Washington, DC, January 22
Standing Up Against the “March for Female Enslavement”
January 23, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
January 23, 2015—Yesterday morning in NYC at 5:30 am, I met up with a group of about 30 folks that decided to get ourselves to DC. We wanted to make sure that the March for “Life” did not simply go unopposed parading by the Supreme Court under the pretense that they have the higher moral ground. We dubbed the anti-abortion march the “March for Female Enslavement.”
Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution
We were organized under the campaign of StopPatriarchy.org and found leadership in some seasoned revolutionaries and NYC Revolution Club members. The group also included artists who created beautiful drawings of the faces of women who have died from unsafe and illegal abortions. It is estimated that 50,000 women die each year in places where abortion is illegal. On the bus, I also met some newly involved persons who were compelled to act by the recent marked increase in the attacks on abortion rights and also an increase in the objectification and degradation of women overall, especially with the saturation of our culture with pornography and sexualized music and movies/books like 50 Shades of Grey or Twilight. Personally, I feel that this all amounts to a War against Women and that it is critical to oppose the anti-abortion movement, especially on a national stage, with the aim of effecting change and raising people’s sights to rise up and fight back.
When we got to the capital, we found other protesters from NOW (National Organization for Women) with signs saying “Keep Abortion Legal” and another dozen or so activists who traveled from other states to denounce the march. I spoke to one young man from Pennsylvania who said he and his friends “are bringing Ferguson to Washington.” He said that he wants to contribute to revolutionizing people and that protests around Mike Brown’s murder has changed what is acceptable in society. He reported having read some Bob Avakian over the last few years and only hearing about StopPatriarchy.org two weeks ago. He also said, “I’m really pissed with how the country is, especially how reproductive rights are used to control women, and it’s not just about the U.S.—the laws specifically against the whole female gender are much worse in the Third World.”
At a certain point the March for Female Enslavement reached our rally point in front of the Supreme Court, and our protest spilled out into the street. The banner “Abortion On Demand and Without Apology” and the several dozen activists were effectively a blockade of the many tens of thousands of anti-abortion marchers. We chanted and held our ground for over 45 minutes with a bold statement to the whole country and the world. This is a state of emergency and we won’t let the future of millions of women be foreclosed upon by backward repressive laws and patriarchal values. This was a call to all those on the sidelines to get involved to fight for the full liberation of women.
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