Strength in numbers
The spectacle of hundreds of thousands of African-American women massed in the centre of Philadelphia on October 25 was truly inspiring.
Organised by community activists in Philadelphia, and a year in the planning, the Million Woman March attracted 1.5 million participants, according to the organisers. (Police estimates ranged from 300,000 to 1 million.)
Despite some high profile speakers at the rally (such as South Africa's Winnie Madikizela-Mandela), the majority of speakers were lesser known, local, grassroots activists. The marchers came from around the country and from all walks of life, united by a strongly felt need to overcome differences and stand up together as black women.
While the march was reported by the establishment media in both the US and Australia as focusing on "the family", the 12-point platform around which the women mobilised was far broader. It reflected the many urgently felt concerns of African-American women in a society which condemns them to under- and unemployment, low wages, dire poverty, ill health, violence, high rates of imprisonment and constant discrimination, both as women and as people of colour.
The platform called for more programs to help women leaving prison adjust to the outside world; to end homelessness; to improve educational opportunities (including separate black public schools); to politically empower African-Americans; to end poverty; and against drugs and crime.
Significantly for the US government, the first platform issue was a call for a full investigation into possible Central Intelligence Agency involvement in bringing crack cocaine to US cities.
The size and spirit of this mobilisation reflected the same sentiment that the October 16, 1995, Million Man March in Washington tapped into: that African-Americans are afraid for their future.
But the views expressed by many of the marchers also indicate that many black women see the need to take public action to change their collective situation. While the aspirations and politics of the crowd were very diverse, in interview after interview reported in the US media, marchers spoke about how the event would help restore black women's self-esteem and confidence and that they can accomplish big things if they work together. As one marcher put it: "There's strength in women and strength in numbers".
This alone, even if the political demands and methods for achieving them were not absolutely clear, sends the message, yet again, to the rulers in the US that they have a big problem: many, many Americans understand, oppose and are prepared to mobilise against the entrenched racism and sexism in that country.
The Million Woman March, organised with a minimum of resources by confessedly inexperienced campaigners and at a time of general demobilisation of progressive forces in the US, offered a glimpse of the huge potential of black women to organise and struggle for racial and gender equality in the US.
As individuals and in small groups, many do it every day of their lives. Joining together in ongoing action for change, however, can realise that potential. Leona Smith, president of the National Union of Homeless, told the rally: "... if you do not get involved ... if you do not continue to organise and mobilise, this day will mean nothing".
By Lisa Macdonald
["That man over there say that women needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?" — Black abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth at the second annual convention of the women's rights movement in Akron, Ohio, USA, in 1852.]