RECAP OF SPEAKER COMMENTS
by Barney Kirchhoff, member at large, executive committee, Democrats Abroad France

Spring 2006

International Women's Day panel: DAF marked International Women’s Day March 8 with a “Women on Women” panel at the Cafe Flore. Arranged by the Women's Caucus, five women outlined their ideas on women in politics, work, the home and everyday life at a packed meeting in the Flore’s upstairs room.

Susan Perry, a professor at the American University of Paris, lamented the loss of interest in women’s rights at the UN and called for a Fifth UN Conference on Women. She deplored the "incremental cynicism" toward women's rights in international organizations and governments which mostly give only a “meaningless” nod to gender equality. On the positive side, she noted that 50% of Madagascar's judges now are women.

On the positive side, Gloria Bishop, one of the founders of Equal Voice and a former Canadian Broadcasting Corp. journalist, said conditions for women in Canada are among the best ever. In 1960, married women couldn’t get their own bank accounts or legal abortions, and gay marriages were banned. These issues, once considered private matters, have been resolved by making them into matters of public policy, she said. Equal Voice, the organization she helped found five years ago, is dealing with a negative side of Canadian political life, the poor representation of women in politics. Equal Voice’s goal is to get the political parties of Canada to set quotas of 40 to 50% for female candidates for office.

The situation of women is France is much grimmer. Catherine Le Magueresse, president of the AVFT, an association working to curb violence toward women in the workplace, described her efforts to help women regain their dignity as “the struggle of my life.” There is violence everywhere, but women who file complaints face libel charges if they lose their case. There are few courses in women’s studies in the university and none in law school. Although about 50%of French magistrates are women, they tend to be even more conservative than men, she said. “Another revolution is needed.” There is major resistance to invoking international law because the French feel they make international law. However, AVFT is filing complaints in EU courts.

Barbara Chase-Riboud, who is best known for her book on Sally Hemmings, a slave who bore children by Thomas Jefferson, read an excerpt from her novel, “Hottentot Venus,” the story of Sarah Baartman, an African woman who was exhibited as a freak in Paris and London 200 years ago and analyzed by Napoleon's physician and the most famous naturalist in Europe, the Baron George Cuvier, who used her to illustrate his theories on race. Her remains were kept in a bell jar until the year 2000 when they were repatriated to South Africa at the request of Nelson Mandela. She was “emancipated at last.”

Diane Johnson, author of “Marriage,” “Divorce” and other novels on Franco-American relationships, read an excerpt from a volume of memoirs of Muslim women detailing their attitudes and reactions to issues on sex, virginity and circumcision, many of them very conservative by Western standards. “I wanted to be a virgin because my body belongs to my husband,” one said. Johnson noted that the Dutch impose restrictions on Muslim women. Applicants for welfare, for example, have to learn Dutch and will be denied if they wear burkas to their interviews.
In a lively, sometimes tumultuous Q&A session afterwards, many other issues were raised, including the continuing need for political action following the bill outlawing abortion in South Dakota, which was signed into law a few days earlier.

Other points: Don’t polarize Muslim women because it tends to drive them into fundamentalism. Don’t lose sight of basic rights. Educate young people to prevent the women’s lib movement from sliding backward. Resist the Bush counterrevolution. Get more women into middle and upper-level management in business. Get more women into local, regional and state offices. You can make your voice heard. Be influential in your own sphere.

Winter 2006

Tribute to Betty Friedan Democrats Abroad joined the Center for the Study of International Communications for a tribute to feminist leader Betty Friedan, who died Feb. 4 at 85.

“You have nothing to lose but your vacuum cleaners,” Friedan proclaimed after her book, The Feminine Mystique launched a revolution in American society that is still reverberating.

Connie Borde, Democrats Abroad France chair, and Berna Huebner, of CSIC, reviewed her life and achievements at the University of Paris Feb. 20 at a meeting that attracted nearly 50 participants, including two males. Demo activist Jane von Kaenel updated the status of women in politics today, indicating much still leaves to be desired and work to be done.

Hard-charging, often controversial, Friedan's feminist revolt began in 1957 when she surveyed 200 of her Smith College classmates and found a well of despair over their enforced roles as housewives and mothers. She wrote an article but women's magazines refused to touch it. So she turned the survey into The Feminine Mystique published in 1963.

Borde told how Friedan was radicalized in college and worked extensively as a labor organizer before she turned to feminism and the drive for economic equality for women as well as for men. Huebner read tributes from other feminist writers and organizers. Von Kaenel, fresh from campaigns against the Harriet Miers and Alito nominations to the Supreme Court, related how Friedan, after tireless work for adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), launched a second revolution to get women into office. “It's now acceptable for women to be politically tough,” von Kaenel said, but noted that women are still largely underrepresented in the Senate and House and that many of those who are there are not pro-choice.

She added that the Demos should work to get more women in the pipeline, starting with local boards and councils. Older women need to pass on the plight of being a woman of 18 in 1968 to the new generation. Friedan “threw a firebomb into our culture, don't let the fire go out.” Asked about Hillary Clinton as a candidate in 2008, Von Kaenel, who worked as a press secretary to Hillary in 1976, said that Clinton is doing a “wonderful job” in the Senate but she doubts her electability because Clinton is a “lightning rod” for criticism by her opponents.

Former British MP discusses race, poverty Oona King, a dual-nationality (UK/US) African-American who served eight years as a Labor MP in the British parliament made these points:

On the furor over cartoons showing Mohammed: She said she is for freedom of expression, but these cartoons incite hatred, and freedom of speech does not include the right to be irresponsible.

On headscarves in schools: Before getting to know her Muslim constituency, her opinion was that scarves were a sign of subjugation. Meeting with Muslim women, she found them highly articulate and principled. Her stereotype changed. Her district, Bethnal Green and Bow, has a large Muslim population, including 60% of the children.

Involving disenfranchised groups. Let them have a say. Example—allot funds to an area and let its various groups come to terms on how to spend them.

Iraq war. Even before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair was asking for a vote of support for war. Because of her work on a commission on genocide investigating deaths in Rwanda as well as looking into deaths of Iraqis under Saddam Hussein, she voted to support the war, a vote that she later regretted and which was used by David Galloway, her opponent in 2005, to unseat her.

Race in the US. A visit to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina strengthened her opposition to the war and reinforced her views on the continuing problems of racism in the United States, where black men are 57 times as likely as white men to be arrested on drug charges. See American Journey.

International organizations. She thinks that the UN and WTO should be strengthened but suggested that UN representatives should be elected instead of appointed by their governments.

Joining the British Labour Party at 14, she has never stopped working for things she believes in. In Parliament, Ms. King championed issues including anti-social behavior, domestic violence, housing, fair rents, pensioner rights, immigration, electoral reform, inner-city regeneration, comprehensive education, Europe and a fairer international trade system. She lost her last election, but is making dynamic use of her time by effectively working on all of the above. She is the Chair of THANCS (Tower Hamlets Advocacy Network & Community Support).

She spoke February 6 at the American University of Paris at the invitation of Zachery Miller of Young Demos and the Minority Caucus, the Women’s Caucus and the Executive Committee.

Minimum wage keeps people in poverty Hattie Dorsey, a member of the Democratic National Committee and Georgia political activist, spoke about:

1) the economy—a good example being her home state of Georgia. The federal minimum wage has been stuck for years at $5.15 an hour. Most people under the poverty level are disenchanted and don’t vote. She thinks it must go up to $10 or $12 to give people a fighting chance.

2) regaining the initiative—Democrats must reach out to the church to win back African-American votes. Can women reach the top? Yes, she says. As an African American, she said she would vote for Hillary Clinton in 2008, even if her opponent was Condoleeza Rice.

Democrats must go out in the neighborhoods, knock on doors and get people registered and voting. Women are an essential part of the campaign to take back the Congress this year, she said. She described how the Democrats lost Georgia because of complacency and neglect and enthusiastically supports Howard Dean’s efforts to rebuild the party in every state.

She voiced concern about the new prescription drugs law, which is complicated and difficult to administer.

She was sponsored by the Women’s Caucus Jan. 16.

September 2005

PARIS – September marks the beginning of the new season, and a busy one it was for DAF.  Subjects ranging from Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans, the Democratic Party and its values, the global, interdependent world, and the never-ending-never-improving war in Iraq were dealt with.  

Young Dems Cocktail:  Heidi Draper
Young Democrats Abroad France arranged a showing of “Take It Back: The Movement for Democracy and Howard Dean,” Draper’s 90-minute documentary film on Dean, on Sept. 22. Draper, who was born and lived in Boston until 1980 when she moved to Paris with her family to pursue her career as a filmmaker. In January 2004, upset with the policies of George Bush and feeling the growing antipathy abroad against the U.S., she went to Iowa with  a camera and a bag full of video tapes to film the Dean movement in the  Iowa caucuses, then followed him through other primaries. The film includes the infamous footage of Dean allegedly screaming after his primary defeats, which was widely broadcast by the networks without the crowd noise. Then she reruns the scene in context as she filmed it with Dean disappointed but not screaming, completely under control and smiling as he talks above the crowd noise to reassure his followers. Dean presents himself as the leader of the “Democratic wing of the Democratic party.”  The film concludes with a plea to keep working for change, with Dean as the catalyst as head of the Democratic Party to take the country back. We hope to have another showing of the film at a later date.

Terry Schnadelbach Connie Borde sponsored a talk on rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina Sept 19 by Terry Schnadelbach, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Florida. Terry, who was born and raised in New Orleans is  in favor of projects that are “ecologically sound and in harmony with its cultural heritage.” He denounced the “lethal incompetence” and “dereliction of duty” by the Bush administration and gave us a lot of details about the city.   Among his suggestions: develop townhouse projects on ridges above sea level to concentrate more of the population there. He said that many of the houses in the 80 per cent of New Orleans that was under water will have to be razed but the thought that most of them should be bulldozed, then stabilized with  landfill and a covering of new topsoil to bring the land up above sea level. Among his cracks at Bush & Co., he   mentioned the photo op for George in front of the New Orleans church that was all neatly lit up in the background with generators flown in – and promptly flown back out afterwards.          

Benjamin Barber and Interdependence Day
Democrats Abroad France attended a three-day series of meetings and conferences Sept. 10-12 to mark the third annual Interdependence Day http://www.civworld.org/, which uses Sept.12 to promote unity and friendship in a world overcome by globalization.  This year’s theme was “The Arts and Crafts at the Heart of Interdependence,” and featured Harry Belafonte as  a keynote speaker. Belafonte, who is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, flew in from Washington to make the final session, had his baggage lost, delivered a passionate speech on racial inequality, and conked out  exhausted before he could get his Interdependence Day Prize at the end of the session because he had to get up to catch a 6 a.m. flight back to the U.S. the next morning   
 
Interdependence Day (note the inter-) was founded three years ago by Benjamin Barber,  a political scientist and professor at the University of Maryland best known for his 1996 bestseller, “Jihad Vs. McWorld http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad_Vs._McWorld.”  Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society and involved citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. He has served as an advisor to various politicians in the United States and around the world, including Bill Clinton and Howard Dean. He put together a Declaration of Interdependence which he  has gotten many prominent people around the world to sign. He added the autograph of Bertrand Delanoe, mayor of Paris, at the Sept 12 session in the city hall of Paris. Other sessions were held at the American University of Paris and the Bastille Opera.   Michael Rocard, former French premier, was co-sponsor of this year's sessions, which drew dozens of political leaders and dignitaries from around the world. Among them was  Dennis Kucinich, Ohio congressman and one of the Demo candidates for president last year, who   plugged his proposal for a cabinet-level Department of Peace. Michael Gorbachev sent a letter saying he couldn't make it but endorsing  the Interdependence Day  project.   There were lots of people from  the arts,  including director Robert Wilson, and many of them joined in  a performance at the Bastille Opera on Sept. 11.
 
Cindy Sheehan With only a few hours notice, DAF organized a candlight vigil at the Wall of Peace  on the Champs des Mars behind the Eiffel Tower  to support Cindy Sheehan in her August confrontation with vacationeer Bush in Crawford, Texas, to protest the death of her GI son Casey in Iraq. The Paris vigil was timed to coincide with hundreds of similar “Camp Casey” vigils across the United States. A photographer from Agence France Press took pictures and Sheehan's month-long protest received wide coverage  in the French media.

PARIS - In June the Democrats Abroad France arranged a wide range of provocative discussions on the war in Iraq, Middle East peace problems, violations of human and civil rights, media coverage and the right's politics of fear in the U.S. and abroad.

Israeli/Palestinian relations - The First Tuesday dinner June 15 paired Michel Warschawski, president of the Israel-Palestinian Alternative Information Center (AIC) of Jerusalem and film critic Janine Halbreich Euvrard, author of a book on Israeli and Palestinian cinema and organizer of an Israeli-Palestinian film festival in Paris earlier this month.

Warschawski, an Israeli author and one of the founders of Yesh Gvul ("There is a Limit"), a movement of soldiers and reserve officers against the war and occupation, said that the Sharon plan, contrary to most media reports, is not the beginning of the roadmap process but actually a rejection of the road map. Unless the U.S. puts more pressure on Sharon, Warschawski foresees a Palestinian enclave surrounded by 750-800 checkpoints.

Halbreich Euvrard said that Judaism had been betrayed by Zionism and that the situation of activist Jews critical of the government is becoming more difficult. She maintains that films reach more people than books and organizes encounters between Palestinian and Israeli directors. However, she sees little hope that the Bush administration will try harder to bring Israelis and Palestinians together.

Sticking to the law - In a speech to Democrats Abroad France June 19, Ann Fagan Ginger, a feisty, longtime human rights lawyer and peace activist based in San Francisco, advocated two lines of attack to stop torture and help extricate the U.S. from Iraq. Ginger, who just published "Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11," a book which documents the abuses of civil and human rights at home and abroad, pointed out that many of the Bush administration actions in Guantanamo and elsewhere violated international treaties as well as the U.S. Constitution. She noted that the UN Charter and other treaties ratified by the Congress become the law of the land but that the Bush administration has simply ignored them. For example, a long delayed report in May required for the UN Committee on Torture, didn't mention abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The evasive report, required by the Convention on Torture, which the U.S. ratified in 1994, was six years overdue.

The author of 24 books, she urged Democrats to get together, rather than concentrating on single issues. "We need to all parade together." She said we should work from the ground up, getting Democrats elected to local offices. Overseas Democrats can help by staging events that gain media attention and write to local newspapers back home to promote Democrat views and policies. And just to show how long she has been fighting for civil rights, at the end of her talk she asked all the members of the audience to stand up, join hands and sing "We Shall Overcome."

Rights for detainees - Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, told about efforts to get hearings for the detainees at Guantanamo. Although this was not a DAF event, Janice Mitchell arranged for Demos to join the audience at a French law school. The center was originally set up for civil rights cases in the U.S., particularly in the South. After Nov. 1, 2002, when Bush issued his order saying the U.S. can call anyone "enemy combatants" without any rights or access to lawyers and hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, the center got involved with Guantanamo, challenging the right of the U.S. to grab and hold alleged terrorist suspects without giving them a day in court as a violation of the U.S. Constitution as well as the Geneva Convention and other treaties, not to mention the Magna Carta, issued in the 13th century in Britain.

Ratner said that at the beginning they received a lot of mail accusing them of aiding terrorism. They had difficulty lining up lawyers who would take the cases. When U.S. passions cooled and more and more people recognized that these people were not being given an opportunity to confront the accusations, they got more support. They lost in the lower courts and appeals courts, but then the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the government to give them hearings. The first big break came when accusations of torture and abuse came out and even U.S. military lawyers protested the detentions without hearings. The center recruited a team of 350 lawyers from around the United States.

However, the U.S. government has steadfastly refused to give out any names or details, except to foreign governments checking on their own nationals. They also refused access to the center's lawyers although a dozen eventually got security clearances and were allowed to go to Guantanamo. The center got its first name reading a paper and eventually compiled a list of 150 detainees. They filed for hearings but so far whenever the U.S. has been was confronted with a hearing, the administration ducked the issue and released the detainees. Not one of the first 100 cases got an actual hearing.

Asked if detainees who were released had any recourse, Ratner said that the center has filed civil lawsuits against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for damages.

The trade-offs of globalization - Benjamin Barber, a professor at the University of Maryland and author of a book called "Jihad versus McWorld," opined June 8 that the big EU "non" vote reflected many of the same factors that sent John Kerry down the drain. The right in France, like the Republican right in the U.S., skillfully played the politics-of-fear game. Ordinary French people don't trust the politicians, and they're afraid of immigration, the eroding of their social safety net and loss of their jobs (to Polish plumbers here, GM assembly-line workers in the U.S.). Other fears center on EU expansion (Turkey! And then what, North Africa?), fear of foreign cultures and values (impact of Moslems here, what Christian fundamentalists see as the loss of their values in a multi-ethnic U.S.). People on both sides of the Atlantic want to build walls and keep foreigners out (like the Minute Men on the Mexican border and Le Pen in France).

Barber said there was a failure of the left on both sides of the Atlantic to make people realize that that the world is becoming more and more interdependent and that they will have to live it. Progressives have to get across the fact that globalization is inevitable and make ordinary people see that in the long run they have to accept it (cheaper goods but with job losses). He said that the left in Europe and the U.S. have given up on socialism, but walls don't work.

There was a slingshot at the media for focusing on short-term issues, Barber also slapped Bush as being fundamentally against science (if you think Bush is bad, you'll look back with nostalgia when you get President Bill Frist.)

Journalism's role - Two days later there was a DAF talk by columnist Richard Reeves who feels that the press is doing a lousy job and doubted that a latter-day Bernstein-Woodward team could get a Watergate-type story based on anonymous sources into newspapers today. Today, Reeves said, the White House would spin a similar situation by discrediting the journalist, i.e. emphasizing that Carl Bernstein's parents were members of the Communist Party (which they were).

Today the cutting edge of journalism has moved to magazines like the New Yorker with Seymour Hersh's reports on torture at Abu Ghraib. Reagan dumbed down the country, and the GOP took advantage of it by becoming populist and denouncing "big government" while the TV networks were bought up by big corporations more interested in entertainment and profits than news.

Reeves, who teaches journalism at the University of Southern Cal and is working on a book on the Reagan years, his third presidential biography, sees hope in the internet and blogs, which have democratized information.