Women's Brigade of Weather Underground - Mountain Moving Day and Six Sisters

Mountain Moving Day and Six Sisters

In January 1973, "Mountain Moving Day" was a circulated document that attempted to untangle the WUO's inconsistent politics regarding women's liberation and to determine a new direction in light of the January 1973 cease-fire between the United States and Vietnam. With the war on hiatus, Weatherwomen were encouraged to seize this chance to delve deeper into feminism, study, organizing, writings and actions. The article argued for the centrality of women's liberation due to the Weather's public weakness on feminism and because women's liberation struggle is and will be one of the important and decisive ones globally. The paper also encouraged WUO's immersion in the women's movement, to push for internationalism and anti-racism as well as learning and benefiting from what the women's liberation movement had to offer. The document acknowledged that feminism would be an uphill battle because much of the women's movement felt at odds with the Weather Underground.

"Mountain Moving Day" resulted in a feminist initiative within WUO, which centered upon three goals: (1) "To encourage solidarity among women, to make work among women a priority (geographically, structurally, programmatically), (2) To develop a women's program for and about women; to actively participate in building the women's movement, (3) To recognize the need for solidarity among men." Women raised criticisms while the organization was falling apart and afterward suggest that these policies were not consistently applied. The principles say nothing directly about the biggest obstacle to women's liberation: male supremacy and how WUO as a whole could fight it.

The impact of the article, however, was significant if only for women in the group. Six months after this historic document was circulated, WUO women initiated a summer project which was a six-week study group by women underground working with some key above ground supporters, which focused upon female oppression and its relationship to anti-imperialist politics. The group specifically focused on HEW, which they called the "major government vehicle of social control of women," comparing it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The women who convened the study distributed a packet entitled: "Six Sisters," which explained their motivations, their wide-ranging reading list, meeting notes and plans for action. Weatherwomen started to bond over common experiences and shared commitments in a way that had once eluded them. Solidarity was engendered and some began living in all-women collectives.