Sunday, January 22, 2017

Grabbing Pandora's Box

To tell the truth, I was a lot more interested in the Women's March than the Inauguration, this weekend.
 I don't want to keep a sister down, but I am not sure what this march will do, when everyone goes home on Sunday. They say they "aren't going anywhere."
I took a look at the mission statement of the march;
We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families - recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.
There were a lot of women, in my community, who did not know why women were marching. I tried to tell them it was a march about human rights. More than likely provoked by Trumps scary rhetoric, about abortion, among other things.
The problem is, this march is too late. Actually, there's a couple of problems here. If women are so concerned about their rights they should have done something about the hijacking of Bernie Sanders candidacy by the DNC. If anyone could have done something about human rights it was him. I am sure a lot of women are still towing a Democrat Party line and voted for Hillary.
The Mission Statement also states concerns for Native people. Really? Maybe you should have gone to North Dakota then, while our backs were turned and everyone was watching Washington DC, more violence ensued in North Dakota. (Maybe that's fake news?) Which brings me to my third observation...
Not one arrest in Washington DC, no pepper sprayed people, no water cannon. According to one woman, who was quoted saying no one got arrested, because no one was doing "stupid stuff."
Nice one, I see what you did there.
More likely, it was because women weren't marching against the corporate takeover of our government. They weren't protesting against an oil company or against health insurance corporations denying care to their fellow Americans or the more than 20 million Americans who are going without.
They weren't protesting against almost half the country living in poverty, There was an explanation of "worker's rights. You have the right to work crap jobs, however, there was nothing about unions,
 In the "Unity Principles" it explains "workers should have the right to fight for a living minimum wage." So, that's helpful.We already have the right to fight for a fair and livable wage, however, we still don't have one. Bernie Sanders supported a $15 minimum  wage. I am not sure how many women marching  had Saturday off and could afford to go to Washington, they probably weren't working multiple jobs, trying to support their families. They made fancy p*$$y hats, (it takes 4 days to make one, you have time for that, right?) while most women are just trying to buy their kids warm winter clothing, not hats for themselves, but I digress. The "Unity Principles" are on the website.
I am guessing this march, will go the way of Occupy, although Occupy got way more pushback.
It's great, I guess, that there was a march that "couldn't have happened without police cooperation" That's not what happens with most protests and the President was safely locked away, unlike on Friday at the Inauguration, when 217 people were arrested. They should have waited until Saturday I guess, when police were "cooperating". Instead, protesters broke windows at Bank of America and McDonalds, "symbols of American capitalism" Violence and damage to property occurred, whether by agent provocateurs or not, I have no idea.
Does anyone remember People's Climate March? In 2014? Remember #FloodWallStreet? 100 people were arrested, 10 stood trial and were found not guilty. It's been almost three years since that march, most people don't even remember it. My point being either marches are ineffective now, since the government is even more of a plutocracy since Dr. Martin Luther King's time, or you need a bigger march, way bigger. At least it got a lot of publicity for Madonna, but she's been grabbing her own p*$$y for years.
Glad to know women aren't going anywhere after this march. But the women I know were either working or couldn't afford to go or had no one to watch their kids. Which makes me wonder, how much class is an issue here? In the Unity Principles access to affordable childcare was included, but I wonder where any actual action or access is going to come from? Ivanka Trump? Madonna? Maybe Cher?
Lady Madonna's Daycare Center, has a nice ring to it, right? A girl can always dream.


4 comments:

  1. Sorry, I understand what you meant by the statement "The problem is, this march is too late," but I disagree. It's never to late to stop something bad before it gets worse. The women I saw in New York were enthusiastic, imaginative, and young enough to get a movement started that will have very long legs.

    Have courage.

    Crankily,
    The New York Crank

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    1. That's really good to know Crank, thank you for your observations. I swear, it looks like I might be even crankier than you. Peace!

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  2. That's the way I see it too Patricia, they dont care about marches unless it cuts into their money interests, but, I liked the idea of the march, and any march of most folks against this oligarchy of a democracy ... the more Hellraising, boycotting, disruption, etc ... the merrier. Besides, a woman shouldnt have to even raise her voice about having the right to choose what is best for her body, a gay man/ woman shouldnt have to raise their voice for the right to marry or sleep with who they want, a black person shouldnt have to fight for a right to not be targeted in their communities because of their skin colour, or anyone shouldnt be targeted with these new "quality of life" crimes, the damn civil rights movement itself been going on over a half century and folks are still having to fight for basic rights ... our progress on these issues is in the "shit" ranking levels, and now besides this corporatcommunazica (corporate communism mixed with Nazi tactics in America) in the form of global neoliberalism is sweeping the globe ... they call it the "new thing", "new way", etc ... doesnt mean you have to go along with it though. These battles over rights and social issues are created by those at top and their pre- paid political flunkies, to distract us and keep us at war with each other, just like they create religions to do the same, while they enslave and rip us off. Democrats just recently (13 of them) voted with Republicans in a late night session, to keep us from negotiating cheaper drug prices, how much media atencion did that get? ... almost none ... they done it while distracting us with "Tweety Bird" (Trump) tweets ... the same way they pass a decent piece of legislation, but hurs before it goes through the pass process in the Hill, they tag on several other silent pieces of legislation to slip through drafted solely by corporate attorneys and lobbyists.

    Actually, I think if Bernie got the nomination, he would have beat Trump easily, and we would have had record turnouts to vote ... there just wasnt much to choose from in this last election. I'm outta here Patricia ... later ....

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    1. Yep, a Senator from my state, a DemoRat, Cory Booker, voted with the Republicans, ain't that a hoot? WTF? Democrat, Republican, doesn't matter anymore. Superweird. Guess he got bought off by BigPharma, who knew?

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