UNTIL PATRIARCHY FALLS: Our Statement on the 2024 U.S. Elections

By AF³IRM National, Boston, Hawai‘i, Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, and San Diego

NATIONAL—The U.S. has once again elected a fascist into power.  This time, mobilizing agents of patriarchy to the polls to win the “popular vote.”

We hold no illusions about elections; we know we cannot vote our way to liberation. This election cycle is yet another reminder that U.S. politics are designed to center U.S. imperialist interests, and relegate women of color and our communities to the margins.  We in AF³IRM knew that regardless of the election results, we would be ready for a fight. We are preparing for emboldened sexism, misogyny, and racism.

The stakes have been laid out.  We have been aware for years of Trump and the Far Right’s agenda to set women, people of color, im/migrants, and the working class back decades.  The Right’s policy plans for its return to the White House are capsulized in Project 2025.  They have made their intentions to eliminate abortion access, reproductive rights, LGBTQ2S+ rights, im/migrant rights, and racial equity clear.  As transnational feminists, we personally and painfully recognize that conservative control of the presidency, the Supreme Court, the Senate, and possibly the House of Representatives, will mean consequences for our Black, Brown, and Native women, children, and kin everywhere, not only in the U.S.  

But the future is not without hope and possibility for change.  No matter who is in power in Washington, D.C., we hold the power to disrupt the sexist, racist, imperialist status quo.  Our path to victory, to keeping each other safe, and to overpowering Trump and his allies is through organizing, collective action, and community care. 

Over the next four years, our goal of genuine liberation for women of color remains the same as always.  We in AF³IRM continue to demand abortion access and reproductive rights for all.  We demand an end to femicide, gender-based violence, and exploitation of women and feminized people.  We demand safety and human rights for our LGBTQ2S+ sisters and relatives, including gender-affirming care for trans folks.  We demand sovereignty and self-determination for Indigenous peoples of Palestine, Hawai‘i, Turtle Island, and beyond.  We stand firm for Black liberation and an end to state violence.  We reject state and corporate efforts to deny worker’s rights in service of profit.  We continue to fight for an end to cruel, xenophobic mass detentions and deportations.  We refuse the hypermilitarization of the border and our homelands.  We reject the exploitation of the land, and the neglect of our communities who bear the brunt of the devastation from climate catastrophes.  We link arms in transnational and international solidarity with all peoples resisting fascism across the globe. 

Our fight against racist, imperialist patriarchy began long before Trump gained power, and will continue until it falls.  

To our sisters and community, take heart.  We and our families have weathered far worse.  Take time to mourn and rage, then prepare for the battles ahead. This is how we will survive and overcome.

And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea

we are the ones we have been waiting for

— June Jordan, A Poem for South African Women

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