Women in Black report

Mij Tanith reflects on a recent peace vigil held at Adelaide's Parliament House to protest the war.

To set the scene: I stand on the steps of Parliament House, hot in the late afternoon sun. Thankfully, someone has remembered the sunblock. I'm dressed in black, as is every other woman on the steps. We stand in silence, motionless except for the young mother who walks her toddler up and down. One or two banners announce the meaning of this vigil. Women in Black against war.

We are there for an hour, no chanting, no movement. The silence is powerful. The only way of passing the time is to watch people as they scurry by with their arms full of post-Christmas bargains. So I do this, and I realise that part of our identity as Australians is the assumption of our right to consume, and to do it in relative comfort and safety.

I also realise that we neither threaten nor alienate the passers-by. We are ordinary women, some young, some old, some with dreadlocks and sarongs, some obviously lesbian, and some obviously not. And because we are so ordinary, people are more inclined to pay attention to our message. They walk past nodding, some silently applaud, occasionally one will ask for more information. Occasionally, too, there are other reactions, like the young man in a car who yells out "Get a job," and then sticks his finger up as his mates hoot with laughter at his cutting humour.
The hour passes, and I find myself thinking of earlier times, of other "actions". In my memory, three have assumed epic proportions. Between 1980 and 1986, women organised camps at Pine Gap and Roxby Downs, at Cockburn Sound near Perth, and on the lawns of Old Parliament House in Canberra. Their aim was to protest against Australian militarism, and against the presence of U.S. bases in Australia. Not a lot has changed since then. As I write this article, I re-read a journal of those times - hand-written entries and newspaper articles which together tell a story of passionate women and dangerous activity. In the desert they destroyed the cyclone fencing around the base, and in Perth they scaled the barriers to "invade" the U.S. base of Garden Island. Many were arrested, and for the duration of the camp, the newspapers were full of reports and letters. Not everyone agreed with the objectives or the methods of the protesters, but they couldn't ignore them.

By 1986, though, violent confrontation had given way to gentler, more joyous forms of action. Whereas the Perth Camp was called "Resounding Women: Breaking the Sound Barrier", the name of the Canberra camp was "Spiral Dance to Close the Gap." But while the aim of the women in Canberra was to adhere to peaceful protest, the men who threw explosives (magnesium strips in Coke bottles), and threatened rape, and chanted "Burn the Witches" night after night, ensured that it was just as dangerous as previous ones.

By now you may be wondering what this all has to do with lesbians. Or you may not. You may already know that lesbians are, and always have been, an integral part of any movement for peace or demilitarisation, and a highly visible element of any concomitant "actions". Generally speaking, lesbians were the ones taking Rescue Remedy and scaling the fences at Garden Island, they were the ones leading hundreds of women in the spiral dances on the lawns of Parliament House. And they are an essential part of the Women in Black movement.

After the vigil I arranged to speak with two of the organizers, one an out lesbian, the other heterosexual, both long-term members of the Women's International League For Peace and Freedom (WILPF). According to Cathy Picone, the struggle for gender equality and the struggle to rid the world of war and violence are inextricably linked, because as long as there are wars, women in particular are oppressed, through rape and other acts of savagery, of course, but also through the poverty, chaos and famine created by war. "As Australians, " she says, "we accept war and poverty. We believe that as individuals we can do nothing about the evils of the world. But if we realise that, as individuals, our comfort and our privileges depend on war, violence and the oppression of others, then perhaps we will recognise our responsibility to make a stand against them."

We talk for an hour, and Cathy is passionate, articulate, and extremely well-informed. She tells me that WILPF was founded in 1915 in Europe, when suffragettes realised that women getting the vote would never be enough to prevent wars. She quotes statistics about the rise in the percentage of civilian casualties ever since, about the numbers of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, about the numbers likely to die this northern winter. She talks of the role of the U.N., and of the effects of globalisation on underdeveloped countries, and gives me far more information than I can use.

With Jillinda, current editor of the national WILPF publication and co-organiser of the vigil, I discuss the history of lesbian involvement in the Peace Movement. "Peace movement is not exactly my choice of name," she says. "I prefer to talk about the demilitarisation of the planet." Whatever the term, we recall those vocal, sometimes violent protests of the past, and compare them to the current style. "After all those actions," says Jillinda, "after all those millions of words spoken and written against war, we have reached a point where there is simply nothing else to say. Hence the silent vigil. And the meaning of black? An expression of mourning for the many millions killed."

"What do you hope the vigils will achieve?" I ask. "We're hoping," she says, "that they will provide an avenue for all women, lesbian and straight alike, to express their opposition to war in general, and to the Howard government's current role in particular. More than that, though, we are aiming to actually make a difference, to accelerate the process of demilitarisation."

Those wanting to read further can check out the following sites:

http://central.dot.net.au/~jcastle/wib/
http://www.peacewomen.org/HOMEFRAME.html

Mij Tanith

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This page is copyright to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Australian Section). For purposes of genuinely furthering the cause of world peace and the emancipation of women, material from this web page may be freely copied and distributed so long as acknowledgement is made of its source. Page last updated March 2002. The current path to this website is <http://www.dragon-amazon.net/wilpfaustralia>. Please email any comments/thoughts on the website.