was organized to change this; what we can learn now to build the kind of movement that can put the male chauvinist establishment on the run again; and how each woman can contribute to this effort.”

The class culminates with planning and taking an action. This is because we’ve learned that you can’t really understand history to the point of using it in a practical way until you try to change it. We learned this from our own experience but it was crystallized for us when Kathie Sarachild quoted Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer Charlie Cobb in her article “The Power of History” in Feminist Revolution. In SNCC’s first black history book, Cobb had said: “Call it maybe a freedom fighting history book. But before doing that, make a freedom fight.”  

Check it out

Go to the Redstockings website and register for a virtual Archives for Action Library Card to gain access to their digital stacks. You’ll find pamphlets, broadsides, journals, and audio from the 1960s movement and beyond. Portions of the collection have also been microfilmed through Gale Cengage and can be purchased by your library.

How will you use archives to organize?

Annie Tummino is an Archivist & Scholarly Communications Librarian at SUNY Maritime College. She is also a social justice and feminist organizer, working with groups such as National Women’s Liberation and the Redstockings Archives for Action. Follow her @AnnieTummino.

Carol Giardina is a historian, author, activist, and long-time member of the Redstockings. With Judith Brown, she co-founded the Gainesville Women’s Liberation, the first women’s liberation group in the South. Currently, she is a Professor of History at Queens College.