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A Conservative Threat Offers New Opportunities for Working Class Feminism

category north america / mexico | gender | feature author Tuesday February 07, 2017 14:31author by Romina Akemi and Bree Busk - Black Rose Anarchist Federation Report this post to the editors

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"When women rise, the people advance"

In the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency, there were two important mobilizations that expressed radically different views on reproductive rights. The Women’s March on Washington, which took place the day after Trump’s inauguration, has been hailed as one of the largest mobilizations in US history. What began as a spontaneous call quickly ballooned into a movement that tapped into growing anxieties over the intentions of the new administration. The march drew some 500,000 to rally in Washington DC while sister marches were held across the country and even worldwide. One week later, another mobilization took place: the annual March for Life. While significantly smaller, this march still drew many attendees who were energized by celebrity speakers from the Trump administration.

At this point, there is no certainty that the Women’s March will evolve into an actual social movement. This much is clear: the Women’s March represents a political opening to rebuild a revolutionary feminist movement (in conjunction with other developing struggles) that advances demands to improve the lives of working people and embraces conflict with the liberal, capitalist character of the feminist movement of the day.

[Castellano]

A CONSERVATIVE THREAT OFFERS NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORKING CLASS FEMINISM

by Romina Akemi and Bree Busk

Author Note: This article was written by Romina Akemi and Bree Busk for Solidaridad, the newspaper of the Chilean organization Solidaridad – Federación Comunista Libertaria. For this reason, more time is spent explaining history and concepts that would be familiar to a US audience.

In the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency, there were two important mobilizations that expressed radically different views on reproductive rights. The Women’s March on Washington, which took place the day after Trump’s inauguration, has been hailed as one of the largest mobilizations in US history. What began as a spontaneous call quickly ballooned into a movement that tapped into growing anxieties over the intentions of the new administration. The march drew some 500,000 to rally in Washington DC while sister marches were held across the country and even worldwide. One week later, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion), another mobilization took place: the annual March for Life. While significantly smaller, this march still drew many attendees who were energized by celebrity speakers from the Trump administration. In a break with political protocol, Vice President Mike Pence, a former Catholic turned born-again Christian, spoke at the rally, where he claimed, “Life is winning again in America.”

In the United States, the legality of abortion rests on Roe v. Wade, which can only be overturned by another Supreme Court ruling. However, there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court that President Obama was unable to fill in his final term. During his campaign, then-candidate Trump had committed to appointing an anti-abortion judge, a promise that was reiterated during Pence’s speech and finally realized on January 30th with the nomination of Neil Gorsuch. A recent report on Judge Gorsuch’s voting record states that if confirmed, he would likely be a reliable conservative, “voting to limit gay rights, uphold restrictions on abortion and invalidate affirmative action programs.”

Despite its legality, abortion access in the US has continued to be precarious and uneven, especially for those in rural communities. This is due in part to the success of the anti-abortion movement, which has persistently sought both legal and grassroots methods to reduce and restrict access. This was most visible in the 1990’s, when right-wing evangelical organizations such as Operation Rescue, Moral Majority, and the Family Research Council came into prominence. These organizations rode the conservative backlash against the ‘60s “cultural revolution,” demanding open prayer in state schools, opposing sex education, and shutting down women’s clinics. This period of religious conservative response to secular, progressive values came to be known as the Culture Wars. At this point, the Third Wave of the US feminist movement had been fully institutionalized within the Democratic Party and was unable to defend its gains against such a challenge.

The Women’s March was the most powerful public demonstration in defense of reproductive rights in recent history and represented the first call to action capable of uniting women across class, racial, and political lines since the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970’s. For the last decade, US Left politics have been dominated by identity politics: a political theory that emphasizes racial, gender, and sexual identity over social class. Identity politics was initially employed to analyze and deconstruct manifestations of white supremacy and patriarchy within leftist organizations and movements, but it was also taken up by young progressives in academic and institutional settings. Within this analysis, class became understood as another identity that could be discriminated against rather than a relationship to the means of production. What began as a useful tool to analyze power imbalances soon evolved into an ideological position characterized by disunity, extreme localism, and separatism. These political behaviors have had a broad influence on both the revolutionary and institutional left in the US, impeding the growth of broad-based social movements. The fragmentary nature of identity politics was addressed through the application of intersectionality, the theoretical practice of analyzing overlapping social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. Intersectionality was intended to provide a model for inclusive, horizontal cooperation within organizations and movements across all identities. However, in practice, activists interpreted it to mean that all identities and oppressions are situated equally and no special understanding of capitalism or the state was necessary to complete their analysis. As the recent US election has demonstrated, most people will react to threats to their material realities rather than in response to purely ideological considerations about their place within the complex hierarchy of oppressed identities . . . The irony being that politics from above – led by Trump – has forced the US Left to find unity, when a few months ago, they saw none.

At this point, there is no certainty that the Women’s March will evolve into an actual social movement. Across the country, the microphones were dominated by Democratic Party politicians and liberal celebrities who emphasized institutional resistance. In contrast, the march participants were politically diverse, with some demanding reforms and others, revolution. The unifying factor was a collective desire to ignite an ongoing resistance in the streets to the coming social rollbacks. Revolutionary feminists have only just begun to assert themselves in these political spaces and it’s unclear what role they will ultimately play. This much is clear: the Women’s March represents a political opening to rebuild a revolutionary feminist movement (in conjunction with other developing struggles) that advances demands to improve the lives of working people and embraces conflict with the liberal, capitalist character of the feminist movement of the day. There is a clear opportunity to re-center the classic demands of reproductive justice, economic equality, and freedom from patriarchal violence, and to push them forward with a greater force than was possible in decades past. Our efforts will require the best aspects of intersectional analysis to prevent us from replicating the hierarchies we wish to abolish, but that is only the beginning: we must address the material reality of those most directly impacted by patriarchal-capitalism and let that focus serve as a guide for the revolutionary movement we wish to build.

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North America / Mexico | Gender | en

Tue 07 Feb, 16:47

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On this International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression!

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nefac11.jpg imageCall for Anarchist contingent at International Women's Day march 14:30 Tue 04 Mar by Jon 0 comments

NEFAC-NYC calls for a red and black contingent for the International Women's Day march on Saturday March 8th.
We will assemble on the southeast corner of Union Square at 11:45am and march to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on Washington Square Place and Green Street after a small rally. Look for the red and black flags!

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There has to be maximum resistance to anti-gay ideas, ideologies, attacks and violence. The solution isn’t in gay cops or a pro-gay government. The police and the System they serve are perpetrators of institutional violence and injustice. We have to be in the struggles for LGTBQ freedom and equality. Whether as LGTBQ folks or as allies, we must be connecting with the millions of people who are fighting for personal and social dignity and justice. As attacks and murders are committed, we must work to either highlight and encourage or organize ourselves those initiatives and projects that mobilize and act – whether in outright street based self-defense or in mass organizations that confront government and social laws! We need to make it rough for anyone who thinks they can bash us! [Italiano]

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On the eve of International Women’s Day, so-called men’s rights advocates at the University of Toronto hosted an event confronting women’s studies and academic feminism. This was a follow-up to their event in November featuring self-proclaimed ex-feminist Warren Farrell, author of the book the Myth of Male Power. Warren Farrell is best known for his statements about women making false accusations of rape and his argument that incest can be a positive experience, if only women were not socialized to be victims.

imageWhy Women Should Join Political Organizations Sep 05 by Dolores 0 comments

What I am writing is not something new, but I feel that the participation of women in revolutionary organizations is still minimal. As such, I feel a responsibility to urge women who are feeling stuck, alone, and are serious about being part of a larger movement of abolishing all forms of oppression to consider joining a political group. Our voices are often excluded and not heard, and only by inserting ourselves into the discussion will things change.

imageQueer Liberation and Anarchist Communism Jun 17 by Thomas Giovanni 0 comments

As anarchist communists, it is only logical and consistent with our principles in the struggle for a free humanity that we support the personal, cultural, and institutional fight against patriarchy, hetero-sexism, the gender bi-nary system and all other struggles for queer liberation both in themselves and in their intersectionalities with capitalism, the state, white supremacy, and all other forms of human oppression. [ Ελληνικά]

textNEA#10: Putting the Control Back in Birth Control Apr 26 by PJ Lilley & Jeff Shantz 1 comments

As anarcha-feminists, when we think of "reproductive rights" we usually first think of a woman's right to choose when/where/how she has children in terms of her access to free, safe abortions and multiple birth control technologies. We might think of Emma Goldman standing on a soapbox risking arrest to talk to women about condoms, or of our sisters currently standing on the front lines doing clinic defense actions. But on the flip side of the same coin is the right to choose to have a child, and the access to health care and a safe environment to enable that choice. Creeping liberalism and racism manifest when the equation that abortion equals "individual choice free from state interference", or the interests of white, middle class women become the dominant interpretation of reproductive liberty.

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imageMAS 2013 International Women’s Day Statement Mar 09 (MAS) 0 comments

On this International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression!

imageCall for Anarchist contingent at International Women's Day march Mar 04 NEFAC-NYC 0 comments

NEFAC-NYC calls for a red and black contingent for the International Women's Day march on Saturday March 8th.
We will assemble on the southeast corner of Union Square at 11:45am and march to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on Washington Square Place and Green Street after a small rally. Look for the red and black flags!

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