Luna Hernandez is arrested at Los Angeles City Hall, July 6, 2022.
I became a leader in Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights—and participated in two non-violent civil disobedience protests—because I was angry at what it meant to grow up a woman in this world. Seeing how women were treated all of my life was—and is—fucking intolerable.
I will be going to trial for these actions soon. If you care about the right to abortion, I want to invite you to join my defense... and I also want to share the deeper reasons I took part in these actions.
In high school, I saw how the Catholic Church brainwashed some of the youth around me to believe that “abortion is murder.” After we graduated high school, I saw my best friend get shamed by our so-called “progressive” friends for getting an abortion at 18 years old. I defended her before I drove her to the abortion clinic. I saw identity politics hustlers call abortion a “white women’s issue,” arguing that we should just ignore it, and that “it’s not a big deal.” But meanwhile, every other word to each other and about themselves was “bitch.”
All this made me furious. But it wasn’t until I met the revcoms did I realize there was something I could do with all my anger. In 2016, they took me to counter protest the gigantic “March 4 Life,” aka march for female enslavement, in San Francisco. Through meeting them, I got introduced to Bob Avakian (BA), who gave me a completely different understanding of the oppression of women.
Until I heard BA speak, I had never even heard the term “male supremacy.” I came to understand why using the word “bitch” is actually degrading. And I came to deeply understand that forcing women to have children against their will is a form of enslavement.
Through studying BA's pamphlet, Break ALL the Chains! Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution, I learned where patriarchy comes from. I learned how patriarchy and capitalism are tightly bound together. By watching his speech "Why We Need A Revolution, and How We Really Can Make Revolution,” I learned why you cannot do away with one without doing away with the other. BA digs into this deeply in the Q&A on why a REAL revolution to overthrow this system is necessary to actually get women and all of humanity free. I've studied the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. This lays out the concrete vision for a new society which would guarantee the right to abortion on day one after the revolution. I've been inspired by how different laws under a different system would enable women to be full participants in propelling society forward in a positive direction.
I learned that I could unleash my pent-up rage as a mighty force for revolution, a rage that is so suppressed and swallowed by millions of women but is deep felt in their bones and has the potential to be an explosive and dynamic force for the overthrow of this system... if they get with and take up the leadership and understanding that BA has brought forward like I did. I learned that all of this oppression is unnecessary. That a better world really is possible!
I learned that there is a need for people to ACT— to be challenged to stand up against a nightmare that was being brought down on women by the Christian fascist Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In leading Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, I also got a deeper understanding of what people don't know... and what they need to know. People need to understand why these Christian fascists are waging an all-out assault on abortion, women and LGBTQ people. They need to know how patriarchy is rooted in the system of capitalism-imperialism. And how the fight for abortion has everything to do with making revolution. They need to know why the emancipation of women is pivotal to the new communism developed by BA... and how it's pivotal in getting to a communist world where ALL OF HUMANITY is actually free. People need to understand how the ripping away of abortion rights is a part of the “norms” in society being ripped apart by the Republican party... and how this has everything to do with the rare time we are living in where revolution has become MORE possible.
All of these answers to these deep questions can be found in The Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, Heart and Soul and Hardcore for Revolution. If you are agonizing about the state of the world, watch these together with others.
And to get an understanding on the current juncture and how YOU being a part of this revolution could make all the difference, people should read the statement on revcom.us: On What Would Have Been the 51st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade: In the Words of Bob Avakian: “Radical change is coming: Will it be emancipating, or enslaving—revolutionary, or reactionary?”