[News] Beyond Lean-In: For a Feminism of the 99% and a Militant International Strike on March 8

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://viewpointmag.com/2017/02/03/beyond-lean-in-for-a-feminism-of-the-99-and-a-militant-international-strike-on-march-8/ 



  Beyond Lean-In: For a Feminism of the 99% and a Militant International
  Strike on March 8

Linda Martín Alcoff 
<https://viewpointmag.com/author/linda-martin-alcoff/>, Cinzia Arruzza 
<https://viewpointmag.com/author/cinzia-arruzza/>, Tithi Bhattacharya 
<https://viewpointmag.com/author/tithi-bhattacharya/>, Nancy Fraser 
<https://viewpointmag.com/author/nancy-fraser/>, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor 
<https://viewpointmag.com/author/keeanga-yamahtta-taylor/>, Rasmea 
Yousef Odeh <https://viewpointmag.com/author/rasmea-yousef-odeh/>, 
Angela Davis <https://viewpointmag.com/author/angela-davis/> and Barbara 
Ransby <https://viewpointmag.com/author/barbara-ransby/>
February 3, 2017


The mas­sive women’s marches of Jan­u­ary 21stmay mark the begin­ning of 
a new wave of mil­i­tant fem­i­nist strug­gle. But what exactly will be 
its focus? In our view, it is not enough to oppose Trump and his 
aggres­sively misog­y­nis­tic, homo­pho­bic, trans­pho­bic and racist 
poli­cies; we also need to tar­get the ongo­ing neolib­eral attack on 
social pro­vi­sion and labor rights.

While Trump’s bla­tant misog­yny was the imme­di­ate trig­ger for the 
mas­sive response on Jan­u­ary 21st, the attack on women (and all 
work­ing peo­ple) long pre­dates his admin­is­tra­tion. Women’s 
con­di­tions of life, espe­cially those of women of color and of 
work­ing, unem­ployed and migrant women, have steadily dete­ri­o­rated 
over the last 30 years, thanks to finan­cial­iza­tion and cor­po­rate 
glob­al­iza­tion.

Lean-in fem­i­nism and other vari­ants of cor­po­rate fem­i­nism have 
failed the over­whelm­ing major­ity of us, who do not have access to 
indi­vid­ual self-pro­mo­tion and advance­ment and whose con­di­tions of 
life can be improved only through poli­cies that defend social 
repro­duc­tion, secure repro­duc­tive jus­tice, and guar­an­tee labor 
rights. As we see it, the new wave of women’s mobi­liza­tion must 
address /all/these con­cerns in a frontal way. It must be a fem­i­nism 
for the 99%.

The kind of fem­i­nism we seek is already emerg­ing inter­na­tion­ally, 
in strug­gles across the globe: from the women’s strike in Poland 
against the abor­tion ban to the women’s strikes and marches in Latin 
Amer­ica against male vio­lence; from the mas­sive women’s 
demon­stra­tion of the last Novem­ber in Italy to the protests and the 
women’s strike in defense of repro­duc­tive rights in South Korea and 
Ire­land. What is strik­ing about these mobi­liza­tions is that sev­eral 
of them com­bined strug­gles against male vio­lence with oppo­si­tion to 
the casu­al­iza­tion of labor and wage inequal­ity, while also oppos­ing 
homo­pho­bia, trans­pho­bia and xeno­pho­bic immi­gra­tion poli­cies. 
Together, they her­ald a new inter­na­tional fem­i­nist move­ment with 
an expanded agenda–at once anti-racist, anti-impe­ri­al­ist, 
anti-het­ero­sex­ist, and anti-neolib­eral.

We want to con­tribute to the devel­op­ment of this new, more expan­sive 
fem­i­nist move­ment.

As a first step, we pro­pose to help build an inter­na­tional strike 
against male vio­lence and in defense of repro­duc­tive rights on March 
8th. In this, we join with fem­i­nist groups from around thirty 
coun­tries who have called for such a strike.

The idea is to mobi­lize women, includ­ing trans-women, and all who 
sup­port them in an inter­na­tional day of struggle–a day of strik­ing, 
march­ing, block­ing roads, bridges, and squares, abstain­ing from 
domes­tic, care and sex work, boy­cotting, call­ing out misog­y­nis­tic 
politi­cians and com­pa­nies, strik­ing in edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions. 
These actions are aimed at mak­ing vis­i­ble the needs and aspi­ra­tions 
of those whom lean-in fem­i­nism ignored: women in the for­mal labor 
mar­ket, women work­ing in the sphere of social repro­duc­tion and care, 
and unem­ployed and pre­car­i­ous work­ing women.

In embrac­ing a fem­i­nism for the 99%, we take inspi­ra­tion from the 
Argen­tinian coali­tion /Ni Una Menos/. Vio­lence against women, as they 
define it, has many facets: it is domes­tic vio­lence, but also the 
vio­lence of the mar­ket, of debt, of cap­i­tal­ist prop­erty 
rela­tions, and of the state; the vio­lence of dis­crim­i­na­tory 
poli­cies against les­bian, trans and queer women, the vio­lence of 
state crim­i­nal­iza­tion of migra­tory move­ments, the vio­lence of 
mass incar­cer­a­tion, and the insti­tu­tional vio­lence against women’s 
bod­ies through abor­tion bans and lack of access to free health­care 
and free abor­tion.

Their per­spec­tive informs our deter­mi­na­tion to oppose the 
insti­tu­tional, polit­i­cal, cul­tural, and eco­nomic attacks on 
Mus­lim and migrant women, on women of color and work­ing and 
unem­ployed women, on les­bian, gen­der non­con­form­ing, and trans-women.

The women’s marches of Jan­u­ary 21sthave shown that in the United 
States too a new fem­i­nist move­ment may be in the mak­ing. It is 
impor­tant not to lose momen­tum. Let us join together on March 8 to 
strike, walk out, march and demon­strate. Let us use the occa­sion of 
this inter­na­tional day of action to be done with lean-fem­i­nism and 
to build in its place a fem­i­nism for the 99%, a grass-roots, 
anti-cap­i­tal­ist feminism–a fem­i­nism in sol­i­dar­ity with work­ing 
women, their fam­i­lies, and their allies through­out the world.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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