Update on the Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights #Riverside8

We have learned that some of the defendants targeted by the Riverside Police and D.A. have had the charges dropped against them for felony vandalism (for writing a message in chalk!), and that the charges have been reduced for the others.  It is still imperative that Mike Hestrin, Riverside D.A., hear from us.  Please call him at 951.955.5400 and tweet him @DA_MikeHestrin and @RivCoDA and demand that these outrageous charges against peaceful protesters expressing their First Amendment rights be dropped!

First Do No Harm Unity Rally

Feminists in Struggle was one of the many groups represented at the First Do No Harm Unity Rally at the American Academy of Pediatrics Convention in Anaheim on Saturday, October 8th to protest the medicalization of children by “gender-affirming care”. There was a great turnout and a lot of spirit!  Women and men, gay and straight, young and old, groups from across the political spectrum, from Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights, California Legislative Council, Dykes on the Right, Partners for Ethical Care,  to parents groups like Our Duty, which organized the rally, joined together in solidarity in the effort to protect children and youth from the harms of “gender-affirming care”, which medicalizes, sterilizes, and mutilates.  Speakers included Julia Mason, M.D., Pediatrician; Scott Newgent; detransitioners Cat Cattinson, Chloe Cole, and Abel Garcia; and parents decrying this medical scandal.

For more information, see:

Wesley Yang

The Post Millenial

The Daily Wire

NTD TV

The Epoch Times

Report Back on WDI-USA national conference

FIST members attended the the Women’s Declaration International – USA conference , which took place in Washington DC, September 23-25, 2022. The theme and title of the conference was “Reigniting the Women’s Liberation Movement”. The gathering lived up to its “national” title with women having traveled to the conference from across the country; we spoke to women from at least 11 states. Relative to the female population in the U.S., there was good representation of black and brown women (including in the leadership) and a large lesbian contingent. Some of us estimated that 2/3 of us were older and 1/3 were women in their mid-30s or younger. The feeling was very warm and welcoming, it was truly wonderful to share a weekend meeting 100 like-minded women (or so we assumed).
The conference was very well organized, there were back-to-back plenaries and breakouts for a full two days, in addition to the introductory plenary on Friday night, where members of the Board of WDI-USA introduced themselves and the conference–plenaries took place in the dining room so we were able to continue eating and have our dessert even as we took in all of the ideas presented. The food was good and plentiful. Everything ran on time. It took place in a swanky hotel and we sat in a ballroom complete with sparkly chandeliers and white tablecloths.  There were many good presentations with some time for questions afterwards but there was very little actual discussion. Very little exploration of how far our assumed like-mindedness went.
Plenaries included those on the Second Wave of the WLM, Radical Feminist Structural Analysis, Nonviolent mass Action as a strategy for Resistance, the history of feminists “trashing” each other in the women’s movement and strategies to combat it, Women’s writing, Grassroots Organizing, Women in Leadership, Women’s Community, Stories and Land, Ethical Communication, and finally “What Would Victory Look Like?”.

The plenaries were interspersed with smaller breakout sessions on Reproductive Rights, Opposition to the Sex Trade, the Value of Lesbian Only Spaces, Consciousness Raising, Gender and Feminism, Misogynoir (“Black Patriarchy”, facilitated by Black women) and Legislative Advocacy.

Some of our differences became evident during the last session of the conference. as all women in attendance were asked to present their visions of what “victory” would look like. Otherwise differences were not discussed at all; we never touched upon feminists taking money from Christian Nationalists, or the WDI-USA promotion of Women’s Bill of Rights, or their opposition (or at least WoLF’s) to the ERA (see our ERA-FIST brochure) or the WDI statement in opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act or their former work on their Equality for All Act which is a watered-down version of FIST’s Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act or the history of the right wing trying to co-opt feminism through groups such as the Independent Women’s Forum. Nor was there any discussion of how WDI/WDI-USA is funded or how the conference itself was funded.
 
The conference centered on the issue of gender and there was a great sense of relief in being at a large gathering where gender-critical views could be openly discussed. However, it did eclipse other crucial issues, such as the recent catastrophic loss of legal abortion in the U.S.  Reproductive rights and justice was not a major topic at any of the plenaries at which everyone in attendance was present. After the conference, FIST members and other attendees from NY had a discussion about what the place of gender should be in terms of women’s liberation as a whole (we reached no conclusion and consider this an ongoing discussion).
This one meeting might not reignite the Women’s Liberation Movement but it certainly demonstrated that the embers have not burned out. The great deal of warmth and openness—really great spirit—gives us hope for bringing the different “factions” of feminism together on mutually agreed upon campaigns.
Posts to our blog page by Feminist Writer are the opinions of individual FIST members and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Feminists in Struggle organization.  Official posts are authored by Feminist Struggle.

Drop the Charges Against the Abortion Rights Demonstrators in Riverside!

This letter was sent to the District Attorney in Riverside on October 3, 2022:

Mike Hestrin
Office of the District Attorney
County of Riverside
3960 Orange Street
Riverside, CA 92501

Dear Mr. Hestrin:

We are writing to you on behalf of the national feminist organization, Feminists in Struggle (FIST), to demand that all charges be dropped against those arrested at a RiseUp4AbortionRights demonstration on July 30, 2022, in Riverside, CA and who will be arraigned on October 6.

These arrestees were protesting nonviolently for the basic human right of women to control their own bodies and access abortion, and against the recent outrageous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn this Constitutional right guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.

Women throughout the country are watching the disposition of these cases and are alerting local politicians in your area as to the importance of these charges being dropped. Our right to peacefully protest is guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution and we expect that right to be respected by your office.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this urgent issue.

Sincerely,

Ann Menasche
For Feminists in Struggle

WE ASK EVERYONE TO CALL THE RIVERSIDE DA’S OFFICE AT  951.955.5400 AND TWEET THEM @DA_MikeHestrin and @rivcoda TO DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST THE #RIVERSIDE8!!  You may also email the DA’s office at: inquiries@rivcoda.org