DOCUMENTS

Many documents from the CWLU are available at the Chicago History Museum Research Center and at the Northwestern University Library. This section contains pdf's of key documents from CWLU. Many of these are referenced in other parts of these pages.

Documents will be added they become available in digital form. Currently available documents are:

  • Political Principles of the CWLU - the political principles were adopted at the CWLU’s founding conference in 1969. They were amended by the substitution of “sexism” for “male supremacy” and by the addition of the phrase “Included in this struggle is the struggle for the right of sexual self-determination for all people and for the liberation of all homosexuals, especially lesbians.” in 1972.
  • Some Thoughts On Program - this paper, drafted by a CWLU chapter and adopted by the organization in 1971, established a framework for determining which programs to undertake and for assessing whether CWLU program would be effective in achieving the liberation of women, its stated goal.
  • Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women’s Movement - the paper, drafted by a CWLU chapter and adopted by the organization in 1972, established an overall strategy for building, expanding, and strengthening the women’s liberation movement.
  • Lesbianism and Socialist Feminism - this paper, again drafted by a CWLU group and also adopted in 1972, set forth an analysis how women's oppression and gay people's oppression are related to each other, and of the relationship of lesbianism to the women's movement.
  • Leading the CWLU into Outreach - this paper, written by two CWLU activists, advocated an expanded type of outreach.
  • A Tentative Proposal for a Liberation School for Women - this paper, by Vivian Rothstein, proposed the Liberation School for Women, which became one of the most important and longest lasting projects of CWLU.
  • Proposal for a Chicago Radical Women's Conference - this paper, signed by seven Chicago women activists, called for a conference to be held in October 1969. This became the founding conference of CWLU.
  • Towards a Radical Movement - this paper, written by Chicago activists, Heather Booth, Evie Goldfarb, and Sue Munaker, called for the development of a multi-issue, radical women's movement.advocated an expanded type of outreach.
  • Feminism - old wave and new - a pamphlet, written by CWLU member (and historian of the women's movement) Ellen DuBois, was one of the first to link the women's liberation movement of the 1970s to the suffrage movement of the 19th and early 20th century.