Reasons to Rebel

The 1980s were a shock. Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government battered left movements, painfully disrupted working-class peoples' livelihoods and pressed down on many groups who faced discrimination.

There was no shortage of reasons to rebel. Along with thousands upon thousands of others I opposed not just the repressive laws, but the fundamental tenets of the new right. Hanging on to visions of creative utopias, we strove for new ways of organizing and relating to others and we sought to connect a liberatory sexual politics with rebellions against many kinds of inequality. We argued wrote, campaigned, demonstrated, picketed.

We established alternative cooperative projects, secured reforms through local government and made direct international links. Resourceful resistance slowed down the onslaught but we were contending not simply with the doctrinal resolve of a right-wing government. We faced something larger, something that could not be voted out - a more ruthless global capitalism, geared to profits which was prepared to dump hard-won social provision and neglect to conserve even basic infrastructure.

'Reasons to Rebel ' puts one woman's experiences of radical resistance on record. It is written in resolute opposition to the fatalism that assumes that the power accrued by the right from the 1980s is irreversible. It testifies to the the hope that others will communicate theirs.

'Deeply personal and politically astute. Sheila Rowbotham is a perceptive guide to a painful decade.' - Gary Younge

'Sheila Rowbotham is a great social historian - her socialist feminist writings have influenced generations of women like myself. Here, with her usual originality and sharp insight, she charts the alarming and steady shift to the Right since Thatcher but reminds us of all the community displays of resistance. A rebel girl to her heart, she shows that this merciless trajectory is reversible.We can set ourselves on a different path, towards an equitable and just society.' - Helena Kennedy KC

'A more evocative and informed account of the activism of the 1980s would be hard to imagine. Reasons to Rebel fearlessly interweaves the personal and the political, as Sheila Rowbotham shares the many ways she navigated that constant search in those challenging years for new ways to resist, to campaign, to organize, and to write our own history.What an essential - and amazing - record of an era! To have access to Sheila's unique memories is invaluable.' - Margaret Busby

'There are so many reasons to rebel, especially in these troubling times. Lifelong political activist Sheila Rowbotham's fascinating and beautifully written autobiography of the 80s gives us more than reasons to rebel. Bringing her extraordinary life experiences, she gives us insights, strategies for political activism, ways to cope, how to savor small victories and deal with the too many defeats when political pushback and repression is on the agenda. Her book is not only a call to rebel, but also a reason to hope.' - Barbara Winslow, author, Revolutionary Feminists: The Women's Liberation Movement in Seattle.

20 black & white photographs; index.