Did anyone make it to this or know more about it? Women Occupying Wall Street
Women Occupying Wall Street: Well, a Meet-Up on the West Village
The Women’s Caucus of Occupy Wall Street is hosting its first big gathering tonight in Washington Square Park (in NYC’s Greenwich Village). Here‘s the announcement:
The First Feminist General Assembly is Thursday, May 17 at 6:30 in Washington Square Park.
Yes, it’s a meeting—but not just any meeting. The invitation list ranges from SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Center to the Sex Workers Outreach Project, from the Granny Peace Brigade to Hollaback, a group of 20-somethings using cell phone cameras to broadcast the faces of street harassers. The conversation will be personal as well as political.
It’s as if the Suffragists were getting together with the Sixties reproductive rights activists. And feminist drummers. And men (OWS’s Men’s Circle) doing the childcare.
Gender justice is crucial to economic justice, say the organizers. No society is truly democratic without sexual and gender-identity freedom. The Recession and government cutbacks are hurting women and kids most. And all over the world economic and social progress depend on individuals’ control over their own reproductive lives and on freedom from gendered violence. Feminism opposes domination, by anyone of anyone.
More info here and on Facebook.
-Bridget Crawford
http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2012/05/women-occupying-wall-street-meet-west-village/
http://occupywallst.org/article/today-women-occupying-wall-street-reclaim-feminism/
There are some large, very nice pictures on the facebook link.
Here's an article
After seven months of reporting on feminism and the work of women activists in the Occupy movement, I wanted to know: could this meeting be a model for how OWS collaborates with other social movements? Might I witness the forming of a new activist coalition, bringing SlutWalkers, Occupiers, second-wavers and radicals together to fight back against the assault on rights we know as the War on Women?
...
A few themes emerged: first, the need to fight the assault on reproductive freedom; and second, the need to make feminism more inclusive of trans people, the disabled, incarcerated women, women of color, and those with “different discursive styles.”
Many goals presented were big-picture. We should fight capitalism, reclaim our history, unite with labor and educate our kids about misogyny. There were some Occupy-style solutions: those whose voices dominate should “step back” for an entire meeting. Let’s have more feminist tweets from Occupy’s account. We should distribute free condoms, as an art project, all over the city. Men should notice when they are “mansplaining” (this one got a thunderous ovation).
...
http://www.thenation.com/article/167969/can-occupy-fight-back-against-war-women
The article points out that this wasn't the first feminist GA in Occupy history (activists in LA, DC and elsewhere have had women or feminist-centered GAs) it was the first in New York.
Their twitter is @WOWSNYC