By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Building on the vision and mission of the 2017 National Women’s March in the U.S., women around the world will mark January 19 with marches and other actions “supporting the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities”.
The main march in 2019 will be in Washington D.C., but there are dozens of other marches that are scheduled for the same day. So far, there is least one in every state.
Some states will hold multiple marches: California will have 20; Michigan and Florida will each have eight; and Pennsylvania, New York and Texas will each have seven.
Outside of the U.S., marches have been announced in Zimbabwe, in Lusaka (Zambia), Kampala (Uganda), Johannesburg (South Africa), Tel Aviv (Israel), and Potsdam (Germany), to name a few.
In Zambia, defenders of human rights and gender equality will be invited to “join us and not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society.”
Under the hashtag LookBack, MarchForward, the Lagos (Nigeria) group wrote: “Nigeria women rise, millions strong, around the world to answer the call against injustice and hatred. We march together with Global Women – because injustice knows no boundaries.”
“People are tired and people are outraged, and what we want to do is demonstrate to folks that we have a strategy and a platform and that we are more organized than ever… despite the fact that it has been a rough two years,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, chief operating officer of the Women’s March.
“I think that folks need to come together to remember the power and the influence that women built coming out into the streets in 2017 and 2018,” Carmona said.
This year’s event has been marred by the defections of several groups and individuals criticizing march co-founder and current co-president Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez over perceived anti-Semitism.
Ms. Carmona cast the controversy as the growing pains of a new organization that is struggling to build a diverse coalition. She said steps were being taken to ensure that Jewish women felt welcome, including giving Women’s March leaders education about anti-Semitism and adding Jewish women to the organization’s “unity principles,” which highlight groups that are considered especially vulnerable.
Both Ms. Mallory and Ms. Perez say they categorically condemn anti-Semitism
Friction with some supporters was highlighted among others in The Atlantic Magazine with a story headlined “The Women’s March has a Farrakhan Problem”. Among those who have withdrawn from the global event are EMILY’s List, the National Council of Jewish Women, The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
Among those continuing to support the embattled organizers is teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten who posted on Twitter: “While we don’t agree on everything, (organizers) Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory are warriors for justice and I am honored to know them and work with them & call them friends… glad to have this meeting today w/ them & Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum debunking myths.”
Other sponsors of the march include Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice.
In a statement on November 20, 2018, Women’s March National Organizer Sarsour said: “The Women’s March exists to fight bigotry and discrimination in all their forms – including homophobia and anti-Semitism – and to lift up the voices of women who are too often left out. We believe in a world where women from all backgrounds are equally represented in government, media, politics, and everywhere and invite everyone who shares these values to join us.”
She added: “We are trying to build an intersectional women’s movement. That is a monumental task that is hard, it is messy. We are here for every hard conversation, we are thankful for the folks who have reached out to us directly, and who have spoken up more broadly, and we extend an invitation to everyone who has not yet reached out to do so.” [IDN-InDepthNews – 15 January 2019]
Photo credit: Women’s March Action Network
IDN is flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate.
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