International Women's Day, San Antonio, Texas. Deceleration Video.
The 36th annual International Women's Day rally and march wound through the rainy streets of San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday with revolutionary cries decrying imperialism, colonialism, racism, and patriarchy. Signs lambasted the illegal war on Iran being waged by Israel and the United States, where a 'double tap' strike killed nearly 200, mostly school girls, and more than 100,000 have been displaced. They spoke in defense of Palestinian lives and against the ongoing genocide. They spoke out against efforts to erode and eradicate rights for women (including, seemingly, the right to vote), attacks on the lives of queer and trans people, and the apparent recent dissolution of race and gender studies at UTSA.
Call-and-response chants urged the destruction of broken and unjust systems so that a new world may emerge. Music and art filling Main Plaza before the march signaled the more inclusive community march organizers hoped to foster.
Banners dropped along the route, including one from a Bexar County lot demanding "MIGRA OUT OF SA." Another encouraged marchers with the words of revolutionary Assata Skakur, who passed away late last year in Cuba:
"THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN FREE US ARE OUR SELVES."
While organizers explicitly did not seek a city permit or permission to march, San Antonio police officers maintained a perimeter around the marchers and controlled traffic across their route.
This year's theme, 'Fury is Fuerza!' flows from the organizers' positioning as proletarian feminists, as is clear in the words of the speaker Deceleration captured in the five-minute video summary above.
According to their Instagram profile, Mujeres Marcharán works to "educate, organize and fight to highlight women, LGBTQ and oppressed of the city and analyze local issues through a proletarian feminist lens!"
Full slide show of march pics is available at emerge.photos.
