Standing Up Against All Forms of Oppression; Taking the Call to Confront the Woman-Haters Out to the MLK Protest in Harlem
January 21, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a member of the NYC Revolution Club
January 20, 2015: Yesterday, while most in the Club focused on the new statement from the RCP about the crossroads in the struggle against police murder, myself and another young woman in the Revolution Club took out the flyers for the January 22nd protest in DC to stand up for abortion rights and against the March for “Life.” We did this at the protest called up in Harlem around police murder to mark Martin Luther King Day. We got a great reception. Two very young teenagers, around thirteen years old, that we know from the neighborhood were helping us out as well. We got out flyers mainly in the beginning of the march, where people were gathering. At that point we spoke to a few people, and signed up a few people on the clipboards. Our approach was:
"We are members of the Rev Club, fighters on all fronts. Fighting back against all the ways this system comes down on the people and preparing for an actual revolution. Right now, one of the ways its coming down on women, is with the attacks on abortion rights, and we know this has everything to do with whether or not women will be free/treated as full human beings. This Thursday we are confronting the woman haters at their so called March for Life, and you need to join us, these motherfuckers can't go unopposed, they are winning, we need to call their shit out, and represent for a generation that won't stand for that shit."
That was the basic spiel we gave every time. And it really connected with people. We would ask what they thought about this, and most of them had a slight sense of the situation, but clearly had not heard this kind of an approach, and many people reacted, very excitedly, with fists pumps, and telling us they were feminists and definitely wanting to connect with this movement. Nodding their heads with definite agreement when we would say this was one of the many ways women are degraded and dehumanized in this society. Two young high school woman, during the march, really wanted to better understand what the anti-abortion argument was for forcing women to have children against their will, not even understanding their logic fully, or what they represent in the larger scheme of things, After the conversation, they were so glad to have learned so much, and excitedly signed up to stay in touch.
Before the march took off, as I was just mass distributing fliers and talking to larger groups of youth, someone else who works with the Rev Club brought this one young woman back to me. This woman was 16, I believe Hispanic, had an abortion maybe a year before, was very unapologetic about it, and told us how her father didn't speak to her for 7 months, only at family gatherings to make it look good. She also said she was at the MLK march in defiance of her parents wishes, and really wanted to come to DC but knew her parents would not allow it. We also got into the question of revolution, and the Club, and she was so moved that there is a real strategy and vision for actual revolution, and said something like, "WOW, I had no idea about this, I'm so glad I found you guys." She was very soft spoken, but came to the march on her own, and wants to connect with Stop Patriarchy and the movement for Revolution again no doubt.
And I have to note, the largest population of people out there, I really think, were young Black women. Thinking back, most of the people I spoke to were young Black women, or women of color, and very young, about half high school aged, and half college aged. This question is SO fucking important to be bringing to them, and they are coming forward in mass around the question of police murder and brutality, and we have not been able to yet bring this to that population enough that it is resonating with them, and bringing them forward. I think we began to really connect with them at this march.
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