HELIOLITH

The lettering on the homepage of Coalition of Women for Peace puts into print the ideology of the group. Arabic letters alongside Hebrew letters translated into English below.

One group, Women in Black, gathers in prominent public places wearing all black and carrying signs to protest the occupation. Another, Neled: Women for Coexistence, puts together regular visits of solidarity and community organizing to occupied territories. The US would do well to follow their example, which echoes that of the Argentinian Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and generate discussion and solidarity among the women of our country. It’s one thing to imagine a coalition of Israelis and Palestinians, a distant other, and quite another to imagine ourselves organizing with other women from our own neighborhoods with whom we don’t usually identify. Sometimes the question of protest and alliance boils down to a very basic element.

That is to say, frequently, political resistance in the US seems to be a middle-class endeavor. Those who have the means and the time to spend on political protests do so, and the working class continues to struggle for basic human rights: food, shelter, employment, safety, education. Case in point: the common working-class belief in the futility of an individual vote. But the compass seems to slow down and spin the other way when the issues are elementary, namely, when the issues that have only been of concern to the working class touch the middle class. Take rape, for instance. This is an issue that affects all women equally, and all have a stake in preventing it. Getting over class or race or ethnicity or religious differences seems trivial when facing such compelling issues of human rights, safety, and protection. I haven’t heard of any such activist groups though. Even the rally and march last year for women’s reproductive rights and birth control, the biggest in the country ever (I’ve been told), included few black women. The US would do well to follow the Middle Eastern example and put forth a massive effort to make these events concerted and united. It would benefit all sides to include and expand.

There are all sorts of complex undercurrents regarding the divisions of class/race/ethnic or religious background. Different groups regard the issues differently, with varying degrees of taboo & responsiblity. I think one of the reasons there hasn’t been more inclusion or cooperation has to do with the difficulty of dealing with those differences. I’m not being very specific here, but I think that gets to the heart of the matter. I am not even an organizer, but I am having trouble just bringing up what exactly I think those differences are. I think there are race and class lines that people are afraid to cross. I think unwanted pregnancies happen more frequently to women who have low incomes and this statistically crosses a race line as well. But the women who are most deeply affected by these issues (whether we’re talking about reproductive freedom, political violence, personal violence, or any other elementary issue) would not only benefit the most from inclusion and participation in these projects of resistance, but they would also be the most able to contribute compelling strategies. Sigh. I hope this is moderately coherent. Ineloquence strikes again.Link