In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Tag: Do Something

Protest the NYC Cops’ Rape Acquittal

A few local feminists, including Lori Adelman, Erica Sackin, Julie Klausner, the women of Permanent Wave and myself are organizing a rally tomorrow, Friday May 27th, to protest the acquittal of two police officers and to demand that the NYPD institute regular and ongoing trainings on sexual assault and harassment for all the members of its force, and institute a zero-tolerance policy for assault and sexual harassment on the job.

So come rally with us! The details:

When: Friday May 27, 5-7pm

Where: In front of the Manhattan Criminal Court building at 100 Centre Street.

How: Public Transportation Directions:
…Take the No. 4 or 5 train to the Brooklyn Bridge Station; the C, N, R, 6 train to Canal Street; the 1 train to Franklin Street.
Take the 1, 6 or 15 bus line.

Why: On Thursday May 26, New York police officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata were found not guilty of charges that Moreno raped a woman in her apartment while Mata kept guard, despite the fact that the amount of evidence against the officers in this case was overwhelming. Instead, the jury convicted both officers of official misconduct for entering the woman’s apartment, but found them not guilty of all other charges, including burglary and falsifying business records. This despite the fact that one of the officers had been recorded on tape admitting to using a condom when having sex with the woman who made the accusation. The cornerstone of the defense required that the woman was too drunk to have a credible account of the incident, but sober enough to consent to sex.

Join us in protest. Because raping a drunk women while on patrol is more than “official misconduct”. Because calling 911 should not be an invitation to be raped. Because NO behavior, including being drunk, is an invitation to be raped. Because rapists do not deserve the protection of our tax-funded police department and city officials. Because we recognize this incident as part of the NYPD’s long, horrific history of violence – sexual and otherwise – often and disproportionately against people of color. Because the people of NYC will not accept victim-blaming, cronyism, and a culture of silence that allows rapists to roam free, without consequence.

Things I Have Never Done That I Would Like To Do Before the World Ends

illustration of god's giant hand

So, the bad news is that we’re all going to die. The good news is that we know when we’re going to die, so we can blow our life savings this week to do all the things we’ve always wanted to do.

Unfortunately, my life savings is somewhere in the low four figures (and my debts hover in the six figures), so, no trips to Antarctica for me. But! There are free and relatively (relative to my impending death) cheap things that I have never done, but which can be done in the next few days before the world ends. My top seven apocalypse-is-nigh to-do list:

1. Heroin.

Read More…Read More…

Supporting Abortion Rights Throughout the UK

This is a guest post by Hannah. Hannah is a writer and activist in sunny London town. She blogs about gender, disability, and whatever else is sticking in her teeth, over at give the feminist a cigarette.

Being a UK lady-blogger and reading predominantly US blogs, when reading about abortion in the States, you succumb to a feeling of intense relief and – it has to be admitted – insufferable smugness.

“Oh, you wacky Americans, with your testifying foetuses and ‘forcible rape’ clauses! Your Hyde Amendment and your clinic bomb attacks! Thank heavens,” we sigh, “that we live in such an reproductive-rights-loving climate where religion does not dictate what happens in our baby-makers. Sure, it’s not exactly an abortion-on-demand paradise round here, what with two doctors having to agree that continuing your pregnancy will send you mad, bad or sad before they’ll sign you off for the prodedure. Sure, we have oddball MP Nadine Dorries, who’s apparently trying to use her entire political career to reduce the abortion time limit and bring in abstinence-only sex ed, but she’s in a tiny minority, and abortion’s still legal in the UK, so what’s the problem? Everything’s fine, right?”

Well, yes, everything’s dandy – if you’re from mainland Britain. But in many parts of the UK, things are very different. The law is much more restrictive in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, where abortion provision is limited or even non-existent. In Northern Ireland, terminating a pregnancy is illegal in almost every circumstance (including where the pregnancy results from rape, or will cause serious illness). Women in Northern Ireland pay the same taxes as I do, the NHS operates in the same way there as it does here – and yet they are not entitled to this key aspect of health care.

Similarly, abortion remains illegal in the Republic of Ireland, except in notoriously fuzzily-defined circumstances: one of the plaintiffs in the recent ABC Case was suffering from a rare form of cancer which would have proved fatal had she continued the pregnancy – yet she was unable to find a single doctor who was willing to sanction an abortion.

They can, of course, nip across the water and have the procedure here. Which is super! If they can come up with the cash for flights, accommodation, and the abortion itself, at a moment’s notice! Which isn’t a big deal, right? I mean, who among us couldn’t lay their hands on anywhere up to £2,000 just like that? It wouldn’t be that traumatic to travel hundreds of miles from home – probably alone, because who could you tell? – to undergo a medical procedure in a strange city where you don’t know anyone. Right?

Which is where I start to plug. Denizens of Feministe, I give you: the Abortion Support Network.

We are a tiny grassroots charity offering grants, accommodation, and support to women who are forced to travel from Ireland and Northern Ireland to access a safe abortion. We’re entirely volunteer-run, our budget is miniscule, and we’ve nearly run out of money once this year already – so if you have a spare pound/dollar/euro rattling around, feel free to throw it our way! Check out the events page for future get-togethers! And there are tons of ways you can help out, wherever you are – just give us a shout.

It never ceases to amaze me how little awareness there is in the UK about Irish/NI abortion law. So please, pass it on – tell your friends, retweet our pearls of wisdom, bring up the subject over Sunday lunch with the in-laws (“Hey there, Right-Wing Uncle Alan! Let’s talk fallopian tubes.”) – every little helps.

Thousands of women make this journey every year – at least 1,123 from NI in 2009, and 4,422 from the Republic. But it’s not the numbers that break my heart. It’s the individual stories. The mother of two who had recently migrated from Eastern Europe, who couldn’t speak English and was already struggling to make ends meet. The woman who couldn’t read, so had to ask a stranger to help her read our website. The woman with mental health problems who was suffering domestic violence.

“I cannot begin to describe how scared and alone and difficult it was for me, I can only imagine most women feel the same. Nobody wants to have to make a decision like this and for most they will never have to. I will forever feel grateful for the help and support I received. Thank you all so much.”

~ 37 year old mother of 3

Mitch Daniels Defunds Planned Parenthood of Indiana, and Why You Should Care

This is a guest post by Lauren Bruce, life-long Indiana resident, founder of and former resident blogger at Feministe.

Last week, Jill reported that the state of Indiana might cut funding to Planned Parenthood as well as enacting some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. Yesterday that bill was signed into law, cutting two-thirds of funding to Planned Parenthood of Indiana as well as requiring doctors to tell women that life begins at fertilization and that a fetus can feel pain at or before 20 weeks of pregnancy.

So, this is a repeat of every other backwards pro-life law in the country, right?

No.

First, PPIN and the ACLU are challenging the constitutionality of the law on grounds that:

…forcing doctors to give [inaccurate] information [to patients]… violates First Amendment free-speech protections. The lawsuit also contends that the new law’s defunding provision, by taking effect immediately, would void contracts and grants already in effect, violating the U.S. Constitution’s contract clause. The suit also says that the law imposes an unconstitutional condition on Planned Parenthood by requiring it to choose between performing abortions and receiving non-abortion-related funding, and says that the measure runs afoul of federal Medicaid law.

which could draw the blueprint for future challenges in other areas. It’s worth mentioning that PPIN is being targeted for providing a constitutionally-protected procedure that is already prevented from federal subsidies thanks to the Hyde amendment. PP is targeted for providing abortion services at all despite having separate funding streams for abortion-related and non-abortion-related services.

Also problematic, from an earlier version of the same article,

The Family and Social Services Administration also has expressed concerns that it could cause Indiana to run afoul of Medicaid policy and lose all $4 million the agency gets in family planning dollars. The bill technically cuts off funds to any entity that performs abortions. However, it exempts hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, so Planned Parenthood is effectively the only target.

PPIN and ACLU were denied a restraining order meaning the law will take effect immediately while the judge reviews the constitutionality of this law. PPIN is reviewing its current funds to see how long they can cover existing services without state or federal revenue. From personal experience, I can tell you that waiting lists are so long for some non-PP community health clinics that people who need more urgent care, such as prenatal care or STI treatment and screenings will be forced to wait weeks or months to receive services or pay in full for private treatment.

Conservative groups in other states, meanwhile, are eyeballing the proceedings to see whether this attempt to bring down the Planned Parenthood baddie is successful. A similar bill is in working its way through the Kansas legislature with the support of Sam Brownback.

Former GOP Budget Director and current Indiana governor Mitch Daniels gestures while speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Outlook 2003: State of American Business" conference, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2003 in Washington. (AP Photo/Ian Wagreich, U.S. Chamber of Commerce)The second reason you should be paying attention: Say hello to Mitch Daniels.

There is a lot of speculation about Daniels running in the GOP presidential primaries in 2012. He’s a shoo-in, a relatively well-liked and successful governor who favors old-school conservative methods like privatization of public services and libertarian “live and let live” approaches to social issues. Daniels is seen as a move away from “populist evangelicalism” of the current GOP. He is even on record calling for a “truce” on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage in order to get fiscal issues, “the people’s work,” he says, through government.

That family planning is a fiscal issue on micro- and macro-levels is apparently a non-issue for Daniels, because he and other Indiana state officials are on record saying that birth control is easily accessible to everyone! Because as Sue Swayze, Daniels supporter and legislative director of Indiana Right to Life, says, “You can buy some types of contraceptive devices at Walmart.”

The numbers don’t lie. Fiscal conservatives should know, about half of all births in Indiana are funded by Medicaid today and PPIN estimates this will “cost the state $68 million in Medicaid expenses for unintended pregnancies by reducing birth control access.”

In short, this flip-flop in Mitch Daniels’ politics is a healthy indicator that he is shoring up the base for his presidential run.

So what can you do?

1. Contact Mitch Daniels and reiterate the importance of family planning services in responsible fiscal policy. If you’re in Indiana, contact your state representative and express your dissatisfaction with this bill.

2. Donate to Planned Parenthood of Indiana or to Planned Parenthood of America, who is helping PPIN with the legal proceedings. Per Mary in comments, “Annoyed/furious/concerned parties might also consider donating to the ACLU of Indiana, which is handling all the legal work with a staff of two overworked attorneys and a paralegal.” If you feel spicy, do it under Mitch Daniels’ name.

3. Spread the word, about the law and Daniels too. Let people know you donated today and why. Retweet, reblog, tumbl, post to your Facebook wall, whatever. Remember this guy’s face and his willingness to sacrifice healthcare for uninsured and low-income women for the sake of politics. He could be your next president.

Rally for Women and Families in New York

New York City is in a budget crisis, and cuts need to be made. But the proposed New York City budget cuts large chunks of aid to low-income families and children:

We hope Mayor Michael Bloomberg was listening. At present, the city subsidizes child care for 98,000 children. His new budget would end that support for 16,500 of them in September, for a savings of $95 million in the city’s $65.6 billion budget.

Families receiving public assistance or welfare will not be affected. Those losing the subsidies are deemed working poor — with an income of less than 200 percent of the poverty level or $36,620 for a family of three. They pay from $5 to $100 a week for city-sponsored child care. Few will be able to pay the full cost on their own, and, without a safe and educational place for their children, many won’t be able to keep working. Their only option will be welfare.

The kicker is that this could be avoided — “A 6 cent tax on every plastic bag provided at stores would raise $94 million, almost exactly what is needed to maintain current child care subsidies.”

There’s a rally on May 12th to encourage Bloomberg to keep funding families in need, and to not cut funds for the most vulnerable New Yorkers. At the linked site you can sign the petition and make donations. There are also helpful instructions for other actions.

Happy May Day!

“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” -Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Hellraiser.

Here in the U.S. Labor Day is a muted affair celebrated at the end of the summer. It’s mostly lost its meaning to millions of people as anything other than the time at which kids go back to school and we stop wearing white. (Some of us.)

But around the world, the real labor celebration is May 1. International Workers’ Day began here in the U.S. when, 125 years ago, police opened fire on a protest at the West Randolph Street Haymarket in Chicago in favor of the 8-hour work day, after a dynamite bomb was thrown by an unknown person. Eight anarchists were arrested and four executed, not for any evidence that they threw the bomb but for their role as agitators.

Socialists and labor supporters around the world began celebrating May 1 as workers’ day, but in the U.S. Grover Cleveland feared the association with the history of the Haymarket Affair and endorsed the Labor Day we now know. But in more than 80 countries around the world, May 1 remains the true Labor Day.

We have seen this year once again that symbolism matters. We have seen right-wing governors not only attempting to suppress workers’ rights to organize, collectively bargain, and negotiate their wages and working conditions, but also taking down murals that celebrate the history of labor in this country.

We’ve also seen a resurgence in the labor movement at home–Wisconsin workers and allies 100,000 strong rallying day after day in their Capitol building and now gathering signatures and preparing to recall the state senators who voted to take away their rights. Beyond the symbolism of workers sleeping in sleeping bags in the Wisconsin winter outside the building, there’s been a resurgence of an awareness of history within the labor movement.

April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination as he rallied with sanitation workers in Memphis, saw “We Are One” rallies around the country as labor and civil rights groups banded together to fight the latest onslaught against union workers.

And this May Day, Chicago will see a remembrance of the Haymarket Affair as well as rallies for immigrant workers. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will march with Milwaukee’s workers and immigrant community in a solidarity march that celebrates not only Wisconsin’s leadership role in the fight against union-busting state politicians (who are, it should be noted, not all Republicans), but also acknowledges the 2006 May Day rally in which millions marched in support of undocumented workers and defeated anti-immigrant legislation.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the founder and executive director of Voces de la Frontera, one of the groups organizing the Milwaukee rally, said:

“We want to send a message to corporate America, politicians and others that working people will not be divided,” she said.

Allison Kilkenny has more about rallies around the U.S., and the AFL-CIO has a liveblog and Twitter feed. If there’s no action in your neighborhood, help spread the word and stop dehumanizing immigrants with ColorLines’ “Stop the I-Word” campaign.

It’s about more than just symbolism, after all–it’s about organizing for right here, right now. Remembering the past, as Mother Jones said, is important, but the “fight like hell for the living” bit is the one that really matters. We want to build on history, not just nod our heads solemnly at it.

This year too, we learned once again the importance of international solidarity, as people around the world tuned in to Al-Jazeera English’s riveting live reporting from Egypt as that country peacefully threw off its dictator. Wisconsin protesters told reporters repeatedly that they were inspired by Tahrir Square to keep coming back each day to their own capitol, and Egyptians responded by sending messages of support (and pizza) to Madison. And just recently Egyptian activists joined U.S. activists here in New York to share advice and support–U.S. activists who were in turn inspired by the UK group UK Uncut to protest corporate power. 

Egypt and Bahrain are two of the countries celebrating Labor day today even as they struggle for freedom.

 Paul Mason of the BBC tweeted from Egypt’s May Day celebration today:

“Enjoy the revolution” says graffiti on Tahrir. They are. Tomorrow a Lab Party to be formed: doctors to vote on strike; new music evrywhere

In Moscow, 30,000 are expected to turn out–many to express dissatisfaction with their government as well as support for workers.  In Turkey, 200,000 hit the streets in the largest rally since 1977, and in South Korea, 50,000 rallied. China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Spain, and Hong Kong also saw marches and actions.  

In the UK, despite the Conservative government’s wishes to move the holiday away from a day associated with workers, May Day coincided with the royal wedding and thus got even more police overreaction than usual–at least in Brighton.  

Internet organizing has gotten a lot of attention of late, particularly in relation to Egypt (and before that Iran), but May Day is a day to remember the importance of getting out in the streets. Facebook and Twitter can only take you so far. 

We need our holidays to mark the past, to look to the future, and to fight for the rights of all. As Emma Goldman said:

“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.”

Sarah Jaffe is web ninja at GRITtv, a writer and rabblerouser. Follow her on Twitter or Tumblr.

Go to Walgreen’s and demand a pap smear.

Oh wow this idea is brilliant:

FLASH MOB ALERT!!!

FOX & Friends thinks we don’t need Planned Parenthood because women can just get their breast exams and pap smears at Walgreens (which is not true). Let’s prove them wrong by demanding these health services at Walgreens across the country and seeing what happens.

Here’s what to do this Saturday at 12 PM:

1) Pick your favorite local Walgreens
2) Get a group of friends together or connect with people via this event page.
3) Go try to get your pap smear!
4) Don’t forget to bring your video cameras and share your footage on YouTube!

View the Colbert Report’s take on Planned Parenthood: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/381282/april-11-2011/pap-smears-at-walgreens

PLANNED LOCATIONS:

New York City: 1471 Broadway, between 42nd and 43rd street http://tinyurl.com/4xpc3kz

DC: 1217 22nd Street NW, between M and N Streets.

Madison, WI: 15 E. Main Street (on the Square)

Let’s get on it, ladies. See you at Walgreen’s.

Bowling for Abortion Access (Again)!

People, it’s time to get your bowl-on! OR, for those of you not in the NYC Metro area, it’s time to get your fundraising-on!

Yep, for the second year in a row, Feministe & friends are participating as The Barrier Method in the National Network of Abortion Funds’ bowl-a-thon. NNAF is raising money for grassroots groups that work to provide abortions for low-income women.

This year, we’re bowling on Sunday, April 17th at The Gutter in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Check out our team page where you can sign up to play with us or donate so we can reach our $2,000 goal. There are also events in Queens and Manhattan you can sign up for (and several other cities throughout the month, check out the full list of events here), but we’ll be in Brooklyn.

Last year was tons of fun. Jill and I were there along with Sady [fuckin’] Doyle, Sarah Jaffe, and many others. There were laughs galore and drinks aplenty. Oh, and really rad signs from anti-choice protestors (all two of them) — because “abortion stops a beating heart,” in case you didn’t know!