#1
This article by Jessica Machado in support of the recent Women's March claims, "This is only the beginning," about 525 years after the direct invasion of the Americas and murder of its women commenced. The lack of arrests at the march is spun positively. "We were half a million people tired of demanding equality but ready to fight harder," a fight that happens with the full approval of the police. Strange allies given cops' history of abusing women and ignoring abuse; police are more likely than average to hurt and kill women.

The peaceful marchers in Washington DC were so numerous that they may have outnumbered the people violently deported during one term of the Obama administration. Machado notes that brown people were probably underrepresented because "feminism" struggles with the issues of "having a living wage and immigration" and besides, those who do fight for their survival and an end to monstrous border controls probably couldn't "afford to fly and take the time off." Fair enough. If the women at the march weren't representing the demands of those whose homes are broken up by ICE, or the over two hundred thousand women in prison (63% for nonviolent crimes), or the millions of female migrant workers, or heck, just the people too cheap to shell out for a Friday night flight and hotel, but rather, were "representative of a PTA meeting or zumba class," at least they were protesting for rights.

Because the definition of feminism is, to Machado, "men and women having equal rights." Not men and women being equal. Not all women can travel to the women's march, but all women have the right to do so, except when the police have stripped them of that right.

The garbled, self-serving logic that claims "nonviolence is true power" should open the door to understand this apparent contradiction: The success of the women's march is in its failure. We can't know how many people participated, how many were inspired, the tonnage of awareness raised. We can pinpoint absolutely the impact of the women's march on Trump administration policies: 0. We know how many rapists will swear off rape for good because of the women's march: 0. How many police departments will purge themselves of the 4 in 10 officers who commit domestic violence? 0. As the feelings of solidarity dwindle, these facts will remain unchanged, and must inspire more action.

For future marches to be successful, women need to identify the enemy: the specific men who stalk, harass, assault, rape, and kill them and their daughters. And next time, we need to ask, if the police are women's friends, if police supported Saturday's march, what are they doing to get violent men out of their departments?



Q: What do these two tweets have in common?
A: He couldn't give a half a shit either way!!!

Edited by swampman ()

#2
https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaPoliceDpt/videos/1397309850279873/
#3
i would say that those tweets have the following things in common, OP:

1. they were written by the same person
2. they are in the english language
3. they have over 44,000 retweets
4. they have over 190,000 likes
5. they were both posted in the morning of January the 22nd
#4

ilmdge posted:

https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaPoliceDpt/videos/1397309850279873/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/jul/11/baton-rouge-riot-police-move-in-on-protesters-video

#5
In the city I'm visiting there were 20 arrests at Friday's march and 0 arrests on Saturday. Spoke early this morning to a comrade in Oakland who is upset and feels silenced that transactivists on Facebook are upset about the vagina hats. We agreed that this is bad and misogynistic but also that the hats are bad and liberal. The tactics used by black bloc at the action I attended seemed acceptable but on second thought also bad and ineffective. Everything is stupid and bad
#6
the womans march, yes it's liberal so they hug cops and the cops let them carry on without blasting them with water cannons and stun grenades sure, but womens reproductive rights truly are going to be under attack for the next 4 years and a massive showing against that probably, is good, even if chock full of morons
#7

ilmdge posted:

the womans march, yes it's liberal so they hug cops and the cops let them carry on without blasting them with water cannons and stun grenades sure, but womens reproductive rights truly are going to be under attack for the next 4 years and a massive showing against that probably, is good, even if chock full of morons

I'm totally with you, I think it's important for people to march and then wonder why their march was ignored. Liberal politicians are willing to make concessions to preserve the illusion of popularity but the conservatives in power are too dumb to give a shit and they think escalation will produce endless police victories.

#8
my pet peeve of these debates are all the signs that say "love not hate" and so on. coca-cola ad nonsense. hate is power and shouldn't be so casually discarded
#9
https://redguardsaustin.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/the-legal-left-and-other-toothless-dogs-a-j-20-report/
#10
"love trumps hate",...hmm, nice try but no, I will not love trumps hate
#11
#12

janefondafanclub posted:

https://redguardsaustin.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/the-legal-left-and-other-toothless-dogs-a-j-20-report/

ftw

#13
Ok i made this image for if the article were to someday be put on the front page, but I'm not sure it actually has a lot to do with what i wrote, any thoughts
#14
the large right-wing contingent in the current "anti-corruption" marches in Dominican Republic (tied to the U.S. AG's hunting of Brazil's center-left government and firms related to Petrobras, in this case, Odebrecht) is also very proud that they were "patriotic" and super nice to cops per the Web site of a right-wing party that proudly promotes its ties to IRI and NDI (the two major-party-aligned "pro-democracy" foundations of the political class of the United States, one with John McCain and Kay Bailey Hutchison at the top, the other, Madeleine Albright and Tom Daschle). i am not thrilled with any of the center-left parties being attacked nor of their ties to these firms, but this shit looks familiarly spooky in the style of movements "against corruption" we've seen fostered by right-wing parties and U.S. influence in the region, especially given the successful scattering of much of the DR left by those same parties. the coordinated color of this particular "revolution" is green, btw.
#15

swampman posted:

Ok i made this image for if the article were to someday be put on the front page, but I'm not sure it actually has a lot to do with what i wrote, any thoughts



listen i sat by and did nothing when there was a picture of a dead kid on the front page for months, but this is really fucking pushing it, swampman.