Anti-war protests may reenergize Women’s March
The 2016 election of Donald Trump as president so outraged large groups of women that they protested in record numbers the day after his inauguration.
Now the Women’s March is counting on his actions as commander in chief to energize a flagging organization.
Carmen Perez, one of the group’s original co-chairs, said there has been a surge in sign-ups for Saturday’s marches since Trump’s decision to have U.S. forces strike and kill Iranian military leader Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, which led to an escalation in tensions that brought the countries to the brink of war.
“There was a moment in 2016, 2017, and I think that moment is here again,’’ Perez said. “One, we are in an election year. Two, we are in potential war conversations, with the fact the U.S. has struck another country.
“I personally feel we’re going to see an increase in numbers because people are wanting to come together again. People are going to show up to the Women’s March with their anti-war messaging because they want to be out in the streets working.’’
Perhaps, but organizers don’t expect Saturday’s protest in Washington, D.C. – the culmination of a week of events, with the slogan of “Women Rising” – to draw more than 10,000 people, a far cry from the estimated 100,000 who demonstrated despite chilly temperatures last year. The projections elsewhere are below past years as well.
For the first march on Jan. 21, 2017, the Crowd Counting Consortium gauged the turnout in Washington at 500,000 to 1 million, a staggering figure in a city of 710,000.
The crowd estimator pegged nationwide participation in the 650-plus sister marches that day at 3.3 million to 5.3 million, making it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Those figures dwindled to 1.9 million-2.6 million in 2018 and 676,000-747,000 in 2019.
Some of the diminishing numbers can be attributed to protest fatigue, and perhaps Trump fatigue. But not all.
“With the reorganization of the Women’s March group, there’s been no discussion in D.C. at all really about the upcoming anniversary,’’ said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland sociology professor and author of “American Resistance,” which chronicles the activist movement to oppose Trump.
“They haven’t maintained the momentum, and they haven’t done a great job of continuing to connect with the individuals who have been their core activists.’’
The national organization was rocked in 2018 by accusations of anti-Semitism, compelling some civil rights groups to distance themselves.
There has also been infighting and complaints of a leadership structure that was too top-heavy.
Disagreements with and distrust of the New York chapter led to two competing marches being held in that city on the same January day last year.
In September, three co-founders – Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland and Linda Sarsour – stepped down as part of a restructuring that featured a more diverse board with 17 (now 16) members, including a rabbi.
The Women’s March has also revised its agenda, from a 10-point platform at last year’s demonstration to emphasizing three themes: reproductive rights, immigration and climate change.
The scope of the event in the nation’s capital is considerably smaller, and there is less focus on celebrities and more on grassroots organizers.
“This year, we aren’t just marching. We’re putting our bodies on the line hand in hand with other mass movements,’’ the group’s website says.