Is the Women's March Melting Down?

[Behind the Aegis]

16. Fuck yes it is!

Women’s March leaders hurt the cause by tolerating anti-Semitism

I was one of the founding organizers of the Women’s March on Raleigh (2017) and the Women’s Raleigh on Rally (2018), and I am Jewish. Our ad hoc group of over 200 volunteers is not affiliated with the National Women’s March. We organized in solidarity. I join Teresa Shook (whose Facebook post is credited with the idea for the Women’s March) in calling on the board of the National Women’s March to step down, including Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez, and Bob Bland. Their acts and omissions with relationship to anti-Semitism distract from the Women’s March and its allies, and cause harm.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise. At the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, the crowd chanted “Jews will not replace us!” as they marched past a synagogue. In October 2018, a self-described conservative and white nationalist killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Last month, a prom photo of a Wisconsin high school apparently doing the Seig Heil went viral. Jews are being targeted locally, as well: this summer and again this the fall, threats were sent to Triangle area temples.

We cannot equivocate in the face of anti-Semitism and violence. We cannot be silent. We cannot give a pass to an elder for inciting anti-Semitism because he has done other great things. Each member of the board of the National Women’s March has done one or more of these things and in so doing has contributed to allowing anti-Semitism to fester within the women’s movement.

Board Members Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez have attended rallies led by Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader. While Farrakhan has done great works, he also foments hate and discrimination against multiple communities at his rallies. Regarding Jews, he has compared us to termites, called us bloodsuckers, and exalted Hitler as a ”very great man.”

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Washington Women’s March group disbands amid anti-Semitism controversy at national level

Statewide organizers operating under the Women’s March banner announced this week that they are dissolving their group in protest of national leaders’ association with speakers seen as anti-Semitic.

The decision won’t affect plans for a third annual downtown march in Spokane next month, local organizers stressed Friday.

Angie Beem, a Spokane Valley resident who served as board president of Women’s March Washington, announced the dissolution of the state group on Facebook on Thursday, citing the national organization’s ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Beem, who helped organize the march in Spokane in 2017 and made an unsuccessful bid for Spokane Valley City Council that fall, said in an interview Friday the decision to disband wasn’t easy.

“It’s heartbreaking. Whenever you create something that literally changed your life, it’s really hard to walk away from it,” Beem said.

Local organizers knew the state organization was considering disbanding after planned marches in January, said Lori Feagan, an organizer with Spokane Women’s March. But they were unaware a public announcement would be made this week, she said.

“We are independent,” Feagan said. “We don’t have any financial backing (from) the state or national organization.”

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Women’s March rolls out political platform before its third Washington rally

For two years, the Women’s March has cultivated an image: fiery protests, rallies, sit-ins, arrests and women taking to the streets en masse with catchy slogans, chants and songs.

But a month before its rally on the Mall, the group has announced a change in course.

At the Jan. 19 march, the organization plans to unveil a federal policy platform it is calling “the Women’s Agenda” that will outline a 10-prong call to action for lawmakers. The agenda will pinpoint “realistically achievable” priorities, such as raising the federal minimum wage, addressing violence against women and reproductive rights and passing the long-dormant Equal Rights Amendment, officials said.

“Once we have this platform, we intend to organize around it, to mobilize around it and .?.?. we will consider it to be marching orders from our movement,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, chief operating officer of Women’s March Inc. “And we will bring about swift political consequences to those who oppose us.”

The focus on creating an actionable doctrine comes as the organization is trying to ramp up support for its march amid accusations of anti-Semitism and ongoing controversies surrounding Women’s March leaders’ ties to the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan.

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It isn't just the fucking anti-Semitism, it is also the homophobia and transphobia! Get rid of those assholes....NOW! Pun, intended. Of course, we all know, anti-Semitism is A-OK.