How often have you heard it said that women are the powerless victims of a ruthless
society that enslaves us? Or these words, “In a perfect world…”— to shut us up.
Yes, the profit system brutalises women and uses all of its power to keep us down. This
is how it’s been since society became divided into classes thousands of years ago, and
women — once honoured as social leaders — were turned into chattel. By controlling
our bodies to reproduce a workforce and our labour to keep society humming, a tiny élite
has been able to rule and enrich itself. As the Radical Women Manifesto puts it, “We are
the majority of the old and the young; we are the majority of the poor. We are the doubly
oppressed half of every oppressed minority, as well as the most economically exploited
workers.”
But never have we been helpless or silent! Says the Radical Women Manifesto: “We are
the inheritors of a rich tradition of women fighters and rebels…women who dedicated
their lives to human rights and social progress. They are women who have understood
the real meaning of ‘radical’ — change that goes to the root.” Now, there’s something
they never taught us at school! I didn’t learn about movements for workers’ rights,
reproductive justice or rights for queers, Indigenous nations or ethnic minorities —
and their women leaders. My education taught me only about the charitable ladies who
worked with the poor and the destitute, the ladies whose function was presented as an
extension of the caring wife and mother.
It is the women who, because of their “special place” in the capitalist system, possess the
personal understanding of struggle, have the least to lose and most to win by rebelling,
and step up as leaders. It is from them that we can most learn.
Defiance that inspires. Take, for example, Daisy Bindi (c 1904 – 1962), a Nungamurda
woman born about 1904 on a cattlestation near Jigalong Aboriginal Reserve in Western
Australia. As a child, she worked on Ethel Creek station, learned household skills and
received no formal education. She later became an accomplished horsewoman, living and
working with her Nyangumarda people on a number of pastoral stations. She witnessed
and endured the horrors inflicted by the police, who regularly raided Indigenous camps
and shot dogs which the community depended upon to hunt kangaroos. In those days
Indigenous men, women and children were “bonded” to a station owner for the term of
their natural life. They received very little and irregular pay, if any at all, and to leave the
station meant punishment by severe beatings or death.
In 1945, she responded to a call from Don McLeod, Dooley Bin Bin and Clancy
McKenna, urging Aboriginal workers on large sheep and cattle stations to strike for better
conditions and human rights. A fiery speaker, Daisy organised a meeting to spread the
message. She demanded and received wages from her white station boss, and with the
money she hired a truck to transport local strikers. This landmark strike, which covered
Western Australia’s massive Pilbara region, started on l May 1946 and continued for
three years. It was one of the longest in Australian history.
Although the employers had assistance from the police and the Native Welfare
Department to prevent the strike, 500 men, women and children walked off the stations
south of Nullagine and made their way to Port Hedland. At Nullagine, Daisy talked
her way through a police confrontation and, leading 86 others, made her way safely via
Marble Bar to Canning Camp on the Shaw River.
In 1959, Daisy injured her foot while mustering. Her diabetic condition, and the lack of
adequate health services, resulted in gangrene and the amputation of her leg. When she
visited Perth to be fitted with an artificial limb, she successfully lobbied parliamentarians
for a school at the Pindan Cooperative, a community-run organisation formed out of the
strike and the first of its kind.
Daisy did not let oppression for her class, sex and race, nor her disability, stop
her. Dooley and Clancy were later sentenced to three months jail under the Native
Administration Act. Did the threat of jail, beatings, or even possible death, make Daisy
change her mind? Perhaps it was all too difficult? Perhaps it would be easier to just try
for a little bit of change? No, no and no! She was defiant and decisive. She was bold and
fearless and didn’t give up.
A world to win. Daisy Bindi is one of many international women rebels named in the
Radical Women Manifesto for their part in making our heritage so rich. “The truth,”
says this document, “is that in women of all ages and colours there lies a vast potential
for revolutionary strength and leadership — and at a time in history when strength and
leadership are most urgently needed.” What would I like to change? To start, I want
women to be able to choose if and when they want to have a baby and whether they want
assisted reproduction. I want a world where Aboriginal Australians enjoy sovereignty,
with the freedom to decide where and how they live, and a treaty to recognise this. Where
same-sex couples have the same rights as heterosexuals to marry and adopt children.
Where people are secure in their civil rights, free from any fear of being locked up
because of where they come from, what they look like and what they think. Where an
enjoyable job, good pay and great conditions aren’t pipedreams. I want us all to reclaim
our planet and its resources from the profiteers, so that our children and our children’s
children can enjoy all that it offers. A bit idealistic? No, these are necessities that we can
make into reality, and sooner rather than later. It takes optimism and leadership to bring
on this revolutionary shake-up.
Nancy Reiko Kato, from Radical Women in the United States and author of Women of
Color: Frontrunners for Freedom, adds: “Quiet as it’s kept, there is no better life than
that of being a revolutionary feminist. Transforming ourselves into leaders in order to
change the world – now that’s a lifestyle worth choosing. What a joy to believe that the
world can — and will — be a better place!” I joined Radical Women, because I want
to walk with Daisy, Nancy and other women freedom fighters who don’t hold back. As
Nancy says, “Radical Women members are lucky: woman warriors with an organization
to back us up and sisters to teach us, whom we in turn teach.” I say, “Check out Radical
Women!” Have a read of the Radical Women Manifesto. This is not just a statement of
beliefs — it is a flavoursome recipe for revolution!
