Women’s Equality Day speak-out on today’s struggles

Alicia Boyd, Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network
Angelica Lara from the Ayotzinapa Student Front
IWWD Coalition Co-chair Candice Sering; Bernadette Ellorin, BAYANUSA; Shagaysia Diamond, Audre Lorde Project/TransJustice
Darlene Bryant
Elma Relian
City Councilwoman Inez Barron
Janviere Williams, Panamanian activist
Joyce Kanowitz, Workers World Party People with Disabilities Caucus
KaLisa Moore
Supporter of Kyam Livingston, who was killed by NYPD.
Laborers Local 79 Women’s Committee
Lourdes Garcia, Call to Action for Puerto Rico
Sister Dequi, Malcolm X Commemoration Committee
The magnificent Vinie Burrows
Brenda Stokely, IWWD Coalition co-chair
Monica Moorehead, IWWD Coalition co-chair
Nerdeen Kiswani, Students for Justice in Palestine

August 26 was the 95th anniversary of U.S. women’s hard-won right to vote, fought for by a fierce national suffragist movement and won in 1920. To mark this historic occasion and the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and to also discuss contemporary struggles impacting poor women, working women and women of color in the U.S. and worldwide, the International Working Women’s Day Coalition held a speakout at Union Square Park in New York City. There was a major focus in words and signs on the current Black Lives Matter upsurge against rampant racism, including police terror.

The speakout was co-chaired by Coalition member KaLisa Moore from the People’s Power Assembly and Co-chair Candice Sering from Gabriela USA. Hundreds of people heard speeches and cultural performers on the growing movements to end all forms of attacks on women’s human rights, including violence, and about their political and economic exploitation rooted in capitalism and imperialism.

The speakout got off to a rousing start with longtime activist and actor, Vinie Burrows, re-enacting a famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” made at the first National Women’s Rights Conference in 1850 by Sojourner Truth, a former slave who became an activist against slavery and for women’s rights.

City Councilwoman Inez Barron spoke on a current bill up for debate, aimed at ending all secretive grand juries for cases involving police. These grand juries have overwhelmingly sided with the police whenever a person of color is killed, giving the police impunity.

Some of the other speakers represented the struggles in Puerto Rico against the debt crisis; for the on­going efforts to free all U.S. political prisoners; in Palestine against the U.S.-backed Zionist occupation; in Mexico and the Philippines to stop repression; for transgender rights; against domestic violence, gentrification and homelessness; for $15 now! and a union; and to demand reparations for Indigenous and people of African ­descent.

See video highlights at: youtu.be/kRVbAMolPeY

The beautiful photos are by Claudia Palacios and Brenda Ryan.

Monica Moorehead

Monica.Moorehead@workers.org

Share
Published by
Monica Moorehead

Recent Posts

Ohio 1924: How workers beat back the Ku Klux Klan

While growing up in Niles, Ohio — a suburb of Youngstown — my step-grandmother and…

October 12, 2024

79th anniversary: Workers’ Party of Korea is a party of the people

For 79 years, the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) has been a revolutionary socialist party…

October 11, 2024

AI: The machine intelligence of imperialism – The media of digital capital

Part 1 of this series discussed “Digital labor and material” (workers.org/2024/04/78192/), and Part 2 discussed…

October 11, 2024

Will there be another auto strike? Class conflict sharpens at Stellantis

Warren, Michigan United Auto Workers union members are getting ready to vote to authorize a…

October 11, 2024

Why we must oppose ALL executions

Houston In 1988 a man on Texas death row asked me to witness his execution.…

October 10, 2024

75 years German Democratic Republic: What remains?

Workers World publishes here the speech by Egon Krenz, who was one of the last…

October 10, 2024