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Activists in Gainesville, Florida "March For Our Freedom" on May 30, 2020. Photo: Lexi Read at www.rhymereason.co

National Women’s Liberation Supports Black Power

National Women’s Liberation joins the worldwide uprising against state violence and the murder of Black Americans–Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee, Mya Hall, Sandra Bland, Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, Eleanor Bumpurs, and countless others who stretch across centuries. We condemn the erasure of sisters of color, survivors and victims, whose names we have never learned. We say: No More!

 

We call on our members, followers, and allies to stand with those protesting police brutality, white supremacy, and racial injustice.  We cannot allow white supremacy to continue to divide us.

 

In the words of Frederick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”

 

Movements of oppressed people fighting together make change. Liberation is won through struggle. The powerful did not give us the rights we have today, we demanded them. Ending white supremacy, the systems that enforce it, and the police that protect it will be no different.

 

In the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, it is unconscionable to see the rapid response of large cities deploying well-armed, fully equipped, and militarized police; and establishing curfews, when in the last few months cities struggled to get ICU hospital beds, COVID-19 tests, and Personal Protective Equipment. It is clear where the ruling class’ priorities lie. Their money and power is used in weapons against their own people when their power is threatened.

 

In the words of Lucinda Cisler, “We will not accept insults and call them steps in the right direction.”

 

We believe that real change comes by going for what we really want. We cannot accept symbolic gestures and lip service about good intentions on issues that require systemic change. We reject “reforms” that call for added technology, surveillance, and funding for police or “diversity and bias” training for cops.  Civilian review boards and body cameras do not address the root problems.  These murders are not simply racist attitudes of individual police officers. We demand an overhaul. Defund the police.

 

The power structure seeks to keep Black people in line. It uses police murdering people of color as one tactic to do it. White supremacy propels these actions that have been a part of this country since colonizers stole land from indigenous people. The white 1% have used these strategies since the time of chattel slavery when rich owners of enslaved people created what became the U.S. system of policing to keep Black people from revolting.

 

In the words of Redstockings of the Women’s Liberation Movement, “… a single front in the overall struggle for human freedom cannot win—or else hold its victories for long—without advances in the others.”

 

Racism is a barrier to progress for us all. Racism and white supremacy keep people from fighting together for our common interests; it weakens our movements for freedom. National Women’s Liberation recognizes that white women often accept temporary gains at the expense of women of color. We demand that white women do better. White women must understand their stake in overthrowing white supremacy and act now.

 

We call on our members, followers, and allies, especially white and non-Black people of color to join the protests in the streets, wherever safe and possible.  We call on you to resist attempts to denounce these protests because of destroyed, lost, or stolen property. Property is replaceable, Black lives are not. We call out the real rioters inciting deadly violence: the white supremacists in the White House and the police who serve their interests, while Wall Street legally loots federal tax dollars and corporations profit from the current public health crisis that has put millions out of work.

 

White people must follow the leadership of radical Black-led organizations and leaders who have been doing the work to fight back against police brutality and for alternative forms of community control. Consider giving and using these resources for anti-racism work individually and in your organizations:

 

 

National Women’s Liberation is committed to anti-racism and Black power. We stand in solidarity with protestors all over the country and world to affirm not only that Black Lives Matter, but Black Power Matters.

 

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