On Thursday, October 4th, with just one day left in the Brett Kavanaugh FBI investigation, cities and college campuses across the country protested Kavanaugh’s possible seat as Supreme Court Justice. Many left the march hopeful that national public outcry would sway the Senate vote on Saturday, and others are expecting a longer fight against sexual assault and its deep roots in American politics.
As we congregated at Library Mall on the UW-Madison Campus, there were speakers from Bell Magazine and the International Socialist Organization to inspire the crowd and remind us what we were truly fighting for. ISO speaker Sylvia Johnson started the walkout by emphasizing the importance of protests and mass mobilization in bringing any social movement to fruition.
“Make no mistake, Jeff Flake did not change his tune out of the goodness of his heart. It was because he was confronted by two sexual assault survivors; two regular people that forced the hand of a senator without money and without position in the government. This is a huge point to understand. Public opinion and mass mobilization can pressure the most seemingly unmovable politicians. Remember, Roe v. Wade was passed by a right-wing majority supreme court due to enormous pressure from below.” (Sylvia Johnson)
To protect reproductive rights and end our government’s compliance with sexual assault, we must fight Kavanaugh’s election as a Supreme Court Justice and everything his election would represent in the manner we did yesterday; unified and determined. After Dr. Ford’s compelling testimony, it seemed that almost everyone in that room was either disturbed or at the very least, moved. If Kavanaugh is voted in, the most disappointing thing to me would be that everyone believed her, and they just didn’t care.
Dr. Ford being questioned like a criminal during the hearing and being mocked on national television by the President of the United States validates the fears of sexual assault victims about coming forward with their stories. The trial and its aftermath represent more than another political career being “inconvenienced” and ruined by a sexual assault allegation or another woman’s experience being discredited by a powerful group of men. Electing Kavanaugh would not only put our bodily autonomy rights in jeopardy but would also tell the world that sexual assault doesn’t matter; that any assault that’s not rape isn’t that big of a deal. It would tell survivors everywhere that sexual assault is just a part of life and any attempt to fight it would be pointless. This is bigger than Dr. Ford.
So, we marched.
“They say Kavanaugh, we say Hell Naw.”
“We believe survivors, we believe survivors.”
“We believe Christine Ford, we believe Anita Hill.”
Once we arrived at the capitol building, the crowd fell silent as we listened to survivors share their experiences. The empowering feelings of walking down Langdon as people waved from the sidewalks, or the feelings of surprising invincibility when a man in a MAGA hat started inaudibly yelling us, had suddenly turned into a mass heartache. As I listened to women and men of all different ages recount their experiences of sexual assault, it was hard to avoid being angry.
I think that protests and movements, in general, are the most effective and the least dangerous when there is more hope than there is anger, but yesterday it was so hard not to be angry. Thankfully before we dispersed, the organizers reminded us to use the anger for something greater, and that if Kavanaugh doesn’t get elected, it was due to people like us protesting across the nation.
According to Olivia Herken from Bell Magazine, the main takeaway from the Kavanaugh case is that regardless of the Senate vote, there is still work to be done in ensuring that women are being respected and advocated for in our governmental bodies. “Whichever way it goes, women will have an answer on whether or not the leaders of this country support them and recognize the struggles they face every day,” Herken says.
No matter what the Senate votes on Saturday, our nation will either be pushed to do more with their anger or they will remember yesterday as a major success in voicing public opinion and sparking political change from outside the system.
All image credit: Sarah Anderson