Women’s Strike—June 24, 2024
“We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end.” ~MLK
(Martin Luther King’s message to the sanitation workers in support of their strike in Memphis, TN. He gave this speech on the evening before he was assassinated, April 3, 1968.)
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court reversed a fifty-year constitutional right to reproductive health and safe access to abortion. The country has ample evidence that Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas are under the influence of White Christian Nationalists and ‘dark money’ contributions. We have a tape recording of Justice Samuel Alito saying that he will fight to return this country to a state of Godliness; so we can assume that the upside flag that flew outside his house on the day of the attack on the Capital and the white nationalist pine tree flag that has been seen waving at his summer home were not by mistake. Justice Clarence Thomas has received a little over 4 million dollars in gifts from Republican mega donor Harlan Crow. We also know that the three justices appointed by Donald Trump lied when they stood before their Senate Confirmation Hearing and testified that they believed Roe V. Wade was ‘settled law’. The Supreme Court has only begun reversing personal freedoms. The right to contraception, the right to gay marriage, protection of voting rights and an attack on the LGBTQ+ community are in the ‘wings’ of what is coming next.
On the second anniversary of this attack on our personal freedoms, the organizers of the Women’s March of 2017 have organized a Women’s Strike, for Monday, June 24, 2024. No Spending. No Work. No School.
Did you Know:
Donald Trump and his MAGA extremist allies are promising that on day one of his second term, if reelected, Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act. That means that if anyone participates in a Women’s March like what occurred on January 21, 2017, the military could be called out to stop the march. If Trump is elected, we take the risk that our First Amendment Right to Assemble could be met with military force. Is this the country you want to live in?
January 21, 2017, Women’s March
Why It Matters:
MAGA Extremists are on the ballot in Indiana. Most Hoosiers do not support their extremist agenda. Let’s make Indiana a safer and more compassionate place to live.
The Republican candidate for Governor, Mike Braun, supports Indiana’s six-week abortion ban and is an ardent Trump supporter. He ‘goes along’ with whatever Trump says. His running mate for Lieutenant Governor, Micah Beckwith, is a self-proclaimed Christian Nationalist, and was the person spearheading the Hamilton County Library Board’s decision to remove John Green’s book, The Fault in Our Stars, from the Young Adult section of the Fishers library. Beckwith says that the January 6th attack on the Capital was ‘divinely inspired’.
The Women’s Strike is an important action for Hoosier women and their allies. The 2022 Dobbs decision to deny women their constitutional right to an abortion is a decision that several of our state candidates support. Mike Braun, the Republican candidate for Governor, Micah Beckwith, the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Jim Banks, the Republican candidate for Senate, and Victoria Spartz, the Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District will work to further those restrictions. We must let them know that we will not go back. We can make a statement on June 24, 2024 and again on November 5, 2024.
What You Can Do:
Support the Women’s Strike. Sign up to strike. No work, no school, no spending. Get five other allies to join you.
Support Our Choice Coalition, a nonpartisan PAC that is dedicated to electing candidates for state and local offices in Indiana who will fight to promote and prioritize Hoosiers’ rights and access to reproductive healthcare, including abortions.
Support Jennifer McCormick's campaign for Governor by being a volunteer and donating to her campaign. No donation is too small.
Notes
Andrew Whitehead is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and author of the book American Idolatry. He defines Christian Nationalism as ‘a particular expression of Christianity that is fused with American Civic Life.’ This particular expression of Christianity has an extremely conservative political and theological perspective and Christian Nationalists believe that this fusion between religion and civic life should be upheld and protected through social policy and structures.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/memphis-sanitation-workers-strike
For more information about Christian Nationalism and SCOTUS, see https://www.propublica.org/article/we-dont-talk-about-leonard-leo-supreme-court-supermajority and leonard-leo-architect-conservative-supreme-court-takes-wider-culture
For more information about Micah Beckwith’s identification with White Christian Nationalism see https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/opinion/indiana-christian-nationalist-republican-party.html (paywall)