EXPLAINER: Why WNBA players go overseas to play in offseason

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner (42) looks to pass as Chicago Sky center Candace Parker defends during the first half of game 1 of the WNBA basketball Finals , Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021, in Phoenix. Griner was arrested in Russia last month at a Moscow airport after a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges. The Russian Customs Service said Saturday, March 5, 2022, that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service identified the person arrested as a female player for the U.S. national team and did not specify the date of her arrest. 

(AP Photo/Ralph Freso, File) | Photo: AP

By DOUG FEINBERG
Updated: March 06, 2022

Russia has been a popular destination for WNBA players like Brittney Griner over the past two decades because of the money they can make playing there in the winter.

With top players earning more than $1 million - nearly quadruple what they can make as a base salary in the WNBA - Griner, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Jonquel Jones have been willing to spend their offseason playing far from home. It's tough for WNBA players to turn down that kind of money despite safety concerns and politics in some of the countries where they play.

The 31-year-old Griner, a seven-time All-Star for the Phoenix Mercury, has played in Russia since 2014. She was returning from a break for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup qualifying tournaments when she was arrested at an airport near Moscow last month after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges.

On Saturday, the State Department issued a "do not travel" advisory for Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine and urged all U.S. citizens to depart immediately, citing factors including "the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials" and "the Embassy's limited ability to assist" Americans in Russia.

Turkey, Australia, China and France also have strong women's basketball domestic leagues where some of the WNBA's best play in their offseason.

WHY RUSSIAN SALARIES ARE SO HIGH

Russian sports leagues have been able to pay top players these high salaries because some of the teams are funded by government municipalities while others are owned by oligarchs who care more about winning championships and trophies than being profitable. There are stories of Russian owners putting up players in luxury accommodations and taking them on shopping sprees and buying them expensive gifts in addition to paying their salaries.

In 2015, Taurasi's team, UMMC Ekaterinburg - the same one Griner plays for - paid her to skip the WNBA season and rest.

"We had to go to a communist country to get paid like capitalists, which is so backward to everything that was in the history books in sixth grade," Taurasi said a few years ago.

The Russian league has a completely different financial structure from the WNBA, where there is a salary cap, players' union and collective bargaining agreement.

The WNBA has made strides to increase player salaries and find other ways to compensate players in the last CBA, which was ratified in 2020. The contract, which runs through 2027, pays players an average of $130,000, with the top stars able to earn more than $500,000 through salary, marketing agreements, an in-season tournament and bonuses.

The CBA also provides full salaries while players are on maternity leave, enhanced family benefits, travel standards and other health and wellness improvements.

WHO PLAYS THERE?

More than a dozen WNBA players were playing in Russia and Ukraine this winter, including league MVP Jones and Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley of the champion Chicago Sky. The WNBA confirmed Saturday that all players besides Griner had left both countries.

Almost half of the WNBA's 144 players were overseas this offseason, although stars Candace Parker, Bird, Chiney Ogwumike and Chelsea Gray opted to stay stateside.

WILL THIS LAST?

From purely a basketball stand point, the CBA will make it more difficult for WNBA players to compete overseas in the future. Beginning in 2023, there will be new WNBA prioritization rules that will be enforced by the league. Any player with more than three years of service who arrives late to training camp will be fined at a rate of 1% of base salary per day late. In addition, any player who does not arrive before the first day of the regular season will be ineligible to play at all that season. In 2024 and thereafter, any player who does not arrive before the first day of training camp (or, with respect to unsigned players, finish playing overseas) will be ineligible to play for the entire season.

The WNBA typically begins training camp in late April and the regular season starts in early May. Some foreign leagues don't end before those dates.

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More AP women's basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Reproductive justice marches take place in aftermath of Texas abortion ban

Women's March rallies for reproductive freedoms kicked off Saturday. 

File Photo courtesy of Women's March/Twitter

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Over 600 marches took place Saturday across the United States over fear of losing reproductive freedoms in the aftermath of Texas' abortion ban.

The Texas bill banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which doctors say can been as soon as six weeks after conception, took effect last month. Activists fear other states will implement their own version of one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

"We don't say this lightly: We're at grave risk of losing our reproductive freedoms," the Women's March account tweeted. "All of us need to fight back. That's why on October 2, we're marching in every state."

In Washington, D.C., the "Rally for Abortion Justice," kicked off at 1:30 p.m. from Freedom Plaza with demonstrators marching to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The New Orleans brass band the Soul Rebels and singer-songwriter Adeline performed at Freedom Plaza to energize the crowd ahead of the march.

Latina comedian and activist Cristela Alonzo hosted the rally at Freedom Plaza, along with other speakers across the coalition for abortion justice.

Some other speakers slated to give remarks at the D.C. rally included actress and activist Busy Philipps, known for her role in Dawson's Creek, and transgender swimmer and advocate for other trans athletes, Schuyler Bailar, according to the Women's March website.

The Women's March, which also protested the 2017 inauguration of President Donald Trump after his remarks on a 2005 Access Hollywood tape about "grabbing" women's genitals and other offensive remarks, is organizing the marches. More than 90 groups were also involved, including Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive healthcare, and the Center for American Progress, a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization, CNN noted.

The National Parks Service confirmed to CNN that organizers applied for a permit for 10,000 in Washington, much smaller than the 2017 Women's March against Trump's inauguration, which drew more than 450,000 people to the capital.

The Women's March website said "everyone is required to wear a mask and practice social distancing" amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and urged anyone feeling ill to attend virtual events instead.

A sister rally in Houston announced that Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons of Top Chef, Shareenduh Tate, executive director of George Floyd Foundation, and Sabrina Greenlee, a community activist, author and domestic violence survivor, would participate, along with local leaders.

Counterprotests were also planned, including a D.C. group called "Take Feminism Back," which hosted an event to "counter pre-born violence" in Wisconsin's capital city Madison, CNN reported.

Battle for abortion rights hits America's streets

By AFP
Published October 2, 2021


Protesters attend a rally in Washington to defend access to abortion, part of a wave of marches planned for Oct 2, 2021 - Copyright AFP KARIM JAAFAR
Maria DANILOVA

Carrying signs with slogans like “my body, my choice, my right” thousands of women rallied Saturday in Washington at the start of a day of nationwide protests aimed at countering a conservative drive to restrict access to abortions.

The perennial fight over the procedure in America has become even more intense since Texas adopted a law on September 1 banning almost all abortions, unleashing a fierce counterattack in the courts and in Congress, but with few public demonstrations until now.

Two days before the US Supreme Court, which will have the final say on the contentious issue, is due to reconvene, nearly 200 organizations have called on abortion rights defenders to make their voices heard from coast to coast.

The flagship event was in the nation’s capital Washington, where a crowd of all ages — mostly women but men too — rallied under sunny skies at a square near the White House, many wearing purple masks with the words “bans off my body.”

Protesters danced to pop music blared from loudspeakers, as activists addressed the crowd in recorded interviews broadcast on large screens, and slogans like “abortion is healthcare” or “abort the Texas Taliban” were held aloft on signs, or daubed on protesters’ bodies.

A handful of counter protesters shouted “abortion is murder” but there was no violence.

Later the crowd was to march toward the Supreme Court, which nearly 50 years ago recognized the right of women to have an abortion in its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

Now the court, stacked by former president Donald Trump with conservative justices, seems ready to head in the opposite direction.

“Women are humans, we are full humans, and we need to be treated like full humans,” said Laura Bushwitz, a 66-year-old retired teacher from Florida, wearing a dress with portraits of women activists and politicians, like Michelle Obama.

“We should be able to have our own choice on what we want to do with our bodies. Period,” she said. “Hear that, SCOTUS,?” she asked, referring to the US Supreme Court.

The court has already refused to block the Texas law and has agreed to review a restrictive Mississippi law that could provide an opportunity to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade precedent, that guaranteed the legal right to an abortion up until a fetus is viable outside the womb.

Rallies were planned in at least two conservative states’ capitals, Austin and Jackson, as well as in more than 600 cities in all 50 states. According to the organizers, nearly a quarter million people are expected to turn out across the United States.

“Together, we are joining hands to advocate for a country where abortion isn’t just legal — it’s accessible, affordable and destigmatized,” said the organizers of the Rally for Abortion Justice in a statement.

The group called on Congress to enshrine the right to abortion in federal law, to protect it from any possible reversal by the Supreme Court.

A bill to that effect was adopted a week ago in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats, but has no chance of passing the Senate where Republicans have enough votes to block it.

– ‘Patriarchal desire’ –

In 2017, a first “Women’s March” was held the day after Trump’s inauguration, rallying millions of opponents of the Republican billionaire who had been accused of sexism.

Since then, other demonstrations have failed to turn out such huge numbers, in part due to internal divisions over accusations of anti-Semitism leveled at one of the organizers.

But that page seems to have been turned.

Saturday’s participants are a broad coalition including small feminist groups, community and local organizations as well as the giant of family planning, Planned Parenthood.

“We’re taking to the streets once again, for the first time in the (Joe) Biden era,” the statement said. “Because a change in the Oval Office hasn’t stopped the politicized, perverse, and patriarchal desire to regulate our bodies. If anything, it’s only gotten even more intense.”

That escalation has been spurred on by Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, emboldening local conservative elected officials across to the country to embark on an anti-abortion offensive.

So far this year, 19 states have adopted 63 laws restricting access to abortions.

If the high court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, every state would be free to ban or allow abortions.

That would mean 36 million women in 26 states — nearly half of American women of reproductive age — would likely lose the legal right to an abortion, according to a Planned Parenthood report released Friday.

Thousands march for abortion rights in US amid increased restrictions

ByAFP
Published October 2, 2021


Protesters march past the US Capitol as they take part in the Women's March and Rally for Abortion Justice in Washington on October 2, 2021 - Copyright AFP ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS
Maria DANILOVA

Wearing pink hats and T-shirts and shouting “Hands off my body,” tens of thousands of women took to the streets across the United States on Saturday in nationwide protests aimed at countering a conservative drive to restrict access to abortions.

In Washington, close to 10,000 protesters rallied in a square near the White House under sunny skies before marching to the US Supreme Court, which will have the final say on the contentious issue.

The protesters held signs that read “Mind your uterus” and “Make abortion legal,” with several women — and men — dressed like late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, America’s iconic women’s rights crusader, who died last year.

The perennial fight over the procedure in America has become even more intense since Texas adopted a law on September 1 banning almost all abortions, unleashing a fierce counterattack in the courts and in Congress, but with few public demonstrations until now.

Two days before the Supreme Court is due to reconvene, rallies took place in several hundred American cities from coast to coast.

“Women are humans, we are full humans, and we need to be treated like full humans,” said Laura Bushwitz, a 66-year-old retired teacher from Florida, wearing a dress with portraits of women activists and politicians.

“We should be able to have our own choice on what we want to do with our bodies. Period,” she said. “Hear that, SCOTUS,?” she asked, referring to the US Supreme Court.

Michaellyn Martinez, a woman in her seventies with closely cropped hair, told AFP she got pregnant at the age of 19, several years before the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, when the Supreme Court guaranteed the right to an abortion up until a fetus is viable outside the womb.

Martinez ended up having a daughter and getting married only to divorce two years later. “It changed my whole life — not having access to birth control and abortion,” she said. “I don’t want us to go back to the time when I was a young woman.”

At the Supreme Court, the marchers were met by counterprotests. A chain of riot police kept the two groups apart.

– ‘A long and ugly fight’ –

In New York, activists gathered in Manhattan’s Foley Square holding signs that read “We are not ovary-acting” and “I have a vagenda.”

Juliette O’Shea, 17, organized about 30 teens from her Manhattan high school to attend the rally to “show solidarity” with Texas.

“We’re trying to show that we are a strong and unified group of people who will not be silent when crazy abortion bans like the one in Texas are put into place,” O’Shea told AFP. “I think that this will be a long and ugly fight.”

The Supreme Court has already refused to block the Texas law and has agreed to review a restrictive Mississippi law that could provide an opportunity to overturn Roe v Wade.

So far this year, 19 states have adopted 63 laws restricting access to abortions.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood, told protesters in Washington the story of a Texas woman who had to drive more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), six hours one way, across three state lines, to get an abortion in Colorado — alone, because she was afraid that anybody helping her might get sued.

“No matter where you are, this fight is at your doorstep right now,” McGill Johnson said. “This moment is dark, but that is why we are here.”

The organizers of the Rally for Abortion Justice have called on Congress to enshrine the right to abortion in federal law, to protect it from any possible reversal by the Supreme Court.

A bill to that effect was adopted a week ago in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats, but has no chance of passing the Senate where Republicans have enough votes to block it.

Former president Donald Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court emboldened local conservative elected officials across the country to embark on an anti-abortion offensive.

If the high court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, every state would be free to ban or allow abortions.

That would mean 36 million women in 26 states — nearly half of American women of reproductive age — would likely lose the legal right to an abortion, according to a Planned Parenthood report released Friday.

Hundreds of marches begin nationwide as protesters decry 'unprecedented attack' on reproductive rights

Christine FernandoSavannah BehrmannJeanine Santucci
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Protesters are gathering in support of reproductive rights Saturday at hundreds of Women's March protests planned across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The marches come a month since a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect.

In Washington's Rally for Abortion Justice, a crowd of protesters gathered Saturday morning around a banner proclaiming "Bans off our bodies!" as Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" blasted from speakers.

A baby in a stroller nibbled at a sign saying "I can't believe I'm a baby and I have to protest already," and volunteers passed out masks with “I march for abortion access” on them.

Teresa Hamlin from Chesapeake, Virginia, said she finds it “unbelievable that we have to be back out here."

“I did this in the '70s and '60s and now we're back out again," Hamlin said. "It breaks my heart, but they've kicked the hornet's nest, and we're not going back”

In Texas, Democrat Mike Collier, who is running for lieutenant governor, joined protesters, tweeting "men need to shut up, sit down, and listen."

In addition to the Texas law, the possibility of other states passing similar legislation and a Mississippi challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision have created an "unprecedented attack" on reproductive freedoms, said Women's March executive director Rachel O'Leary Carmona.

"For a long time, groups of us were ringing the alarm bell around abortion access and many of us were told we were hysterical and Roe v. Wade will never be overturned," Carmona said. "But now it's clear that our fears were both rational and proportional."

The Supreme Court in September declined to block Texas' abortion law – a move the Women's March said "effectively took the next step towards overturning Roe v. Wade," according to its website. The marches were planned ahead of the Supreme Court reconvening Oct. 4.

More than 400 protesters gathered in Savannah, Georgia, for Saturday's Women's March. Melissa Nadia Viviana, co-organizer of the local march, said the message she wanted to communicate is that women need to have control of their bodies and their future.

“It's the only way we can spread equality throughout this country, so there's no going back to having other people make decisions for our uterus in the 21st century,” Viviana said. “We cannot progress at the same level as men if we don't have control of our reproductive freedom.”

'Women rising,' but numbers falling: 2020 March tries to reenergize amid flagging enthusiasm

'Shadow docket':Senate battles over Supreme Court 'shadow docket' in the wake of Texas abortion law

In Indianapolis, hundreds protested the Texas law and worried about a ripple effect felt closer to home. Some dressed as handmaids from "The Handmaid's Tale," and 27-year-old Van Wijk dressed as the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Indiana has passed laws restricting abortion access over the last few years. The laws have been both upheld and overturned by various courts, but the state Legislature has not definitively outlined any next steps.

Republicans in the state, including House Speaker Todd Huston, say they are "closely watching" the Texas ban and they will "continue to examine ways to further protect life at all stages."

“I think right now, compared to recent years, this is a very frightening moment,” Karen Celestino-Horseman, one of the Indianapolis rally organizers, told the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The marches have drawn opposition for years from conservatives who say the Women's March doesn't represent the views of all women. Among the critics of this year's march was Jeanne Mancini, president of an anti-abortion group called March for Life.

Smaller groups of counterprotesters showed up at some of the demonstrations. In D.C., about 100 anti-abortion protesters met the marchers near the Supreme Court. Blasting Christian rock, they yelled “abortion is murder,” prompting the marchers to respond: “abortion is health care.”

In Ocala, Florida, anti-abortion protesters stood opposite an intersection from the pro-abortion rights group. Police were on scene to intervene between the opposing demonstrators, who sometimes crossed the road and engaged in disagreements.

Carmona called the abortion rights marches a "coalition effort" with the Women's March partnering with more than 90 other organizations, including Planned Parenthood, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice and the Working Families Party.

The inaugural Women's March in 2017 started to protest against the election of then-President Donald Trump. Last fall, a march protested now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

"This is a moment to consolidate our movements and to demonstrate to policymakers and to the Supreme Court that we will not go quietly, that this is going to be a fight," Carmona said.

Contact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.

Contributing: Austin Miller, The Ocala Star-Banner; Laura Nwogu, Savannah Morning News; Rashika Jaipuriar, Indianapolis Star

WOMENS MARCH

Watch Live: Women's March Returns to DC to Rally for Abortion Rights

The Women’s March Rally for Abortion Justice is set for Saturday in Washington, D.C. and an anti-abortion rights group has planed a counterdemonstration.

By Sophia Barnes, NBC Washington Staff and Associated Press

• Published 2 hours ago • Updated 32 mins ago

The Women’s March in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, is set to rally crowds of demonstrators in support of abortion rights and against a Texas law that bans most abortions.

Streams of protesters, many carrying signs reading "bans off our bodies," converged at Freedom Plaza for a rally before a planned march to the Supreme Court building. Up to 100,000 people are expected to attend rallies in the District and across the country, the Women’s March said

Numerous demonstrators paid homage to former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, highlighting the movement's current effort pressuring the courts to uphold abortion rights.

The march is part of “a fight to secure, safeguard, and strengthen our constitutional right to an abortion,” Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women's March, said in a statement. “And it’s a fight against the Supreme Court justices, state lawmakers, and senators who aren’t on our side — or aren’t acting with the urgency this moment demands.”

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This year, the demonstration is dubbed the Rally for Abortion Justice. Organizers planned this march for early October because the Supreme Court of the United States is set to reconvene on Monday, and a key abortion case is on their docket.

The march comes a day after the Biden administration urged a federal judge to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, which has banned most abortions in Texas since early September.

It's one of a series of cases that will give the nation's divided high court occasion to uphold or overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973, which made abortion legal for generations of American women.

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 02: Protesters attend the Rally For Abortion Justice on October 02, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Women’s March)

An opponent of women's access to abortion called this year's march theme “macabre.”

“What about equal rights for unborn women?” tweeted Jeanne Mancini, president of an anti-abortion group called March for Life.

Anti-abortion rights group Students for Life of America has planned a counter-demonstration across the street from the Women's March in D.C.

The Women's March has become a regular event — although interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic — since millions of women turned out in the United States and around the world the day after the January 2017 inauguration of Trump. Trump endorsed punishing women for getting abortions and made the appointment of conservative judges a mission of his presidency.

Without Trump as a central figure for women of varied political beliefs to rally against, and with the pandemic still going strong, organizers talk of hundreds of thousands of participants nationally Saturday, not the millions of 2017.


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Latina comedian and activist Cristela Alonzo will host the rally in the capital, which will feature speakers from Planned Parenthood and other advocates and providers of abortion access. Actress Busy Philipps and swimmer Schuyler Bailar are due to take part.

Groups that planned to attend include the National Organization of Women (NOW) and Texas pro-abortion rights coalition Trust Respect Access.

Attendees are asked to follow COVID-19 protocols, including wearing masks and social distancing.

In Photos: Women's March in DC Rallies for Abortion Rights

Thousands of women march in Southern California as abortion-rights showdowns loom

In Southern California, the largest protest is in Los Angeles, a gathering that has typically drawn thousands of people. But demonstrations are planned throughout the region, from Orange County to the Inland Empire, from Redondo Beach to the San Gabriel Valley.

Demonstrators gather at the Los Angeles Women’s March from Pershing Square to City Hall on Saturday, October 17, 2020. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

By RYAN CARTER | rcarter@scng.com, BRENNON DIXSON | bdixson@scng.com, HUNTER LEE | hlee@scng.com and PIERCE SINGGIH | psinggih@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: October 2, 2021 at 7:59 a.m. | UPDATED: October 2, 2021 at 9:15 a.m.

Myriad “sister marches,” spinoffs of the fifth annual Women’s March in Washington D.C. today, were expected to fill the streets of Southern California. At least 600 marches are planned around the nation.

Local protesters joined activists across the nation, aiming to decry a restrictive Texas abortion law and draw attention to an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on Mississippi’s abortion laws — a case that pro choice advocates fear could overturn Roe v. Wade.

The marches trace their roots to protests that arose after President Donald Trump’s election, but these will be the first since he left office. During his tenure, key Supreme Court appointments shifted the court into a conservative direction and the table for abortion-rights showdowns in years to come.

In Southern California, the largest protest is planned in Los Angeles, a gathering that has typically drawn thousands of people. But demonstrations are planned throughout the region, from Orange County to the Inland Empire, from Redondo Beach to the San Gabriel Valley.

Demonstrations were expected in Riverside, Temecula, Redlands Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Malibu, North Hollywood, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Simi Valley, Westchester and West Hollywood. And there are more: map.womensmarch.com/.

Some of these rallies were planned by larger women’s or political groups, but others are more grassroots, including those planned by individuals who say they feel a responsibility to protect the futures of young women and teach them about the importance of reproductive rights.

“Abortion care is a critical component of healthcare. It needs to be equitable and accessible for everyone regardless of their socioeconomic status,” said state Sen. Lena Gonzales, who was expected to participate in the Long Beach event. Her district encompasses parts of Long Beach and the South Bay. “California has been a leader in reproductive freedom and we will continue fighting these national attacks that threaten the quality of life for so many in our state and country.”

“This is not just for us. It’s for our children and our children’s children,” Emiliana Guereca, president of the Women’s March Foundation, said in an emailed statement. “It’s beyond time for the United States to recognize that access to abortion care is a key part of access to human rights.”

Opponents of legal abortions have won significant victories in court and in houses of government in recent months.

A recent Texas law banned abortions after six weeks, which is when healthcare providers can detect a fetal heartbeat but before most women know that they’re pregnant. It has been described as the strictest abortion law since the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade in 1973, and it provides no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

The law also allows state residents to sue medical clinics, doctors, nurses and people who drive women to get an abortion for damages of up to $10,000. The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to keep the law in place, though the reasoning from the majority was one of standing.

And in December, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court will hear arguments from Mississippi lawmakers who want to ban abortions in that state after 15 weeks.

In Los Angeles, a collection of Downtown streets were scheduled to be closed for the march, which was set to wind from Pershing Square and concluding with a rally at City Hall.

Participants planned to gather at 9 a.m. at Pershing Square, 532 S. Olive St., with the march at 10 a.m. to City Hall, 200 N. Spring St. Organizers, including Women’s March Foundation, will hold a program with guest speakers, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation announced these street closures in the area:

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Olive and Hill streets between First and Fifth streets
First Street between Hill and Spring streets

From 2 to 8 p.m.
Spring Street between First and Temple streets

The LADOT adds that if the crowd reaches into the thousands, there may be more impacted streets that will require closures. For updates, LADOT’s Facebook, www.facebook.com/ladotofficial. Website: bit.ly/3F6Fzu2.

#KASHMIR #INDIA'S #GAZA

Why is India deploying female soldiers to Kashmir?

Female soldiers were sent to the region for the first time in May, but critics say the military still has a long way to go on gender equality.


Military officials say female soldiers can 'break the ice' during search operations that involve local women

India deployed female soldiers to the restive Indian-administered Kashmir for the first time, in a bid to improve local relations and promote gender equality within the ranks of its paramilitary.

However, the efforts have drawn widespread criticism and questions over how effective the move is, both in strengthening ties with local women and improving gender equality within the armed forces.

In May, India's Federal Home Ministry quietly shifted an armed battalion of Assam Rifles (a paramilitary force) comprising several women from the northeastern state of Manipur to Kashmir. The 34th battalion was stationed at Ganderbal, about 38 kilometers (23.6 miles) north of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The female paramilitary troops were deployed at several motor vehicle checkpoints in Ganderbal, the route leading to the sensitive Ladakh region.

Soon after their arrival, the soldiers were seen frisking local women at checkpoints and trekking to different places to interact with local women and schoolgirls. They also held interactive sessions, in which the soldiers demonstrated their combat skills, and exchanged views on social issues. The female soldiers, who work together with their male counterparts, say they have an edge over male soldiers when it comes to interacting with women in the region.

"We are trying to give a sense of confidence to local women," said 24-year-old riflewoman Rupali Dhangar from the central Indian state of Maharashtra. "The aim is to encourage them to move out of their routine household work."
Addressing harassment complaints

Military officials said the introduction of female soldiers is likely to make the Indian government's anti-militancy operations in strife-torn Kashmir more effective, especially when dealing with local women during searches in residential areas.

Watch video 09:43 India-Pakistan conflict: A ticking time bomb

India's all-male force received several complaints about sexual harassment of local women in Kashmir.

"Our primary task is to ensure that women don't face any inconvenience or difficulty during the anti-militancy operations. We will try to make them feel comfortable during search operations," said riflewoman Rekha Kumari, 27, from West Bengal.

However, it remains to be seen whether the womens' involvement during the night raids and other anti-militancy operations is effective in allaying local women's fears.

Ghazala Wahab, the executive editor of Force magazine, believes that the military deployed women to the region "to address the allegations of sexual violence."

Human rights activists say the Indian military has received complaints of male soldiers making sexually lewd remarks or gestures, inappropriate groping, and even rape during the search operations in Kashmir.

"The involvement of Indian armed forces in these crimes was alarming in the 1990s, but now there has been a decrease [in such crimes] due to pressure from rights bodies," said Sabia Dar, an activist with the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP).

Dar told DW that the deployment of riflewomen is an attempt to showcase Indian armed forces as sensitive towards the rights of Kashmiri women.

During a visit to Kashmir in September 2019, women's advocacy network Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression found that "school-going girls have to walk past army camps and are sexually harassed by the men in uniform. Often, security forces stand at the roadside with their pants unzipped and make lewd comments and gestures."

With the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in place in Kashmir, armed personnel involved in any crime cannot be prosecuted without the Indian government's consent.

Women 'help break the ice'

The female soldiers could help "to break the ice" during search operations, said Commanding Officer of the 34 Assam Rifles, Colonel RS Karakoti.

"It is easier for us when riflewomen are part of the search operations. They help us to break the ice so that the searches go unhampered," Karakoti told DW.

Watch video 02:43 Will Kashmir's young politicians bring hope to the region?

However, the military drew widespread criticism when images of female soldiers frisking local women went viral on social media.

Athar Zia, a political anthropologist with the University of Northern Colorado, said the introduction of female soldiers is akin to the "gender-washing of war crimes in Kashmir," and selling "genocide as gender justice."

"What is the riflewoman to the female political prisoners languishing in jails, to women who face grave human rights abuses and rape as a weapon of war, to women surveilled 24/7 along with their communities?" he asked.

Riflewoman Kumari, however, said the soldiers were not subjecting women to any inconveniences during the search operations. "We ensure that their rights are not violated and their feelings are not hurt," she said.

Discriminatory policies within the army

The female soldiers said that local girls now want to join them, although women are often the subject of discriminatory policies within the armed forces.

"They are giving us a good response and are eager to meet us again. Many of them want to join the Indian army," said Kumari, who joined the Assam Rifles in 2017.

Riflewoman Dhangar believes, however, that there is still a long way to go in terms of gender equality in the military.

"Gender equality is still a far-fetched dream in the Indian army, and to deal with it, we have made ourselves mentally strong," she said.

Female officers have been denied senior commanding positions, along with lifelong job and retirement security, unlike their male counterparts.

In March, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the army's evaluation criteria for granting the benefits to women was systematically discriminatory.

Brampton high schooler helps city join ‘red movement’ to ensure access to menstrual products

Imagine having to bring your own toilet paper and hand soap every time you use a public restroom. The thought is ridiculous – these items are vital to basic hygiene.

Yet many across the country can’t escape this bizarre reality when they’re forced to supply their own feminine hygiene products.

“This is a basic right,” Keyna Sarkar told The Pointer. “Why not pads and tampons? How are they any different?”

Feminine hygiene products aren’t any different to other necessities offered in public restrooms, but unlike toilet paper and hand wash, the products have rarely been offered in public washrooms and support for the idea has too often faced prudish attitudes toward a basic fact of female biology.

It’s taboo to talk about menstruation openly in many cultures across the world and the sign of good reproductive health is seen as an unsavory subject. Some cultures forbid certain types of interaction during menstruation and ban those experiencing their period from places of worship. Others are confined to “menstruation huts” used in particular parts of South Asia and Africa (Nepal, Ethiopia for example) as isolated structures even though they often lack proper ventilation. Those inside are forbidden from touching other people or objects.

The stigma has led many to talk about the topic in hushed tones, often using euphemisms (like “time of month” and “Aunt Flo”) to hide behind, instead of dealing openly with personal needs around a biological event that occurs approximately once every four weeks.

A 2018 study from Plan International Canada (PIC) found 41 percent of female respondents were teased for being on their period and 63 percent said they had to hide feminine hygiene products if they were bringing them to the washroom at school or work. This number jumps to 81 percent for women under 25. “It’s hidden because it’s stigmatized so deeply, for no apparent reason,” the Brampton high schooler said.

There are billions of females around the world who experience menstruation and use feminine hygiene products, and the secrecy, something Sarkar personally experienced, doesn't make sense to her.

Sarkar and her family resided in Dubai before they moved to Brampton and menstruation was not a subject people spoke freely about, even in Sarkar’s all-girls class. Her teachers told her it was an “awkward” subject. Sarkar recalled the hesitancy in their voices that barely went above a whisper. “That doesn't mean you're just going to ignore it. It's something super important. There were girls who thought they were going to die.”

Sarkar said the issue can be just as hard to speak about in Canada. While some feel comfortable, she has seen many who are “very scared” to discuss their own body’s reproductive process.

She credits her mother for empowering her on a topic that she herself was originally reluctant to speak of. “She’s like, ‘In our culture it's not spoken about, but I think it should be. So I'm going to start talking about it with you and know that you can reach out to any of the males in our family if you ever need to because we're going to start this from our household’.” Her family members have stayed true to their word, and she says she approaches her dad, uncle, or grandfather if she ever needs anything.

Others aren’t as lucky, and Sarkar said there are many girls her age who struggle with purchasing menstrual products. In some cases, they or their families may not be able to afford them, or they may not feel comfortable asking.

This is commonly known as period poverty: the struggle of many low income individuals unable to afford menstrual products and related items like underwear and pain medication, according to the United Nations.

In some cases, the same sanitary product is used for hours at a time without being changed, increasing the risk of infections, including toxic shock syndrome. While this is rare, it requires immediate medical attention if it occurs. Using products besides sanitary items, like rags or cotton pads, can also lead to trouble.

Advocacy group Canadian Menstruators estimated nearly $520 million was spent on menstrual hygiene products by approximately 17.8 million Canadian women between 12 and 49 in 2014, breaking down to roughly $29 per person annually.

Other estimates are much higher; Chatelaine estimates a cost of $65.82 every year. An analysis from Huffington Post showed menstruation will cost more than $18,000 over a lifetime; PIC found 33 percent of females under 25 have struggled to afford products for themselves or their dependents and 75 percent have missed school or work because of their period.

The Toronto Youth Cabinet (TYC), a youth advisory body in Toronto, sent a statement to Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Education, in March asking for the Province to require all 76 school boards across Ontario to provide free menstrual products in secondary and elementary schools.

Stephen Mensah, TYC’s executive director, told The Pointer the group has not received a direct response from the Minister. “We are still waiting to meet directly with him on this issue.”

Other provinces have already taken action; B.C. was the first in 2019, and P.E.I followed suit soon after. Similar discussions are also taking place in Quebec.

Some school boards have taken the step independently. The Toronto District School Board voted to provide free menstrual products to all its schools in 2019. Peel District School Board’s 2020-2021 budget includes such products to be introduced in phases. Phase one focuses on secondary schools and phase two, expected to be rolled out in the coming months, will expand the program to elementary schools. The Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board is working to retrofit existing dispensers in their 26 secondary schools, expected to be completed by June 30. Elementary students will be part of Phase 2, Bruce Campbell, general manager of communications told The Pointer. A date was not provided to when the school board would enter this phase. The average age for a first period is 12-years-old, but it differs from person to person.

Sarkar is happy to see, what she calls, the “red movement” make its way across Canada but she wants more to be done faster. It inspired her to start a chapter of Girl Up in Brampton this past September. The non-profit organization is a UN initiative focused on empowering women across the world.

The group’s first initiative, a sanitary kit drive held in December, saw them collect 10,000 products in Brampton within three weeks. Sarkar drove around for days picking up donations from whoever was offering them in the community. She admitted the group was apprehensive of the initiative given the stigma around the topic among many in the community. But Sarkar has been pleasantly surprised.

“I knew that seeing the change starting up within moms like mine, there are definitely other moms outside who are willing, and there absolutely were.” Donations went to womens’ shelters across the GTA and were shipped to Indigenous communities in Nunavut and Quebec.

In her latest push, Sarkar took on Brampton City Council, delegating members who she implored to take responsibility for providing menstrual products in all City run facilities. Her push led to council approving a plan to pay for products in all City-run women’s and gender neutral bathrooms and change rooms. In total, 49 facilities will see the installation of a dispenser, at a total cost of $52,400, while annual estimated costs are $73,913.

Sarkar was not expecting the discussion to be as agreeable as it was. “I was completely ready to fight,” citing the challenges her fellow advocates have faced while presenting a similar request to other municipalities. “They (in other jurisdictions) had some really, very stupid excuses from council members that saying that no, this doesn't make sense.”

That wasn’t the case at Brampton City Hall.

Brampton is now one of a handful of cities offering the service to its residents; London became the first when it began a pilot project in September 2019.

Scotland made headlines in November for being the first country to make feminine hygiene products free for anyone who needs them. While Canada lifted the GST on feminine hygiene products in 2015, many, like Sarkar, say it’s not enough.

She has plans to make her pitch to restaurants and other facilities, but she feels “the smarter way to go about it is actually starting [with] the government first” and then approaching businesses. “I feel like the government is the one that models and sets an example.”

Email: nida.zafar@thepointer.com
Twitter: @nida_zafar
Nida Zafar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

#IWD

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: How she took on an authoritarian leader despite her fears

In just a few months the opposition figure went from unknown stay-at-home mom to the leader of democratic Belarus. She told DW she's proud of both roles, and says that for millions of women, "the inner strength awoke."

VIDEO Women of Power: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was a political unknown just one year ago. Today, she has become the leader of the biggest protest movement in Belarus since the country gained independence. The wave of action she led has been awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament, and she has now been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as well.

"I can do everything. I can do it. I already proved it to the whole world. I'm not afraid. You think I can't take a leadership position? " she said in a DW interview ahead of International Womens' Day, which is observed annually on March 8.

Tsikhanouskaya holds a picture of activist Nina Baginskaya during the EU Parliament's 2020 Sakharov Prize ceremony

'I was a housewife ... What should I be ashamed of?'

Tsikhanouskaya emerged in 2020 as the face of the opposition to longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and subsequently as the self-styled "leader of democratic Belarus." In May, when her husband Sergei Tsikhanousky, a well-known blogger and democracy activist, was barred from challenging Lukashenko for the presidency and arrested, she ran instead.

The strongman president, who had been in office since 1994, did not take her seriously as an opponent and claimed publicly that "a woman can't be a president." He attempted to demean her experience as a stay-at-home parent: "She just cooked a tasty cutlet, maybe fed the children, and the cutlet smelled nice."

But Tsikhanouskaya's determination to hit back at institutionalized misogyny struck a chord with millions of women in Belarus and abroad. Asked about Lukashenko's insults, she spoke of how he mocked "that I'm a housewife, I belong in the kitchen. He was trying to make fun of me," she said in a DW interview. But Tsikhanouskaya refused to even acknowledge the premise of his derision. "I was never offended by that because it is what it is. I was in fact a housewife for a number of reasons. That's true. Yes. If he wanted to insult me, he didn't succeed. It's the truth. What should I be ashamed of?"

WOMEN FIGHT FOR BELARUS' FUTURE

With flowers and earrings

For months now, women in Belarus have been protesting for democracy and the resignation of the autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko. Nadia, the young woman who is looking into the eyes of the policeman, spent 10 days in jail, according to a description of the image at the exhibition "The Future of Belarus, Fueled by Women," in Vilnius, Lithuania.

PHOROS 123456789

It may be beyond Lukashenko's imagination that a woman could rule the country. But the opposition leader has no doubt that her country disagrees with his sexist rhetoric about a woman taking over the office of president. "Yes, I'm more than convinced that it's possible. Because my allies and I, and all Belarusian women who took to the streets have proven their resilience, their strong character. So Belarusians won't have any doubts that a woman can become the future president of Belarus."

2020 marked a turning point in many ways for the former Soviet republic — and especially for Belarusian women. Lukashenko's security forces initially spared women, but that changed once they became the driving force during democratic protests. Images and reports emerged of women — from teenagers to grandmothers — being arrested, beaten and even tortured. Several prominent women activists were detained and driven into exile.

Tsikhanouskaya said it was "an impulse of the heart" that propelled millions of Belarusian women to protest the electoral fraud. "Going out against violence — it was like an instinct. When we saw how many we were, we started being proud of ourselves. 'Here I am, I did it.' The inner strength awoke." 

Police across Belarus have made mass arrests at pro-democracy marches; reports of violence and torture have emerged

'The fear was always there'

Tsikhanouskaya described her remarkable ascent to leadership as that of having no choice. "The fear was always there: that you end up in prison, what would happen to your children then? Every morning you live with a feeling of fear. It doesn't mean that I have overcome my fear. It means that you do something in spite of your fear, because there is no other way."

Tsikhanouskaya and her children were put under immense pressure and were forced to flee the country. She has been living in exile in Lithuania since the election, from where she keeps on fighting for democracy.

The European Union and the United States have not recognized Lukashenko's claim that he won the election. Meanwhile, Tsikhanouskaya has become her country's representative on the international stage. Several world leaders have met with her — among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Tsikhanouskaya met with Merkel in Berlin in October and described the longtime leader as "extremely friendly" during the conversation. "It was obvious that she has a sense of empathy, that she understands our pain, that she would really like to help us."

Tsikhanouskaya and Merkel discussed the democratic movement in Belarus at their October meeting in Berlin

The opposition leader said that the 30-minute meeting focused on how Germany could help broker a possible dialogue between demonstrators and Belarusian authorities. "She's so straightforward," Tsikhanouskaya said of the longtime chancellor. Merkel shows "absolutely no arrogance and there's a sense of warmth coming from her. That doesn't contradict the notion of the strong woman she is known to be ... And it doesn't take tough talk to understand that she is a strong leader."

Yet like the German leader, who has famously said she does not view herself as a feminist, Tsikhanouskaya said the term does not particularly apply to her, either. She emphasized her recent actions as instead being out of circumstance and necessity after her husband's arrest: "I wouldn't consider myself a feminist," she told DW.

Watch video 04:57 Belarus: Protesters dance against Lukashenko

What does the future hold for Belarus?

Will Tsikhanouskaya continue her own quest for the presidency? At the beginning of March, Belarusian authorities put her on a wanted list for allegedly "preparing for unrest." She told DW that "she is ready to be with the Belarusians for as long as they need me" but that she will not necessarily pursue the job herself. "If circumstances change and we'll have new elections — that's our goal — I don't plan to run again. But we don't know what the situation will be. It could be that ... the people will decide that, yes, we trust her again. I always say: 'If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.'"

IWD BREAD & ROSES

Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.

Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses

Saturday, March 08, 2008

100 Years Of Bread and Roses

Today marks the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day one of two Internationalist Workers Holidays begun in the United States. And it is one that recognized women as workers, that as workers women's needs and rights are key to all our struggles hence the term Bread and Roses.

Women have led all revolutions through out modern history beginning as far back as the 14th Century with bread riots. Bread riots would become a revolutionary phenomena through out the next several hundred years in England and Europe.

It would be bread riots of women who would lead the French Revolution and again the Paris Commune, led by the anarchist Louise Michel.

Bread riots occurred in America during the Civil War.

It would be the mass womens protest and bread riots in Russia in 1917 that led to the Revolution there. The World Socialist Revolution had begun and two of its outstanding leaders were Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin, both who opposed Lenin's concept of a party of professional revolutionaries leading the revolution and called for mass organizations of the working class. Their feminist Marxism was embraced by another great woman leader of the Russian Revolution; Alexandra Kollontai.

Women began the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 by shutting down the phone exchange.

Women began the Winnipeg general sympathetic strike. At 7:00 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, May 15, 1919, five hundred telephone operators punched out at the end of their shifts. No other workers came in to replace them. Ninety percent of these operators were women, so women represented the vast majority of the first group of workers to begin the city-wide sympathetic strike in support of the already striking metal and building trades workers. At 11:00 a.m., the official starting point of the strike, workers began to pour out from shops, factories and offices to meet at Portage and Main. Streetcars dropped off their passengers and by noon all cars were in their barns. Workers left rail yards, restaurants and theatres. Firemen left their stations. Ninety-four of ninety-six unions answered the strike call. Only the police and typographers stayed on their jobs. Within the first twenty-four hours of the strike call, more than 25,000 workers had walked away from their positions. One-half of them were not members of any trade union. By the end of May 15, Winnipeg was virtually shut down.

Again it would be mass demonstrations of women against the Shah of Iran that would lead to the ill fated Iranian revolution.

Today with a food crisis due to globalization bread riots are returning.

When women mobilize enmass history is made.

March is Women's History Month, March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD), and March 5 is the birthday of the revolutionary Polish theorist and leader of the 1919 German Revolution, Rosa Luxemburg. It was Rosa Luxemburg's close friend and comrade, Clara Zetkin, who proposed an International Women's Day (IWD) to the Second International, first celebrated in 1911.

Clara Zetkin, secretary of the International Socialist Women's Organization (ISWO), proposed this date during a conference in Copenhagen because it was the anniversary of a 1908 women workers' demonstration at Rutgers Square on Manhattan's Lower East Side that demanded the right to vote and the creation of a needle trades union.

The demonstration was so successful that the ISWO decided to emulate it and March 8 became the day that millions of women and men around the world celebrated the struggle for women's equality.

Actually, International Women's Day is one of two working class holidays "born in the USA." The other is May Day, which commemorates Chicago's Haymarket martyrs in the struggle for an eight-hour day.

Clara Zetkin

From My Memorandum Book

 

CLARA ZETKIN & ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI

“Agitation and propaganda work among women, their awakening and revolutionisation, is regarded as an incidental matter, as an affair which only concerns women comrades. They alone are reproached because work in that direction does not proceed more quickly and more vigorously. That is wrong, quite wrong! Real separatism and as the French say, feminism à la rebours, feminism upside down! What is at the basis of the incorrect attitude of our national sections? In the final analysis it is nothing but an under-estimation of woman and her work. Yes, indeed! Unfortunately it is still true to say of many of our comrades, ‘scratch a communist and find a philistine’. 0f course, you must scratch the sensitive spot, their mentality as regards women. Could there be a more damning proof of this than the calm acquiescence of men who see how women grow worn out In petty, monotonous household work, their strength and time dissipated and wasted, their minds growing narrow and stale, their hearts beating slowly, their will weakened! Of course, I am not speaking of the ladies of the bourgeoisie who shove on to servants the responsibility for all household work, including the care of children. What I am saying applies to the overwhelming majority of women, to the wives of workers and to those who stand all day in a factory.

“So few men – even among the proletariat – realise how much effort and trouble they could save women, even quite do away with, if they were to lend a hand in ‘women’s work’. But no, that is contrary to the ‘rights and dignity of a man’. They want their peace and comfort. The home life of the woman is a daily sacrifice to a thousand unimportant trivialities. The old master right of the man still lives in secret. His slave takes her revenge, also secretly. The backwardness of women, their lack of understanding for the revolutionary ideals of the man decrease his joy and determination in fighting. They are like little worms which, unseen, slowly but surely, rot and corrode. I know the life of the worker, and not only from books. Our communist work among the women, our political work, embraces a great deal of educational work among men. We must root out the old ‘master’ idea to its last and smallest root, in the Party and among the masses. That is one of our political tasks, just as is the urgently necessary task of forming a staff of men and women comrades, well trained in theory and practice, to carry on Party activity among working women.”

SEE:

IWD: Raya Dunayevskaya

IWD Economic Freedom for Women

Feminizing the Proletariat

 LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for IWD 

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