Month: September 2025

JOIN US FOR A TIMELY PANEL DISCUSSION ON TRUMP POLICIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 25, 2025  TIME: 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, 2;00 p.m. Eastern

PLACE: On Zoom

ORDER TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-trump-administration-and-womens-rights-tickets-1724903626179?aff=oddtdtcreator

Whether it is the elimination of DEI, the attacks on free speech and dissent, the crackdown on immigrants, cuts in Medicaid and other vital social programs, the dismantling of large portions of the federal government, the firing of government workers, and the continued refusal to recognize the ERA as the law of the land, women appear to be losing ground. How are women being affected by this Administration’s policies and how can we fight back?

SPEAKERS:

FRAN LUCK: Long-time Radical feminist and grassroots housing activist, Fran is the host of the reknown feminist radio show, “Joy of Resistance: Multicultural feminist radio” on WBAI, 99.5 fm in New York. Joy of Resistance covers “the ongoing and world-wide struggle for the full liberation of women…”

DIANNE POST: A lawyer and feminist activist, Diane has represented battered women and molested children in family and juvenile court, and for the last several decades has worked on international human rights law focusing on sex-based violence. She is active in the Arizona Commission on African American Affairs, NOW, and ERA Task Force in Arizona.

ANN MENASCHE: A founding member and Co-coordinator of Feminists in Struggle (FIST), Ann has been a lifelong radical feminist and socialist. She has had a long career as a civil rights attorney, for the last several years focusing on the rights of homeless people and low-income tenants.

THIS IS A WOMEN-ONLY EVENT.

THIS IS A REMOTE EVENT. AS IN ALL FIST EVENTS IT IS INTERACTIVE WITH PLENTY OF TIME FOR QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION.

ZOOM LINK WILL BE PROVIDED TO ALL REGISTRANTS BY EMAIL.

By Ann Menasche

This piece is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of FIST as an organization.

The United States knows quite a bit about genocide and ethnic cleansing.  In the 1830’s, 60,000 Native Americans – the Cherokee and other tribes – were forcibly removed from their homeland in the Southern U.S and forced into reservations. About 16,000 died during this forced exile hundreds of miles to Oklahoma, from disease, starvation, and exposure to the elements in what became known as the “Trail of Tears.”  It was fundamentally a land grab by white settlers with the support of the U.S. government.  And it was genocide, though the concept didn’t really exist until the modern era.

Since 1948, genocide has been defined as “acts committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”  The acts include killing, causing serious harm, inflicting conditions of life to destroy a group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children.

How little humanity has learned since the original Trial of Tears of two centuries ago. We are now seeing unfolding in real time on our screens the destruction in whole or in part of the Palestinians of Gaza.   More tonnage of bombs has been dropped on Gaza than at Hiroshima, with at least 60,000 dead, mostly women and children, with many more buried in the rubble.  The large majority of housing, schools, hospitals, mosques, civilian infrastructure, all that is necessary to sustain life, has been destroyed.  Even seeking the pittance of food aid that Israel allows into Gaza, can risk one’s life from sniper fire, as already hundreds have been killed in this gruesome fashion. Palestinians, left hungry and homeless,  have been herded from north to south and back again with no safe place to go.  And now with the attack and threatened occupation of Gaza City, there is virtually nothing left.

Israeli finance minister Bezalei Smotrich has shamelessly stated the purpose of this killing spree. He described Gaza as a potential real estate “bonanza”, claiming he was talking to the U.S. about dividing up the spoils.  “We have done the demolition phase, which is always the first phase of urban renewal – now we need to build.”  https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/middleeast/israel-smotrich-gaza-land-intl?cid=ios_app

So, they come in packed cars, or on foot carrying a few belongings, children carrying smaller children in their arms, tens of thousands leaving Gaza City and traveling many long miles filled with pain and despair. Others, without the funds or health to leave or fearing they are being offered a road to nowhere, constituting most of the residents, are still in the City awaiting their fate.

Meanwhile, the bombs keep falling, there is not enough food or water or medical equipment.  It’s a modern trail of tears.

So, what does genocide have to do with feminism?  Let’s be clear – to destroy a people you need to destroy the women.  Women are half the human race, but also the bearers of new life.    Though women are perfectly capable of fighting and being violent, war is still overwhelming men’s business, run by rich powerful men, the generals, the macho leaders of imperial nations like Trump and Netanyahu, the war profiteers, the real estate developers with their spread sheets, all motivated by greed and narrow self-interest.  Genocide is the epitome of patriarchy, of power over, of male violence on the largest scale imaginable. So that women as non-combatants are targeted is no surprise.

There is no justification for genocide, the demonization and collective punishment of a whole population, not ever.  It does not make anyone safe against the vengeful violence of oppressed or subordinated men.  Quite the opposite. Only peace with justice does that. Native Americans also engaged in what is called “terrorism” against white settlers.  No, it did not justify the Trail of Tears.  Israeli Jews have begun to understand that, with tens of thousands demanding an end to the war and recognizing that their government does not give a damn about the fate of the hostages or the lives of their soldiers to be sacrificed in a land grab and on the altar of forever war.  That so many feminists in the United States and the U.K. don’t comprehend this is more than distressing; it is heartbreaking.

As a Jew, part of my ancestry goes back to ancient Canaan.  Palestinians are my cousins.  As a feminist, the women of Gaza are my sisters.  I share their tears. Enough.