“Walk for Life” – Your Name’s a Lie!
January 24, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
- by a woman who has protested this walk to enslave women in SF in years past on the importance of protesting Saturday:
The “Walk for Life” has come to downtown San Francisco every January since 2004. It’s a destination chosen to go in your face to the liberal pro-abortion rights city..... W4L puts a “family-friendly” and “peaceful” face on the reactionary anti-abortion, anti-contraception, anti-woman politics and preachings of the Cathollic Church. Tens of thousands of people get bussed in from all over California – especially from more rural or small city areas – organized through their parishes, and the march is filled with priests and nuns, usually with lots of bishops in the mix too. This year 2013 they are going to hear an actual message from the Pope himself congratulating them on their fight to stop abortion.
In contrast to the openly violent (murderous) anti-abortion forces who post and carry out death threats against abortion providers, attack clinics, etc. – Walk for Life wears a “compassionate” mask. They say abortion is “violence against women and their children” and always have teary-eyed speakers telling personal horror stories of having, giving, or “surviving” abortions – unlike Operation Rescue et al, no gruesome photos of bloody fetuses here, although just like the Christian fundamentalist types there is a lot of praying, and hymns. And they cultivate a tolerant, multi-cultural image, always bringing along at least one Black, one or two Asian, and lots of Latino church leaders, minor celebrities, former abortion providers, etc. Tons of grandparents walking their whole family under their sea of “Abortion Hurts Women” signs and religious paraphernalia.
Every year a mixed group of women and men and different organizations come together to mount politically bold and confrontational mass demonstrations to counter-protest at Walk for Life. But the mainstream organizations who adhere to the politics and paths of the Democratic Party have always held back from joining in, and they urge their followers to stay away. When hundreds of protesters line the antis' march with banners and bullhorns, do non-violent civil disobedience to disrupt the antis' march, snakedance thru their rally to smuggle flyers and fact sheets to the teenagers in it and talk to them about the “violence against women” that flows from DENYING abortion and contraception – it's an absolutely crucial statement of outrage and action defending against the war on women.
Yet far too many so-called “pro-choice organizations” are nowhere to be seen. There is a view among them that we should NOT directly act in any confrontational way because that just makes things worse: do NOT organize clinic defense, do NOT counter-protest the antis' march, do NOT step outside the Democratic Party’s box because that’s the only place reproductive rights can be saved, etc. One year representatives of this segment of the “pro-choice movement” came to the first organizing meeting for the counter-protest, to announce that they were opposed to any counter-protest as counter-productive, and they would NOT be coming back.
This is shameful...but we’re going to rally those who are outraged by this so-called “Walk for Life,” and plant a pole for the millions of women who can be unleashed to fight for their liberation!
All Out for January 26!
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