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Feminism

Creation Is A Political Action, And A Writer Is A Politicised Person

On 1 October, the People’s Republic of China celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary. Our institute’s director, Vijay Prashad, and I co-wrote an article looking back at these revolutionary decades. Ding Ling (1904–1986) was a writer, feminist, and one of the countless communists who contributed to the Chinese Revolution, especially in the battle of ideas. This art bulletin, originally published in People’s Dispatch and translated by Capire, looks back at her life and work on the 120th anniversary of her birth. If twentieth century China was a century of revolutions, then legendary Chinese writer Ding Ling was forged out of those revolutions.

Imperialist Feminism: Canada Funds Haitian Human Rights Groups

The Canadian government funds several non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Haiti under the banner of promoting human rights. A significant portion of this funding is devoted to feminist and women’s advocacy groups in Haiti. Often in coordination with the United-Nations and private foundations, the Canadian government directly implicates itself in the governance of these NGOs. Other Canadian-funded programs in Haiti include leadership programs that provide training to individuals to participate in developing reforms related to governance. Key leaders in Haiti’s feminist movement are also long-time recipients of Canadian government funding.

The June Jordan-Audre Lorde Dispute, Kamala Harris, And Palestine

At a rally in Detroit Michigan on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, Kamala Harris chided pro-Palestine protesters. As they chanted “Kamala, Kamala You can’t Hide! We Won’t Vote for Genocide!” the self-proclaimed “top cop” shot back, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” This open contempt displayed by the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party came exactly two weeks after she met with Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated the United States’ unwavering commitment to the right of the colonial entity (“Israel”) to exist, and by extension, to continue its war-intensified genocide of Palestinians.

Two Years Since Abortion Rights Were Overturned In The United States

On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned protections for abortion rights nationwide, giving the green-light for states run by ultra-conservative politicians to implement draconian abortion bans. As a result, millions of women, concentrated in the poorest regions of the country, saw their reproductive rights taken away from them—systematically denied abortion even of cases of medical necessity or rape. The US Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization sparked a nationwide movement for abortion rights, spearheaded by major feminist and left-wing organizations as well as working people pouring into the streets.

How To Be A Nonviolent Second-Wave Feminist

During the 1970s and 1980s, many feminists pushed the armed forces to allow women to serve in combat. Many also organized to demand that police forces diversify and bring more women and people of color into their ranks. But this segment of the women’s movement did not represent everyone. A  smaller but hugely vocal constituency opposed violence, militarism, police expansion and colonialism, and argued that an equal opportunity to maim or kill would do nothing to create the equitable societies they sought to build. Unfortunately, their efforts often get short shrift in historical accounts of the era. The anthology, Feminism, Violence and Nonviolence zeroes in on the influence of pacifist thought on Second Wave feminism.

Streets Of Brazil Erupt In Fury Against The ‘Child Pregnancy Bill’

On Saturday, June 15, a demonstration against the bill that criminalizes legal abortion, dubbed the “Child Pregnancy Bill”, was held on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo. The protesters walked down Augusta Street towards downtown São Paulo. Bill Number 1904/2024 punishes those who provide abortions, as well as the woman receiving the abortion, with the same sentence applied in homicide cases—even for abortion procedures allowed by Brazil’s legislation. Since Wednesday, the bill has been processed on an urgent basis by the Chamber of Deputies, which means it doesn’t need to be assessed by commissions and can go straight to plenary voting.

All Black Feminisms Ain’t Created Equal

My initial introduction to radical feminist politics was through convoluted, often antagonistic online discourses, where past works of radical feminists are engaged, discussed, and ultimately flattened. Audre Lorde has always been among the most popularly referenced Black feminists cited online, for example, but always for her gender critical analysis (which could be used as fodder in heated discourse) and never for her anti-imperialist analysis. It’s much easier for one to gain attention and retweets through cherrypicking her words on gender and sexuality, but much less popular to dive into her works on the imperialist U.S. invasion of her homeland Grenada whose revolution emphasized the role of women in society, for example.

The Far Right Has Hijacked Chile’s New Constitutional Process

In 2019 the nation of Chile was shaken by a mass protest movement that has come to be known as the Social Explosion. A central demand of the Social Explosion was the abolition of the current constitution drafted in 1980 under US-backed fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet. In 2020, Chileans overwhelmingly voted for a new constitutional process in a referendum. However, just two years later, a plebiscite overwhelmingly rejected a new proposed constitution. Since then, the far right has hijacked the process by stacking the constituents to create another constitutional draft with their own representatives.

Mexico’s Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationally

On Wednesday, September 6, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) unanimously ruled to decriminalize abortion at the national level. The SCJN resolved that the legal system that criminalizes abortion in the Federal Penal Code is unconstitutional as it violates the human rights of women and people with capacity for pregnancy. The ruling came two years after the SCJN first declared criminal penalties for abortion as unconstitutional and ordered the northern State of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code in September 2021. The ruling was in response to a case filed in 2018 challenging a criminal law in the Coahuila State legislation that punished women and pregnant individuals for terminating their pregnancy.

Proletariat Of The Proletariat: Women’s Unpaid Labor

The pandemic brought the spotlight on many of the wrongs of capitalism, among them the issue of unpaid labor. The term unpaid labor is generally associated with care work—care for children, the elderly, the sick, and the family—mostly considered “women’s work.” For the majority of care work, capitalism does not provide any remuneration; instead, the “payment” is societal – praise for women’s “motherly nature” while violating all their rights as members of the working class, thus making women what I call “the proletariat of the proletariat.” Although gender-based discrimination in the working class has existed since the establishment of private property, as explained by Engels in his well-known treatise The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884), the matter came into sharper focus during the pandemic.

France’s Pension Protests Are A Feminist Reckoning

The situation is set to get worse under France’s controversial pension reform, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increases the contributions necessary for a full pension from 42 to 43 years of full-time, uninterrupted work. The reform — which was forced through parliament without a vote on March 16 — has ignited mass opposition, with a March 28 survey showing seven out of 10 French people disapproving of the change.

Individual And Collective Steps Towards A Post-Patriarchal Life

When we are in the grip of patriarchal systems and conditioning, our vision is stunted and replaced, all too often, with the belief inculcated in us that there is no alternative or that what we have is the best option even if it’s flawed. In defiance of this, we can embrace the radical possibility of shifting from the patriarchal social order built on scarcity, separation, and powerlessness to living, again, in alignment with life’s flow. I offer, here, a feminist vision of a global maternal gift economy and describe pathways to moving towards it from exactly where we currently are, both collectively and individually.

Two Women Seek To Decolonize Thru-Paddle And Canoe

Lake Itasca, MN – Embarking on a voyage to feminize and “decolonize” the wilderness, two women in a canoe have started their expedition down the entirety of the Mississippi River. Immigrant Indigenous Latina, Cory Maria Dack, who’s also a transracial transnational adoptee, along with Espoir DelMain, a queer white woman are aiming to empower and inspire others to enjoy the outdoors and connect with nature.  On a sunny Sunday afternoon in August, friends and family gathered at the Mississippi Headwaters in northern Minnesota to witness the launch of Cory Dack and Espoir DelMain’s 2,552 mile thru-paddle of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Dack and DelMain said they would like to “decolonize the concept of ‘thru-paddling’ to empower and inspire others from underrepresented demographics to see the wilderness as a place where they belong as well.” 

United Nations Women And Blackrock

An open letter signed by 700-plus feminist groups and activists sent on Aug. 8 to UN Women, protesting a recently announced partnership between the agency and BlackRock, a United States-based hedge fund, resulted in the cancellation of the arrangement. The letter pointed out that BlackRock personifies “crisis-prone speculation-based capitalism” and that the May 25 joint press releases announcing the partnership by both parties offered no useful or explicit details on what it would accomplish. Such vagueness, the letter writers contended, could give UN Women the appearance of “pinkwashing” BlackRock, since there was no clear benefit for gender equality stated in the partnership goals.

How Latin America Could Inform The US Fight For Reproductive Justice

When Dobbs vs. Jackson was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, overturning Roe v. Wade, the case drew all eyes to reproductive rights issues in the United States. For half a century, advocates around the world looked to Roe v. Wade as a landmark decision and advocacy model for reproductive justice. But the Dobbs decision now places the United States behind other countries that center women’s autonomy and human dignity in the regulation of abortion. As Latin American feminist advocates, we have seen firsthand how the lack of access to safe and legal abortions has impacted the life and health of many women, girls, and pregnant people across the Western hemisphere. Making access to sexual and reproductive health services a reality is a matter of social justice, democracy, and human rights.

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Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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