Sedition Sunday #3: Mujeres Libres

This week's Sedition Sunday focuses not on an individual but on a group, Mujeres Libres (Free Women). Mujeres Libres was an anarcho-feminist collective formed in 1936. Their ideological basis was what they called the "double struggle", that women's liberation and the revolution would go hand in hand. They organized themselves to assert their voices in the revolution and to ensure that the revolution would carry their voices. Today's book Free Women Of Spain: Anarchism And The Struggle For The Emancipation Of Women is written by Martha Ackelsberg.

You can purchase the book from AK Press here. What follows is from the AK Press page: 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 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..

Martha Ackelsberg is 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