On March 8^th International Women’s Day, people came out into the streets together, launching a real fight to keep abortion legal. Two days later, the Revolution Club brought some of those people together to watch and get into the new episode of The RNL – Revolution Nothing Less! – Show that was reporting on this monumental beginning and giving leadership to how to fight forward.

This was a rich experience, where we all were learning from each other, and from The RNL Show. We felt this further underlined the potential of RNL circles as an important way people can come together in beginning, but very meaningful, forms.

One important example was seeing Araceli Herrera speak in The RNL Show’s footage of the NYC rally, telling her story about being forced to bear the child of a gang-rape, and seeing the way she was able to direct her outrage into the streets in beautiful struggle. A woman on the call said in her own and other Spanish-speaking families she knows, “our moms don’t talk about this.” She’d heard Araceli’s story translated into English from the stage in L.A., but hearing it directly and in Spanish brought her to tears and was liberating to hear and see all the speakers get on stage together and lead everyone in chanting.

A young woman in high school said she, too, was struck by hearing Araceli, and contrasted this to her Catholic mother opposing what she was out fighting for. She also described with a sense of awe and joy what it was like being at the protest in L.A. and hearing the MC from the stage leading chants, “She was so loud! I felt like the whole world must be hearing her voice!”

Another woman, originally from the Philippines, said she felt compelled to come to the protest because the Philippines is a heavily Catholic country and she has seen a lot of young girls getting pregnant without the right to abortion. Sexual tourism is heavy there, she said, and a lot of young girls end up with unwanted pregnancies and are forced to keep it because “it’s murdering a baby.” She wants to spread the things she’s learning back there, and going to the rally made her feel that something else is possible everywhere in this country and the world.

The high school student said when she got home from the protest, “I felt on fire, I still wanted to scream, I didn’t want the day to end, to wake up and that feeling be gone.” She described how when she told her mother where she’d been, her mother said, “I don’t really believe in the right to murder a baby, taking away a life.” All of what she’d heard and been part of that day backed her up in what she argued with her mom. “But what if that person doesn’t want to, because she’s not in position to take care of herself or the baby? Will you ask her to have it, and maybe the child grows up to be an outcast. It wasn’t their fault and shouldn’t be the fault of a mother.” She said the argument was going nowhere and made her “lose a little of my fire.”

The woman from the Philippines said when she was thinking about coming to the protest, the song from the Clash was playing in her head: “Should I stay or should I go?” And especially the line, “if I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double.” She said if she didn’t go, what would happen to women’s rights? She too shared her experience of being at the protest with a friend who was not so excited. This friend described herself as being “in the middle” about abortion, saying if a woman is raped she should have the right, but women shouldn’t be going around having lots of pregnancies and abortions.

We talked about how important it was that people found each other and their strength in the streets. And one of the Revolution Club members described her own experiences getting involved and running up against opposition from friends and family. She said you struggle with people – and sometimes you’ll win them over, and sometimes you will find new friends! We also shared the Frequently Asked Questions that was part of building for the International Women’s Day marches, highlighting the answer on “What about the fetus?” and we talked about how the so-called “pro-life” organizations that oppose abortion are not about “life” at all, but are about control over women.

The high school student told us she had recently read The Handmaid’s Tale for a class and, “I don’t want to live in a world like this, women slaves giving birth to children they might not even see again! … We have to prevent that from happening.” She grabbed hold of what was said on the show about moving forward and has ideas for starting right away to spread the word at school about people wearing green on April 8 and the protests on April 9.

The new people on the call expressed interest in coming to the weekend gathering to meet and kick it with the Revolution Club.