Martha Ackelsberg Discusses "Free Women of Spain"

FREE WOMEN OF SPAIN: ANARCHISM AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN with author Martha Ackelsberg
at the AK Press Warehouse

Martha Ackelsberg, will discuss her newly reissued book Free Women of Spain (AK Press, 2004), which explores the Spanish anarchist women's organization, Mujeres Libres, active in Spain during the Civil War, 1936-39. Mujeres Libres engaged over 20,000 working-class women in programs of education and empowerment, designed to overcome women's "triple enslavement" to capitalism, to the state, and as women. The talk will also attempt to draw some lessons from Mujeres Libres' experience for contemporary activism.

Martha Ackelsberg is a Professor of Government and a member of the Women's Studies Program Committee at Smith College, where she teaches courses in political theory, urban politics, political activism, and feminist theory. She has contributed to a variety of anthologies on women's political activism in the United States.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Cowards don't make history; and the women of Mujeres Libres (Free Women) were no cowards. Courageous enough to create revolutionary change in their daily lives, these women mobilized over 20,000 women into an organized network during the Spanish Revolution to strive for community, education, and equality for women and the emancipation of all. Militants in the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union, Mujeres Libres struggled both against fascism, the state, and reaction; and the less than supportive attitudes and concerns of their male comrades. Martha Ackelsberg writes a comprehensive study of Mujeres Libres, intertwining interviews with the women themselves and analysis connecting them with modern feminist movements. This new edition includes additional research Ackelsberg carried out for the Spanish language edition, together with a brand new introduction written in the light of the new social movements, and resurgence of anarchism, post-Seattle.