Promise of a Dream

by Sheila Rowbotham

  I had begun to develop stomachaches when I thought of editorial meetings. When ‘Cinderella Organizes Buttons’ was to be discussed, just before Christmas, I mounted the stairs to the office in dread and retired to think in the lavatory. What should I say? As I sat brooding and staring at the door, suddenly the subversive thought occurred to me that I could escape. I didn’t have to go through this ordeal, I could run away. I scuttled back down the stairs and rejoined Roberta in the pub nearby. Anthony Barnett, terrier-like, tracked me down. I retreated into the pub lavatory. Anthony stood outside, demanding that I come out and discuss my article rationally and politically. I refused to budge. Roberta stood guard for half an hour until Anthony finally gave up and she hissed through the door, ‘It’s all clear now.’

  A week or so later, on the way back from the dentist’s, I sat in a café and wrote two letters. In one I resigned from IS before they got round to expelling me. In the other I announced I was leaving Black Dwarf, suggesting that they sit round imagining they had cunts for two minutes in silence so they could understand why it was hard for me to discuss what I had written on women.

  John felt particularly betrayed by my resignation. However, three decades later he was able to laugh about the embarrassed hush which fell as Tariq read out my letter. It was Anthony who, after about forty-five seconds, became the first to gulp in protest, ‘This is outrageous.’ Everyone agreed that indeed it was so.

  But I was in a mood to burn my boats, throwing myself into the Women’s Liberation movement more or less exclusively for the next decade, until the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 made me feel the need to connect back to a wider movement of resistance against the harsh policies of neo-liberalism.

  As we prepared for the first Women’s Liberation conference, the movement I envisaged was to be an entirely new kind of politics – no leaders, no ego trips, no more sectarian disputes. It would assert the claims of working-class women, not only those of the more privileged, and it was going to be about bread and about roses. In the words of a woman trade unionist I discovered in the report of the 1968 Women’s TUC Conference, we wanted ‘more than the promise of a dream’. What actually happened was to be in some ways much more than we initially imagined and in some ways very much less – a paradox which holds true for many political and social grass-roots movements.

  Notes

  Acknowledgements

  p. ix ‘Labyrinth’ where all kinds: Mike Savage, ‘Walter Benjamin’s Urban Thought: A Critical Analysis’, Environment and Planning: Society and Space, vol. 13, 1995, p. 206.

  Introduction

  p. xv He who seeks to approach: Walter Benjamin, quoted in Mike Savage, Walter Benjamin’s Urban Thought: A Critical Analysis’, Environment and Planning: Society and Space, vol. 13, 1995, p. 208.

  p. xvii To provoke … the ‘source of all philosophy’: J. P. Sartre, ‘The Theater’, interview in L’Express, translated in Evergreen Review, vol. 4, no. 11, January–February 1960, p. 150.

  CHAPTER 1

  1960–61

  p. 8 The word dépayser: Judith Okely, Simone de Beauvoir, Virago, London, 1986, p. 45.

  p. 11 How do you feel, girls: quoted in Alison Leonard, Telling Our Stories: Wrestling with a Fresh Language for the Spiritual Journey, Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1995, p. 93.

  p. 14 Will be a revenge upon: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1972, p. 364, quoted in Okely, Simone de Beauvoir, p. 110.

  p. 29 Art back into society: Fine Artz Associates’ Manifesto, quoted in Robert Hewison, Too Much: Art and Society in the Sixties, 1960–1975, Methuen, London, 1986, p. 51.

  p. 40 The familiar: J. P. Sartre, ‘The Theater’, Evergreen Review, vol. 4, no. 11, January–February 1960, p. 150.

  CHAPTER 2

  1961–4

  p. 61 In 1916 Emma Goldman: Margaret Anderson, quoted in Richard Drinnon, Rebelin Paradise: A Biography of Emma Goldman, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1961, p. 143.

  CHAPTER 3

  1964–6

  p. 121 In the formation of any socialist programme: Charles Feinstein et al., (eds.), ‘Beyond the Freeze: A Socialist Policy for Economic Growth’, London, September 1966, p. 24.

  p. 125 There was definitely a group identity: Duggie Fields, quoted in Julian Palacios, Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd, Boxtree, London, 1998, p. 63.

  p. 125 The first mission of the American radical is to escape: Frank Bardacke, quoted in Abe Peck, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press, Pantheon Books, New York, 1985, p. 28.

  CHAPTER 4

  1967

  p. 134 In folk tradition: Ian Macdonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties, Pimlico, London, 1995, p. 116.

  p. 162 Very funny, wonderful, free in their spirits: Herbert Gutman, quoted in Paul Buhle (ed.), History and the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin 1950–1970, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1990, p. 49.

  CHAPTER 5

  1968

  p. 175 If we want to test the validity of modernization: Raymond Williams (ed.), May Day Manifesto 1968, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1968, p. 45.

  p. 176 The New BLACK DWARF will not pick quarrels with other left-wingers: Black Dwarf, pre-issue publicity flyer, London, May Day 1968.

  p. 187 To expose the relationship between perceptual and conceptual apprehension: Hilary Gresty (ed.), 1965 to 1972: When Attitudes Became Form, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 1984, p. 5.

  p. 189 A benefit concert for clapped-out seaside donkeys: Dennis Potter, ‘Tea-bag Rebels: Dennis Potter’s Verdict After a Night with Red Danny’, Sun, 17 June 1968, quoted in W. Stephen Gilbert, Fight and Kick and Bite: The Life and Work of Dennis Potter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1995, p. 204.

  p. 192 inject … the unorganized lumps and clusters: in Sheila Rowbotham, ‘The Little Vanguard’s Tail’, Dreams and Dilemmas: Collected Writings, Virago, London, 1983, pp. 50–53.

  p. 199 I’ll tell you something: John Lennon, ‘A Very Open Letter to John Hoyland’, Black Dwarf, vol. 13, no. 9, 10 January 1969.

  p. 203 It isn’t about pay, it’s about recognition: Rose Boland, quoted in Sabina Roberts, Equal Pay: The First Step’, Socialist Woman, March–April 1969.

  p. 205 To be still searching: John Milton, Areopagitica, Douglas Bush (ed.), The Portable Milton, The Viking Press, New York, 1949, pp. 191–3.

  CHAPTER 6

  1969

  p. 211 So what are we complaining about?: Sheila Rowbotham, ‘Women and the Struggle for Freedom’, Black Dwarf, vol. 13, no. 9, 10 January 1969.

  p. 213 One or two of these thugs: Edward Short, quoted in David Caute, Sixty-Eight: The Year of the Barricades, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1988, p. 325.

  p. 221 They tell us what we are: Sheila Rowbotham: ‘Women and the Struggle for Freedom’, Black Dwarf, vol. 13, no. 9, 10 January 1969.

  p. 225 A rather disorganized march: Guardian, quoted in David Widgery, The Left in Britain, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1975, pp. 374–5.

  p. 235 At home about the difficulties of orgasm: Helke Sander, quoted in Black Dwarf, vol. 14, no. 17, 16 May 1969.

  p. 240 Unquestioning acceptance of the decisions: message to the Living School: ‘Why We Are on Strike at Punfield [and] Barstows’, quoted in Widgery, The Left in Britain, p. 396.

  p. 241 We women are just shells for the men: quoted in Sheila Rowbotham, Women’s Liberation and the New Politics’, May Day Manifesto Pamphlet, 1969, reprinted in Sheila Rowbotham, Dreams and Dilemmas: Collected Writings, Virago, London, 1983, p. 29.

  p. 241 The Queen: ibid., p. 21.

  p. 252 All the women you never hear about: Sheila Rowbotham, ‘Cinderella Organizes Buttons’, Black Dwarf, vol. 15, no. 27, 10 January 1969, reprinted in Widgery, The Left in Britain, p. 420.

  p. 255 More than the promise of a dream: Miss J. O’Connell, Draughtsmen and Allied Technicians Association, TUC Report, London, 1968, p. 455.

  Further Reading

  In the course of remember
ing the sixties I checked facts in a range of political, social and cultural histories. What follows is a selection for people who want to read on.

  Ali, Tariq, Street Fighting Years, Collins, London, 1987.

  Ali, Tariq, and Watkins, Susan, Marching in the Streets, Bloomsbury, London, 1998.

  Araeen, Rasheed, The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, London, 1989.

  Brett, Guy, Exploding Galaxies: The Art of David Medalla, Kala Press, London, 1995.

  Buhle, Paul, ed., History and the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin 1950–1970, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1990.

  Cant, Bob, and Hemmings, Susan, Radical Records: Thirty Years of Lesbian and Gay History, 1957–1987, Routledge, London, 1988.

  Caute, David, Sixty-Eight: The Year of the Barricades, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1988.

  Chambers, Colin, The Story of Unity Theatre, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1989.

  Cockburn, Alexander, and Blackburn, Robin, eds., Student Power: Problems, Diagnosis, Action, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1969.

  Cooper, David, ed., The Dialectics of Liberation, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1968.

  Duff, Peggy, Left, Left, Left: A Personal Account of Six Protest Campaigns 1945–65, Allison and Busby, London, 1971.

  DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, and Snitow, Ann, eds., The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women’s Liberation, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1998.

  Evans, Mary, Simone de Beauvoir: A Feminist Mandarin, Tavistock, London, 1985.

  Faithfull, Marianne, with David Dalton, Faithfull, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1995.

  Fountain, Nigel, Underground: The London Alternative Press 1966–1974, Routledge, London, 1988.

  Fraser, Ronald, 1968: A Student Generation in Revolt, Chatto and Windus, London, 1988.

  Gilbert, Stephen W., Fight and Kick and Bite: The Life and Work of Dennis Potter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1995.

  Gombin, Richard, The Origins of Modern Leftism, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1975.

  Gould, Tony, Inside Outsider: The Life and Times of Colin MacInnes, Chatto and Windus, London, 1983.

  Green, Jonathan, Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961–1971, Pimlico, London, 1998.

  Gresty, Hilary, ed., 1965 to 1972: When Attitudes Became Form, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 1984.

  Griffiths, Trevor R., and Llewellyn-Jones, Margaret, British and Irish Women Dramatists Since 1958: A Critical Handbook, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1993.

  Hardy, Phil, and Laing, Dave, The Faber Companion to 20th-century Popular Music, Faber and Faber, London, 1995.

  Hewison, Robert, Too Much: Art and Society in the Sixties, 1960–1975, Methuen, London, 1986.

  Hitchens, Christopher, Children of 68’, Vanity Fair, June 1998.

  Hobsbawm, Eric, Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 1914–1991, Michael Joseph, London, 1994.

  —‘May 1968’, in Hobsbawm, Eric, ed., Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion and Jazz, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1998.

  Hunt, Marsha, Real Life, HarperCollins, London, 1995.

  Katsiaficas, G. N. The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968, South End Press, Boston, 1987.

  Kenny, Michael, The First New Left: British Intellectuals After Stalin, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1995.

  Laing, Adrian, R. D. Laing: A Biography, Peter Owen, London, 1994.

  Larkin, Colin, ed., The Guinness Who’s Who of Sixties Music, Guinness Publishing, London, 1992.

  Leonard, Alison, Telling Our Stories: Wrestling with a Fresh Language for the Spiritual Journey, Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1995.

  Lessing, Doris, The Golden Notebook, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1964.

  —Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography 1949–1962, HarperCollins, London, 1998.

  Macdonald, Ian, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties, Pimlico, London, 1995.

  Maitland, Sara, Very Heaven: Looking Back at the 1960s, Virago, London, 1988.

  Marks, Howard, Mr Nice: An Autobiography, Minerva, London, 1997.

  Marsh, Graham, and Lewis, Barrie, eds., The Blues: Album Cover Art, Collins and Brown, London, 1996.

  Marwick, Arthur, The Sixties: The Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy and the United States c. 1958–c. 1974, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998.

  Murphy, Robert, Sixties British Cinema, BFI Publishing, London, 1992.

  Neville, Richard, Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw-ups … The Sixties, Bloomsbury, London, 1995.

  Newfield, Jack, A Prophetic Minority: The American New Left, Anthony Blond, London, 1967.

  Newton, Francis, The Jazz Scene, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1961.

  Okely, Judith, Simone de Beauvoir: A Re-reading, Virago, London, 1986.

  Panitch, Leo, and Leys, Colin, The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour, Verso, London, 1997.

  Papastergiadis, Nikos, Modernity as Exile: The Stranger in John Berger’s Writing, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1993.

  Peck, Abe, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press, Pantheon Books, New York, 1985.

  Phillips, Charlie, and Phillips, Mike, Notting Hill in the Sixties, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1991.

  Pimlott, Ben, Harold Wilson, HarperCollins, London, 1992.

  Quant, Mary, Quant by Quant, Cassell, London, 1965.

  Sadler, Simon, The Situationist City, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1998.

  Savage, Mike, ‘Walter Benjamin’s Urban Thought: A Critical Analysis’, Environment and Planning: Society and Space, vol. 13, 1995.

  Sebestyen, Amanda, ed., ’68, ’78, ’88: From Women’s Liberation to Feminism, Prism Press, Bridport, 1988.

  Sked, Alan, and Cook, Chris, Post-war Britain: A Political History 1945–1992, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1993.

  Thompson, Dorothy, ‘On the Trail of the New Left’, New Left Review, no. 215, January–February 1996.

  Thompson, E. P., ‘Outside the Whale’, in Thompson, E. P., ed., The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays, Merlin Press, London, 1978.

  Tynan, Kathleen, The Life of Kenneth Tynan, Methuen, London, 1988.

  Upshad, Michael, ed., The Sixties, Helicon Publishing, Oxford, 1994.

  Wandor, Michelene, ed., Once a Feminist: Stories of a Generation, Virago, London, 1990.

  Widgery, David, The Left in Britain, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1975.

  Williams, Raymond, ed., May Day Manifesto 1968, Penguin, Harmonds-worth, 1968.

  Wollen, Peter, The Situationist International: On the Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Period of Time’, in Wollen, Peter, ed., Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-century Culture, Verso, London, 1993.

  I also consulted the following periodicals and journals: Black Dwarf, Evergreen Review, Les Temps Moderne, New Left Review, New Reasoner, Oz, Radical Philosophy, Shrew, Socialist Register, Socialist Woman, Yorkshire Life.