The organizers of the 2020 Women’s Marches on January 18th are an undemocratic elite who last year expelled the pro-Palestinian leaders, including Linda Sarsour. I had my criticisms of the bureaucratic way the organization previously functioned but it was openly pro-Palestinian & organized millions of women on every continent who raised every issue of concern to women from Palestine to war, reproductive freedom, rape, work discrimination, & more.
It would be idiotic factionalism to refuse participation in the annual & massive marches because of their bureaucracy & pro-Zionism. But it is also politically obligatory to show up at them with placards standing with Palestinian women as Kashmiri women did in support of Kashmir at some of the protests this year.
A bureaucratically-run organization does not address or substitute for the urgent need to rebuild an independent, democratic women’s movement but it positions us alongside millions of other women who will be part of forging that new movement. A politically healthy movement would consider Palestinian women at the heart of it, not sidelined to placards in rogue contingents.