Today is the 45th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion that was won by feminists through their persistence, bravery, and mass organizing. The decision fell short of the organizers' demands for free and unrestricted abortion, but was a relief for hundreds of thousands of women. Forty-five years later, we continue the fight to maintain and strengthen our right to control our reproductive lives.
A year ago, women around the country were striking from paid and unpaid work.
From January 20-21, 2017, National Women’s Liberation called for a Women’s Strike that mobilized over 7,000 people, mostly women,
to demand a broad platform
to combat the many ways that women are oppressed under male supremacy. Our strike coincided with the largest worldwide protest in history: the Women's March.
Women continued organizing. On March, 2017, International Women's Day, women around the country, including
NWL
, worked with
International Women’s Strike USA
to organize a strike from paid and unpaid work.
These strikes were warnings. They made visible women’s work that is often taken for granted and made clear the power women have when we unite.
Before November of 2017, calling for a large general strike seemed impossible, and yet women organized and held two successful ones a few months apart from each other. The current political climate continues to push a lot of people off the sidelines to join us in the streets. From that hope and momentum, there are now groups organizing that didn’t even exist a year ago and our numbers in long-standing groups exploded and continue to grow.
This weekend our country witnessed women on the streets
en masse
AGAIN.
Movement work is a marathon not a sprint, and there will be some ebb and flow. But we won't make gains if we're pushed into a constant state of emergency, focusing only on defense and letting our oppressors set the agenda. We must have political priorities, demands, and work in coalition. Through collective action and organizing, we will beat back this administration's racist, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-immigrant and homophobic goals and win more freedom for women and all oppressed people.
Today, celebrate a movement victory: Roe v. Wade- and tomorrow- continue organizing!
