Boston Dyke March
'Abolish war, racism & capitalism!'
By WW Boston bureau
Thousands of lesbians and their supporters
marched through the streets of Boston June 11 in the 10th
annual "Dyke March."
The mood of the victory around same-sex marriage rights in
the state was apparent. Those who lined the sidewalks applauded
and cheered the marchers.
The Lesbian Avengers, who founded and led the Dyke March,
focused this year on the theme "the war abroad and the war at
home." At the request of the march organizers, a banner reading
"Come out against war & racism--No Pride in occupation"
from the Stonewall Warriors of the International Action Center
was prominent toward the front of the march.
Leslie Feinberg delivered the keynote speech at the
concluding rally in the Commons. Feinberg was introduced as a
trade unionist, socialist and a managing editor of Workers
World newspaper.
The outdoor audience was rapt as Feinberg described the
courageous role of lesbians in confronting white supremacists
in Boston in 1974. Feinberg, one of the leading organizers of
the 1974 March Against Racism, called it "the year our Pride
March came in December."
Feinberg called on those gathered to take part in the
anti-war and anti-occupation contingents in this year's Boston
Pride March. She drew applause when she argued that every
domestic economic and social demand--money for AIDS and other
health-care needs, racist profiling, youth rights, rape and
battering of women, environmental struggles, and jobs,
education and housing--are all tied to fighting the war
drive.
"The racist dehumanization of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners in
Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib also demonstrates how violently
anti-trans, anti-gay and anti-woman the Pentagon culture of
conquest is. And some of those same torturers are police and
prison guards right here, like those whose brutal repression
sparked the Stonewall Rebellion. But from Stonewall to Baghdad,
Palestine to Haiti, repression generates resistance."
Rally-goers applauded the call to swell the ranks of the
July 25 protest at the Democratic National Convention in Boston
this summer in order to build a fight-back movement independent
of both parties of big business.
But the biggest cheers followed Fein berg's call for a
revolutionary movement "to overturn the economic system that
breeds war and racism and poverty."
Pointing to the skyscrapers that surround the Commons,
Feinberg said: "We built all of this collectively. It is
irrational that a wealthy few should claim to own it all. We
need to abolish this economic system and reorganize production
to provide jobs and housing, health care and education,
recreation and vacation for all who do the work of the
world."
The crowd roared its assent.
Reprinted from the June 24, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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