A-Infos (en) Remembrance Day for Womyn Raped in All Wars

[Benny Rizzo <reporter2@mpinet.net>]

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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reprinted from a flyer distributed yesterday. . .


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Today, April 25, is Remembrance Day for Womyn Raped in All Wars.

	While the conventional mode of "remembrance" might be a moment of
silence,
we have opted instead to speak out.  We refuse to be silent.  We refuse to
be silenced.

	For the womyn raped in the myth, legend and literature - the
victims of the
hero-rapists of Western culture:  Zeus, the Knights of the Round Table, Jack
the Ripper, etc ad nauseum
	For the tens of thousands of womyn raped by Japanese forces in Nanking,
China in 1937
	For the Jewish womyn raped by the fascists
For the hundred thousand womyn raped as the Allied forces "liberated"
Berlin.
	For the hundred thousand Bengali womyn raped during the war of
"independence" from Pakistan
	For the womyn raped by US troops in Korea and in Vietnam.  For the
12 year
old girl raped by US servicemen in Okinawa, Japan.
	For the womyn raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that are now
dying
of AIDS
	For the tens of thousands of womyn raped in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
where "rape
camps" imprisoned as many as 3000 womyn at a time as part of the Serbian
campaign of ethnic-cleansing
	For the womyn raped in all wars
	For the womyn raped during times of "peace"
	For the womyn who did not, the womyn who will not, the womyn who cannot
tell their stories

	We denounce the rage, violence and domination over womyn.  We
denounce the
forces of patriarchy that use womyn's bodies as the battlefields of power
and destruction.  We are not men's trophies.

	Rape is not revolutionary - it is the oldest tactic of patriarchy.

	It is not a "victimist ideology" that makes us pause to honor womyn
this
day.  We are strong womyn and strong womyn laugh, and strong womyn cry, and
strong womyn shout, and strong womyn whisper, and strong womyn fight and
strong womyn surrender and strong womyn survive and strong womyn die.

	General Patton said in his memoirs, "I then told him that, in spite
of my
most diligent efforts, there would unquestionably be some raping."  As Susan
Brownmiller writes in Against Our Will, "It's funny about a man's attitute
toward rape in war.  Unquestionably there shall be some raping.
Unconscionable, but nevertheless inevitable.  When men are men, slugging it
out among themselves, conquering new land, subjugating new people, driving
on toward victory, unquestionably there shall be some raping."

	"He rapes because he wants to engage in violence.  He rapes because he
wants to demonstrate his power.  He rapes because he is the victor.  He
rapes because the woman is the enemy's womyn, and he wants to humiliate and
annihilate the enemy.  He rapes because the woman is herself the enemy whom
he wishes to humiliate and annihilate.  He rapes because the acquisition of
the female body means a piece of territory conquered.  He rapes to take out
on someone else the humiliation he has suffered.  He rapes to work off his
fears.  He rapes because it's really only some 'fun' with the guys.  He
rapes because war [revolution?], a man's business, has awakened his
aggressiveness, and directs it at those who play a subordinate role in the
world of war [revolution?]."

	This is not "our" war.  We refuse our "brothers'" "revolution"!

	Just as womyn do not consent to the violation of their bodies, we
do not
consent to their penetration of our movement.

	We have the right to assert ourselves as unabashedly militant
Feminists in
this struggle for liberation from all forms of domination and exploitation.
Around the globe and here at home we demand that the oppression of womyn be
placed at the forefront of our revolutionary agenda. Because it is not
extreme to proclaim that there has been a war waged against us for
centuries, which has affected us in various grotesque ways. From the Witch
Burnings to Afghanistan today, this war has been and is an attack on the
Feminine as a (w)hole.

        The conditions in which ecosystems and primitive cultures are being
destroyed past and present, the destruction of female-centered communities
as in Europe, the forced sterilization of womyn of color in Amerika, the
rape and forced reproduction of African-American womyn slaves and womyn in
East Timor, the rape camps in Bosnia, and womyn being stoned to death
(amongst many other tortures)in public arenas in Afghanistan makes it quite
clear what has already happened and that the war against us will continue.

       As more and more people become ever increasingly militant in their
resistance to such things as Global Capitalism and "Free Trade", so the
various governments and militaries will become more and more repressive (as
we have begun to notice). And with this escalation of tactics on both sides
comes the probability of war. As more confrontation arises, many more people
will be subject to the increased severity of torture and abuse leading to
large amounts of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Currently we do
not have the knowledge or skills necessary to cope with survivors of rape
and war, especially considering that as of now, rape and the abuse of womyn
is not seen as endemic and important enough to fight against by the men
around us.

     If we do not fight against the entirety of the dominant male paradigm,
i.e., from the micro to the macro, we are merely struggling in futility.

     We demand that our collective reality as womyn no longer be cast aside
as an irrelevant hindrance to Revolution. We demand that our experiences be
seen as the wisdom necessary for a real and usable revolution.

     Today, April 25, is Remembrance Day for Womyn Raped in All Wars.  It is
364 days too short each year. . .

  	These writings are dedicated to all womyn around the globe and
particularly the womyn in Chiapas. . . "Anarchist" or not.
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