Tallahassee, FL – Shouts cut through the gray skies outside Florida’s state capitol on March 8, International Women’s Day, as people gathered to mark the new phase in the fight for women’s rights that came with the second Trump administration. Hosted by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) alongside various community organizations, the rally brought out around one hundred people who braved the rain.

Trump's second term promises a new wave of attacks on women, especially on the right to abortion, transgender women's access to gender-affirming care, and protections from discrimination. Florida, with its Republican domination in the state legislature and fiercely far-right Governor Ron DeSantis, forms the front line for much of the GOP's sexist agenda.

“We're at a critical period in history,” said Delilah Pierre from the Tallahassee Community Action Committee. “We're either gonna go forward to a future for all of us, or backwards to a past for the few.”

The decision to rally at the Florida state capitol was particularly relevant. Abortion rights in Florida face a grim future, with DeSantis fiercely defensive of the state's current ban on abortion beyond the first six weeks – a time when many women don't even realize they're pregnant.

A recent attempt to enshrine abortion access in Florida's constitution, the Amendment 4 campaign, won 58% of the vote but was still 2% below the strict 60% threshold to pass.

Many speakers gave their personal experiences with patriarchy and the struggles women face to defend their equality in their schools and workplaces. “While we should be out here for our mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, partners, and friends, I dare you to find your loved ones in the stories of others and to fight for them like they are your own, because we are not free until we are all free,” said JJ Glueck from Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society.

The political system in the U.S. is still unable or unwilling to protect women from ongoing oppression. Many speakers and attendees expressed disillusionment with the two-party system and the power of ultra-rich men like Elon Musk. Joelle Nuñez, member of the FRSO, declared that “this system is not gonna come apart step by step. It's gonna come down in one big blow, because the whole damn system is rotten!”

After the rally, FRSO hosted an International Women’s Day discussion panel and concert at the Blue Tavern. The show featured the talents of local Latina artist-activist duo Isabela and Kristellys, as well as women and trans-led bands Degenerate State and hardtogetaholdof(untilyoucall).

Staring down four more years of right-wing attacks on women's rights and people's movements, organizers in Florida are refusing to sit down or give up. In Tallahassee, and in the cities across the country that joined them on International Women's Day, the people are standing up and fighting back.

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