International Women’s Day panelists discuss how folks in DC can take action and get organized

Washington, DC – On March 8, International Women’s Day, community members and activists gathered at Sankofa Cafe in downtown D.C. for a panel discussion on the struggle for women’s liberation.

The event, hosted by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) DC, featured panelists that represented several sectors of struggle, including women’s rights, immigrant rights, anti-war and international struggles, oppressed nationalities movements, LGBTQ, and trans rights.

The panel featured Terra Martin from the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR), Yan Tagalog Maunes of Anakbayan DC (ABDC), a speaker representing Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) DMV, and a trans comrade from FRSO DC. The flier for the event included the slogans “Defend Women’s and Reproductive Rights!” “Stop the Deportations, Keep Families Together!” and “Stand with the Women of Palestine!”

The panel began with chants of “When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? stand up, fight back!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated!”

Kristen Bonner, the emcee for the event, gave a brief introduction on the history of women’s oppression, before introducing the panelists. The discussion opened with a dialogue on how Trump has affected the struggle for women’s rights, before turning to questions of how to combat this wave of renewed aggression against the people’s movements.

“It’s through the laws being passed that trans people are being oppressed,” said the panelist representing FRSO DC, “it’s because of those laws that all these reactionary tendencies are now being emboldened.”

“We want to avoid a repeat of the feminisms that we saw after the election of the Trump regime in 2016 that focused solely on the interests of white, cisgender bourgeoisie women,” said a member of PYM DMV.

“These movements are all connected intrinsically, they’re all interlinked” said the speaker from FRSO DC, “we need to join one struggle together, through a united front, because when we’re all together, we win.”

“They can’t take all of us out,” Terra Martin representing DCAARPR added, “we’re the village. If we go at them head on, they can’t stop us.”

The panel ended with the Assata Shakur chant and shared calls among the panelists for folks in attendance to get organized.

“My last question for today was going to be ‘What do y’all think is the key takeaway from today?’”

The emcee said in closing, “but I feel that y’all have already answered that resolutely – it’s organize, organize, organize!”

#WashingtonDC #WomensMovement #InternationalWomensDay #FRSO #PYM #NAARPR