I was sad to read about the death of Ellen Willis, a founder of Redstockings, an early and militant feminist organization, and ongoing cultural and political critic.
Although I didn't know Ellen I have known her life partner Stanley Aronowitz for many years. Their work stands for the ideals that need to inform any serious democratic left politics.
Ellen never shied away from the tough issues. From her 1985 Village Voice article, "Abortion: Whose Right to Life is it Anyway" which is still the definitive word on the centrality of the right to control one's body to the very possibility of women's liberation to her recent critique of Tom Frank and "the lefties who love him."
The women's movement and any serious left will be less without her. But in her honor we need to keep fighting for the ideals she insisted we adhere to.
For lots more on Ellen, see Bitch/Lab blog
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