The Coalition for a Feminist Agenda is venturing into new territory with the establishment of OtherWise Publications and the release of our first book. It's fitting that our first book is by one of our own members, Betty McLellan, and that the book focuses on the various ways women are silenced in every nation on earth.

As the forces of neoliberalism and postmodernism continue their efforts to depoliticise movements for social change and realise their goal of returning mainstream to a position of absolute dominance, proponents of social justice around the world have been effectively silenced. Feminists who fight for social justice for women and children experience the silencing most acutely. In every generation, feminists are silenced so comprehensively that each generation of feminists has little or no knowledge of the actions of previous generations, little or no knowledge of the proud history of the feminist struggle and, therefore, no sense of solidarity with feminists of the past.

In the 1970s and 1980s feminist publishing houses and feminist bookstores sprang up in many parts of the world and, for a time, were very successful. Mainstream publishers, also, were partial to proposals from feminist writers because women's issues were on everyone's lips and there was a definite market for books by feminists. The silencing of women's and feminist voices, however, has changed all that and opportunities for the channelling of feminist knowledge and analysis into the community are greatly diminished.

It is for that reason that we are proud to present our first book -

Unspeakable: A feminist ethic of speech

Author - Betty McLellan