Third world revolutionaries : the activism of the Third World Women's Alliance and Alliance Against Women's Oppression, 1970s-1980s

Abstract

The Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA) emerged from the Black Power politics of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and two black women's caucuses, the Black Women's Liberation Committee and the Black Women's Alliance. Formed in 1970, as a multiracial, socialist feminist organization, the TWWA engaged in transnational and intersectional activism. This thesis examines how the Alliance articulated a Third World feminist identity from their founding to their reconfiguration in 1980 to the Alliance Against Women's Oppression. I argue that through their publication Triple Jeopardy and their coalition building efforts, the Alliance developed a Third World feminist collective identity with the purpose of challenging racism, sexism, and imperialism. The thesis focuses on two of the TWWA's projects: their role in organizing International Women's Day Celebrations in the Bay area during the 1970s and their engagement with the Coalition to Fight Infant Mortality in East Oakland. The thesis is informed by the Third World Women's Alliance and Alliance Against Women's Oppression Records, both of which are housed at Smith College. Chapter one provides the intellectual foundation for the thesis by examining the TWWA's ideological organ, Triple Jeopardy. Through the publication, the Alliance examined capitalist, racist, and sexist oppression and used the publication as a tool to radicalize and educate their readership. Chapter two examines the organization's coalition work with the Third World Women's Committee to Celebrate International Women's Day. I contend that through the performance of music, skits, and poetry, the organization articulated a multifaceted Third World identity. Moreover, the Alliance's attempt to expand their work beyond their organization and build coalitions with revolutionary organizations in the Bay Area reflected their goal of forming a mass people's movement with Third World women at its center. Chapter three's focus shifts to the Alliance's fight for complete reproductive autonomy, arguing that the organization moved beyond the reproductive rights framework established by second wave feminists to one of reproductive justice. Their reproductive justice framework focused on more than just abortion, considering involuntary sterilization throughout the Third World and in the United States. The chapter will forefront the TWWA's work with the Coalition to Fight Infant Mortality, when they spearheaded a community-driven investigation into high infant mortality rates at Highland Hospital in East Oakland during the 1970s.