A Feminist Future is the Hope of the Land

NEW YORK—On the third anniversary of the January explosion of women’s anger toward the pervasive and intensive misogyny in the United States of America, AF3IRM NYC re-affirms its commitment to work toward a feminist future for the people and the land. This bedrock revolt against oppression and exploitation of the majority population, not only of the USA, but of the globe, remains the shining vision of a just, equitable and sustainable life for humanity.

Pivotal to the liberation of women is the eradication of sex-based oppression and exploitation, which requires the removal of the male privilege of sexual access to female and feminized bodies. And crucial to the eradication of such would be the decriminalization of those who are bought and sold in the sex trade, while those who trade in bodies not their own, whether selling or buying, should bear the brunt of stigmatization and criminality.

In light of the life stories of Cyntoia Brown, Alexis Martin and hundreds of women, majority women of color, whose descent into crime was begun by being prostituted at a very young age, AF3IRM NYC recommits to the Purple Rose Campaign Against the Trafficking of Women and Girls. Trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the USA, fueled by profit-making and misogyny, and thriving on the twin gratifications of power and cruelty.

As women all over the continent and in various parts of the world take the day to celebrate womankind, we call for a return to advocacy and agitation for women’s issues and women’s causes. These are often sidelined and marginalized, like women and especially women of color, by supposedly “larger” issues which, nevertheless, remain irresoluble without women’s liberation.

We call for a return to the politics of women’s liberation and an overhaul of all social structures, institutions, traditions and beliefs which continue to strengthen patriarchy. We call on our sisters to occupy public spaces, to safeguard the gains of the women’s liberation movement, and to march forward to a feminist future.

At the heart of fascism lie the twin diseases of sexism and racism. Expose and oppose them.

There can be no social transformation without women’s liberation.

Defy Authority. Smash fascism. March on for our collective liberation.

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