Millions of Women Lead the Way, Declaring:
No to Trump’s Wall! – Yes to Asylum-Seekers! – Defend the Caravans’ March to Freedom! – The Women’s March Greets the Courageous Women Leaders of the Caravans!
For a printable copy of this page click HERE
Full Defense of the Right of Asylum!
Let the Caravans in!
No Child Separation! No Detention! No Deportations!
Shut Down Immigrant Concentration Camps!
No Concentration Camps At The Mexican Border!
Trump, America’s Abuser-in-Chief Must Go or Be Removed By Any Means Necessary!
Impeach Trump Now! Open the Federal Government Now! The Answer to a Misogynist Presidency is to Bring Trump Down!
- CALL TO ACTION: The Resistance must mobilize to ensure that Congress does not cave in to Trump’s border wall
Everyone, including Trump, knows that building his wall has nothing to do with border security. Trump’s border wall is a monument to racism, a counter to the Statue of Liberty, a giant declaration that the Latina/o population of the Western Hemisphere are not welcome here. To the population of Latin America Trump’s wall would say; you can’t come in. To the Latina/o people who are already a part of America the Trump’s wall would say; you don’t belong here. Trump’s wall proposal has always made clear to his base that “Make America Great Again” means “Make America White Again.”
It is for this reason that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is completely right to declare that Trump’s wall is “immoral.” It is for this reason that the movement against Trump is completely right to understand his wall as a direct attack on everything the Statue of Liberty has stood for in American history. Because Donald Trump’s wall would be so fundamental an attack on a basic principle of American liberty, it is in the truest sense of the term an act of tyranny for Trump to shut down a major part of the government to force Congress to build a wall that a majority of Congress and the majority of the American people oppose. It is therefore essential that Speaker Pelosi, Congressional Democrats, and other anti-Trump members of Congress maintain their principled rejection of Trump’s wall and his blackmail to get it, both because it is vital to stop the wall and because it is essential that Congress not in any way ratify a Trump tyranny. American Democracy really is at stake.
The Attack on the Mueller Report and Steps Toward Tyranny;
To Win, an Independent Movement Must Defeat Trump’s New Jim Crow
It is generally recognized that the investigation headed by Robert Mueller and the report expected to come out of that investigation have been until now the only official government process creating a basis for checking and bringing an end to the Trump Presidency’s authoritarian tendencies and corruption. But Trump has been able to use his majority in the U.S. Senate to create serious threats to the Mueller investigation and the publication of its reports. With the Senate confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court last October and the impending confirmation of William Barr as Attorney General, the Mueller investigation itself is threatened and there’s a real danger that the Mueller report may never see the light of day.
All these and other threats to democracy make clear that the House Democrats must, at the very least, start impeachment proceedings now. Waiting for the Mueller report is not necessary and could be a terrible mistake if the Mueller process is sabotaged by Trump. The only real way Congress could offer some protection for Mueller would be to open its own procedure in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Millions of people expressed their anger over the the confirmation of Kavanaugh, the refusal of Democratic Party leadership to fight to win, and Trump’s continued atrocities at the border and attacks on democracy – by repeated national mass demonstrations like today’s Women’s March, thousands of local protests, the militant airport occupations against Trump’s original anti-Muslim travel ban, confrontations to shut down neo-fascist organizing and by voting in a record number of progressive women and minority representatives to Congress in the 2018 election.
We must understand that the new representatives are only as strong as the movement. It’s the strength of the movement and the leadership and and support for the caravan and for immigrant rights that has so far forced the Democratic House majority to stand up to Trump and not cave in to his demand for his wall. We must take this opportunity to remobilize into the streets. If the last two years have taught us anything, it is that we cannot rely on the politicians to save us; we must rely on our own collective power to win, on ourselves and each other.
Right now, Trump appears to be on the ropes, digging his own grave with a massive temper tantrum that is holding hostage government jobs and services that so many Americans depend on. Right now, the Democrats seem to be holding firm against Trump’s demand for his wall. If we fail to mobilize our full strength to force him out of office now under these circumstances, the Democrats could fold under pressure. Their chronic timidity and their fear of our movement could win out, and Trump could be rehabilitated again as he has been before, like the racist Frankenstein’s monster of American history rising again to wreak havoc on the world. If we allow this to happen, Trump could still be re-elected in 2020, because he will have kept the only promise, the only thing he has to offer his racist base – attacks on immigrants.
In 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King provided a classic explanation of what is most fundamental to the politics of a Donald Trump and his wealthy supporters. Dr. King pointed out that the only thing the rich white southern aristocracy had to offer poor white people was a strange bird called Jim Crow.
And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man.
Scapegoating immigrants is Donald Trump’s New Jim Crow. If we defeat Trump’s attacks on immigrants, we defeat Trump.
The Urgency of Now- Trump’s removal from the presidency is long overdue; Victory is within reach – Impeachment Must Start Now!
We are at a critical turning point. Trump and his entire presidency is in limbo, his corrupt lawyers are being sent to jail and his organizations shut down for corruption. The majority of people in the U.S. are opposed to Trump’s border wall, and support the rights of the people of caravan to seek asylum in the U.S. As opposition grows against Trump’s government shut down now in its fourth week, as a new mega caravan is entering Mexico, we are in a strong position – it’s time to put words into action. We must build the movement every way we can to defend the right of people in the caravans to cross into the United States to seek asylum, and to defeat Trump and his wall by any means necessary.
We have already shown that our movement has the social power to defeat Trump. What we need is leadership that will fight until we win. The day after Trump’s inauguration, as millions of people across the globe took to the streets to declare their opposition to the racist, ultranationalist, and misogynist Trump presidency, it was clear two opposing forces were emerging. The massive mobilizations in Washington D.C. and in hundreds of cities around the world gave our movement the confidence in our own power and we continued to organize mass demonstrations, walkouts, strikes, and, above all, the airport occupations that succeeded in defeating Trump’s first Muslim ban. We were beating Trump’s attacks. But in the following months, the movement retreated, relying on Democratic Party politicians and their false promises and calls for moderation, allowing them to demoralize our movement. That opening has allowed Trump’s presidency to continue despite scandal after scandal, and has emboldened his racist and fascist supporters to carry out an unprecedented number of racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic violent attacks, murders, mass shootings. His attacks on LGBT rights have led to a huge spike in murders of transgender women in particular, and his defense and promotion of misogyny has given the green light to sexually assault women, a right that was rubber-stamped by the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The outrage over Trump’s mass abuse of immigrant children, separating thousands of children from their parents, holding them in concentration camps along the border, then the battle over Kavanaugh have profoundly deepened the political divide. Christine Blasey Ford’s brave and heroic testimony against Brett Kavanaugh, stood in stark contrast to the unhinged misogynists’ ravings of Senate Republicans and Kavanaugh himself, repeating one after the other the long-discredited arguments used to silence women trying to fight against sexual assault. The whole spectacle of the Republicans’ rabid, foaming at the mouth, sexist bullying in reality showed their terrified vulnerability in the face of the collective power of so many women inspired to come forward and publicly name the men who raped them.
- Immigrants in the Caravan Lead the way; the Movement in the US Must Join the March!
The migrants in the caravan, through their massive march for freedom, are leading the way in the fight against the biggest threat to human rights in the US and the world, Donald Trump. The bold leadership of women and youth of the caravans, determined to reach the U.S. are the most dynamic force in the immigrant rights movement and the resistance – It’s time for the movement in the US to join the march and make the demands of the caravan our central focus, in words, and in action. The resistance, led by immigrants, women, youth is the only force that can resolve the humanitarian crisis at the border, and defeat Trump’s wall by opening the borders. Women have been the most dynamic leaders in the caravan, as in the Resistance against Trump. The large number of women and children who are coming to the U.S. first, paving the way for their families, has distinguished the character of the recent caravans. The increased organization and mass public character of the caravans has been the best, safest way to travel. This safety in numbers provides the best protection against the pervasive rape and sexual assault, kidnapping, trafficking of women and children trying to make their way to the U.S.
The world has watched in horror as Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy has separated thousands of children from their families, holding them in concentration camps, from an out-of-business Walmart to tent cities; as news broke that ICE ‘lost’ 1,500 children; as reports have surfaced that children are regularly beaten, sexually assaulted, forced to sleep on cold floors with aluminum blankets in cages, given the term ‘ice boxes’; and the tragic deaths of the three children from Guatemala, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonso, who died in custody, and toddler Mariee Juarez who died from a severe respiratory infection just after being released. These children died because of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policies and because of Trump’s policies of bottling up people in Mexico who want to apply for asylum in the U.S.- exposed to the cold and rain and illness, then held in I.C.E. custody, dehydrated, refused medical treatment until it was too late.
In response to the public indignation and protests held at the border near the detention centers and in cities across the country, Trump responded by creating concentration camps in the desert called “family reunification.” Although the media coverage of family separation and child detention centers has dwindled, the number of children being held in I.C.E. custody in concentration camps along the border has skyrocketed and continues to increase, reaching 14,000 by Christmas of 2018. Many of the children’s parents have been deported and lost any kind of contact with their children, maybe forever.
It’s time for this horror to be ended by decisive mass action. The best protection for immigrants crossing the border against violence from ICE, Border Patrol Agents and racist vigilante forces, is American citizens joining the caravan and crossing the border together. This is also the strongest protection against the continued separation of children from their families, and the ability of ICE and CPB to ‘lose track of’ children in detention. Mass mobilizations to shut down detention centers can embolden the people inside detention to take collective action to fight for themselves and for their freedom.
Trump’s zero tolerance policy of separating children from their parents and holding children in detention was meant to stop the caravans, to deter people from trying to come to the U.S. As new and even larger and stronger caravans have continued to make their way, Trump is trying to stop them before they reach the U.S. border, forcing people to ‘register’ and wait in line in Mexico, denying them their legal right to enter the U.S. and request asylum from inside the country. Along with this policy of bottling up immigrants at crossing points, a set of gross inhumane anti-immigrant Trump laws carried out by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the right to seek asylum for victims of domestic and sexual violence, as well as gang violence were virtually eliminated. While this was temporarily halted by a federal district court, it would likely be upheld if it reaches the current pro-Trump, racist, anti-immigrant U.S. Supreme Court majority.
The only thing making it possible for Trump to carry out his illegal ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy is the cooperation of Mexican President Obrador. Obrador has sheepishly gone along with Trump’s attacks, forcing the people of the caravan to camp out in the streets or in shelters under terrible, dangerous conditions, and turning Tijuana into a massive refugee camp. He has been
prepared to call out federal police to brutally attack people and raid their tents in the middle of the night.
These attacks, by both U.S. and Mexican police, including tear-gassing people with children attempting to cross the border, has strengthened the resolve of many of the people to stand their ground and barricade and block police from entering shelters. These government policies are completely contrary to the majority of Mexican people who have overwhelmingly opened their doors in small towns and big cities alike providing whatever help they can give to people in the caravans, from a place to stay, food, clothing and medicine and even rides in their vehicles. The people of Tijuana have responded to Obrador’s and Trump’s attacks on the caravan by taking people into their homes.
The fight of the caravan and the immigrant rights movement in the U.S., Mexico and Central America must make clear Obrador cannot do Trump’s dirty work. Obrador is the weak link in this policy. He ran as a left wing candidate who had previously compared Trump to Hitler, and every day he carries out Trump’s barbaric attacks on the caravan, he loses credibility with the Mexican people. The spirit of active support and international solidarity among peoples across borders, for this ongoing march, is stronger than any racist and wrong governmental attacks to stop this Exodus towards Freedom.
- The Fight for Women’s Equality – WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN THE RESISTANCE
Winning equal rights for women means getting rid of Trump, and the fight to get rid of Trump requires the bold leadership of women. Every time there has been a rise in struggle for women’s equality, the driving force has been the determination of women to be political leaders in the most dynamic movements that have changed the course of history; from the Abolitionist movement to the Resistance against Trump.
Last October the world watched riveted over the courage of survivor Christine Blasey Ford in her heroic testimony against then Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Despite threats on her life, Dr. Ford made the decision to testify publicly because she considered it her civic duty to defend democracy against what she knew would be a dangerous step toward Trump’s consolidation of unchecked executive power. The brave actions of women like Christine Blasey Ford, the #metoo movement and the many other women who they have inspired to come forward and publicly name their rapists, placed the question of sexist inequality and abuse of women front and center in the struggle to stop Trump’s attacks on democracy, creating a real shift in popular consciousness in favor of believing women and survivors. They have brought the private struggle of millions of individual women who have been silenced by the victim-blaming and cover-up, out into the public light, so our movement can put the rapists and those who protect them on trial. We have shown we have the collective power to win real victories and hold rapists accountable even when the school administrations, politicians and courts refuse to provide justice. Our struggle is only beginning to shake the foundations of the society in which rape and the constant threat of rape are the worst weapons used against women.
JOIN BAMN
BAMN is committed to building that leadership and developing a new generation of women fighters who are learning to face head on and fight through the enormous pressure, the sexist abuse women political leaders face. We believe we can win because we do not make the mistake of limiting ourselves, to crumbs, to a seat at the table, for token representation and individual career success. Because our movement is international, and we are fighting for fundamental equality and freedom for all of humanity, for a new kind of society. We are fighting to put the oppressed in power. The future of democracy, freedom, of humanity is in our very capable hands. Our movement must take the leadership of the women in the caravan and to keep marching forward by any means necessary. In the blazen words of one of the greatest American leaders in the fight against slavery and for freedom, Harriet Tubman:
If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches, in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.
-Harriet Tubman.
[01-18-2019]
