The Outpouring on March 8, a Day Without a Woman—and the Wellspring of Outrage Against the Trump/Pence Regime

March 13, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

It was very important that on March 8, International Women’s Day, women across the U.S.—and across the world—took off work, wore red, went into the streets, and acted in other ways to give voice to their outrage against the intense, and intensifying, oppression they face, and in many cases against the Trump/Pence regime. And it was important that many men joined in the Day Without a Woman protest that had been called for that date.

Many who acted on March 8 were part of the Women’s March on January 21, the day after Trump’s inauguration, when millions of people throughout this country and in many places across the globe poured into the streets, making clear their disgust and anger at the rise of Trump/Pence. The Women’s March was followed by other determined protests—people rushing to and clogging up the airports against Trump’s Muslim ban; the Day Without an Immigrant and other actions against the Gestapo-like round-ups of immigrants; students mobilizing to stop fascists on their campuses; and other resistance. In all this, many who are being compelled to act, both young people and those who are older, are new to political protest.

Like the Women’s March and other recent protests, the broad range of actions and people involved in the Day Without a Woman points to the reality that there continues to be a deep and significant well-spring of alarm and anger against the Trump/Pence regime. In particular, there is alarm and outrage among many, many women—and people of all genders—at the   crude, rape-culture, women-hating piggery that Trump concentrates, in combination with the straight-up Christian fascist patriarchal clampdown represented by Pence.

All this shows the potential for the kind of resistance that is urgently needed, now, as the Trump/Pence regime forges ahead very rapidly to consolidate fascist rule. As the speech from the Revolutionary Communist Party given at this year’s International Women’s Day events said, in relation to the recent resistance including the Day Without a Woman:

This is extremely important—and it must be built upon, it must get even broader and more determined, and it must spread. At the same time, it must get increasingly linked up with the fight to drive this fascist regime from power—and growing numbers within it need to increasingly be linking this to the fight to make an actual revolution, to dig up the roots of this oppression by overthrowing the system that requires and enforces this oppression, by putting an end to all exploitation and oppression and the very division of society into classes, into masters and slaves, oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited.

On this page is a round-up of what happened on "A Day Without a Woman" around the U.S. (including reports from readers in a number of cities), report about response to Refuse Fascism’s call for people to go out into the streets on March 8, and a survey of International Women’s Day protests around the world.

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“A Day Without a Woman”

On March 8, International Women’s Day, women—and men—across the United States marched and rallied, took off from work, wore red in solidarity and acted in other ways for “A Day Without a Woman.” The call for the action came from the organizers of the January 21 Women’s March when millions took the streets across the U.S. and around the world. They said that on this day, “women and our allies will act together for equity, justice and the human rights of women and all gender-oppressed people”—and that they drew inspiration from “recent courageous actions like the ‘Bodega strike’ led by Yemeni immigrant store owners in New York City and the Day Without Immigrants across the U.S.” They say the day was meant to show women’s economic and political strength and to speak out on many different social justice issues, like reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, immigrant rights and environmental justice. And many of these actions served as a way for women to speak out against the Trump/Pence government. Read more

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Refuse Fascism, International Women’s Day in NYC: March to the Tower! Drive Them From Power!

On March 8, International Women’s Day, Refuse Fascism called on people to go into the streets saying:

Break the Chains! Unleash the FURY of Women!
Say NO to All Forms of Female Enslavement!
Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime!

In response, hundreds of people rallied at Columbus Circle in New York City. A dozen or so wore bloody pants and people carried bloody coat hangers, invoking the reality of women who have died from illegal or unsafe abortions. After the rally, people marched towards Trump Tower chanting, “No Pussy Grabbing! No Patriarchy! No Fascist USA!” They intersected in the streets with a contingent on its way to the women’s strike—some of them joined with Refuse Fascism heading for Trump Tower chanting, “March to the Tower! Drive Them From Power!” At one point, the two marches were going down sidewalks on both sides of the street, creating a wild scene of resistance. Read more

Around the World: International Women’s Day—in the Streets for Equality and Against Anti-Women Violence

Across the world on March 8, women as well as men were out in the streets to mark International Women’s Day. A particular target of many of the protests was demanding an end to rape, murder, and other forms of violence against women. Some of the actions were part of a Global Women’s Strike, demanding equality for women at work in other areas of life and society.

As the speech from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, for this year’s International Women’s Day said, “International Women’s Day could not be more important and urgent than it is this year. We gather at a time when all across the globe, women are being violated, brutalized, humiliated, kidnapped and beaten, bought and sold into actual sexual slavery, objectified and humiliated in pornography, denied control over their own lives and reproduction, forced to have children against their will or to risk their lives and even die to avoid it... Women are raped, stalked, viciously exploited in the factories and fields, imprisoned in veils and harassed on the streets, terrorized, shamed, taught to submit and treated as less than human. Everywhere.” Read more

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