AF3IRM on International Working Women’s Day/ International Women's Day 2019
This International Working Women’s Day and Women’s Month, we in AF3IRM salute all those who dream and work to manifest new visions of liberation beyond the shackles of this current reality.Women worldwide continue to rise up and resist this patriarchal, capitalist system. We witnessed teachers across the country, from Arizona to Los Angeles and Denver, who organized and demonstrated their power through strikes in a profession with 70% women. There were also nurses, midwives, and health practitioners in the United States, Ireland, and Bulgaria organizing strikes for improved working conditions. We see the congresswomen pushing for bolder changes and breaking norms from within this current fascist US government and we challenge all those in power to do more against the eroding of women’s rights and the sale of women’s bodies. We stand by the abuse survivors who are sharing their truth against predatory celebrities like R. Kelly, Mario Batali, and Ryan Adams and against those in authority in sports like gymnastics and figure skating. We are reinvigorated by the Zapatista women defending against the conquest of their lands, “fighting in the corner of their world for their freedom, ” and urging others worldwide to do the same. We support women refugees migrating with children, from places like Central America, challenging injustice and exploitation across borders, and surviving the violence of their home countries.We see in them the hope of a world free of gender-based violence and oppression. But that feminist future of our making will never exist within capitalism. As transnational, women of color, we know that our freedom here in the United States is tied to the freedom of our sisters worldwide. As feminists in the struggle, we commit ourselves to the thriving and health of our bodies, our families, our communities, our environment. We refuse to limit our existence and value to the demands of the marketplace. We refuse to have our bodies or the bodies of our native, indigenous, migrant, and communities of color bought and sold. We refuse to normalize the rebranding of the sex trade and domestic work as liberating.Our end goal is not to merely to make it through or to survive, but to build a world where others are not trampled under our feet; where stop-gap measures and harm reduction strategies do not fossilize around us, but were just temporary stops as we pushed for what is just and the best that we deserve; where the heteropatriarchal and imperialist status quo is finally broken down. We will find ways to remember our connection to the land and to each other, and the power that comes from organizing together as women. We will create a world where future generations will not relive these nightmares or fight the same oppressions, but will taste firsthand the fruits of our struggle and continue in a legacy of radical re-imagination. Sisters, our feminist future requires new systems. Let us get organized and break through these chains and wield the collective power they teach us to bury and forget. Dream, sisters, and hold tight to these visions, and work to make genuine liberation our new reality.
March 8thInternational Women's DayFriday, March 8thChimayo | 6:00 PM to 8:00 PMFilm Screening and Discussion of Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story Barrios Unidos, 7 John Hyson Drive, Chimayo, NM 87522For more info, contact newmexico@af3irm.org.Friday, March 8thHonolulu | 5:00 PM to 9:00 PMCall Her Ganda Film Screening and Panel Discussion with Attorney Virginia "Virgie" Suarez, Kim Coco Iwamoto, Jen Jenkins, and Yvonne Mahelona of AF3IRM Hawai'iUniversity of Hawai'i at Mānoa - Art AuditoriumFor more info, contact hawaii@af3irm.org or visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/calendar/manoa/2019/03/08/34940.html?et_id=45893Saturday, March 9thLos Angeles | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PMLAND & LIBERATION: Decolonizing Feminist Thought and Centering Indigenous & Transnational Women (Forum)United Teachers Los Angeles, 3303 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010To Register: http://landandliberation.eventbrite.comFor more info, contact losangeles@af3irm.orgMonday, March 11thNew York | 10:00 AMRally: New Yorkers Opposing the Decriminalization of Pimping and Sex BuyingNew York City Hall, Broadway between Chambers and Park RowFor more info, contact nynj@af3irm.orgTuesday, March 12thNew York | 6:00 PM to 8:00 PMFeminism Heals: Open Mic and MixerLucky Jack's, 129 Orchard St (Or 126 Allen Street), New York, NY 10002For more info, contact nynj@af3irm.orgFriday, March 15thLos Angeles | 9:00PM to 2:00AMFeminist Future Volume 1: A Feminist Fundraiser for AF3IRMMal's Bar, 2331 S Hill St, Los Angeles, California 90007Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2724853520866130/For more info, contact losangeles@af3irm.orgSaturday, March 16thBerkeley | AF3IRM SF/Bay Area Workshop Time & Info TBAAF3IRM SF/Bay Area Workshop at the 2019 Empowering Women of Color Conference "Rooted + Rising: Preserving Intergenerational Knowledge, Fostering Revolutionary Possibilities"UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CAFor more info, contact sfbayarea@af3irm.org