Angie Leventis LourgosContact ReporterChicago Tribune
As controversy swells around national Women’s March organizers, the local group has decided not to host a march in January — an event that for the past two years drew hundreds of thousands of supporters to Grant Park in concert with similar marches across the globe.
While Women’s March Chicago organizers cited high costs and limited volunteer hours as the main reasons for nixing the annual rally and march, the break comes amid splintering within the national Women’s March leadership following accusations of anti-Semitism and scrutiny of its ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Marches and rallies are still planned for Jan. 19 in Washington, D.C., and dozens of cities nationwide and internationally, as well as other parts of Illinois like Rockford, southwest suburban New Lenox and northwest suburban Woodstock.
Women's March Chicago leaders say they'll commemorate the anniversary of the original march with another activity but haven't released any details on the location or nature of the event.
“There’s no march, there’s no rally,” said Sara Kurensky, Women’s March Chicago board member. “We’re going to provide ways for people to organize and take action in their local communities.”
The announcement elicited a range of reactions on the Women’s March Chicago Facebook page.
“This is disappointing,” one member wrote. “Women continue fighting to be heard in this patronizing patriarchal society. We are not done.”
Some made plans to join marches in other cities instead.
“Going back to D.C.!” another member wrote. “There’s too much to march for!”
Others expressed support for the choice to forgo a January march.
“A lot has come to light about national in the last year,” one member wrote. “I support not marching with them.”
Leaders of the national group Women’s March Inc. have come under fire for their slowness to condemn the rhetoric of Farrakhan, whose Chicago-based Nation of Islam is considered an anti-Semitic hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In a February speech, Farrakhan praised Women’s March Inc. co-President Tamika Mallory and in the same address declared “the powerful Jews are my enemy.” The national organization denounced Farrakhan’s comments in March, but many criticized leaders for not speaking up sooner. Mallory has also praised Farrakhan on social media.
Co-founder of the national movement Teresa Shook in November called for national leaders to step down, after having “allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs,” according to a social media post.
The president of a Women’s March chapter in Washington state earlier this month announced the group would be dissolving in protest. The Rhode Island chapter in May said it was separating from the national organization.
The national Women’s March group said in a written statement that its organizers reject all forms of bigotry.
“The organization and its leaders have dedicated themselves to liberating women from all forms of oppression, including anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, white supremacy, xenophobia and Islamophobia,” the statement said. “We look forward to marching together on January 19.”
Women’s March Chicago organizers say they are a grassroots group not directly affiliated with Women’s March Inc., though past local marches have been held in sync with the national group and other similar marches across the country. While the decision to forgo a January march wasn’t based on recent controversy, Kurensky said the opportunity to further distance the Chicago organization from national Women’s March leaders was a “side benefit.”
“That sort of infighting within the movement is very painful. It’s very painful to watch,” she said. “When a handful of leaders ... say something, they are not speaking for an entire movement.”
Women’s March Chicago leaders also denounced anti-Semitism and Farrakhan’s February comments.
Women’s March Chicago held a local event in October dubbed “March to the Polls,” which was designed to spur midterm election voting and attracted some 100,000 supporters to Grant Park, according to organizers. Kurensky said hosting these marches costs more than $150,000 and requires countless volunteer hours, so the group didn’t have the resources to host a second one so soon after that.
“If we waited until January, what were we waiting for?” she said. “If the elections weren’t what we were hoping for, what are we marching for? What would be the purpose for marching in January after the elections?”
The first women’s marches followed President Donald Trump’s January 2017 inauguration and were attended by millions around the globe, fueled largely by opposition to the new administration. The Chicago march and rally unexpectedly shut down parts of the Loop, with a quarter-million participants flooding Grant Park, according to organizers.
In January 2018 — during the peak of the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment — an anniversary march and rally in Chicago topped the previous year’s attendance with a crowd estimated at 300,000, according to Women’s March Chicago. Hundreds of marches around the globe reportedly drew more than a million participants.
Dana R. Fisher, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland who studies protests and activism, predicts the upcoming marches in January won’t attract the large crowds of 2017 and 2018, though participation might hinge on the Trump administration’s actions leading up to the marches.
She added that the recent conflict over national leadership doesn’t help.
“I think it would be a heavy lift without the controversy, and with the controversy, it just gives another reason not to march,” said Fisher, author of the forthcoming book “American Resistance,” which will be coming out in mid-2019. “I think in general the numbers should be down, but I do think there will be commemorations across the country. And I think a lot of people will want to support the new Congress and the blue wave that brought them into office.”
To Kurensky, the big quandary is how to turn marches and rallies into political action.
“How many Januaries do we march?” she said. “And what do we do with that energy after we are done marching?”
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