Socialist Feminist Newsletter "The WREE-View" by Women for Racial and Economic Equality, 1977-88

[Feminism] [Anti-racist] [Socialism] Archive of five issues of The WREE-View, published by Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE), 1977–1988. Five issues, tabloid and digest format, printed on newsprint, and illustrated with black-and-white photographs and graphics. Published irregularly between 1977 and 1988 by Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE), a U.S. national women’s organization affiliated with the Communist Party USA.

A rare and politically urgent run of The WREE-View, the official publication of WREE, which gave voice to the intersecting struggles of women of color, working-class women, and internationalist feminist (truncated) solidarity movements. Operating from a socialist feminist perspective, the paper linked gender liberation with economic justice, labor organizing, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and peace activism. This publication circulated nationally and internationally, reporting on both grassroots organizing and broader leftist campaigns with an intersectional lens long before the term was widely adopted. Archive includes:

[1] Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan–Feb 1977). Includes “Woman’s Place is in the Mill,” a feature on labor organizing in textile factories; coverage of Chilean women resisting Pinochet’s dictatorship; and “Bread and Roses,” a historical reflection on feminist labor activism. Also includes regional chapter updates.

[2] Vol. 7, No. 5 (Sept–Oct 1982). Focuses on education rights, rape culture, the FLOC convention, and a report from a Guyanese woman activist. Cover slogan reads: “Education: A Right and Not a Privilege,” signaling the paper’s alignment with working-class feminist demands.

[3] Vol. 7, No. 6 (Nov–Dec 1982). Highlights include an interview with Ms. Carthan, a feature on Native American women as an “invisible minority,” updates on domestic violence organizing, and critiques of nuclear plants in the Northwest.

[4] Vol. 12, No. 4 (July–Aug 1987). Covers a women’s peace march in Moscow, responses to Reagan-era policy, and perspectives on the U.S. parental leave bill, with additional international reporting from Nicaragua, Southern Africa, and Hiroshima.

[5] Vol. 13, No. 5 (Sept–Oct 1988). A culmination of the WREE’s radical vision, emphasizing survival struggles among Indigenous, homeless, and welfare women. Front-page graphic portrays a march of protest signs forming a wrench poised to “Wrench Reagan/Bush Out!”—a call to electoral action aligned with the needs of poor and working women.

Each issue combines analysis, first-person testimony, and movement updates from across the U.S. and the Global South. With recurring attention to Native women, Black women, Latina organizers, and transnational solidarity—especially with struggles in Chile, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and South Africa—The WREE-View offers an essential, often overlooked documentation of late 20th-century socialist feminist praxis. Some edgewear, minor chipping, and toning as expected; all issues complete and legible. Overall very good. A scarce intersectional feminist publication articulating a multiracial, working-class analysis of gender oppression at the height of U.S. conservative backlash. (Inventory #: 22117)