Women to protest Trump’s inauguration

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, January 17th, 2017 - 39 comments
Categories: activism, feminism, us politics - Tags: , , ,

Various events are planned in protest around Trump’s inauguration. One of them is a series of marches organised by and for women:

SISTER MARCHES

Sister Marches are solidarity events inspired by the Women’s March on Washington, and organized by volunteers around the world. If you can’t make it to Washington, D.C. on January 21, join or host a Sister March near you. Click here for Sister March press releases.

There are (at time of writing) 386 marches organised world wide, including in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

 

The Mission & Vision of the Women’s March on Washington,

We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families – recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.

OUR MISSION

The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us – immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault – and our communities are hurting and scared. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.

In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.

We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.

HEAR OUR VOICE.

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

— Audre Lorde

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Women’s rights are human rights, regardless of a woman’s race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, sexual identity, gender expression, economic status, age or disability. We practice empathy with the intent to learn about the intersecting identities of each other. We will suspend our first judgement and do our best to lead without ego. We follow the principles of Kingian nonviolence, which are defined as follows:

  • Principle 1: Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is a positive force confronting the forces of injustice and utilizes the righteous indignation and spiritual, emotional, and intellectual capabilities of people as the vital force for change and reconciliation.
  • Principle 2: The Beloved Community is the framework for the future. The nonviolent concept is an overall effort to achieve a reconciled world by raising the level of relationships among people to a height where justice prevails and persons attain their full human potential.
  • Principle 3: Attack forces of evil, not persons doing evil. The nonviolent approach helps one analyze the fundamental conditions, policies and practices of the conflict rather than reacting to one’s opponents or their personalities.
  • Principle 4: Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve our goal. Self-chosen suffering is redemptive and helps the movement grow in a spiritual as well as a humanitarian dimension. The moral authority of voluntary suffering for a goal communicates the concern to one’s own friends and community as well as to the opponent.
  • Principle 5: Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external physical violence. The nonviolent attitude permeates all aspects of the campaign. It provides a mirror type reflection of the reality of the condition to one’s opponent and the community at large. Specific activities must be designed to maintain a high level of spirit and morale during a nonviolent campaign.

39 comments on “Women to protest Trump’s inauguration ”

  1. Carolyn_nth 1

    From the Sisters March press release:

    Spearheaded by first time-organizers and seasoned activists, the marches are bringing together people of all backgrounds, races, religions, gender identities, ages and abilities, as well as communities of immigrants. While led by women, all are welcome to attend the marches.

    And looking at the locations of marches around the world,, I say “Go Canada!” – for numbers of marches around a (non-US) country.

    Also a substantial number of locations in Mexico and the UK.

  2. Keith 2

    Thing is Trump is oblivious to this.

    What he doing is pushing for what is left of auto manufacturing in the US to not only remain there but he is also disincentivising any investment in overseas plants and returning manufacturing back to the US and I suggest it is having a profound effect in the way the up until now Neo Lib forever world thinks. He is also pushing for reciprocal car sales outside the US of American built products.

    Will anyone really care about his manners or his weird opinions because for your blue collar American this means quality jobs.

    He has hinted at the same in other US industries and has also suggested things like care for war veterans as another priority.

    These not so little tangible things will connect with your average man and woman in the street because it will make a difference in their lives for the better.

    And yet at the same time Bill English is going the other way and pushing for more questionable trade deals in the out of date out of time Neo Lib world he is so sold on.

  3. weka 3

    Did you just say that real politics is economic and women’s politics is about manners?

    • Sabine 3.1

      but of course it is.

      here have some smelling salts and maybe we should just loosen our corsets a bit for air.

      /sarc.

    • xanthe 3.2

      “Did you just say that real politics is economic and women’s politics is about manners?”

      unfortunatly that the general perception!
      “women’s politics” is very much encouraging this view!
      its up to you to change this!

      keith is simply trying to bring a breath of reality to assist you in making that change.

      [please provide evidence via 3 instances where the women organising this march, or taking part in it, are very much encouraging the view that they are primarily concerned with manners. If you can’t do that, then I suggest you think carefully about how you frame your opinions. Either way this thread is not for anti-feminist rhetoric. – weka]

      • weka 3.2.1

        unfortunatly that the general perception!
        “women’s politics” is very much encouraging this view!

        If you believe that the general perception is that women’s political concerns in the US are centred on manners, then that says some interesting things about you. It tells me that you really aren’t paying attention to women and what they are saying. It also tells me that you have an agenda for pushing false memes about feminism.

        I’m now going to put my moderator hat on, because I don’t want to see this thread derailed.

      • Carolyn_nth 3.2.2

        Plenty of women been doing that. Some people just seem to have their hands over their ears.

        Neoliberalism has not been good to women (or Māori and Pacific people). They are still bottom of the pile financially.

        In the US, there’s a saying: “Black men get locked up (in prison); Black women get locked out (evicted from rentals).”

        In NZ women, especially mothers of young children, on low incomes, have been the main victims of MOSD punitive beneficiary bashing,

        Precarious workers: large numbers of women and brown and black people on the lowest paid, most precarious work.

        Does anyone think Trump will be great for workers (including low paid women workers)? … with his keep car and other industries in the US? And his plans to cut top/business taxes? Not on his past record of treating workers and women.

        Do you think Trump’s presidency will be good for renters? Not on his past record. Do you think Trump will be good for enabling low income people getting the health care they need? And then women make up a large proportion of family carers – they’ll be feeling the strain.

        And when Trump is well known for his abuse and exploitation of women, he’ll be enabling a culture where abuse of women (and people of colour) will be green-lighted at work, on the streets, in homes…. everywhere.

        Getting rid of “neoliberalism” does not mean getting rid of rule of by and for the elites – especially when it is being led by someone from the wealthy classes, whose whole MO has been in his own self-interests. It just means new ways of screwing those with the least wealth and income, and with least power.

    • bwaghorn 3.3

      na what he is saying is that blue collar usa isn’t going to care that trump is a sexist pig if they can get a decent job

      • weka 3.3.1

        Some of them won’t. Others will. Nevertheless the framing of the women’s march as over issues of manners is itself a problem. Both because it denigrates and tries to marginalise their politics, and because it pits feminism against working class politics, which IMO is entirely unnecessary and damages us all.

  4. Rosemary McDonald 4

    A pity the Auckland march is going up Queen St….a real bastard pushing the wheelchair uphill. 🙁 We’ll be there in spirit.

  5. xanthe 6

    “Public ‘career feminists’ have been more concerned with getting more women into ‘boardrooms’, when the problem is that there are altogether too many boardrooms, and none of them are on fire.”

    ― Laurie Penny, Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution

    [what does that have to do with this post? See my moderator note above. This thread is not for pushing anti-feminist agendas – weka]

    • Carolyn_nth 6.1

      Yet, Penny is also called a “feminist”, and has been called a “career feminist” by some.

      She is an excellent writer and says many good things.

      She is strongly anti-Trump and his alt-right acolytes.

      Penny on “Fear of a feminist future:

      The most terrifying prospect of all is what happens when women work collectively. The idea of women organizing, sharing information and resources, and coming together to change the world—rather than competing for male attention as is right and natural—is terrifying enough when it’s a few pink-haired weirdoes on the internet. The thought of what they might do with real political power sends shudders through the locker room. This, incidentally, is how we got to the point where a bloviating man-child with distressing hair and an entitlement complex bigger than his unpaid tax bill, a man whose main political strategy is to stand at a podium screaming about Muslims and Mexican rapists, is still, to millions of Americans, a more conceivable president than his only normally monstrous opponent who happens to be female. A world with women in charge, a world where women stand together and for each other in any respect, is not just inconceivable—to conceive of it is an active identity threat for those whose sense of self has always needed a story with men on top.

      “On the election of Donald J Trump”

      The media on both sides of the pond has fallen over itself to consider whether the boiling bigotry on display might somehow conceal “legitimate concerns.” Somehow, the concerns of working-class people are only considered legitimate when they reflect a reactionary strain that does not threaten vested interests. Somehow, the concerns of working-class women who want basic reproductive rights, the concerns of working-class people of colour who want the police to stop shooting them with impunity, the concerns of working-class trans people who don’t want to be beaten up in bathrooms, have been landscaped into the territory of the “liberal elite”. That rubbish needs to stop right now. If you’re angry and upset right, that does not make you out of touch. If you suspect that a great wrong has been done today, that does not make you a bourgeois shill. It makes you sensible.

    • xanthe 6.2

      Nothing “anti feminist agenda” about it!
      just making the valid point that calling something a ”
      femininist act” does not guarantee that it advances women.

      [You are now banned from commenting in this post, please see moderator note in Open Mike – weka]

      • weka 6.2.1

        Please read the moderation notes on your last few comments.

      • Siobhan 6.2.2

        As a woman can i just say this is an very valid point to be made in the context of this conversation.
        I think xanthe has been totally misunderstood throughout this entire conversation.

        • weka 6.2.2.1

          For clarity’s sake, they weren’t banned for that particular comment, I just wanted to make sure they had seen the ban elsewhere.

  6. JanM 7

    I think this is not a good move – love him or hate him, he’s what the American people voted for, and they’ll have to live with it. If the Democrats hadn’t played silly beggars to get Hilary in and Bernie out, I suggest we’d have a very different outcome now!
    Feminism is taking a very wrong turn if they think supporting a woman just because she is a woman is ok – just look at the Natz collection we have here! 🙁
    There needs to be some really reflective thinking around why America chose Trump over Clinton – I suspect a lot of people (many women included) held their noses while they voted for him because he was seen as the lesser of two evils.
    There will be plenty of time to protest when/if he puts through policies which are anti- feminist – it hasn’t happened yet!

    • weka 7.1

      Actually, anti-women policies and legislation are being enacted even as we speak. The Republicans aren’t even waiting for the inauguration.

      As far as I can see the march has nothing to do with Clinton, nor the Democratic fuck up in the election. It’s coming out of concern for what the next presidency will do to harm women. Those are valid concerns,

      https://www.womensmarch.com/mission/

    • Rosemary McDonald 7.2

      “….the mission is to bring people together to take a stand on issues that deeply impact all of us. The marches will seek to reaffirm the core American values of freedom and democracy for all at a time when many fear that their voices will be lost, specifically related to women’s rights, immigrant rights, worker rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, environmental rights, rights for all races, and religious freedom.”

      Long before there was the Feminist Movement per se, women were at the forefront of activism on many issues that undermined family security, health and welfare, civil rights, employment and the environment.

      Trump needs to be sent a message that if his presidency is a continuation of his campaign…look out…women won’t tolerate that shit any more.

      • weka 7.2.1

        I also suspect that many people who voted Republican this time, who are swing voters, will be in for a shock about what happens. That includes blue collar workers. Some of those people will retrench into Trump-esque politics and culture, but I agree that many will start talking about how shit things are e.g. when they lose their health coverage.

    • Sabine 7.3

      so the guys that have had demonstrations all over the country yesterday

      http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-health-care-rally-20170115-story.html
      http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Thousands-Protest-US-Republican-Health-Care-Policy–20170116-0016.html
      http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/15/rally-supporting-affordable-care-act-happening-in-portland-today/
      https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/01/15/gop-strategy-for-aca-repeal-and-run/aCcjrJWQDjx4r4aRxkMCaL/story.html
      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/16/democrats-obamacare-repeal-bernie-sanders-healthcare

      to protest that gutting of the Affordable Care Act (yes, they already have voted away several ammendments of the Act such as keep your children on your healthcare till 26 – a big part of families with chronically ill children) should also not protest, cause love him or hate him 80.000 people got him over the electoral college to win over the candidate who got 3 million more in individual votes?

      Sure, makes good sense.

      Lets stop demonstrations, love them or hate them, lets not bring feminism to politics, cause what will the blokes think.

      maybe people are demonstrating against what was campaigned on, i.e. reversal of Roe vs Wade, reversal of Obergefell_v._Hodges, Griswold vs Connecticut, the gutting of whats left of public education, defunding and shutting of Planned Parenthood, elimination of “Sanctuary Cities” by threats of cuts to funds, deporting ‘others of various nationalities and religion and then some more.

      Maybe, they still believe they have a democracy. But hey, he won – bigly Nr. 46 on the list of those that got the electoral vote, and because Hilary did not play according tot he rule books of some, people now just pretend to not care, roll over and ‘get over it’? Seriously?

      • JanM 7.3.1

        Yes, I’m aware that people are demonstrating against what was campaigned on, and that’s my point. Trump said a lot of crazy and truly awful things during his campaign – enough to make one’s blood run cold. My thinking is, though, that it would be more effective to target protests at specific changes in policy as they happen – I think this general approach is in grave danger of feeding straight into his own story and reducing the effectiveness of tackling issues as they arise

    • Puckish Rogue 7.4

      I suspect the Democrats going to Kentucky and saying we’ll close the evil coal mines down and Trump saying we’ll bring jobs back to ‘Merica probably had something to do with it

  7. One Two 8

    Such protests do not target root causes

  8. Mrs Brillo 9

    Protest gatherings and marches are not only held for the benefit of the protest target and the media, you know.
    One of the things I remember most clearly from the protest marches of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s in New Zealand was the benefit to those doing the protesting. We used to call it “consciousness raising”, and it worked. To say nothing of the networking opportunities when people of like mind gather.
    Protests, at their best, lead to better organisation and better strategy. I hope these ones go well, and wish one were being held near me.

    • weka 9.1

      +100. I always felt inspired and the solidarity that comes with marching in large numbers is not to be underestimated.

  9. weka 10

    [Moderation note: I’ve added the kaupapa of the march to the post, with the expectation that people read it and inform themselves about what the march is before commenting. – weka]

    • Rosemary McDonald 10.1

      “….., with the expectation that people read it and inform themselves about what the march is before commenting.”

      Silly me, I was assuming that was what one did.

      • weka 10.1.1

        You’d be amazed at how many people don’t (they come in from the comments bar on the left, or even just scroll past the post).

  10. joe90 11

    Japan, too.

    #拡散希望 #WomensMarch 日本は1月20日(金曜日)に東京と大阪で。#Japan #Tokyo #Osaka pic.twitter.com/ZdJZmeroUW— DJ SKYFALL (@DJSKYFALL69) January 17, 2017