Responding to David Horowitz’s "biography" of me I offer the following corrections and additions of fact:

My parents were Fay P. Aptheker (1905 –1999) and Herbert Aptheker.(1915 – 2003). I like to list my mother as part of my parentage, she was very important to me. Mother was a union organizer, a professional modern dancer, and a fine pianist. She sang with the Jewish Peoples’ Philharmonic Chorus in New York City. She joined the Communist Party ten years before my father (in 1929).

I was born on September 2, 1944 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. My father was a lieutenant in the United States Army and was soon shipped overseas. He fought in the European Theater during World War II, served with distinction and was promoted to the rank of Major.

My father, Herbert Aptheker, never had a professorship anywhere. He had a Ph D from Columbia in U.S. History and was blacklisted beginning in 1938. He was a lecturer or visiting scholar at several universities, and in that capacity taught at the law school at UC Berkeley for a few years beginning in 1978 for one course called Racism and the Law. Likewise, he taught one course at Yale, one course at Bryn Mawr.

When socialism ended in the Soviet Union and other European countries I regretted that the movements to create a democratic and humane socialism had failed. I opposed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, for example, in 1968 while a member of the National Committee of the US Communist Party. My Father supported it. I was only one of three members of that body to vote against the invasion. For the record, the other two were Al Richmond and Dorothy Healey.

I was a member of the Communist Party from 1962 to October 1981. (Not 1991). I left the Party because of profound disagreements with it, most especially on the issue of women’s liberation. The Party publishing house refused to publish my book, Woman’s Legacy, considering it too feminist. Apparently Mr. Horowitz agrees with them. This was a scholarly book. It was, in fact, my dissertation. The members of my dissertation committee at the University of California, Santa Cruz were Hayden White, a world- renowned historian, Donna Haraway, a world -renowned scholar in the history of science, and Diane Lewis, a professor of medical anthropology with a particular emphasis on African American communities. The book was widely and favorably reviewed including in the Journal of American History and the American Historical Review (although this reviewer was critical of some aspects of the book). It was also reviewed in the left and feminist journals including, Signs, for example, very favorably. It was published by the University of Massachusetts Press, and, of course, refereed by scholars in the field as are all such university press books.

I am also the author of another book called Tapestries of Life: Women’s Work, Women’s Consciousness and the Meaning of Daily Existence University of Massachusetts Press, 1989) which is often used as a text in many women’s studies and critical gender studies courses, and remains in print.

The memoir to which Mr. Horowitz refers is not yet in print; it is currently in production. The correct title is: Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel. It will be published by Seal Press/Avalon Publishers, Fall 2006.

Mr. Horowitz’s review of my course Introduction to Feminisms bears virtually no resemblance to it. The course is an introductory survey (lower division) of feminist studies. It is interdisciplinary and covers a range of issues including women’s history, immigration and the global economy, violence against women, reproductive rights, Jewish women and the Legacy of Anti-Semitism (not every year but often). Women’s body image, women’s health, and so on. There is one lecture devoted to sexuality, which includes lesbians as well as transgendered people, and others not in the normative mainstream. The course syllabus has never described lesbians as "the highest stage" of anything. This whole section of Horowitz’s recitation of my career is ridiculous. And yes, I do share personal stories, and stories more generally as a method of teaching.

This course was filmed in its entirety, not with university funds but by private donations raised by alumni who initiated the request that it be filmed. The course has an annual enrollment of approximately 474, which is the room capacity. It fluctuates up and down a little from that number. Student reviews of the course have been very positive both on line, and also in the official evaluations the university conducts. These too are available for public view. Some students are critical; most find the class very helpful. I received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the UCSC Alumni Association in 2001.

I am inaccurately quoted: I called for the overthrow of George W. Bush "by all constitutional and democratic means up to and including impeachment." As for the quote from The Wave, I stand by it. However, I have not supported divestment from Israel; I have supported a call for the U.S. to stop military assistance to Israel, (not all assistance) and I have been active in seeking to bring about a peaceful resolution to the terrible cauldron in the Middle East. I have never, ever supported or called for the support of terrorists, Palestinian or otherwise. The reference quoted was not to Palestinians but to Israelis active in the effort to end the Occupation of Palestinian territories. I am a member of Temple Beth El in my community, and I am a member of the Jewish Studies faculty at UCSC.

Bettina Aptheker March 15, 2006

Professor

Feminist Studies Department

University of California, Santa Cruz