Many of us have started meeting at the Feminist Anti-Fascist Assembly in London because while we are shit scared about rising fascism in the UK and also Brazil, Poland, US to name but a few - we want to organise as feminists and also fight back on our own terms. Below is the call out we wrote for a demonstration in London on the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women - 25th Nov. Here is the FB event www.facebook.com/events/655349138192873/
(ps: for those on here who hate trans women and sex workers - don't bother responding with your hate - we have all heard it enough - and quite frankly its old and boring.)
Reclaim the Fight: Feminists Rise Up Against Fascism
Sunday 25 November 2018
5PM - BBC Portland Place, London W1A 1AA
Women’s work makes life possible. For this we are rewarded with violence and exploitation in the streets, at work and at home. We’re told that our inferior position in society, and our suffering, are inevitable - even natural. We still earn less and are expected to put up with disrespect, discrimination and assault at work and in our communities. We have had enough. In solidarity and righteous feminist rage, we are fighting back across the world.
It’s ok to be scared. A fascist has just been elected as President in Brazil. In the US a white supremacist murdered eleven Jewish people in their synagogue and white nationalists have been elected to Congress. The Trump Administration has launched a deadly attack on transgender people’s right to exist and anti-trans feminists in Britain are using their powerful standing to target trans people, and trans women in particular. The Israeli government continues to commit genocide against the Palestinian people with weapons sold to them by the UK. The Polish President included far-right groups as co-organisers of the official state celebrations of the National Independence Day, thus legitimising their anti-migrant and white-supremacist rhetoric. The fascist Turkish government has invaded and occupied the Kurdish city of Afrin in Rojava/northern Syria and is working with genocidal groups in the Middle East to try and defeat the Kurdish revolution and, in particular, its women-led resistance. Tommy Robinson continues to be given legitimacy by the mainstream media despite inspiring a racist murder in Finsbury Park. He pretends to care about victims of child abuse to provoke fears that our Muslim brothers are a threat to ‘our’ women - as if he has ownership over women. Yet he says nothing when our rapists are white.
It’s ok to be angry. For decades we have watched the earth being destroyed and our communities ripped apart. Across the UK migrants and people of colour are harassed by police and surveilled at school and university through the Prevent programme, while nearly every youth centre has been shut down. Decent well-paid work is becoming harder to find and many of us work in jobs that pay poverty wages and strip us of our dignity. Austerity policies have caused millions of families to rely on food banks to feed their kids. Thousands of disabled people have died because of benefit sanctions. For as long as we can remember, survivors have bravely spoken about being raped and abused, and even after #MeToo, we are still not believed.
It’s ok to fight back. Feminists across the world are leading the resistance against fascism. Kurdish women and their internationalist comrades, such as British anti-fascist feminist Anna Campbell, have been resisting the brutal patriarchal attacks of ISIS who assault and mutilate the bodies of women as part of a wider tactic of using sexual violence as a tool of war. Our fight to end rape and sexual violence is the fight against fascism. At the heart of fascism is a set of ideas that views certain women as the only legitimate “breeders”. Women’s role is as mothers whose bodies are at the service of men and the nation. The fight for abortion rights from Poland, Northern Ireland, Brazil, and Argentina, to name just a few, is a fight against fascism and a struggle to regain control of our own bodies and lives.
Reclaim the Fight: Feminists Rise Up Against Fascism is for people of all and no genders. We need your help to build a feminist anti-fascist movement that is capable of opposing the far-right and ending gender violence. We particularly welcome the participation of trans women, non-binary people and sex workers who are often excluded from feminist mobilisations. The Reclaim the Fight: Women Rise Up Against Fascism demonstration is endorsed by:
Feminist Anti-Fascist Assembly; Kurdish Women’s Assembly; Kurdish Student Union; Women’s Strike Assembly; Dziewuchy London; Brazilian Women Against Fascism; Women’s March London; Women United
The x:talk project; Ni Una Menos UK