Women's March London 21st January

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In solidarity with women's marches across the globe on 21st January there will be a march in London, ending up at Trafalgar square.

It is a show of numbers to condemn many harmful attitudes towards women, minorities of race and religion, LGBTQA+ peoples and survivors of sexual assaults.

These issues will not go away by this march, but it is to remind to the global audience that they are prevalent and not enough is being done to curb harmful rhetoric and actions against these people's.

www.facebook.com/womensmarchlondon/

In my city there was no march, they held it in a city too far away. London looked amazing on the telly and I already saw many videos on Facebook of people from all over the globe. Ironically Trump is uniting people.

It sounds like people who attended the march yesterday felt they were part of something big, which is lovely. That feeling of solidarity is amazing, but at the end of the day protesting and activism shouldn't primarily be about the activists' experiences, it should be about being effective in achieving something or at least making a coherent point. The media coverage that I've heard today is universally reporting yesterday as an anti-Trump march. The analysis then finds a lot to criticise about that concept - he has been democratically elected, after all (we believe at this point!). The message of defending women's rights or even any specific aims, seems to have been lost in the overall summary of "women wore pink hats to show how offended they are about those comments he made".

The comment about people being obsessed with a 'tiny and insignificant part of the real issue' and a 'serious and worrying obsession' - please don't belittle women's concerns about what for many of us is a very fundamental issue, about how can we campaign for and defend women's rights, if we are not permitted to accurately name them. Your attitude that people "have an issue with transwomen" seems to be playing right into the accusation that gender critical feminists are just nasty bigots who hate transgender people for being different. I have never spoken with anyone who espoused that view.

I think you're being quite dismissive of what was one of the biggest women's marches we've seen recently! I would say a lot of women, and particularly young women, will have watched the journey of trump's election with despair and concern, if women choose to come together and say fuck off to that kind of sexism in this way I honestly can't see how that is a bad thing. There's room for all kinds of protest and activitism. Your assessment that it was just about people being "offended" makes you sound like some of the MRAs tweeting about the whole thing

banana - that wasn't my assessment - it was me paraphrasing analysis I've read/heard in the media. Listen to the first section of yesterday's PM program on radio 4 for example (available on iPlayer, website & podcast).

Clearly, saying fuck off to sexism is not a bad thing, at all. Coming together for a common cause is not a bad thing, at all. Engaging people who have previously not been inspired to engage in activism and protest is not a bad thing, at all. I don't want to be dismissive of those things. But I do have concerns, as expressed by many from the start, that without coherent aims from the organisers, yesterday will not have the effect that many participants will be hoping it would have.

Btw if anyone does listen to yesterday's PM program, keep listening as the third segment is about men asking their fiancée's father for permission to marry her, with Julie Bindel making amazing succinct points and a man that has written a book called "what mums want and what dads need to know" sounding like a complete arse refusing to understand Bindel's point in any way. It's just about being nice and polite apparently, nothing to do with cementing women's status as chattel to be passed from father to husband. Stop complaining women, the men in your life are just being nice where is the banging your head on a wall emoticon when you need it

As an American who has lived in the UK 20 years and watched (and voted a NYC vote that didn't seem to count for much) the Trump phenomenon with horror, I felt compelled to March in London yesterday. DD2-14 also marched with her friends and DH and DD1-17 who couldn't attend were there in spirit. I feel energised now and will now channel this energy locally.

At the end of the march, when no one wanted to leave Trafalgar square (even though it was around zero!) there was a list of instructions on what to do now: organise, volunteer, liaise, take part in actions.
Which is what 2.5m women round the world will be doing.
Including me!

ByTheSea go girl!
It was funny to see the angry men stuck with their political newspapers absolutely impotent at this march , too. Will give men on all political sides, something to think about.

As far as I know there were no arrests or violence across 2.5million women marching. Suggests to me that future protests should be women led.

By the way, women only actions have stopped wars in Liberia, in the last 15 years. Would have been great to have had a speaker to address this yesterday, but there will be more actions.

Despite Janet Mock and the misogynistic tweets from the main Women's March account, it did all look pretty amazing.

Interestingly, my Twitter this morning is full of posts from transactivists furious that the Women's Marches focused on women's bodies:

[[‪storify.com/KatanaOfLogic/trans-activists-womens-march‬

Oops sorry.

‪ storify.com/KatanaOfLogic/trans-activists-womens-march‬

I've been following this thread with interest. I admit to getting somewhat lost in the nuances of the trans-debate, although I am a regular lurker on this board, and I clearly have much to learn in that respect.

I didn't attend the March although I know lots who did in my city (uk, not London)

In my job i work with lots of female victims of domestic abuse and greater sexual oppression, FGM, rape, and a very high proportion are from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The thing that sits uncomfortably with me is that these "global" women's marches appear to have been triggered by a threat of increased misogyny and oppression by a white man towards white women. This, it seems, is reason enough for women of the western world to unite and March together. The suffering of our non white sisters in Saudi Arabia, for example, which is not a threat but an actually daily occurance, is apparently not enough to unite women.

It appears that the same planned parenthood that some women are so aggressively defending is against the idea if women calling themselves women. Be careful what you support, you may end up unknowingly supporting your own erasure. At this rate it will soon be illegal to call yourself a woman

This seems to have a fair amount of support, wonder who agreed with these comments.

I did like this tweet though.

Excellent tweet!

new numbers for marches:
673 across the world
4,700 000 participants: a modest sized country.
Any chance we could get our own place?
Just for holidays, of course.......................

Thanks to all who marched xx

This made me giggle

twitter.com/causticbob/status/823134315135598592

So they were marching against Trump for having anti-women policies; however, the co-chair of the main Washington march is pro-Sharia

twitter.com/lsarsour/status/598327052727615488
twitter.com/lsarsour/status/116922589967949824

in all its barbaric detail

twitter.com/lsarsour/status/116869383908888576

I will just leave this here

mobile.twitter.com/Christiana1987/status/822876240310743040

Link question whether white feminists are truly with women of colour or about their own self interests

I think it's really hard to truely be with black Woman when you are white. I am empathetic with thier struggles and angry for thier treatment. But I will never truely known thier lives. And it's not for me to demand access to thier lives so I can better understand them.
Solidarity but with different struggles. I understand too that equity means there should be additional support for black women, things I can't access and that is right.

Also queenie I'm not sure the link does look at weather white Woman arr with women of colour

ICjump I agree with you there but it really makes me and other Black women realise that as you said we do not have the same struggle. However my assumption was that this thing called feminism was to gain equality for all. You should be able to sympathise and be vocal when a woman that does not look like you is raped, murdered or facing oppression or inequality. Otherwise you and others will have to admit that the feminist movement has always been about empowering white women. Also white women have a huge role to play in racism. As who raises these racist and misogynistic men and women. If you say you stay silent in another woman's struggle because they come from a different culture etc. then frankly you are just as complicit. I also feel that white feminists often don't try to understand or don't care about the issues impacting women of colour. In the U.S a number of Black female protestors were starring This with their banners.