Published from 1984-1989, Cayenne was a socialist feminist bulletin produced by a group of women who were formerly part of the IWDC Newsletter Committee in Toronto. They left the International Women’s Day Committee (IWDC) to publish Cayenne because of a perceived lack of space for political discussion and debate within IWDC.

Issues of Cayenne included news, analysis, and debate on a number of local, national, and international socialist feminist issues, including the Eaton’s strike and boycott; feminism in Northern Ireland; the abortion debate in Nicaragua; the struggle for community-controlled childcare in Ontario; Canada’s abortion laws on trial; women threatened by free trade, racism; International Women’s Day; Native women fighting genocide; and many more.

“We want to contribute to deepening the level of political analysis and debate in the Canadian women’s movement,” stated the editorial in Cayenne’s first (Nov/Dec 1984) issue.

In July 1989, the editorial committee announced Cayenne’s end.  The women’s movement had changed quite amazingly in the five years Cayenne published.

“The women’s movement has gone in different directions … As the movement has broadened and developed, socialist feminists have shifted to working on different issues, be they peace, anti-poverty organizing, abortion rights, daycare, employment equity, anti-racism, etc… With this diversity, there seems to be less time and space for overall political strategizing debates.”

The women in the collective were stretched with other priorities – families, political work, and paid work. It was time to leave Cayenne behind.

Over its five years, many women and some men made significant contributions to Cayenne. The July 1989 letter acknowledged Alison Bechdel, Roth Beck, Sigrid Blohm, Linda Briskin, Mary Chapman, Sue Chapman, Ginny Dickie, Cynthia Flood, Amy Gottlieb, Jan Langford, Dian Marino, Janet Mawhinney, Jenny McIntyre, Christina Mills, Carol Anne O-Brien, Nancy Pollock, Susan Prentice, David Rayside, Ann Rowan, David Smith and Dorothy Smith.

Cayenne’s founding collective was Marie Lorenzo, Chris Mills and Lynda Yanz. Cayenne’s last collective was Anne Fourt, Nancy Jackson, Marie Lorenzo, Liza McCoy, Judy Stevenson, and Lynda Yanz.

Lynda Yanz