Hello to All This

“So many deeds cry out to be done;

And always urgently.

The world rolls on,

Time presses.

Ten thousand years are too long,

Seize the day, seize the hour.”

—Chairman Mao

I really feel like I’ve got to answer Robin Morgan’s article in the first issue of the Woman’s Rat [“Goodbye to All That,” FE #101, March 19-April 1, 1970].

Wow! You see, I’m one of the founders of the White Panther Party. Not many people know that, and before now, I never really cared who knew. I can speak without feeling badly about “all that.”

The White Panther Party has definitely been male chauvinist in the past. I was the only woman on the Central Committee and my first title was Corresponding Secretary, which I found out later, really pissed a lot of people off.

Now I’m Minister of Communication, and I have been educated to the need for emphasizing woman’s liberation within the struggle to liberate all the people on the planet, but I have to say right here, right now, that I’m into Women’s Liberation to educate women to become REVOLUTIONARIES.

Revolution means change. I cannot accept as a revolutionary woman one who says of John Sinclair: “Just one less to worry about for ten years. I do not choose my enemy for my brother.”

She leaves no room for change, for revolution, she assumes that, since John Sinclair was male chauvinist a year and a half ago, he must be male chauvinist now, and for the rest of his life. She assumes that throughout her article.

I’m not into that at all. I’m into intensifying the struggle at all levels, dealing with concrete problems in a revolutionary fashion that will make us COME TOGETHER. I cannot accept her as a revolutionary when she says “Goodbye” to so many of the people and movements that have brought us to the point in history we have reached now.

I keep seeing pure examples of what Franz Fanon was talking about in Wretched of the Earth when he said that brothers and sisters who can’t reach the real oppressor start striking out at each other.

There’s no time for that. There’s too much to say hello to, too much revolutionizing to do, too many things to change, too many simple-minded optimistic dreams that are going to take a lot of hard work to make into realities. I’m gonna raise my head and my FIST in anger and love, and join my brothers and sisters in demanding, and working, and fighting for FREEDOM NOW—BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

I’m not going to join any women who want a genderless society. They can have their own genderless tribe, I’m not down on that, I love to fuck, I love being a woman, I love women, and I love MEN—oh yes I do.

Nor am I going to join any woman, any body, who wants to “take over the movement.” Bullshit!

I align myself with all revolutionary people who are dedicated to serving the people and liberating the planet from all oppressive forces.

We are all REVOLUTIONARIES, we are all for change—on the planet and within ourselves. Any-one not prepared to change will DIE, and I won’t waste my time saying goodbye.

SEIZE THE TIME, OUTLAWS.

Related in this issue

“Who’s the Enemy?” FE #104, April 30-May 13, 1970