Take Patriarchy By Storm, Aug 4 - 14th, NYC

If you hate the way that women are not only raped but then blamed and shamed for being raped...

If your blood boils at the knowledge of millions of women bought and sold and abused and degraded in the global sex industry...

If you want to puke when you hear Christian fascists moralizing that women should “keep their legs closed” and you want to scream when you hear of another abortion clinic being attacked, another doctor being stalked, another law restricting women’s right to birth control or abortion being passed...

If you are infuriated by how pornography has become more violent, more degrading, more cruel, and more humiliating towards women even as it has become more and more mainstream...

If you are sick of the way women have been trained to hold their tongues, suppress their rage, and remain silent in the face of this all out war against their lives and their humanity...

You need to be part of the August 4 - 14^th intensive effort to TAKE PATRIARCHY BY STORM.

For ten days in New York volunteers from around the country and all over the city will work closely together to launch an all-out counteroffensive against patriarchy and to strategize together to figure out how we are going to go forward to win.

We will:

• hold flash protests outside of porn stores and anti-abortion institutions (like fake clinics and the Catholic church)
• stage positively confrontational “social interventions” (like going into crowds at outdoor concerts with big signs which read, “Stop Watching Porn! Start Fighting Patriarchy!”) and stand our ground in the mass debate this provokes
• get out in the oppressed neighborhoods throughout the city with a beautiful “War on Women” display
• do street theater in crowded areas
• hold public programs on women’s liberation
• organize a cultural talent show against patriarchy
• and discuss and strategize every day as to how to really kick out the jams and take the movement to End Porn & Patriarchy to a whole societal level, particularly making plans for the campuses and high schools in the fall

From our work thus far with this initiative we have found incredible receptivity. Yes, some people are hostile (which is only to be expected in a society where so many have been indoctrinated for so long in such bone-deep misogyny), but there are also many who have been choking on their rage and hungry for an outlet. And there are many who begin by dismissing or even attacking us who, through sharp arguments and political struggle, open up about how much turmoil they have been in over these very questions and express the desire to get involved in the movement to end patriarchy.

But until now we have not found the ways to fully tap into this, to bring it to the surface, to sustain this and to fan it even further. This is what we will do in these ten days. This will be a forging ground for all who attend, a chance to work together with other like minded people to try new things out and figure out what works, to get into deep discussion about all this and strategize about going forward, to project this movement to thousands of people in one of the most trend-setting cities in the world, and to draw in and actively organized hundreds as we do.

stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

BAsics Bus Tour hits NYC -- AND I'm protesting 50 Shades of Grey tonight!

I am absolutely thrilled that the BAsics Bus Tour is kicking off officially today here in NYC.  This time there are two full 30 foot RV's and two dozen volunteers from around the country.  They are impressive and they are taking out the most liberating and inspiring and practical solution to the problems of the world: all the way communist revolution as re-envisioned by Bob Avakian.  Even more specifically, they are promoting BAsics from Bob Avakian and other work of his.  I know from the last leg of the Tour, which went down South, as well as from my broader experience in and knowledge of the movement for revolution that this opens up tremendous enthusiasm, hopes, profound questions and contributions from many kinds of people.  Stay in touch with the blog: basicsbustour.tumblr.com to stay up to the minute on how this Tour is going.

Also, tonight I will be hitting the streets with a small crew of folks from the movement to End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women to protest an event that is celebrating 50 Shades of Grey.  It is called, "50 Shades of Seduction" sponsored by Sidebar in Manhattan.  They are offering drink specials (50% of Grey-tinis) and a class on S&M.  We will be outside passing out fliers and holding signs which read:

50 Shades of Grey: Bad for Women, Bad for Sex!

As we put it in our announcement for this protest:

We'll be calling on people to reject the view of women and of sex that is promoted in the book, not to imitate and celebrate those views.

50 Shades of Grey glamorizes the story of a powerful man hurting a woman who cares for him using riding whips, chains, paddles and violently degrading sex. This is not 'just fantasy.' This does harm.

Every day millions of women around the world are hurt through the real-world acts of rape, battery, sexual slavery, pornography and sexual abuse.   Women should be fighting to end their oppression and degradation, not celebrating it or seeking to get 'in on' their own objectification, commodification and degradation.

50 Shades of Grey is also bad for sex.  More space needs to be opened up for people to imagine and experience the full richness of sex between mutually respectful and equal partners. Instead, this book pushes people to get over their discomfort and wallow in degradation and enslavement.

From Behind Bars: "Go All In" in the Fight to Stop Mass Incarceration

The following was printed in Revolution Newspaper this week.
http://revcom.us/a/266/go-all-in-in-the-fight-to-stop-mass-incarceration-en.html

The Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund received the following letter from a prisoner in the Midwest:


April 10th, Tuesday 2012


To Whom This May Concern,


I'm writing to respond to the March 25th, 2012, article in the paper (NO. 263) titled "Raise the Fight to Stop Mass Incarceration to a New Level." This particular article and call comes at no better time than NOW; and I fully attach my unconditional support behind it. I'm not sure how many readers are fully cognizant of the historic importance of this determined campaign by the Party to "go all in" (to use a poker expression for a moment), but I am. By writing this letter to the Revolution, it's my hope that others will come to recognize the same significance of this stage in our development of a movement for revolution and why it's necessary to make this particular issue a principal focal point as we ultimately strive to resolve the FUNDMENTAL CONTRADICTION of this decadent system: where "[y]ou have highly socialized production, but very privatized appropriation by a small class of people called capitalists." (BAsics 3:5) As that particular quote goes on to state:

Read more »

First Quick Report on Yesterday's Protest to End Pornography & Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!

Yesterday we took to the streets – beginning at St. Patrick's Cathedral and ending in front of a porn store and strip club in Times Square – against the war on women.

Along the way, we stopped at the offices of the foundation which sponsored the anti-abortion billboard which was featured in SoHo last year which claimed that, “The most dangerous place for a black child is in the womb,” at Fox News, at the US Military recruiting station, and to speak out against the way that women's bodies are displayed and objectified on billboards (and everywhere else) in Times Square.

This was a very lively and powerful launch to a new movement. It was a beginning. I will post more about it in the coming days.

At its height, the crowd swelled to about 75 and there were joined in for different legs of the march and protest.

Along the way, we encouraged people who had never spoken before against the war on women to step up and do so. We made clear that we are done with a situation where women all too often tell their stories of rape and sexual assault, of battery and sexual harassment, of obstacles and shame encountered while seeking abortion or even birth control. Meanwhile, woman-haters and religious fascists scream at the tops of their lungs that women are “sluts,” and use the power of the state to strip away our rights. Throughout the march, people did find their voices.

Particularly by the time we reached our last stop, many people stepped forward to speak. A young man told of the first time he saw pornography. He was ten years old. He came into the living room and a bunch of his male relatives were watching. They were all pretty young and began acting out the poses and behavior of the porn. He concluded, “Pornography takes a little boy's natural curiosity and turns it into something perverted,” and into something that is about degrading and getting over on women. A young woman who had toured the porn store with me and others last week stood up and spoke angrily about what was for sale inside. She held high some of the DVD's which were for sale inside, one featuring a woman performing oral sex and other sex acts on a pitbull, one in which the woman's breasts were bound and tortured, and one in which featured the words “All Women are Goo Swallowers.” She spoke of how these videos train men to think this is what women want, “But I am a woman and I don't find pleasure in this! I don't want to be treated like this!” She called on people to get involved in the movement to end pornography and patriarchy and to come to the next meeting.

A young Black woman stepped up and spoke of how she had grown up surrounded by pornography, including that the guys she had relationships with would watch it and try to get her to watch it. She said that when you think this is what you are supposed to do you go along and you even try to find pleasure in it yourself. But now she has the confidence and clarity to say that she finds it demeaning and humiliating and that she sees it as completely bound up with the abuse that is heaped on women in every sphere of their lives. She spoke of how her father brutalized her mother for years, of street harassment, and of the experience of a female relative who works in a profession where most of the men go out to strip clubs at night and bring that same attitude of disrespect into the workplace against her.

A young white woman spoke up about how even doing something as innocent as playing online card-games has made her the target of vicious anti-woman hatred. She explained that everyone must choose an “avatar,” or an online screen picture that represents you on the computer as you long and and play games. But, if she chooses an avatar with long hair (that looks female) she said as soon as she starts winning about 25% of the time men will start calling her “cunt,” “slut,” “whore,” and threatening her. She said that when she changed her avatar to a cat, the harassment stopped. Think what it means that the cat got more respect than the woman!

A young woman stepped to the front with a handmade sign which read, “I am not an incubator!” She spoke for a minute against pornography and built up momentum until she was screaming at the top of her lungs, along with her sign, “I am not an incubator!” The crowd cheered and offered support to every speaker.

There is much more to report. And I promise to write more.

But, this was a very powerful beginning. It needs to grow. More people need to get out in the streets with us.

The reactions of men along the way were further confirmation that a new era of struggle against the enslavement and degradation of women is necessary. Will write more on this tomorrow.

Why I Will Be Marching Against Religious Patriarchs and Woman-Hating Pornographers This Saturday – And Why You Should Join Me

It is no longer deniable by anyone paying attention, that we are living through an all out war on women's lives, women's rights, and women's futures. This is not a minor matter; women are half of humanity. Defeating this war is everybody's responsibility.

This is why this Saturday at noon I will be out in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City with a rowdy band of others screaming at the top of my lungs. This is the home of Timothy Dolan who spearheaded the recent attacks on birth control, which come on top of decades of attacks on abortion. Nearly 90% of counties now lack an abortion provider.

From there, we will march to the porn stores in Times Square and once again scream at the tops of our lungs. We will protest these stores because pornography has become more violent, more humiliating, and more cruel towards women – even as it has become more mainstream.

In reality, there is no meaningful difference between the Bible's view of women and pornography's view of women. Both reduce women to “things” to be controlled by men. The church reduces women to breeders. Porn reduces women to sex objects to be brutalized and degraded. We are neither. Women are human beings. On Saturday, we are shaking off any remnants of our own passivity and launching a new movement that will not stop until the full humanity of all women is recognized throughout society and throughout the world.

By taking to the streets in protest, we are not appealing to those in power, neither to the politicians who are either outright attacking women's lives nor with those who are “just” seeking “common ground” with and conciliating to those attacks. We are calling out the millions of people who are horrified by this relentlessness but who are sitting paralyzed on the sidelines. We are also calling out to those who have become so acclimated to the unceasing violence and disrespect of women that they aren't even angry.

Our message: IF WE WANT THINGS TO CHANGE – WE MUST ACT! We must rely on ourselves. We must do more than click an online petition or send money to some politician, we must get out in the streets, we must make our voices heard, we must confront the woman-haters and we must create through this protest a taste of the future we want.

For too long, those who attack women have felt free to do so at the tops of their lungs and with the backing of the state. Rush Limbaugh can call a thirty year old woman who uses birth control a “slut” and monopolize headlines for days. Timothy Dolan can revolt against birth control and get a personal phone call trying to appease him from President Obama. Porn producers can speak openly, as Bill Margold does here, about their desire to portray violence against women, “I'd like to really show what I believe the men want to see: violence against women... The most violent we can get is the cum shot in the face. Men get off behind that because they get even with the women they can't have."

Meanwhile, women tell us the stories of their rapes, the obstacles and shame they've encountered seeking abortions, the humiliation they've experienced from boyfriends who take their cues from pornography in whispers and through tears.

Why should a woman feel she has to whisper to us about birth control and then add, “I hope no one hearing this gets offended”? Why should a woman be embarrassed to tell us how humiliated she has been because, “Every guy I have ever dated has begged me to let him ejaculate in my face”? Why should a woman break down in tears not because she feels guilty about having had an abortion but because she had gone her whole life without anyone ever saying to her that it is okay to feel good about her abortion?

It is time for women to stop choking on their anger and pain, to stop turning it inward. And it's time for the men who want no part of this to stop going along.

We know that the body count of battered women – three to four women killed every day – never makes the front page. We know it's easier not to consider the crushed spirits and ravaged bodies of the trafficked women who are locked inside the "massage parlors" we walk past. We know it's degrading to consider how many of the men we interact with get off on depictions of women being "throat-fucked" til they gag. We know its a lot of energy to respond every time a religious fascist insists women "keep their legs closed" and be forced to bear children against their will. We know it is painful to confront that most people—including most progressive people —have learned to accept and to live with this escalating hatred of women.

But we also know that this is not the only way the world can be. We know there is a reservoir of people, women and men, young and old, who hate this relentless assault on women's lives, rights and futures. We know that there are millions more who can be won to see that all this is intolerable. We know that not all men hate women. We know that women are not innately weak and passive and destined to lay down for this shit. We know – and we have already seen in our work building up for this protest – that, when people come together to confront the woman-haters and speak up defiantly in an uncompromising voice, tears and whispers can transform into righteous anger and defiant political action.

By standing up together, by confronting the institutions that concentrate the war against women, we can shake off our own passivity. We can plant a pole that challenges and changes what other people feel they just have to accept. We can create a situation where the anger that is simmering, often stuffed very deep down in women everywhere, can be brought to the surface and unleashed to fuel powerful thinking and action. We can give inspiration and backing to people of all genders who everywhere who want to be part of bringing a better future into being. We can forge a vehicle, a new movement, that changes the terms throughout society and gives people a meaningful way to act.

On Saturday, our protest is not symbolic. It is a beginning. It is a declaration. From now, until we win the full liberation of women, this war on women will be resisted with conscience, anger, imagination, massive mobilization, and relentless determination to turn the tide.

End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!

Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!

Fight for the Emancipation of Women All Over the World!

http://stoppatriarchy.tumblr.com/march10

Saturday, March 10th 
12:00 NOON
ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL:

Fifth Ave. btw 50-51st. Streets

 

A March Against Women’s Oppression

this is a piece on Inside New York's blog

http://insidenewyork.com/2012/03/07/a-march-against-womens-oppression/

A March 10 march aims to stop oppression against women fueled by porn, says Sunsara Taylor

The flyers that Sunsara Taylor handed out at the Athena Film Festival display a photo of a girl holding a sign that said “porn fuels rape” and call for people to join in a “protest and march against sites of women’s oppression.”  The fine print describes a march that will take place on March 10; the route includes St. Patrick’s Cathedral, strip clubs, U.S. Military Recruiting Centers, and “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” whose mission is to dissuade women from having abortions.  Upon first glance, the flyer was overwhelming to me; proclaiming that pornography and patriarchy were intrinsically bound seemed similar to saying that opposing stem cell research went hand in hand with opposing gay marriage. “What about the non-misogynistic porn that women are trying to reclaim as empowering?” I wondered.  What about the scientific studies that found that states with increased access to the Internet—and therefore porn–actually experienced a decrease in sexual violence?  I was by no means convinced that “ending” porn, as the flyer called for, would liberate women– but I was intrigued.

My friend and I met up with Taylor and her colleagues at Times Square on Friday night in order to tour the “adult stores” that they are protesting.  We were planning on covering many locations but were so disgusted by the first one we walked into that we nixed the rest of the itinerary.  The shelves were packed with DVDs arranged into categories: “Lesbians,” “Asians,” “Teens,” etc.  There was nothing subliminal or apologetic about the blatant racism and violence depicted on the covers of these videos; DVDs featuring girls, drugged by chloroform, being gang raped lined the walls.  Some of them boasted women being knocked out “over and over and over again!”  It was clear that reclaiming these particular movies in the name of empowerment would do nothing for women in terms of sexual liberation.

After we left the store, we sat down to discuss what we had seen.  Taylor emphasized that her goal is not to lead a crusade against sex; she supports erotica—a distinction she makes from porn.  The difference can be found in the etymology of the words: porn is derived from the Greek word “porne” which translates to “prostitute.”  Erotica, on the other hand, comes from the Greek “erotikos” and means “caused by passionate love.”  As Taylor explained, porn is only one of the numerous ways that our patriarchal society objectifies women.  Other components include conservatives working to take away abortion and birth control rights, as well as the sexual violence that women in the military face.  Taylor is working towards a revolution that she hopes will change our culture’s mindset in regards to gender and sexuality as a whole.  She welcomes everyone interested to join her on March 10 as she begins what she hopes will become a revolution.  To learn more about Taylor and her work, visit her blog follow her on Twitter or check out the Stop Patriarchy website.

-Luna Adler

"I cut off my hair because I felt it chained me..."

I just received this email from a young woman...

 

"I cut off my hair because I felt it chained me to this country's patriarchal notion of what it is to be a woman.  Yesterday a man came into my work and told me that I should never grow out my hair because a woman with short hair is 'sexy.'  A month ago a man came into my work and repeatedly demanded my phone number under the guise of needing a hair model for a photo shoot.   For years I have had the phrase 'America: home of the free!' shoved down my throat.  If having to smile while men sexually harass me is "freedom" then I think I could do without it.  The campaign to End Pornography and Patriarchy gives me hope that one day my hair will not be an excuse for men to make me feel as thought I am only an object to give them sexual pleasure.  Down with patriarchy.  Up with liberation for all of human kind!"

 

If you want things to change -- YOU MUST ACT!

 

Into the streets NOON Saturday March 10th

St. Patrick's Cathedral (5th Ave btwn 50 & 51st)

 

DONATE to make this protest happen: http://igg.me/p/71864?a=338895 

 

Urgent Appeal -- Your Donation Needed By Midnight Tomorrow!

Do You Want to Live in This World? Lets Fucking Change It!!!

Someone just sent me this pic of a billboard in Midtown Manhattan.  Do you want to live in this fucking world?  How is this acceptable?  Escorts are somehow the standards of what is really good to consume, but "hookers" are cheap and less desirable.  The spectrum then being that women are to be paid for and consumed and this is the premise of the analogy being made to whether the vodka being advertized is "high quality" and "well priced."

Please, someone, ask me again: "What are you so angry about?"

Wake up people -- this shit is getting worse.  If you aren't standing up against this, getting out in the streets against it, refusing to continue your daily routine and refusing to let others continue to act like all this just "not that big a deal" then you are accepting this.  Join me in the streets on March 10th for International Women's Day!!

http://stoppatriarchy.tumblr.com/march10

12:00 Noon  Protest and March against sites of women’s oppression!
Begin at St. Patrick's Cathedral (5th Avenue between 50 and 51st streets in Manhattan)

Contribute money here to make this protest powerful!

Report On Taking Out Our Amazing "War on Women" Display and Building for the Intenrational Women's Day Protest March 10th

Over and over again a group of us who have been working to mobilize people to stand up for International Women's Day, have marveled at how little people know about the war on women. We've been very struck by how deeply people react and share their visceral feelings of upset, distress and righteous anger over the conditions facing women broadly and themselves personally. Mostly, these are people who seemed surprised themselves how strongly they reacted, but once they heard the whole war on women called out in its entirety, once they heard such sober truth telling and certitude, this drew out their own convictions. At the same time, largely because we recognize how deeply this connects with people who weren't already “looking for” this effort to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women which we are launching, we've struggled with how to get people who aren't already thinking about the attacks on women be open enough to engage what we are saying and doing.

So, during a meeting a couple weeks ago we spent some time and we put ourselves to this. Through many hair-brain permutations and brainstorms along the way, what we came up with was the following. We got enormous paper (about 12 feet by 6 feet) and laid it out on the ground. On it we drew a couple of chalk outlines of women's bodies, the kind that the police do after someone has been murdered. Over the bodies of these women we placed big boot prints with various words which concentrate the hatred and enslavement of women: patriarchy, pornography, sex slavery, burkha, “beauty” standards, church, etc. Then, around that whole display we placed a collection of stunning facts about the level of hatred and violence against women. Different people volunteered to pull together different parts of the display and we assembled the whole thing on the spot the first time we took it out.

Read more »

Making Sexual Violence Against Women "Cool"... This Time from PETA

 was happy to see that Maura Judkis over at the Washington Post blogs picked up on my commentary on the Liquid Plumr Double Impact ad the other day.  I was significantly less happy, however, when she brought to my attention this ad from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) which makes light of violence against women and sexual violence:



This woman is clearly very injured.  She is in a neck brace, for Christ's sake.  Plus, the ad intentionally features her stumbling and seeming to wince from pain between her legs as she tries to climb the stairs.

Her injuries are supposed to have been caused by "TFWVAKTBOOM."  That is, "Boyfriend went vegan and knocked the bottom out of me."  As the ad goes on to say, her boyfriend "went vegan" and all of a sudden was able to "bring it like a tantric porn star."  Then, we see footage of her being banged violently against the wall (later he is seen patching the wall up with plaster).

The "capper" to the whole ad is that she seems to have stumbled through the streets, wincing painfully all the way, wearing her neckbrace and almost nothing else (why would she bother to get dressed, it would delay the sexual aggression she is portrayed as clearly craving) to go out and purchase some raw veggies for her newly vegan boyfriend.  All, as is spelled out with no room for subtlety or guessing, because she is so eager to be near-raped and battered again.

News Flash:

Women DON'T like being battered and beaten.  No one should want to have sex like a porn star -- porn is about dehumanizing and degrading, about getting off on the enslavement of others.  And if you want to make a case for "going vegan" -- especially if you claim to be doing so out of a desire to be "ethical to animals" -- then make a fucking argument for why that is ethical, don't do so based on appealing to ugly misogyny and machismo or by trivializing sexual assault and violent battery.

It is time this shit be opposed and called out for the woman-hating it concentrates and normalizes.  This is NOT something people should just laugh off or get used to.  The normalizing of violence and sexual assault against women is growing.  It will not stop if it is not publicly and massively resisted and challenged.  This is why one of the stops on our March 10th protest for International Women's Day is Times Square, where we will protest the objectification and degradation of women which saturates American culture.  We'll protest the way that women's bodies are displayed -- half naked and half starved -- and used to sell everything from cars to clothes to "American culture" to the world.

This is part of a larger march connecting up the many sites of the degradation and enslavement of women.  We'll be starting at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the biggest Catholic institution in New York for their role in the assault on birth control and abortion.  We'll protest the US Military Recruiting Center for the way it concentrates violence against women.  We'll protest one of the anti-abortion "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" and several of the strip clubs in the area.  JOIN US!


http://stoppatriarchy.tumblr.com/march10

March 10th -- for International Women's Day
Protest and March against sites of women’s oppression!


12 noon: GATHER NEAR ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL in New York City!

Protest Catholic Church AND Obama's capitulation FORCED MOTHERHOOD = FEMALE ENSLAVEMENT

Protest & March for International Women's Day -- March 10th NOON

End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!   Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!   Fight for the Emancipation of Women All Over the World!

Saturday, March 10th Celebrate International Women's Day 12:00 Noon  Protest and March against sites of women's oppression!   Gather near St. Patrick's Cathedral (near Rockefeller Center, exact location TBA):   ►The Catholic Church's approach to women, gender, science and sexuality - like that of many religions - is a Dark Ages disaster! The Pope has condemned condoms (causing millions of HIV/AIDs deaths). The Church condemns homosexuality and insists that "divorce is a sin" (contributing to women staying in abusive marriages). Recently, Catholic Bishops urged "non-compliance" with new regulations requiring health insurance to cover birth control! MARCH to TIMES SQUARE: ►Protest the objectification of women! Women's near-naked and rail-thin bodies are displayed, often in subservient poses, and used to sell everything from clothes  to cars to "American culture" to the entire world. ►Protest the U.S. Military Recruiting Center!  The U.S. Military concentrates violence against women!  This includes its quasi-official reliance on brothels as a "perk" to male soldiers; the role of military forces in trafficking women and girls; and the epidemic of rape, harassment and violence against female soldiers.    MARCH to and PROTEST STRIP CLUBS (TBA) in the area! ►U.S. men spend an estimated $15 billion annually on strip clubs, as compared to $4 billion on baseball. Strip clubs have always objectified and degraded women. But with women entering - and fighting for increasing respect in - the public sphere, strip clubs have become the new "all male preserve" and an enclave for male chauvinism and entitlement towards women's bodies. Further, strip clubs prey upon the desperation, abuse and addiction of many women, including women who've been kidnapped and trafficked. ALONG THE WAY: Protest "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" & Celebrate Abortion Provider Appreciation Day: ►Crisis Pregnancy Centers are fake "clinics" that knowingly prey on women for whom being pregnant is a crisis. However, they are driven by an anti-abortion agenda. They often have no clinical staff, spread lies, guilt-trip women, and enormously delay and complicate women's ability to access abortion.  ►In contrast, we'll celebrate abortion providers because March 10th is Abortion Provider Appreciation Day!

PLANNING/MOBILIZING MEETINGS - THURSDAYS @ 7 PM   If anything in this call resonated with you... If you care about the conditions of women... If you want to do something that can really make a huge difference - not only for yourself, but for women (and all people) worldwide and for future generations... CONTACT US! stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

3 things you can do right away: 1. Invite us into your class, club or dorm. 2. Spread this on FB and Twitter. 3. Spread this announcement for IWD everywhere

Call to END PORNOGRAPHY AND PATRIARCHY:

THE ENSLAVEMENT AND DEGRADATION OF WOMEN!

We are told that "equality for women has been won" and that "there are no limits to what girls can achieve." BULLSHIT!

Every 15 seconds a woman is beaten. Every day three to four women are killed by their partners. One out of four female college students will be raped or sexually assaulted while in college.

In recent years, pornography has become increasingly violent, cruel, degrading towards women; women are referred to as "cumdumpsters" and "fuckbuckets"; the "money shot" (ejaculation in a woman's face) is standard; humiliating cruelty-like violent "ass-to-mouth" penetration-is normalized, and racist bigotry is sexualized. Meanwhile, the broader culture has been pornified: pole dancing is taught at gyms, "sexting" is a national phenomenon among teens, and the strip club is the accepted backdrop to "male bonding." All this is tied in with, and reinforces, the trafficking of millions of women and girls as literal chattel in the international sex industry.

This is NOT society becoming more comfortable with sex. This is society becoming saturated with the sexualized degradation of women. If you can't imagine sex without porn, you're fucked.

At the same time, a Christian fundamentalist-driven assault is imperiling abortion, birth control, real sex education and women's lives. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people who do not conform to traditional patriarchal gender and sexual norms are demonized and threatened. Abortion doctors are killed. Women who seek abortions-or even birth control-are stigmatized. 2011 saw the largest spate of legal restrictions on abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

ALL THIS MUST BE STOPPED!

Fetuses are not babies. Women are not incubators. Abortion is not murder.

Women are not objects. Women are not things to be used for the sexual pleasure of men NOR are they breeders of children. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS CAPABLE OF FULL EQUALITY IN EVERY REALM!

 

It is long past time that this new generation stand up, reject, and RESIST this culture of rape and pornography; this culture that labels women "selfish" if they choose not to become mothers; this culture that reduces women and girls to sexualized objects while denying their full multi-dimensional humanity (including their right-as one essential part of this-to explore their sexuality without shame or stigma); this culture that demonizes and bullies LGBT people. 

Our purpose is NOT to lobby for new legislation to ban pornography ("decency laws" have always served to further repress homosexuality, boundary-challenging art, and scientific sex education). We oppose the criminalization of women in the sex industry. Our mission is to challenge the new generation in particular to reject this culture of rape and pornography, to resist the shaming of women who have sex and/or abortions, to wage fierce cultural and political resistance to wake others up, and to bring forward a liberating culture that celebrates the full equality and liberation of women.

 contact: stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

Report from DC on Roe v. Wade anniversary: Taking on the “March for Forced Motherhood!”

I arrived in DC yesterday midday with an impressive group of mostly young women. Some of them I have known for a while, both through the movement for revolution and through the more recent efforts initiating a new movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women. One was a young woman who I had just met the day before up at a clinic in the South Bronx where there was a march commemorating Roe v. Wade that made its way to a fake clinic (a “Crisis Pregnancy Center”) where there was a speak-out against the lies and guilt and lack of medical help that is distributed at those centers.

Ten minutes into lunch we were neck deep in a discussion spanning the controversies which surrounded Slutwalk, the origins of the oppression of women, how to understand the sex industry (could it EVER be “empowering for women” or is the point to get to a world where no one is commodified and women are not oppressed), questions surrounding revolution and socialism/communism, and so much more. Probably some of what we wrangled with will surface in future posts... but this morning (just as yesterday during the discussion) I cannot go as far as I'd like because there are places to be!

This morning we are heading to the Supreme Court to Stand Up for Abortion and Birth Control! There should be some tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of anti-abortion protesters who will be streaming through the capital. Previously, I wrote about why they would be better called the “March for Forced Motherhood and Female Enslavement.”

Last evening at BusBoys and Poets, we had a very rich program and discussion. Students came out from the nearby universities, including a number of current or former Catholic students. One young woman from Catholic University, where a lot of the anti-abortion protesters stay while in from out of town, courageously stood up to them by herself. She wore her pro-choice t-shirt and held a pro-choice sign as they streamed through her school. This morning she is going to have a much bigger crew with her as many of the folks who came to the program volunteered to join her.

Also, a small core of the Occupy folks from DC apparently went into one of the anti-abortion youth events and pulled off a “mic-check” where they spoke for a while about why women need the right to decide for themselves about their reproductive lives.

During the presentation I gave over dinner, one of the things I tried to lay out is how we have gotten into this situation where we keep losing ground on abortion and birth control. I took on the way that the bourgeois feminist movement (including the mainstream of the pro-choice movement) has totally subordinated itself to the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is a ruling class party which shares a lot of the same desires as the Republicans in terms of wanting to strengthen the patriarchal family at a time when “national unity” is both being challenged (due to the ongoing ideological effects of the 60's, the recent anti-war movement, the changes in the position of women, the influx of immigrants, the challenges to the patriarchal family posed by the LGBT struggles and traditional gender norms, and many other things) and is more needed than ever (at a time of an ongoing “War on Terror” and other global challenges to the empire). This overall unity in class interests is greater than their disagreements – real as those disagreements are – and it shapes the terms over which they struggle and over which they continually capitulate. As a ruling class party, the Democratics doesn't want the instability and upheaval that would be required to really take on the truly fascist and fanatical Christian fundamentalist anti-abortion movement.

As Richard Viguerie, an early architect of the anti-abortion movement, put it decades ago: “The abortion issue is the door through which many people come into conservative politics, but they don't stop there. Their convictions against abortion are like the first in a series of dominoes. Then we lead them to concern about sexual ethics and standards among young people. This leads to opposition to secular humanism. Then... we point out that secular humanism is identified as both the godfather and the royal road to socialism and communism which points the way to commitments to minimally regulated free enterprise at home and to aggressive foreign and military politics to counter the communist threat from Russia and its many surrogates.”

Obviously, the world has changed since that quote, but the strategic orientation laid by Viguerie explains a lot as to why the crazy Christian fascist lunatics didn't stay on the margins of society but were elevated and given major backing by ruling class forces starting with Reagan and continuing till today where they are now all throughout the halls of power, courts, high finance and military.

And, the Democrats, while differing over many of the details and approach, both don't want the kind of fight that comes from really taking that on and share the same basic outlook of strengthening and shoring up the homefront and national unity – including an increase on the patriarchal family and patriotism (and the two do go hand in hand!).

The mainstream pro-choice movement, by tying its sails to the Democratic Party, has taken their lead – and gone along with distancing itself from an unapologetic defense of abortion AND has stopped mobilizing people to really fight for abortion rights and instead mobilizes them to vote and give money to elections. They adopted Clinton's “safe, legal, rare” apologetics and defensiveness and then dropping the word “abortion” from almost anything they do. Go, for instance, and look at NARAL's homepage and you can't find the word abortion anywhere on the front page!

To really demonstrate just how terrible the direction of this “pro-choice movement” is – at a time of the greatest assault on abortion we've ever seen, building on all that has come before and escalating even further, the pro-choice movement called for a bullshit “Virtual March” on Washington (all the groups, NARAL, NOW, Planned Parenthood, Feminist Majority, etc. – together with the Supreme Sucker Up of Progressive Energies: MoveOn.org) where people do nothing but click a button “to prove to congress... that they will do nothing but click a button.” Ie: “Don't worry, keep compromising away women's lives!” A “Virtual March” would be fine, of course, if there were only a “virtual war on women” currently afoot.

I also spoke to the fact that resistance IS possible, but not by relying on the Democrats or the groups that have made themselves nothing more than an appendage to them. We must rely on ourselves – and the millions more who are sitting on the sidelines to act outside of the institutions and the political limits of the bourgeois political framework. To be in the streets declaring “Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!”

Many of the students were very eager to hear this and discuss, saying they felt there had been something wrong with the pro-choice movement and there was a need for something more radical. There is more to report on all this – but, as I said, I have to scoot out the door.

Before I do, I have to mention some of what else really inspired me. A woman I met some fifteen years ago who worked at one of the clinics in Brookline, Massachusettes where two women were killed by an anti-abortion gunman in the 90's came down. She looked incredible and it was wonderful to see her and hear her speak at the program. Heather Ault, of 4,000 years of Choice, is here with her beautiful banners. A man I met over the summer at the Summer of Trust, where we defended Dr. Carhart's clinic, is supporting all this. He is from one of the Unitarian churches and said he'd never been involved in or thought much about abortion until we came down over the summer. Now, he regularly escorts at the local clinics. The women of the Brevard, Florida NOW Chapter who were up here for the Summer of Trust have also come back again. So glad to be joined by this incredible crew. More to say later.

In the mean time – please give some money to this critical effort! It really will make an incredible impact both on this protest today AND on the ability to continue to do even more like it.

Donate: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=5872

Abortion Clinic Burned on New Year's Morning – Into the Streets for Abortion Rights On Roe V Wade!

On January 1^st, by 1:00 in the morning, an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida was engulfed in flames. By all accounts thus far, this was a case of arson.

But chances are you have heard nothing about this.

The fact that there has not been a single politician commenting on this violent assault on an institution that is essential to women's freedom and that this act of terror has not been picked up on in the national/mainstream media should only serve as a further wake-up call to those who care about women's rights.

No one will defend women's right to abortion and birth control but the millions of us who refuse to see women enslaved. We must rely on ourselves, not on the Democrats or electoral politics. We must take to the streets and not go back home. We must reseize the moral high-ground, declaring: Abortion on Demand and Without Apology. We must be in the streets in DC on January 22^nd & 23^rd to stand up for abortion rights!

While no one was hurt in the fire, this fire will cripple the ability of an already overstretched community of abortion providers to meet the very real and urgent needs of women in western Florida, Alabama and Mississippi for abortion care. This will cause tremendous suffering and unnecessary burdens on women who seek abortions. This will cause great financial strain on those who seek to provide abortions.   And, this will – as it was undoubtedly intended to do – strike fear in the hearts of those most courageous individuals who knowingly risk their lives every day to provide women with this absolutely essential, completely moral, remarkably common, and medically safe procedure all across this country.

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Major March Occupy Wall Street -- Arrests Have Begun, Horses Out, Police are NOT part of the 99%

Tonight a righteous march of the Wall Street Occupiers -- as well as students who walked out, unions, and many folks who have either never protested or not in some forty years.  Reports now coming through that the police have begun to arrest.  For what good fucking reason?


Read the quote below -- the role of the police is to serve and protect this system that rules over the people...

Occupy Wall Street -- Mass Arrest and Yet the Masses Keep Coming...

It is now confirmed that some 700 people were arrested yesterday in a protest by the Occupy Wallstreet crowd. It sounds like the police consciously led people into a situation where protesters would be penned in and mass arrested. This is similar to what was done by police in other mass arrest situations, particularly in Minneapolis during the last Republican National Convention.

One arrestee who got out of jail sometime in the middle of the early morning hours told me about how she was held after being arrested on a city bus which had been commandeered by police. It sounds like the police planned a mass arrest – that is why they took ten or more vans from Rikers Island. But it then sounds like they went even bigger than they had prepared for in their arrests – so they commandeered city buses.

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The Thing About Slutwalks... And a World Without Rape

I'll admit, when I first heard about Slutwalks I cringed. I hate the word slut. It is too hateful. Too bound up with shaming women for their sexuality. Too linked to the deep trauma experienced by millions of women and young girls every single day throughout the world. Too much part of the cultural DNA that says, “She deserved it,” or, “She was asking for it,” or, “She's dirty,” or, “You little cunt whore.”

To get right down to it, for me the word “slut” was too indelibly linked to a girl named Kelly who transferred into my Junior High School in the middle of the year. She was ridiculed and outcast in that kind of mean-girls way that reduces a young woman to an invisible, despised, zero for absolutely no reason except to make others feel like maybe they exist. And really, what could be more lonely and humiliating for a junior high girl than standing in front of a whole cafeteria filled with uproarious laughter carrying your lunch tray from table to table being told that every empty chair is being saved for somebody, anybody, who isn't you?

But, Kelly had big breasts and so a table full of boys all called out to her and held open a chair. All it took was for her to sit down just that first time. After that, her fate was sealed.

To be honest, as the weeks rolled and on the rumors rolled with them, I have no idea which – if any – were true. I do know there were parties with lots of drinking where the girls still wouldn't speak to her and the boys would lure her into bedrooms. I also know that a young girl seeking acceptance and desiring some means to explore their own budding sexuality in this highly repressive society can get caught up in – and even, at times, take initiative in – all sorts of behavior that is degrading and demeaning to them in a very deep and lasting way.

But most of all what I know is that Kelly became someone who wasn't seen by any one in that entire school as an actual human being. No, Kelly was a “slut.”

And I know that wherever she is, even in the best case scenario, Kelly is still living with the trauma of not only by the abuse and (almost certain) sexual assault perpetrated against her by those boys, but also by the widespread dismissal of that crime, and the shaming and disrespect of her for being the victim of it, by a whole school full of her peers.

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Tune in for my debate with Derrick Jones of National Right to Life at 6:20 pm EST TONIGHT

Check it out here:

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/08/02/54080170.html

at 6:20 pm EST


Its really good -- he is just spewing lies, but I think the debate overall was very clarifying as to who really cares about women, the truth, and the interests of humanity (hint: it was the communist... not the anti-woman crusader).

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To support Sunsara's work in connection with her efforts to defend Dr. LeRoy Carhart (travel, lodging and support)  donate to World Can't Wait  here.  And be sure to indicate "Sunsara abortion work" in the "in honor of" section on this page.

Or checks can be made payable to "World Can't Wait" ("Sunsara abortion work" on memo line) and sent to:

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Talking to the Abortion Rights Activists in Germantown, MD

Its been interesting talking to the people who have turned out to stand with Dr. Carhart. Women who work to end domestic violence – or at least to support women who have been abused and want to get out of those relationships. Women who do work against sexual violence and rape; they know deeply the trauma of having one's body and most intimate emotional and physical space violated. Young women who have found feminism on their college campuses. One of them told me she'd never really thought about where she stood on abortion until she got to college. Another that she used to be extremely Catholic and even was extremely active in protesting abortion (beyond the obligatory Sunday services of Catholic school trips occasionally to protest clinics). Another told me about how her older sister was raped and then needed an abortion.

Several times now the abortion-rights supporters I have spoken to have made the living connections between the violence and degradation women receive in their daily lives and the violence and degradation women receive for either being shamed and harassed for seeking abortion or prevented from accessing it at all. As well as the violence that has been meted out against the doctors and staff who serve women by providing abortions.

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