Ellen Willis

Ellen Willis

DSA’s Cuba Letter

Ellen Wilis signed an April 2003 Statement on Cuba, initiated and circulated by prominent Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Leo Casey, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba.

“a statement circulating among democratic left/socialist folks, largely by members of Democratic Socialists of America, condemning the recent trials and convictions of non-violent dissenters in Cuba”.

The petition criticized Cuba's poor human rights record, but shared the blame for Cuba's problems with reactionary elements of the U.S. administration...

The democratic left worldwide has opposed the U.S. embargo on Cuba as counterproductive, more harmful to the interests of the Cuban people than helpful to political democratization. The Cuban state's current repression of political dissidents amounts to collaboration with the most reactionary elements of the U.S. administration in their efforts to maintain sanctions and to institute even more punitive measures against Cuba.

Many of the petition's 120 odd signatories were known members of DSA.

Socialist Scholars Conference

Speakers at the Opening Plenary at the Tenth Annual Socialist Scholars Conference, Whose New World Order? included Bernie Sanders, Member of Congress, Vermont, Joseph S. Murphy, Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center, Dennis Rivera, President, SEIU Local 1199 Health & Hospital Workers Union and Ellen Willis, author, Beginning to See the Light. The conference was held April 24-26, 1992 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York City

Ellen Willis also spoke alongside Barbara Ehrenreich on the The Backlash Against Feminism panel sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America.

All Were Rebels: The Founding of the Network of East-West Women

The Meeting in Dubrovnik, June 7–9, 1991 was a gathering of Eastern and Central European feminists organized by American feminists. It aimed to discuss the impact of political changes in the region on women's rights. Ann Snitow's article published posthumously in Dissent Magazine in Winter 2020: Some of the individuals mentioned in the article:

• Slavenka Drakulic (Yugoslavian writer)
• Sonia Jaffe Robbins (American organizer)
• Vaclav Havel (former Czech dissident and politician)
• Loretta Ross (African American feminist)
• Ellen Willis (American feminist)
• Agnes Hochberg (cofounder of the Hungarian Feminist Network)
• Serbian activist Sonja Licht (mentioned)
• Bell Hooks (mentioned)

Socialist Scholars Conference 1990

The Socialist Scholars Conference 1990, held September 6-8, at the Hotel Commodore, New York, included panels such as:

Culture Gender and Freedom

• Rosario Ibarra, Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights
• Paulette Pierce, Queens College, CUNY
• Slavenka Drakulic, Yugoslav Author and Feminist
• Ellen Willis, Author, Journalist at the Village Voice
• Barbara Ehrenreich, Author, Democratic Socialists of America; Co-Chair

"Lessons of the New Left"

In February 1990, New York Democratic Socialists of America, CUNY branch hosted a talk by Ellen Willis and Paul Berman of the Village Voice, on and "Lessons of the New Left".

American Solidarity Movement

The American Solidarity Movement was announced in early 1984 by Democratic Socialists of America, as a vehicle to support American labor unions it considered under attack, or on strike and in need of support.

Members of the Initiating Committee for an American Solidarity Movement were: Michael Harrington (convenor), Stanley Aronowitz, Balfour Brickner, Harry Britt, Harvey Cox, Rep. Ron Dellums, Bogdan Denitch, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cynthia Epstein, Jules Feiffer, Rep. Barney Frank, Msgr. George Higgins, Irving Howe, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Frances Fox Piven, Jose Rivera, Ray Rogers, Gloria Steinem, Peter Steinfels, Ellen Willis.