Jan. 19 Women’s March in Hartford

On Jan. 19, the third annual Women’s March took place in cities all over the country. The Hartford march is reported to have 2,500 to 3,000 in attendance. The following excerpt is from CT News Junkie. See the full story at www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/20190119_womens_march_smaller_in_numbers_but_loud_with_its_message.

One of the organizers, Melissa Kane, said Connecticut has much to be proud of when it comes to pushing issues women care about.

“We need to thank the hundreds of women who ran for office,” she said as the crowd roared. She quickly added: “We are making a difference.” She noted that the Connecticut General Assembly saw a record number of women elected in 2018.

Originally spurred by the election of President Donald Trump, the Women’s March has become an annual event involving hundreds of thousands of women across the country who show up to demonstrate over issues, such as racial equality, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, health care access, and protections for the environment, among others.

In Hartford, as was the case across the country, many held signs poking fun at Trump, such as: “Lock Him Up!”

PAR wants to hear from our readers who attended any of the Jan. 19 marches for our next issue. Please send your reports to [email protected].

Thousands March Against Trump and Demand Equality

by LouAnn Villani, JVPNH and MECC

By a very rough count 10,000 women and male allies and their daughters marched and rallied in Hartford’s Capitol at the “Women’s March CT, Rise and Resist 2018.” I stood with members of Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven, the Middle East Crisis Committee and the Tree of Life Educational Foundation holding banners about imprisoned Palestinian women and watched people pass by us for 50 minutes.

There were lots of signs and banners with a funny and vulgar mix that mocked Donald Trump. There was a drawing of a uterus with the words “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Another very colorful sign said, “Elect a Clown, You Get a Circus.” A good number worked off his notorious “sh**hole” remark. One had a picture of Trump being flushed down a toilet.

A lot of signs were pro-immigrants and #BlackLivesMatter, including one large banner. Other signs were about elections, “Grab Them by the Midterms” and “I’m a Nasty Woman and I Vote.” Throughout the march, there were supporters of Planned Parenthood and women’s right to choose.

One sign I liked said “I March Because Silence Is Not an Option. I Will Not Be Complicit.” Several had the words ‘I Stand With Her” next to a photo of the Statue of Liberty. Many had the words “I Will Not Go Quietly Back to 1950s #Resist.”

For chants, a Latino contingent was loudest and most enthusiastic. And like last year people yelled, “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Donald Trump Has Got to Go,” “We Need a Leader, Not a Creepy Tweeter,” “Dump Trump” and “This is What Democracy Looks Like.”

Our banners had drawings and a photo of Ahed Tamimi, the 16-year-old Palestinian girl whom the Israelis arrested a month ago and are threatening to put in jail for years for slapping a heavily-armed Israeli soldier. Perhaps 100 people commented in support and took photos of us. We also gave out 1,000 half-page flyers which were snapped up in less than 30 minutes.

The march was fantastic, and we sent word of what we did to the Tamimi family in Palestine.

Mary Herron Takes Charge

by Brian Slattery, Jan 23, 2017

Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington inspired similar rallies from coast to coast, including a march in Hartford that drew several thousand people to the state capitol. In New Haven at 12:15 p.m., the Green was witness to its own rally. Set up by Yale liaisons to the D.C. march, it had begun at 11 a.m. at Beinecke Plaza on Yale’s campus, with chalk drawings and singing by an a cappella group.

By noon the group had made its way to the Green, where it marched the perimeter of its western half for an hour. Hundreds of people were involved in the protest, which at its largest stretched in a line on Church Street from the corner of Elm to the corner of Chapel.

With chants of “Fired up, ready to go,” “Women’s rights, human rights,” “Keep your hands off my sister,” and “Let’s dump Trump,” the march made a few laps around the Green. Bystanders smiled and waved. A city employee on her way to work yelled, “Thank you! We’re with you!” Cars honked as they passed by.

Source: Mary Herron Takes Charge | New Haven Independent

Women Roar Back to Trump on J21 and Pledge Resistance

by LouAnn Villani and Stanley Heller

Millions of women in the US and worldwide filled the streets in major and small cities to rebuke President Donald J. Trump for his contempt for women and threats to women’s basic rights over their bodies. It wasn’t just DC and NYC and LA. Numbers in smaller areas were astounding. 10,000 marched in Montpelier, VT, 12,000 in Oklahoma City, and thousands gathered in Columbia, SC. Rallies were held worldwide on seven continents, including Antarctica.

We were in NYC to march with Jewish Voice for Peace (CT). The JVP banner said “Resistance is the New Normal.” That was one of the key words of the day. People were not making appeals to Trump. Instead, there was a lot of anger and derision, much of it personal and some of it very vulgar. References to women’s private parts were on many signs and some referred to alleged Trump activities in Moscow like the sign that said “Urine Trouble.” Other signs read “A Woman’s Place Is in the Resistance,” “I Fight Like a Girl,” “Hands Off Our Bodies” and “United States of Nasty Mujeres.” Of course we just saw the signs in our area, a very small part of the sea of femininity.

Signs and chants weren’t limited to strictly women’s issues. Many chants talked about refugees, Black Lives Matter, the climate and the need to protect Muslim women. JVP and the Palestinian support group Adalah-NY chanted about Palestine. You can see a two-minute video of the signs with audio of a women singing a song from Adalah-NY at TheStruggle.org in its video section.

The question is what comes next. Some want to channel this back into the same old politics. That would be a disaster. If the warnings about Trump’s “fascist” ideas are true we don’t know if there even will be fair elections in our future. We also don’t want this to be seen as people disgruntled because Hillary and the Democrats lost. Truth be told that was much of the story of the last 8 years. Obama was at war every day of his presidency. His support for the Saudi and Israeli war-fare was disgusting, but so many gave him a pass because he was supposedly a progressive or someone who would listen sympathetically. During Obama’s presidency, rallies were small and very rarely was he mocked personally.

We need to discuss the ways people can resist without the politicians. We also need to talk about a far different future. For all the talk about the Obama “recovery” the election showed there are a lot of people in this super-rich country hurting badly, grasping at racist and women-hating solutions to their problems. The numbers people should have looked at were not the opinion polls, but the numbers on opioids, the numbers working three jobs to stay above water, and the number of “food insecure” children. If we call to go back to the warfare-welfare state we lose. We need to struggle for something far better.