Dwinelle Hall Take 3 for Writers’ Resistance at Memoir Church
In the 80s and 90s, I was working full time to study, expose, and organize against the Christian Right as it was building political power. I attended right wing conferences all over the country, subscribed to about 100 publications, followed evangelical TV and radio, and I also often gave public talks and was interviewed on community radio stations.
Almost everything now happening in this country was already in motion in the 80s.
Here’s a scene from my memoir from 1986.
I’ve been invited to give a talk about the current status of the anti-abortion movement for a weekend conference at UC Berkeley. Reagan’s in his second term. There’s no end in sight to the wars the US is sponsoring in Central America or to the apartheid regime in South Africa. People on the Left are feeling defeated, to say the least.
Brian and I park and walk up Telegraph Avenue onto the UC Berkeley campus. Brian’s carrying the box of magazines I’m going to use for my talk.
Hey, I hope you don’t get hit with the usual questions from the audience.
You mean like yesterday when Philip had me on the KPFA Morning show?
Yeah. Those questions, the one about: aren’t these Christian right-wingers just all mentally ill? No, of course not, some of them maybe, but this is a social movement, not a nut house.
Yeah, or the one about how aren’t we just living in a fascist society?
I keep telling these callers: No, the United States is not fascist, at least not yet. I keep telling them: When it’s fascism, I’ll let you know.
We walk across campus, to Dwinelle Hall where the organizers have set up literature tables. An organizer directs me and Brian to the room where I’ll speak. We set up a podium. People start drifting in, taking their seats.
Hi, Lisa. I give her a big hug. She’s someone I know from all the Central America demonstrations we’ve been to together. She sits down in the front row. By the time it’s 1 o’clock, we’ve got about 20 people in the room.
Thank you, guys for attending my talk. I’m going to focus this session just on the strategy of the anti-abortion movement.
I see people sitting alert. Some are smiling. This is a familiar group. They know I work on more than just the anti-abortion movement. I work on the whole gamut of right-wing organizations.
So, currently, the clinics are dealing with a lot of violence, targeting them with bombings and assassination attempts on doctors and staff. I want to get into some aspects of the anti-abortion movement that aren’t getting much attention in the mainstream media.
I’ve brought with me today a stack of back issues of the National Right to Life Committee’s glossy magazine, and I’d like to pass these around. Take a look at the articles I’ve marked with post its.
You’ll see what I’m talking about. The anti-abortion movement has a strategy to introduce restrictive state laws like parental and spousal notice requirements and waiting periods, to create so many legal hurdles in so many states that some of these laws will be challenged in state and federal courts and on appeal go up to the Supreme Court. Then, once the Christian Right, through its power with the Republican Party, has its own kind of people on the Supreme Court, they will strike down Roe v. Wade all in one fell swoop. That’s their strategy. It’s not a secret, and, no, they are not crazy. It’s all out in the open.
The audience bursts out laughing.
What’s so funny? I ask.
That can’t happen, Lisa says.
Why not?
It just cannot happen. This is 1986 already. Abortion is now settled as law. These nuts and extremists can’t change that.
I’m not saying they will definitely make it, Lisa. I’m telling you what their strategy is. I want people on the Left to take this stuff seriously.
I can see people fidgeting in their seats. You’ve got to be kidding, someone in the front row mumbles.
My face feels hot. I’m sweating. I need to wrap up this talk.
Thank you all for attending. Please be sure to pass the magazines back up to me.
Brian and I leave Dwinelle Hall, go back to our car. I’m feeling demoralized, like I just wasted my breath. I must keep doing this work, even though it seems like no one’s listening.
**
I see Philip every once in a while, all these years later, in another context, not on his radio show. But if he were to have me on KPFA again, I would remind him of what has gone on, out in the open, these past 40 years.
And I’d tell him: Yes, Philip, it is fascism now.