Out of Denial and Into the Streets – International Women's Day 2012

Women the world-over are facing a growing assault on their lives, their rights, and even their recognition as full human beings.


In the U.S., Catholic Bishops have turned women's basic right to birth control into a national controversy. At least twenty percent of U.S. female soldiers are sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers. Every moment we are bombarded by images of women's bodies, half naked and half starved. And strip clubs, which serve up the subordination of women to men in the living flesh, have become so mainstream that annually men spend an estimated $16 billion dollars on them (as compared to the $4 billion they spend on baseball).


In the Congo, tens of thousands of women have been so brutally raped they can no longer hold their bladders or bowels. From Moldova to Thailand and beyond, millions of girls and women are sold as sex slaves. Throughout the world, fueled by the massive dislocations caused by imperialist development as well as imperialist wars, Islamic fundamentalism is rising with its “honor” killings, forced veiling, and hatred of women. And from China to Honduras to Silicon Valley, the near-slave labor – and sometimes outright slave-labor – of women and girls has disproportionately fueled the growth in cheap manufacturing.


These are not “just a bunch of different bad things happening to women."  These are but a few of the many fronts in an all-out war on women. While the forms this takes may appear different – or even unrelated – a common rope is tightening around nearly every dimension of the public, social, political, and intimate lives of women.

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Interview on Michael Slate show: "End Pornography & Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women"

On KPFK on Jan 13, 2012 -

As the anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, I was on the Michael Slate show to talk about the call to   End Pornography and Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women.  The film I mention about the trafficking in women is "The Whistleblower."
Here's the interview including calls from listeners: Listen Here

Sunsara Taylor Speaks at Protest Against Backpage.com for Facilitating Sex Trafficking

Yesterday I joined the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and others to protest Backpage.com for making millions of dollars off of paid advertisements which facilitate the trafficking and the prostituting of women.



The overwhelming majority of women and girls in prostitution are tricked, coerced, or forced through male predation, outright violence, and/or desperation. The notion that women's bodies should be available for sale to men for sexual use and sexual degradation and plunder is a product of thousands of years of patriarchy as it is filtered today through capitalism, which commodifies everything -- including the flesh, the sexuality and the lives of women and girls.

The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, which is led by Bob Avakian, is building a movement for revolution. This revolution takes the complete liberation of women as a driving force, and a dividing line. Find out more at: revcom.us

Keep up with the new effort to
End Pornography & Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women
here: stoppatiarchy.tumblr.com

Sex, pornography, prostitution, trafficking & the sexualization of young girls

all spoken to in my radio program on Equal Time for Freethought - Nov 5, 2011
when I interviewed:
- Meenakshi Gigi Durham, author of The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It
-Samantha Berg, National Coordinator of Stop Porn Culture and creator & moderator of Genderberg.com
-Michelle Bart, Chair of Northwest Conference Against Trafficking
Listen here

The Whistleblower -- and Ongoing U.S. Involvement in Sex Trafficking

First off, if you haven't seen the Whistleblower -- starring Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, David Strathairn, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Anna Anissimova, Roxana Condurache, and Monica Bellucci -- go out and see it.

Its an incredibly raw look at sex slavery -- the literal trade in women's bodies and flesh as commodities, as sources of enormous global profits, and as "things" for men worldwide to sexually plunder.  The fact that there is a demand for such a "commodity" is itself an indictment of the culture of patriarchy and the sexualized degradation of women that is so rampant in -- and so widely promoted by -- pornography.

But, what makes this movie even more gripping and important is the way it reveals a true story of U.S. and UN government collusion with -- and participation in -- this sex trade and its protection.

In case anyone thinks this is just an "isolated incident," check this out from an article by Rebecca Murray posted yesterday at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104911

"In one harrowing experience, Rania and two other girls visited a house in Baghdad’s Al-Jihad district, where girls as young as 16 were held to cater exclusively to the U.S. military. The brothel’s owner told Rania that an Iraqi interpreter employed by the Americans served as the go-between, transporting girls to and from the U.S. airport base."

This conforms to stories that were shared with me informally by several of the anti-war Iraq and Afghanistan war vets I have spoken and traveled with and gotten to know over the years.


Not only has the U.S. military been one of the main impetuses in creating the demand for sex trafficking over decades, not only has the U.S. military been involved in many levels of protecting this "industry" (as well as, at times, itself having a much more active hand in it!), but the wars that the U.S. wages are a huge part of what creates the conditions for women and girls to be vulnerable to be sold into this industry.  As the IPS article continues:

"Before the Gulf War in 1991, Iraq enjoyed the highest female literacy rate across the Middle East, and more Iraqi women were employed in skilled professions, like medicine and education, than in any other country in the region.

"Twenty years later Iraqi women experience a very different reality. Sharia law increasing dominates everyday life, with issues like marriage, divorce and honour crimes implemented outside of the court system, and adherence to state law."


All this is totally fucked.  And through it all, the people who run this country have the audacity to pose not only as the "leader of the free world" but also as the "liberators of women."


If nothing else was wrong with this system (and there is plenty more that is wrong), this alone would be reason enough for revolution.  Yesterday is not soon enough.