When this group of womxn came together to call on our sisters to rise up and disrupt business as usual every Friday from now through November 23, it was because we understood that this moment was always about so much more than Kavanaugh.
What we are seeing now is what Indigenous People of this land have always said, that there is a dark and ugly truth behind the way the US Government is built to eradicate resistance, to demean, to consume, and ultimately, to dispose of the ravished bodies of womxn, poor people, immigrants, Natives, and anyone else bent on not upholding the white supremacist capitalism in place. We have known and felt the ugly truth that was exposed in Washington these past weeks that those in power will do anything to deny womxn our dignity, freedom and justice. Today we say: when they deny us, we will deny them—our labor, our service, our compliance.
We are not stopping. Thousands of womxn have already signed the #BlackFridays call to action since it launched just a few days ago. We have worn black, walked out of work, and hosted actions or healing circles across the country on the first Black Friday of this season of sacred rage.
And we will be back next week, and the week after that, until we become a show of force that cannot be ignored, from the streets to the voting booth to the workplace and beyond. We must continue to creatively inoculate ourselves from structural patriarchy, racism, economic systems that don’t equitably value our presence — together.
We’re in this for the long haul. This is one moment in a long path towards transformative change, and we will continue to build sustained, collective power that both dismantles systems of oppression and harm AND works to create new systems of inclusion and care. We organize toward the strongest possible outcome in the November elections -- and recognize that elections alone do not create meaningful change over the long run.
We look to our sisters here and around the world who have been at the forefront in the fight for democracy, freedom, equality, and justice for inspiration and guidance. Recently, the women-led Black Monday protests in Poland transformed the abortion laws in that country. And in Brazil, womxn's street actions are galvanizing the #NotHim movement against the far-wing candidate for President. The many movements led by and for womxn show us what is possible when we come together in ever increasing numbers, take escalating actions, withdraw our consent from the system, and provide care for each other. Just look at the teachers’ strikes in West Virginia earlier this year!
So on #BlackFridays, until 11/23, the holiest day of capitalism, the “shopping holiday” Black Friday, we will continue to disrupt the many places that give us the Kavanaughs, the Trumps, and the CEOs who harm us. The places where white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, and rape culture thrive. We will keep taking action where we live, walking out of our workplaces and schools and disrupting business as usual so we can transform our society.
Womxn have power. The systems in this country depend on us—our work, our time, our bodies. By taking action each week, we are showing the powers that be in this country that we will refuse to comply with those who demean, destroy, and erase us. When we refuse to take care of a system that doesn’t take care of us, we force those in power who benefit off of us to pay attention. Maybe not at first, but that is why we will come back every Friday.
We encourage you to be visibly resistant so that our power is felt and heard. Creative disruption is not a one-size-fits-all but rather invites us to show up in ways that are authentic, unexpected and impactful. We encourage you to think out of the box, take risks and get noticed.
We know how you choose to take risks will be relative to your social location, personal circumstances and ability. We ask all who are taking up the #BlackFridays call to consider your proximity to privilege and oppression and how that informs how you show up for our collective liberation. We invite you to consider your unique capacity to show up based on your location in relationship to systems of power/privilege and your responsibilities to care for yourself or others. What is it that you can risk? What consent or cooperation can you withhold?
Finally, we repeat and reaffirm: We are committed to centering and holding space for Trans, Black, Indigenous and Brown womxn, womxn with disabilities, femmes, two-spirits, and gender non-conforming community members whose bodies carry generational trauma and sexual violation rooted in systemic oppression.
*Womxn with an x, acknowledges the historical exclusion of gender expressions. We intentionally use x to hold intersectional space for individuals who identify as trans, genderfluid, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people. “
