Refuse Fascism, International Women’s Day in NYC:

March to the Tower! Drive Them From Power!

March 8, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

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.

Near Trump Tower, people pulled together for a speak-out. A Puerto Rican woman spoke out against those in her community who have gotten caught up in wanting a wall against Mexicans—saying “NO!” and speaking in English and Spanish. A woman from South Africa who had been forced into marriage as a child bride and denied education because she is Black spoke against violence against women worldwide. A woman from Tennessee spoke about what it is like to not have sex-ed or birth control as a teenager and how this ruins young women’s lives. Several older women spoke about the days when abortion was illegal and how terrifying and stifling and deadly it was. Another speaker exposed the horrible implications in poor countries in the Third World for Trump’s ban on funding any organizations that even make people aware of the option of abortion.

Earlier, at Columbus Circle, Jenny Heinz, who was turned away from an event at NYC’s Lincoln Center for wearing her “NO!” sign, spoke out powerfully about the importance of cultural institutions not being neutral, let alone censoring resistance, and instead taking a stand against this fascist regime.

Throughout it all, Sunsara Taylor—a co-initiator of Refuse Fascism and a correspondent for Revolution newspaper—not only spoke bitterness about what women face all over the world, and not only about how Trump and Pence are taking this woman-hating to new heights of cruelty and viciousness, but also about how this unprecedented reassertion of woman-hating and patriarchy is a cornerstone of their fascist juggernaut being imposed on people here and around the world. She exposed how this is of a piece with their subversion of the separation of powers, of the ripping up of the separation of church and state, of their attacks on the media aimed at shutting down and closing off any ability for people to challenge their LIES, of their criminalizing dissent and remaking the law and the society in a fascist way with implications for people all over the world and for generations to come.

Sunsara Taylor called on people to get organized with Refuse Fascism, to take up the four things called for in the Call to Action:

“Our single unifying mission must be to Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime.

“We must manifest the power of NO! everywhere: on signs, billboards, walls, social media and the news. NO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America must resound.

“Every outrage committed by this regime must be met with greater and greater resistance.

“We must ORGANIZE: working with all our creativity and determination toward the time when millions of people can be moved to fill the streets of cities and towns day after day and night after night, declaring this whole regime illegitimate—Demanding, and Not Stopping, Until the Trump/Pence Regime Is Driven from Power.”

And Sunsara Taylor said humanity needs a total revolution to break all the chains of oppression that bind women and to emancipate all of humanity. She read BAsics 3:22:

You cannot break all the chains, except one. You cannot say you want to be free of exploitation and oppression, except you want to keep the oppression of women by men. You can't say you want to liberate humanity yet keep one half of the people enslaved to the other half. The oppression of women is completely bound up with the division of society into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, and the ending of all such conditions is impossible without the complete liberation of women. All this is why women have a tremendous role to play not only in making revolution but in making sure there is all-the-way revolution. The fury of women can and must be fully unleashed as a mighty force for proletarian revolution. (BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian)

She called on everyone to get into Bob Avakian, to learn about the revolution and come out on Sunday to the program at Revolution Books about International Women’s Day. At the same time, she gave a shout-out to everyone who was out from all their different perspectives and called on everyone to stand shoulder to shoulder in the movement to stand up today to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power in the name of humanity, for people all over the world.

 

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