Austin, Texas: Confronting the Anti-Abortion Fascists at the State Capitol

January 25, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

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Photos: Special to revcom.us/Revolution

For the past several years on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Christian fascist woman-haters have held a “Rally for Life” on the front (south) steps of the Texas state capitol in Austin. And every year they spread their poison and mobilize their troops in the war against women. But this year they were challenged and confronted by a militant contingent organized by Stop Patriarchy, carrying banners and placards and chanting “without this basic right, women can't be free, abortion on demand and without apology!”

A reproductive rights rally was organized by Austin pro-choice groups to take place simultaneously on the capitol’s back (north) steps. Stop Patriarchy put out a call for people to join this event and be part of a contingent that would go around to the front to confront the fascists.

Throughout the afternoon, the thousands of woman-hating antis were confronted by revolutionaries, Stop Patriarchy, and youth who joined in from the pro-choice movement. When we marched into the pro-choice rally, we challenged people to join with us to stop the antis' march on the other side of the capitol. A group of youths said, “It’s about time,” and over a dozen joined in to march and confront the antis. Marching down the street, our group went to block the beginning of the antis’ march as dozens of pro-choice people held up signs and counter-protested from across the street.

We jumped right in front of the antis’ march, chanting non-stop, holding up both of our banners—Forced Motherhood Is Female Enslavement, and Abortion On Demand and Without Apology—as they were entering the capitol area. A tug of war ensued—the cops pushed some of us onto the grass, and despite their strong-arming and threats to arrest us, and big men shoulder-butting and punching the two women on the mic, we held our ground till the last marcher passed. Though we weren’t able to actually bring the march to a halt, we did force it to go around us. And every marcher was confronted with our message and our resistance, as we set a defiant tone for our movement to go forward in the fight for women to be recognized as full human beings.

This message reverberated over to the pro-choice rally, as more than half of the 300 people there took up Stop Patriarchy stickers and materials.

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