© Karloa Cote / FlickrMarchers in the Women's March in New York City on January 21st, 2017.
As thousands of women, and men, dust off their pink pussy hats ahead of this weekend's anniversary Women's March, we are seeing many of the divisions that riddled last year's rallies surface again. Thankfully, we are also witnessing the emergence of a solid alternative to the shortcomings of imperial feminism.
This is most obvious in Los Angeles, where Scarlett Johansson is scheduled to be a featured speaker. In 2014, Johansson
stepped down from her role as an ambassador for the global charity organization Oxfam, which she had represented for eight years, so she would keep endorsing SodaStream, the Israeli sparkling water company with a factory in an illegal West Bank settlement. Johansson, who says she does not regret her decision, had also spoken at last year's march, in DC, but
her presence at this year's rally, in Los Angeles, is being challenged more vigorously.An Open Letter and
petition asking the organizing committee to engage in genuine intersectionality and
not erase Palestinian women's experience has gathered thousands of signatures at the time of this writing and is still going strong as a number of progressive organizations, including the southern California-based PAWA, (the Palestinian American Women's Association), Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and al-Awda: the Palestine Right of Return Organization have endorsed it. The Open Letter invites marchers interested in featuring Palestinian women's oppression to join the anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist
International Women's Strike, scheduled in March on International Women's Day. PAWA, which had been invited to speak at the Los Angeles march, later issued its own
statement explaining that it "cannot in good conscience partner itself with an organization that fails to genuinely and thoughtfully recognize when their speaker selection contradicts their message" of inclusivity "focused on marginalized voices."
Comment: The Turkish-backed "Syrian Interim Government" has announced that military operations with Turkish-backing has not only begun in Afrin, but also in Manbij. Anadolu news agency and Al Mayadeen confirmed fighting in Azaz. 153 targets were hit as of last night, according to Ankara. So NATO member Turkey is fighting the SDF, who are supported by NATO member U.S. What a concept! See also:
- Behind the Headlines: Turkey Launches Military Operation Against Syrian Kurdish 'Rebels'
According to the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, over a thousand women and children have fled from Afrin.According to a Kurdish representative in Moscow, Rodi Osman, SDF militants struck five positions of the Turks/FSA, forcing them to retreat from the territory they had gained. Osman claimed that 17 civilians had been killed, 28 injured, along with 10 Turkish soldiers and 20 rebels killed. However, Anadolu claimed that the Turks had established control over 11 positions in Afrin, including Shankal, Korne, Bali, Ada, Manli, among others.
See also: