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When the story spread last month that charges of anti-Semitism were behind a split at the top of the national Women’s March, chapter leaders and activists across the country were so shocked they wondered if it was fake news fabricated to discredit their movement.
It wasn’t. One of the national march’s original organizers, Vanessa Wruble, claimed she had been forced out after the group’s co-founders treated her with hostility because of her Jewish heritage — a charge the others insisted was not true.
“It went through my head, we don’t need this now, but at the same time, I did want to know if this was a serious allegation,” said Kristen Podulka, a Palo Alto activist who attended the first Women’s March on Washington in 2017 protesting newly-elected President Trump.
With local Women’s March chapters across the Bay Area and beyond gearing up for the third annual march on Saturday, the rift is roiling the ranks and also frustrating feminists who fear it could derail their momentum: A record 117 women were elected to Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking star turns in the Oval Office during showdowns with President Trump and a record number of women are considering runs at the White House.
But suddenly the organizers of the Women’s March in San Jose were inundated with inquiries from women who weren’t sure they were comfortable to march this year.
“It fractures the women’s movement and it plays to stereotypes for sure,” said Jenny Higgins Bradanini, the lead organizer of the Women’s March San Jose who said her “stomach sunk” when she first read the stories about the accusations. “Unfortunately, I think it had a big impact for a while. We would receive email messages from women asking if we are supporting anti-Semitic remarks.”
At least one chapter, in New Orleans, canceled its event. Chicago also canceled its march, blaming financial concerns and a lack of volunteers, but said the conflict made the decision easier. And in New York — where the national leaders broke apart — two marches will go forward on Saturday, one ostensibly celebrating diversity and the other led by Wruble’s new group, March On, denouncing anti-Semitism.
Adding another layer of intrigue was the announcement earlier this month that the official march in Humboldt County — where more than 70 percent of the population is white — was canceled when organizers said their leadership was “too white.”
The conflicts are especially sensitive to feminists who remember the downfall of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s, dominated by white women who were criticized for alienating minority women with other viewpoints.
“When we look back, by silencing people, by making it a professional white women’s movement, that weakened the movement profoundly,” said Doreen Mattingly, San Diego State University’s chair of the women’s studies department.
The causes of the schism among the co-leaders in New York were more nuanced than this headline in the conservative Washington Times: “Mean girls: Farrakhan’s influence tarnishes Women’s March leadership team.”
Wruble, a Brooklyn activist, said her Jewish heritage played a role when she was ousted by co-leaders Tamika Mallory, a black gun control activist, and Carmen Perez, a Latino who advocates criminal justice reform. Wruble told the New York Times that Mallory and Perez confronted her at the first organizing meeting by insisting Jews played a role in the slave trade — something the women deny — and made offensive comments about the privilege of wealthy Jews.
Mallory and Perez have both denounced anti-Semitism, created a list of “unity principles” for the organization and apologized for the way they handled the conflict. Still, it didn’t help when Mallory attended an event with Louis Farrakhan, a divisive figure who is admired for his role in rehabilitating black men in prison, but who has made numerous anti-Semitic remarks and whose Nation of Islam is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In Oakland, Alison Mata, director of the Women’s March there, said that in such a large movement “there are going to be people who don’t agree with one another. We really have to see the women’s movement as being inclusive, that there are going to be some bumps in the road, but it’s going to make us stronger and better together.”
At each of the Bay Area marches, speakers from diverse backgrounds, including Jews, blacks and Latinos, will take the stage. More than 150,000 are expected to march at events throughout the Bay Area, including up to 70,000 in both San Francisco and Oakland and about 25,000 in San Jose.
In San Jose, Higgins Bradanini said march organizers have been re-assuring participants that the group represents all women — and condemns all forms of racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism.
“We’re working hard to create an empowering, safe and impactful march for everyone January 19,” Women’s March San Jose organizers said in an email blast. “We’ve sought the advice and input of diverse community organizations for our programming and we hope you will join us.”
In San Francisco, volunteer Martha Shaughnessy and Sophia Andary say stories that amplify conflicts within the organization make it seem that there are forces that want the women’s movement to fail.
“People don’t want this to work,” Shaughnessy said, “and it makes for better news if women are in a cat fight” than putting together a broad coalition around numerous social justice issues, from gender identity to immigration and housing costs.
Podulka, who wondered if the conflict was a “smear campaign,” said she had considered joining the Washington, D.C., march again, but the conflict “made me take pause” and for a variety of other reasons as well, she decided to attend the San Jose event instead.
“I’m not abandoning them in that sense. I’m still participating,” she said. “Focusing on the bumps in the road hurts us more than the bumps themselves. We have to keep our momentum and keep our eye on the bigger picture.”
Women’s Marches in the Bay Area
When: Saturday, January, 19
San Francisco: Civic Center Plaza
Rally starts at 11:30 a.m. and then march at 1:30 p.m. down Market Street to the Embarcadero Plaza
San Jose: City Hall
March starts at 11 a.m. at City Hall, followed by rally at the Arena Green East (next to the SAP Center)
Oakland: Lake Merritt
March starts at 10 a.m. with rally at Frank Ogawa Plaza
Walnut Creek: Civic Park
Rally begins at 11 a.m. followed by march
Pleasanton: Amador Valley High School football field
Rally begins at 1 p.m., followed by 2 p.m. march to downtown Pleasanton, followed by a Women’s Expo until 4 p.m.
Alameda: Corner of Park St. and Santa Clara Ave.
March starts at noon.
