An Amazing Experience
I led the No Limits for Women contingent at the Oakland, California (USA), Women’s March. It was an amazing experience! I have had many sessions since on the contradiction [to distress] of what we did and the coordinated effort of so many women across the world. I have never felt more powerful and connected as a group of women.
The week of the march, I led a class for the No Limits contingent. Everyone left with a much better sense of our goals. Although many of us were scared, we were excited to be visibly challenging sexism and male domination.
Similar to the other Women’s Marches, there were many more people at the Oakland march than the organizers or anyone had expected. Between 60,000 and 100,000 people attended, in a city of 400,000.
There were thirty-one women, thirteen men, three girls, and four boys in our No Limits contingent. We were a mixed group in terms of race. Many family members and friends came with us, having heard about RC, discharge, and our perspective on women’s liberation.
It was a huge push and contradiction for me to be out in front of our group, visibly leading us and chanting challenges to sexism in a loud and joyful voice.
At the end of the march, we split into pairs and three-ways and did listening projects. We held signs that had questions on them about sexism and male domination and signs saying, “We want to listen to you.” We listened to many people. Some women talked in detail about their experiences of sexism. Some men talked about their experience of other oppressions, particularly racism, and how they wanted to stand against sexism because they knew what it was like to be oppressed. Some people took big crying sessions on their experiences.
After the listening projects, we gathered together and shared our highlights. We were hopeful about what we had done and how we were able to organize in a short period of time.
Oakland, California, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of women
(Present Time 187, April 2017)