Not My Revolution

http://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/31/not-my-revolution/
Date Written:  2019-01-31
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2018
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23192

The Women's March is not immune to the same forces that have confronted the political left in the U.S. for decades. The larger women's movement itself, that sprang from the antiwar movement and civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, carried flaws along with its development that are not new to left political movements in the U.S.

Abstract: 
-

Excerpts:

I have marched, along with my family, for two consecutive years at the Women's March in New York City. It felt good being on the streets in solidarity with others, the cause was noble, but during both marches I felt that the marches were accomplishing little besides saying "Hooray for our side." If the proof is indeed in the pudding, then the nomination and confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, with echoes of attacks against Anita Hill in the person of Christine Ford, is evidence of how the women's movement’s power has changed little over the ensuing decades.

But now another issue has reared its ugly head as the second anniversary and third women's march draws closer in January 2019. "Several people involved in planning the march say that at a November 2016 meeting, Women's March co-chairs Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez 'asserted that Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people'" (Vox, December 21, 2018). Another Women's March leader, Cassady Fendlay, who was present at the 2016 meeting, stated that the allegations of anti-Semitism are false. Also, one leader of the march has refused to cut ties to Minister Louis Farrakhan, a leader in the Nation of Islam, who has made anti-Semitic remarks in the past. At a February meeting, at which a Women's March organizer was present, Minister Farrakhan "espoused anti-Semitic conspiracy theories." Farrakhan has compared Jews to termites: "I'm not an anti-Semite, I'm anti-Termite." Farrakhan stated, in a 2014 speech, "…the satanic Jews who control everything… " Some may say that these issues, related above, amount to guilt by association, but the strength and frequency of anti-Semitic remarks by Minister Farrakhan cannot be dismissed.