Women for Racial and Economic Equality

Template:TOCnestleft Women for Racial and Economic Equality' was a Communist Party USA front which is the U.S, affiliate of the Soviet-controlled Women's International Democratic Federation.

Communist Party "intermediate form"

This organization was one of several new issue fronts created by the Communist Party USA CPUSAin the 1970's to expand their areas/subjects of infiltration and propagandizing. WREE was a wholly CPUSA-created and controlled organization though it used not-yet-identified leftist women as front figures. However, a look at their CPUSA-front support records left no doubt that they were knowingly working for the Party even if they were not covert members.

In 2010, Angelo D'Angelo, Ed Wlody and Kevin Keating wrote a paper for consideration at the Communist Party USA's 29th National Convention, entitled "To Build Our Party — Rebuild Left and Intermediate Forms" calling for the re-establishment of party "intermediate forms".

In the past, the Party helped to launch left and intermediary forms. Many will remember their initials: NAIMSAL (National Anti-imperialist Movement in Solidarity with African Liberation), WREE (Women for Racial and Economic Equality), TUAD (Trade Unionists for Action and Democracy), USPC (the US Peace Council, an affiliate of the World Peace Council), NAARPR (National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, "The Alliance") and others.

NYC WREE-Sponsored Meeting

According to a short article in the CPUSA newspaper Daily World, Sept. 27, 1980, "Report on Women's Parley", WREE was sponsoring a meeting in New York City featuring "a report back, this Sunday, on the July United Nations Mid-Decade Women's Conference and Forum held in Copenhagen."

"Reports will be presented by six women who attended the conference. They are:

• Dr. Erna Bryant, Director, Center for Racial Justice, YWCA
• Vinie Burrows - U.N. representative Women's International Democratic Federation , the congressional identified Soviet international women's front; veteran CPUSA front supporter and leader of WREE
• Kay Camp - Women's International League for Peace and Freedomn , a CPUSA dominated "peace" organization affiliated with WIDF. Camp was a longtime leader of the Hanoi Lobby in the various Mobes and PCPJ.
• Walteen Grady - president, [[Washington DC) area Women for Racial and Economic Equality WREE
• Blanche Shaw - Coalition of Labor Union Women , a leftist organization founded, in part, by the CPUSA and heavily influenced by them in the leadership structure at both the national and local levels.
• Karen Talbot - World Peace Council - ; longtime member of the CPUSA who functioned as one of their key international workers, along with Sandy Pollack, Abe Feinglass, Ernest DeMaio, and a few others.

"The program will also feature poetry reading by Bernadine and dance performances by Beti Garcia and Ruth Kornesaroff. The meeting, organized by WREE, is set for Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. in the Green Room of 13 Astor Place (District 65 UAW District 65. A $2 contribution ($1 unemployed) is being asked."

Key people

Chicago leaders: May 5 1981 letter to Chicago WREE supporters, signed by;

• Katie Booth
• Pat Epps
• Maybelle Howard
• Judy Kolokoff
• Dodie Kransdorf
• Sandy Patrinos

WREE national mailing list April 1982:

• Paula Matabane, Washington DC
• Margo Nikitas, New York
• Loretta Benjamin, New York
• Pearl Grady, New York
• Dolly Levin, New York
• Joyce Henderson, Pittsburgh
• Judy Kolokoff, Chicago
• Lois St. Aubin, Detroit
• Virginia Weitlauf, Detroit
• Shirley Nuss, Detroit
• Maureen Sheehy, Minneapolis
• Judy Gold, Minneapolis
• Leslie Loew-Blosser, Minneapolis
• Anagilda Abramowitz, Member-at-Large, Warwick, Rhode Island
• Barbara Kaplan, Member-at-Large, Eureka, California
• Nancy Polin, Member-at-Large, Berkeley, California
• Pat Blawis, Member-at-Large, Tucson, Arizona
• Belinda Collins, Member-at-Large, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Diane Mohney, Member-at-Large, Philadelphia
• Margie Akin, Member-at-Large, Riverside, California
• Elaine Burns, Member-at-Large, Grassroots Women's House, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Leila Broughton, Member-at-Large, Wilmington, Delaware
• Lynda Richardson, Member-at-Large, San Antonio, Texas
• Elaine Sue Good, Member-at-Large, Urbana, Illinois
• Barbara Regan, Member-at-Large, Westover, West Virginia
• Betty Rogers, Member-at-Large, Steubenville, Ohio
• Gerri Peck, Member-at-Large, Portland, Oregon
• Maggie Kailin, Member-at-Large, Madison Wisconsin

March 8, 1982 letter to Chicago WREE supporters, signed by;

• Carolyn Downs
• Maybelle Howard
• Judith Kolokoff
• Queenie Mustin
• Sandy Patrinos

First Annual Fannie Lou Hammer Awards Dinner

According to an article, "Plan award's dinner to honor activists", Daily World, Feb. 19, 1983, p. 4.

"Women for Racial and Economic Equality WREE will honor civil rights activists Julia Wilder and Maggie Bozeman at its First Annual Fannie Lou Hammer Awards dinner on Saturday, February 26."

"Ms. Bozeman and Ms. Wilder were unjustly convicted of vote fraud when they helped elderly people vote in Pickens County, Alabama. They were jailed but later released due to nationwide protests. Currently, ms. Wilder and Ms. Bozeman are on parole and denied the use of their voting rights..."

"Joing WREE will be city and state officials; leaders from civil rights organizations and liberation movement, and representatives from church and women's groups."

• Judge Bruce Wright
• Ruth Messinger - City Councilwoman (i.e. NY City)
• Representative Charles Rangel
• Garaldine Daniels - (possibly of NYC)
• Josephine LeBeau - of the Coalition of Labor Union Women CLUW (a heavily CPUSA infiltrated organization)
• Cathy Andrade - of ILGWU
• Elombe Brath - of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition (i.e. a veteran marxist activist), will be among the participants."

"For more information, call Norma Spector at 473-6111, or Loretta Benjamin at 477-3188."

People's School for Marxist Studies

• Walteen Grady - executive director of Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE) was a scheduled participant at the CPUSA's "Conference on "Reaganomics and Capitalist Crisis - A Marxist Response", October 23, in New York City, under the sponsorship of Political Affairs, theoretical journal of the CPUSA, and the People's School for Marxist Studies" (KW: another CPUSA front). Published in the CPUSA newspaper "Daily World (DW), Thursday, October 20, 1983, p. 4.

A full list of speakers will be found under the People's School for Marxist Studies page at KW.

WIDF affiliated United States "Regional Workshops"

Circa 2007 these people were members of the US "Regional Workshop" of the former Soviet front Women's International Democratic Federation;

• Women for Racial and Economic Equality, President: Vinie Burrows

• Mujeres Radicales, Vinie Burrows, Margo Nikitas, Presidenta – Emily Woo Yamasaki

• National Committee of Women for Democratic Iran

• Internacional Action Center, Berta Joubert Ceci – Philadelphia

• Goldstar Mother, Nydia Velasquez - "Congressista" (U.S. Representative, D-NY)

• Grandmothers Against the War. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick - Presidente

• Granny Peace Brigade, Howard Dean - Presidente, Lillian Ruth Rydell, Elaine Johnson

• IAC-NWFN, Joan Wile - Fundadora e Diretora

• Madre, Susan Abulhwa, Anna Wilson

• Radical Women / líder comunitaria Comunidad de Harlem, Nellie Gray Hester

• University of California, Digna Sanchez- Membra

• WEDO, Kathy Engel Fundadora

• Women of Color Resource Center in CA, Betty Maloney - Membra

• EEUU, Angela Davis - History of Consciousness Dep Humanities Division; KW: CPUSA, then (Committee of Correspondence) 9COC)

• African American Poets, Judith LeBlanc - CPUSA leader

• Granny Peace Brigade, Monica Sofia Somocurcio

• Radical Women, Betty Maloney

• Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - WILPF, Carol Price

• Women's Studies Program, Jenny Heinz

• Coalición anti-guerra A.N.S.W.E.R., Gloria La Riva - KW: Leader of the Trotskyite/Stalinist "Workers World Party (WWP)

• Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE), Tresa Martinez

• Community activist; active in the struggle for Puerto Rican independence, Wilma Esther Reveron Collazo

• Community activist lawyer in El Barrio;; active in immigration issues, Gloria Eneida Quinones - member Women for Racial and Economic Equality

• International President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom , Regina Birchem

• LUZ DE LAS NIEVES AYRESS MORENO, Nieves Ayress - nacionalidad chilena

Fightback Conference at the WREE

BULLETIN OF WOMEN FOR RACIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUALITY Vol. 6, No. 3 Special Issue July 1981

The Fightback Conference at the WREE (Women for Racial and Economic Equality) National Convention 9-12 July 1981 University of Pittsburgh Includes "concerning the science of making words and making war" by Bernadine "Summertime - Ghetto Summertime" by Loretta Benjamin "Make Mine Red Roses" and "A Four-Shaft Move" by Elsie Lubetsky "Llanto" by Mercedes Durand

WREE Organizational Structure and Leaders/Staff

Source: "The WREE-VIEW", "Bimonthly Bulletin of Women for Racial & Economic Equality 266 West 23 Street, New York, NY, 10011

WREE-View Staff, Jan.-Feb. 1979, Vol. 4, No. 1

• Carmen Teixidor - Editor
• Joan Cohen - Staff
• Dina Heisler - Staff
• America Trinidad - Staff
• Amelia Dolce - Staff

Writers/Contributors (often without further identification)other than those listed as Staff:

• Bay Area WREE
• Marge Nelson - works with Options for Women Over Forty, San Francisco, CA (looks like an excerpt from "Union W.A.G.E, Jan/Feb. 1979)
• Felicia George
• Joan Elbert - chairperson of the Chicago chapter of Clergy and Laity Concerned and on their National Interim Steering Committee; member of the Hanoi Lobby and the CPUSA's front on Chile NCSC
• Donna Walcavage - Peace & International Solidarity Task Force WREE
• Vinie Burrows - Permanent Representative to the United National NGO Commission, and WREE Vice President, photo, p. 5.
• Sally Chaffee
• Lois St. Aubin - Michigan coordinator WREE - rep. WREE at the 12th Convention of the Congress of Canadian Women last October
• Virginia Weitlauf - Detroit coordinator WREE - """"""
• LeAnna Ware - Madison, Wisconsin WREE
• Laurel Kailin - Madison, Wisc. WREE
• Terry Taylor - Madison, Wisc. WREE
• Candace Althoff - Manhattan, Kansas (most likely the wife of CPUSA member, DW writer Phillip Althoff

WREE-View Staff, April-June, 1979, Vol. 4, No. 2

• Carmen Teixidor - Editor
• Joan Cohen - Staff
• Sally Chaffee - Staff
• Dina Epstein Heisler - Staff
• Margo Nikitas - Staff, she was later to become an open member of the CPUSA
• America Trinidad - Staff

Writers/Contributors other than Staff:

• Nancy Polin
• Evelyn Sheen Murray - adapted article from "Peace & Freedom", May 1979, WILPF
• Carol Ankrum - Coordinator for the Parkesburg Organizing Committee of WREE
• Mimi Diamond - New York City
• Liz Wheaten - Southern Women's Rights Project
• Margie Akin - Riverside, CA.
• Lucy Curtis - "a Texan living in Brooklyn" - a poem
• Beth Baker - Washington, D.C., book review
• Debby Spector - translated a poem by Nicaraguan poet in exile Yoconda Giaconda Belli
• Debbie Albano - Arizona, wrote a poem

WREE CHAPTERS/MEMBERS

WREE CHAPTERS/MEMBERS other than those mentioned as writers: WREE-VIEW, April-June, 1979 edition, "WREE on the move" section, p. 4

• CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINA: forum in February, 1979, "Women in the Labor Movement"

• Amy Newell - field organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America UE.She has a record of supporting communist fronts. The UE was expelled from the CIO as being the most CPUSA-dominated, hardcore union in it.
• Nancy Kremer - a teacher in Charlottesville, Executive Committee member of the city's Education Associations CEA, and representative of the Virginia Political Action Committee for Education
• Lois Felder - Vice President of the Washington, D.C. CLUW CLUW; Governmental and Community Affairs Representative of the Retail Clerks International Union, and active labor organizer for over 20 years

• RHODE ISLAND
• Jeannie Fiore - WREE R.I. Chairman
• Leonard Jefferson - exhibit of his jailhouse paintings
• Sharon Mazuck - singer

• PITTSBURGH, PA

"The Pittsburg chapters of WREE and CLUW co-sponsored an anti-Weber conference on June 9th.. at the Un. of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health." Speakers included:

• Cheryl Craig - Chairperson
• Duba Weinstein- Co-chair of WREE and CLUW member. Identified as a member of the CPUSA youth front, the Young Workers Liberation League YWLL and Associate Director of the CPUSA school, the Center for Marxist Education CME in the 1974 HISC report "The Communist Party Youth Program",
• Harvey Adams- president of the Pittsburgh NAACP
• Fred Gaboury - International Woodcutters Union, and id. CPUSA labor leader. Listed as the Labor Editor of the CPUSA newnpaper "People's Weekly World", issue of august 3, 1996, p. 9
• Steve Saltzman - National Treasurer of the National Lawyers Guild NLG, Affirmative Action Coordinator Council
• Oscar Sanchez - Civil Rights Department of the United Steelworkers of America USWA

• CHICAGO CHAPTER
• Sue Kling - wrote a poem about Fannie Lou Hamer. Kling has long been identified as a leading member of the Chicago Communist Party, and is the wife of CPUSA Chicago chapter leader, Jack Kling
• Peggy Lipschutz - WREE Chicago and veteran CPUSA fronts and fundraiser participant

WREE Sponsored Activities and Events

Source: "Daily World", Sept. 27, 1980, "Report on women's parley", New York, Sept. 26th.

"There will be a reportback, this Sunday, on the July United Nations Mid-Decade Women's Conference and Forum held in Copenhagen."

Reports were to be given by "six women who attended the conference."

• Dr.Erna Bryant - Director, Center for Racial Justice, Y.W.C.A. YWCA
• Vinie Burrows - U.N. representative Women's International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF and decades-long supporter of the CPUSA, its fundraising events, and fronts
• Kay Camp aka Katherine Camp - Women's International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF, a leader of the Hanoi Lobby and Anti-Defense Lobby, as well as long-time supporter of CPUSA fronts and causes.
• Walteen Grady - president, Washington D.C. area WREE] - WREE-DC
• Blanche Shaw - Coalition of Labor Union Women CLUW, a group created with significant input, if not outright dominating influence by the CPUSA
• Karen Talbot - World Peace Council WPC, longtime identified, then open CPUSA leader on the international scene, along with Sandy Pollack

The program will also feature a poetry reading by

• Bernadine
• Beti Garcia - "and dance performances by"
• Ruth Kornesaroff - "and dance performances by"

References

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