Fil-Am Women-Led Rally Closes Downtown L.A. Street

Los Angeles: Saturday morning, March 8th, saw police barricades going up at and traffic diverted from Olympic & Broadway Streets as hundreds of women marched in the first International Women’s Day mass action in Los Angeles since 1994.

Scores of students from the University of Southern California, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach Community College, University of California Los Angeles, East Los Angeles College, Cal State Los Angeles and from the Fremont, Jordan, Belmont high schools and El Sereno Middle School joined the march against the war.

“We’re here to let people know that we are with women all around the world who think that the war is unjust and a waste of our government’s money,” said USC Social Work student Kathryn Cronin.
Led by the Mariposa Alliance/GABNet, the historic gathering created a buzz in the world of the U.S. women’s movement, which had tended to take March 8th for granted. Ma-Al/GABNet called for the return of International Women’s Day to its historic and political context, and to use 8th March as a statement against US-led imperialist wars, notably in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Philippines.

“This was such a large call for us,” said Dr. Annalisa Enrile, GABNet National Chair and lead convener of the Mariposa Alliance. “For nearly two decades, we were mobilizing on strictly Philippine or Philippine-American issues. It was a kind of stepping out for us, I suppose. To receive such an enthusiastic response from the students, the Latina community, the anti-war community and the women’s community was edifying. It was even more awe-inspiring to see women joined by their children and families on this march. ”

In New York, a heavy rainstorm dampened celebrations of International Women’s Day. However, when the Ma-Al/GABNet speak-out began at the Washington Square Park, the rain stopped abruptly and kept away until the end of the event. Thus, led by GABNet Secretary-General Dorothea Mendoza, the poetry-reading, singing and chanting proceeded, on a make-shift stage of long strips of purple and red clothes spread on the soggy ground. While all the performers were women, they were from different ethnic/racial backgrounds, including African-American, Caucasian and Philippine ancestry.

The Los Angeles program was equally a diverse one, with several women artists performing at the rally at Pershing Square. Latina Hip-Hop artist Cihuatl-Ce and Asian American emcee/slam poet Skim kicked off the women’s march. The crowd also celebrated with the Guerrilla Queenz, 70 year-old Salvadoran political activist/poet Maria Guardado and the latin folk/experimental band La Santa Cecilia. The program closed with an invigorating performance by Grammy-nominated artist Mystic.

Next for GABNet will be a national assembly in August, in the City of San Diego, California, while the Mariposa Alliance prepares for its Congress in December in New York City. — ##

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