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I had the opportunity to interview feminist activist and
scholar Jo Freeman and ask her some questions about her latest book, At xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
?>Berkeley in the ‘60s: The Education of an Activist.
This book gives a lucid account about her involvement in the1963-64 Bay Area Civil Rights Movement, the 1964 Berkeley Free
Speech Movement (FSM) and the beginnings of the Anti-War Movement in 1965 while she was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. Freeman
is well known for her previous five books focusing on either on women and politics or social movements. She is also a collector
of political buttons. For more information about Freeman’s work and her current book tour, you can check out her website
at www.jofreeman.com.
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?>
Janni Aragon:
After reading this book, I wondered when your feminist memoir would be published.
Jo Freeman: As you know from reading the preface,
the Berkeley book started out as a feminist memoir of the
Sixties, but evolved into Volume I. Will I write Volume III on early women’s liberation in Chicago? That depends on whether this book sells well enough to interest publishers in future
ones. These days publishers only want books that make money.
JA: How long
did it take to write this book?
JF: I essentially spent ten years doing three books:
Waves of Protest, A Room at a Time
and At Berkeley in
the 60s. The first two were published in 1999 and 2000 respectively. I would work on one until I got tired of it and then
switch to another. That way I didn’t get jaded.
JA: What was the most challenging aspect with writing
this book? I realize that getting documents from the FBI was difficult, but besides dealing with them, what else was challenging?
JF: Getting materials from California. I couldn’t get copies of the Daily Cal from Inter-Library Loan,
or local newspapers. Fortunately, I had a lot of clippings I kept all these years. When in Berkeley,
I spent a lot of time making microfilm copies of these newspapers I couldn’t get in New York. More and more, a lot of things are being put on-line, but I did my research the
old fashioned way. Archival work is similar to detective work; there is much serendipity with research.
JA: Conservative critiques of social movements
often say that student activists are spoiled, affluent kids having fun. Do you think this assessment is true today?
JF: Anyone who has looked at the many studies of
social movement participants knows that this is not true. But the conservatives who make statements like this aren’t
looking for truth; they are looking to tear down what they do not like. In political combat, words are weapons.
JA: Were you surprised that you had access to Clark
Kerr’s manuscripts, given the tumultuous relationship between the FSMers and Kerr at Berkeley?
JF: He asked me to review the manuscript of Volume
II of his memoirs, covering that period. He asked four former FSM members to review his manuscript, though I don’t know
if the others read it. I was surprised initially when I received his hand written note asking me to do this in 1999. However,
after I read his memoir and other materials I realized that reaching out to his adversaries was Kerr’s personal style.
He never quite understood why he couldn’t reach the FSM this way. He thought the students should trust him, and was
surprised when they didn’t. I subsequently became friends with his research associate, who let me copy some of her research
materials. With Kerr’s permission, she and his secretary sent me some documents from his files which explained what
I read in the draft of his memoirs and gave me a better perspective on the story behind the story.
JA: During your time at Berkeley did you realize how important all these events were?
JF: I knew the FSM was important; that wasn’t
hard to miss. I systematically collected and saved every scrap of paper I could get my hands on. I wasn’t as aware of
the importance of earlier events and my collecting was erratic. I did save some paper that I later threw away before shipping
my files from California – which I regretted when
I wrote this book.
JA: How many buttons do you have in your collection?
JF: I have thousands of them.
JA: What advice do you give to young activists
today?
JF: Put down your bucket where you are. Look around
you. Analyze your own situation, your school, your neighborhood and your church. There is plenty to do right at home. What
I learned in the classroom and in the streets informed each other. Education and activism go together.
JA: Do you have any thoughts about the current
state of the feminist movement?
JF: There is no feminist movement today. Social
movements are all short-term phenomena; then they die or transform themselves into something else. The women’s movement
had a good long run, but it probably ceased to be a social movement by 1982. However, social movements often create communities,
which can last a very long time. What we have today is a community of people who call themselves feminists. The feminist community
is not dead by any means. It’s engaged in a holding action against the forces of reaction who want to return us to the
stultifying times of the 1950s.
JA: Political Science research has become so heavily
quantitative. Do you have any thoughts about the current state of political science research?
JF: Econometrics makes the discipline very narrow
and uninteresting. I don’t even read political science journals any more. There’s nothing in them I want to read.
JA: Where will you bequeath your papers?
JF: Smith and Schlesinger have asked for them,
but I haven’t decided what I want to do. If I am ever to write Volume III, I need to hold on to them for a while.
JA: Thank
you, Jo, for your time!
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