Canadian Women’s History Month – Ann Hansen
By: Ronak Ghorbani
October is Canadian Women’s History Month and here at McClung’s we’ve decided to feature each week different Canadian women that made a difference in the fight women’s rights and equality.
“I am certainly not opposed to peaceful protest. Yet, I also believe that to make real social change people and movements must be prepared to go beyond. In some cases that means so-called political violence.” Q & A with Ann Hansen
I first heard about the Wimmin’s Firebrigade last year while doing research for an anti-porn story I wrote for the McClung’s winter 2009 issue. In 1982 the Firebrigade firebombed a porn shop in Vancouver called Red Hot Videos, that circulated videos of gang rapes. I’ve always been fascinated by direct-action, though for my personal politics I prefer non-violence, so I looked up the group. Turns out one of the women involved, Ann Hansen, was part of the radical anarchist group the Squamish 5 who were responsible for detonating a bomb at Litton Industries in Toronto in 1982. Since this was the cold-war era, they were protesting the fact that Litton was making guidance components for U.S. cruise missiles.
Now, I’m not saying that bombing a place for political purposes is a good thing, nor do I endorse it, but it did bring a lot of media attention to radical politics (this can be argued as a good thing or a bad thing). What intrigued me the most about the Squamish 5 was Hansen and her role within the group.
There was a pretty cheesy movie put out by CBC back in the ‘80s about the Squamish 5 and it barely focused on Hansen. So I started to do my own research and was blown away by her ideologies and writings. In my opinion, Hansen was one of the most prominent female rebels in Canada in the 1980s.
I found this article “This Is Not A Love Story: Armed Struggle Against The Institutions Of Patriarchy” written by Hansen and Julie Belmas (another Squamish member) and in it, they explain their reasons for using direct-action.
On bombing Litton Systems:
“In the case of Litton Systems of Canada, there had already been an ongoing mass struggle of sit-ins and other forms of civil disobedience before their Toronto factory was partially destroyed by a bomb attack in 1982. These demonstrations escalated after the bombing resulting in Litton losing their contract to produce the guidance system for an advanced version of the Cruise missile being developed by NATO and the United States military.”
On bombing Red Hot Videos:
“These actions are worth looking at because they are a powerful reminder that the physical dismantling of patriarchy is just as important and necessary as the dismantling of patriarchy in our minds. Wimmin’s groups had been fighting for six months against the Red Hot chain when The Wimmin’s Fire Brigade lit the way to victory with firebombs: Within a few weeks, scores of wimmin’s groups of all stripes had issued statements of sympathy and understanding for the action, demonstrations had been held in a dozen centers across the province, and six porn shops had closed, moved away or withdrawn much of their stock out of fear that they would be the ‘next target’.”
It’s important to note that there was a lot of support for the Wimmin’s Fire Brigade from other feminist groups. Hansen is arguably one of Canada’s most recognized female activists and whether or not you agree with her methods and beliefs of direct action, she showed that women are part of radical politics too.
In 2002 she released her memoir Direct Action: Memoir of an Urban Guerilla. Click here to listen to an audio clip of the book.
