top
Santa Cruz IMC
Santa Cruz IMC
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

International Women's Day Strike! - Santa Cruz

sm_international_womens_day_strike_santa_cruz.jpg
Date:
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
Time:
9:30 AM - 6:30 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
Santa Cruz General Strike Organizing Committe
Location Details:
Louden Nelson Community Center
301 Center St, Santa Cruz, California 95060

Following the January 21st Women’s March against Trump, the largest single protest in U.S. history, women in over 30 different countries have called for an International Women’s Strike -- a Day Without A Woman -- on March 8th, 2017, International Women’s Day.

March 8th will be a day of action organized by and for women who have been marginalized and silenced by decades of neoliberalism, and who are further threatened by Trump and his misogynist, racist policies. We call for solidarity with trans and queer people, Muslims, immigrants, people of color, sex workers, survivors of violence, currently and formerly incarcerated people, and oppressed people everywhere. We invite people of all genders to join in.

We demand an end to gender violence, and that rapists and sexual harassers be held accountable. We demand an end to ICE raids and deportations in our communities. We demand an end to police brutality. We demand free healthcare for all, including full access to reproductive and gender-affirming care. We demand free, community-centered child care and elder care. We demand full and free access to education. We demand affordable housing and a living wage.

Against the open white supremacists in the current government and the far right they have given confidence to, we stand for an uncompromising anti-racist and anti-imperialist feminism. This means that movements such as Black Lives Matter, the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration, the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the demand for open borders and for immigrant rights and for the decolonization of Palestine are for us the beating heart of this new feminist movement. We want to dismantle all walls, from prison walls to border walls, from Mexico to Palestine.

On March 8th, we call on people of all genders to pledge to go on strike, to refuse work and school, and to join us in building a new international feminist movement that fights not only against Trump, but against the conditions that produced Trump -- racial and sexual violence, environmental destruction, imperial wars abroad, and an economic system that puts profit before people. The only way we can move forward is together.

Schedule:
9:30 AM Free Brunch at Louden Nelson from Food not Bombs
11:30 AM Gather on Center St. in front of Louden Nelson, March Downtown and Rally at the Clock Tower
3-6 PM Workshops at Louden Nelson, the Santa Cruz Library, and SubRosa

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
Louden Nelson:
3-4pm Queer and Trans Struggles with The Diversity Center
4-5pm Intersectional Feminism
5-6pm Feminism Against Capitalism? with the Santa Cruz Solidarity Network

Upstairs at the Santa Cruz Library:
4-5pm Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime

SubRosa:
TBD

There will be a childcare area with activities throughout the day, by the Louden Nelson playground.
Added to the calendar on Wed, Mar 1, 2017 6:34PM
§
by Santa Cruz General Strike Organizing Committe
internationalwomensdaystrikehalfsheet.pdf_600_.jpg
§Updated Schedule
by Santa Cruz General Strike Organizing Committe
Schedule:
9:30 AM Free Brunch at Louden Nelson from Food not Bombs
11:30 AM Gather on Center St. in front of Louden Nelson, March Downtown and Rally at the Clock Tower
3-6 PM Workshops at Louden Nelson, the Santa Cruz Library, and SubRosa

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
Louden Nelson:
3-4pm Queer and Trans Struggles with The Diversity Center
4-5pm Intersectional Feminism
5-6pm Feminism Against Capitalism? with the Santa Cruz Solidarity Network

Upstairs at the Santa Cruz Library:
4-5pm Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime

SubRosa:
TBD

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Robert Norse
Happy to support "an end to gender violence, [holding]rapists and sexual harassers...accountable, an end to ICE raids and deportations, an end to police brutality, free healthcare for all, full access to reproductive and gender-affirming care, free, community-centered child care and elder care, full and free access to education, affordable housing and a living wage."

Glad to hear you're in solidarity with "Black Lives Matter, the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration, the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the demand for open borders and for immigrant rights and for the decolonization of Palestine."

I'm wondering how this movement stands regarding the local issue of institutional terrorizing of homeless people through the park curfews, the Sleeping Ban, the Downtown Ordinances, and local selective enforcement driving the unhoused out of Public Spaces? This issue is usually a taboo subject for Democratic (and Republican) party politicians and the establishments that support them.

Homeless women are a particularly abused and disadvantaged group. The nighttime Sleeping Ban in Santa Cruz denies everyone (particularly impacting vulnerable women) the right to sleep in safer groups, in well-lighted areas, or to use (if they dare) local police services. I'd hope that local organizers for the International Women's Day Strike would insist Decriminalizing the Homeless Locally be clearly and loudly included in the righteous litany of injustices.

The issue has long been buried under false "public safety" rhetoric and other toxic mythology here in order to maintain the City's progressive veneer. Demanding action locally on these issues--such as holding local police, the jail, the sheriffs, accountable for the deaths they have caused is a vital part of this--and one systematically sidelined or trampled by local courts, mayors, and legislative bodies.

Increasingly, the (5 woman, 2 man) Santa Cruz City Council, for instance, demonizes those forced to live outside because of their own "affordable housing" policies. 24-hour permit parking only signs have appeared in the streets surrounding the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center on Coral, Limekiln, and Fern streets in the Harvey West area. Councilwoman Richelle Niroyan's nighttime ban on RV's--expanding Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews relentless push to use permit parking laws to drive homeless (women) out of town--has prompted the County to pass its own vicious copycat law.

City Council passed a toothless Sanctuary ordinance last Tuesday, with most of the public locked out of Council chambers and officers lining the aisle and blocking the doorways. There has been no accountability for the the SCPD's collusion with ICE/DHS, nor any release of the documents that might clarify the truth of Chief Kevin Vogel's claims that he "knew nothing" about the raids--even with an imbedded ICE officer in his own department.

There's been no action to release the witness accounts in the Sean Arlt murder last October. Simply the usual endless time and publicity given to Official Accounts justifying the slaying. If light (and heat) is not thrown on the insecurity women (and men) feel about a "shoot to kill" SCPD police policy, then of what use are grand protests that do not hold local officials and institutions accountable?

I would ask the organizers to raise these issues and reassure poor women (and the rest of us) that their concern is both specific and local.
After weeks of planning political kids' activities for March 8 at Louden Nelson playground, the liberals associated with the Women's March have threatened to evict children from the playground of the local public park proximate to the space they rented for their celebratory brown bag lunch, after already threatening to call cops on our efforts to organize free brunch and childcare a number of times because we are framing our organizing as "anti-capitalist" and as a "gender strike." We've been continually antagonized by these local democrats and tomorrow morning we will be there in the playground with kids down to occupy and distribute free food and if these liberals try to kick us out or call the cops they'll have to do it in front of as many camera phones as we can get, because they are the ones being divisive, classist, anti-feminist, and anti-children, and we will make those contradictions loud and clear and widely publicized, hopefully with your help... see you at 9:30 at Louden Nelson.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network