News and Views from the People's Struggle
Milwaukee, WI – To end the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine’s (WCJP) Day of Action with an exclamation point, the Milwaukee International Women’s Day Coalition convened hundreds for the celebration of this important working-class holiday.
March 8th is celebrated around the world as International Women’s Day. In the United States, the rights of women, including reproductive rights, are currently under attack by right-wing reactionaries. The movement to defend and expand these rights is gaining momentum and takes inspiration from struggles waged around the world. For International Women’s Day 2024, Freedom Road Socialist Organization would like to emphasize showing solidarity with the brave and courageous women of Palestine as they fight not only for their own lives, but for the lives of their families and all the people of Palestine struggling against Zionist oppression. We encourage all those who support peace and justice to take action and celebrate International Women’s Day by holding a demonstration, march, program or gathering.
Minneapolis, MN – On January 28, over 60 protesters rallied in front of Abria Pregnancy Resources, a so-called “crisis pregnancy center,” or CPC, to demand its removal from the Northside neighborhood.
Protesters held signs and banners demanding an end to fake clinics, while chanting “Pass more bills, secure our pills!” and “Fund abortion, make it free, fuck the right and CPCs!” Passersby expressed their support vocally and by honking their car horns.
Abria, one of four anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers'' located in Minneapolis, utilizes deceptive tactics and medically inaccurate information to pressure pregnant people out of getting an abortion. Most of the funding for CPCs comes directly from right-wing evangelical backers.
CPCs set up shop in low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods like the Northside, knowing that pregnant people seeking abortion resources would have nowhere else to turn to.
Jae Yates, speaking for Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J), referring to Abria’s predatory practices, said, “This isn’t about human rights, it's about controlling people’s behavior and controlling their bodies and trying to force them to conform to a system of religion that they may or may not believe in.”
Samantha Alsadi, from the Anti-War Committee, spoke of her own personal experience with a CPC when she was seeking abortion resources. “I instantly felt unwelcomed,” Alsadi said, “but didn’t know what else to do. The staff assured me that everything I said to her would remain confidential and under no circumstances would anything I say to her be revealed to anyone else, but here she was telling someone else, getting the police involved, and calling my parents.”
Aldadi continued, “They manipulate people by portraying themselves as some resourceful place someone can go to for help, when all the while they’re only there to scare and coerce people into making decisions the facility wants them to make.”
“Black people have historically chosen abortion as a means to protect from material conditions. As early as when Black people were considered property Black mothers performed their own abortions in an attempt to protect unborn children from enslavement,” another speaker on behalf of TCC4J said. She told of her mother’s experience: “No one explained the health risks to her, the emotional responsibility, the vulnerability, no one explained abortion to her as anything more than a sinful option. She deserved more and that is another reason why I stand here today to fight.”
Alé Guzman, a member of the MN Abortion Action Committee, spoke to the way CPCs drain community resources, saying, “The physical space they use can be utilized a hundred times over for better capacities than a fake reproductive healthcare clinic. This could've been a community bodega, this could’ve been a family's source of income, future and dream. Yet Abria takes up space where they are not needed: shame on you!”
This protest against Abria Pregnancy Resources was organized by the MN Abortion Action Committee and the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar.
#MinneapolisMN #WomensMovement #ReproductiveRights #MNAAC #TCC4J
Milwaukee, WI – Vice President Kamala Harris visited Big Bend, Wisconsin on January 22, on the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, for a stop on her “Reproductive Freedom Tour.” Pro-Palestine and pro-choice activists held an action to fight back against the hypocrisy.
The Biden-Harris administration has refused all calls for cutting aid to Israel to stop the genocide in Palestine and continues to bomb Yemen, and Wisconsin does not have full and free access to abortion.
Madison, WI – On January 22, pro-choice activists from across the state, medical providers and community members flooded a public hearing for the Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care.
The choice activists were there to oppose an anti-abortion referendum being added to Wisconsin’s April 2024 election ballot. The referendum would ban abortion six weeks earlier than the current state statute, making accessing abortion services even more challenging in the state.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the University of Minnesota chapter of Students for a Democratic Society
Minneapolis, MN – 15 University of Minnesota students and staff members gathered in the rain outside of UMN’s Morrill Hall on February 14 for a Valentine’s Day-themed rally hosted by Students for a Democratic Society and AFSCME demanding the expansion of abortion access across all University of Minnesota campuses.
Across the world for more than 100 years, March 8th has been a day to honor the contributions of women to the people's struggle. International Women's Day is a day to build resistance to gender-based oppression. Freedom Road Socialist Organization will take this celebration into the streets with marches and protests to build this struggle. We call upon all progressive people to join us in celebrating International Women's Day.
Grand Rapids, Michigan – People across Michigan are celebrating a victory with the passing of Proposal 3 which restores abortion rights in Michigan. Proposal 3 passed with 56.7% voting yes and 43.3% voting no.
Chicago IL – On November 7, more than 30 activists from Students for a Democratic Society and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization gathered for a march at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Students demanded the administration open a reproductive health clinic on campus and provide free birth control for all students. The protest is part of an ongoing campaign by Students for a Democratic Society to demand the university do more to defend women’s and reproductive rights in the face of the mounting Republican attacks.