Women's March: 'Defunding the Police Is a Feminist Issue'
“Defunding the police is a feminist issue,” declares the Women’s March website, which frames law enforcement as pathologized by “systemic racism.” The organization includes dedicated documents advising its political allies on how best to organize towards this end.
The organization’s homepage has a “Defund the Police” section providing the following the message:
The Women’s March is proud to support The Movement for Black Lives in their call to #DefundPolice. Defunding the police is a feminist issue because black, poor, immigrant and undocumented women are disproportionately targeted, abused and murdered by police. Women’s Marchers across the country are sharing information with their networks as a means to contribute meaningful conversation. This is our small way to channel energy into sustained organizing to bring about the new world we so desperately need.
A “social media toolkit” from the Women’s March echoes Joe Biden’s call to transfer government funding away from law enforcement. “It’s a feminist issue because resources that could otherwise be directed to support our communities ability to survive and thrive—housing, jobs, meaningful employment, and healthcare—is being funneled away from critical services to bolster the budgets of the police.”
“Women have a key role in the replacement of police with alternative emergency services,” according to the Women’s March.
The Women’s March “organizing toolkit” derided America as imbued with “systemic racism” and “white supremacy” as it calls to “defund the police.”
“We are advancing the national call from the Movement for Black Lives to Defund The Police,” writes the Women’s March. “Supporting this call by supporting street protests and taking bold action is central to our resistance to this administration. Racism is baked into the DNA of this country and long precedes Trump’s presidency, but Trump has intentionally stoked the fires of racism to support his authoritarian project: white supremacy fuels his administration.”
“ICE is unconstitutional and ultimately needs to be abolished,” declares a Women’s March policy document, which alleges that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “now terrorizes immigrant communities with impunity under the Trump administration.”
The Women’s March calls for “defunding hate” by ending all government funding for ICE and “any border wall or fencing along the southern border.” It claims “migration is a human right” alongside the slogan “No Human Being Is Illegal.”
The Women’s March describes itself as predicated on opposition to President Donald Trump. “As an organization born out of opposition to Trump and Trumpism, we support the second call from the Movement for Black Lives that #TrumpResign,” it declares.
The organization’s website makes several references to “intersectionality” in its “Women’s March Agenda” document, framing women as oppressed by and relative to men. It subcategorizes the alleged oppression of women along lines of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual preference, and other dimensions.
The Women’s March policy document broadly mirrors the political manifesto composed by presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), dubbed the “Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recommendations.”
Despite its political campaigning against the president, the Women’s March enjoys nonprofit status given its 501(c)(4) registration with the IRS as a “social welfare organization.”