Commentary
A political program that speaks to everyone
The broadly inclusive and complex manifesto of the Women’s March movement is a welcome novelty.
Hundreds of thousands of female demonstrators, together with so many men, poured into the streets of Washington, answering the call of the Women’s March against Donald Trump. They have exceeded the most optimistic predictions, which estimated 200,000 people would show up.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands gathered in other U.S. cities, as well as in other many cities around the world. This march has been characterized by a new political program that expands from women’s rights and includes all minorities. It includes all those who are subject to social injustice and are threatened by Trump’s fierce populism.
It is an exemplary act of the new generation of feminist politics that speaks to and for everybody, from a strong and overwhelming female mobilization. The manifesto states that the march “is a movement led by women that brings to the capital people of all gender, race, culture and political affiliation, to affirm the common humanity and a message of resistance and self-determination.”
The appeal goes on saying: “We are the heirs of the suffragist and abolitionist movements, of the civil rights, of feminism, of the Native Americans, of the Occupy Wall Street movements.” Some of the known leaders, among others, are bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, Bertha Caceres, Audre Lourde and Angela Davis.
At the center there are the economic differences, the differences between black and white women of color, the economic disparities between races and sexes. The movement supports reproductive freedom, freedom to choose the own gender and LGBTQ rights.
But there is more. The document states: “We recognize that black women bear the greater burden of care work, both at home and abroad. We maintain that care work is work, work that is almost all borne on the shoulders of women, particularly women of color.”
The text also supports a fair, transparent and equitable economy. It claims that all workers, including domestic workers and peasants, have the right to organize themselves and to fight for a fair wage, including undocumented immigrants. “We believe that migration is a human right and that no human being is illegal.”
It is an extensive and complex program, which is a great political novelty. From the classic mantra of “women’s rights are universal rights,” a general political program was developed. It looks at the whole of society and proposes a worldwide alliance to all the minorities threatened by the new president.
It is the opposite of radical chic. In attendance, there were actresses like Scarlett Johansson and Ashley Judd, as well as one of the mothers of feminism Gloria Steinem and the super-activist Michael Moore.
The whole event was marked by feminist irreverence, in the symbol of the pussy hat, the pink hat sported by protesters, sales of which have helped raise funds.
Originally published at http://ilmanifesto.info/un-programma-politico-che-parla-a-tutte-e-a-tutti/ on 2017-01-22