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Saturday, January 4
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Diane Shisk

No Limits for Women at the Women's March on Washington (and other places), January 22, 2017

On Saturday, January 21, we women shook the world. It is wonderful to read the reflections on the amazing, breathtaking marches that were held in the United States and countries throughout the world. I appreciate how well we did as RCers. Please keep the reports coming. Below is some of what we did at the Washington, D.C. (USA), march:

More than a hundred of us came together as a No Limits for Women project representing states and regions throughout the United States. A solid core of us stayed together for almost the entire day. Others joined us for part of the day. Some of the many RCers who were participating in the march with other groups also came to visit us.
We were one of the largest identifiable groups in the march. Women and some men came up to us to comment about our size and wanted to find ways to join us.
Each of us contributed to the group as a whole and cooperated in making us an effective team. For instance, Marcy Morgan brought beautiful No Limits for Women placards made by an artist in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA). Alana Eichner got us all No Limits for Women sashes that were red with beautiful white letters. Many non-RCers came over and wanted one. I believe we could have brought thousands and sold them. Imagine a march with a half million people wearing No Limits for Women sashes!
We had a good number of young people. They supported each other to stay central to the larger group and were a presence.
The women targeted by racism and the young people stayed up front, carrying our banner, directing our movements, and often leading our chants. (Throughout the larger march, sexism and racism were connected more than I had ever experienced.)
A number of RC men marched with us and backed the women and the project as a whole. They were led by Chuck Esser, assisted by Russ Vernon-Jones.
A few friends and relatives of RCers also joined us and learned about listening projects and mini-sessions. Several of them wore our sashes and held our signs. (A few of them made their own signs, staying with our themes.)
A leadership team—Alana Eichner, Tokumbo Bodunde, M—, Chuck Esser, and I—thought together and made sure things were moving well.
At one point, during the speeches, we did not all stay together. Everyone had a few buddies, and we tracked each other as well as possible. One group of us could not hear the speeches at all. Led by Caryn Davis, they chanted and did listening projects.
Our signs, banners (with our slogans), and chants were our most effective forms of communication. A lot of people followed us and joined in our chants. The one on sexism really caught on. (The larger women’s movement has struggled to recognize sexism as key and to keep making the battle against it central.)
We had something like a one-day RC workshop in the midst of the march. We met at the beginning of the day and marched together until the speeches. Then we met again to reinforce our consensus of staying together to the very end. We said, “Whatever we do, we do it together.” Finally, we had a closing circle and shared our highlights and what had gone well.
We loved being with each other and meeting other people and became more and more enthusiastic as the day went on. We felt proud of ourselves and the work we have done in RC and could see our potential for this period of time.