International Women’s March in Santa Barbara

By Robert Bernstein

The second annual Women’s March was disrupted by the mudslides and was split in two. January 20 was the rally. But the police were tied up with the mudslides, so the march was delayed until March 10.

Here are some of my photos and video.

The splitting of the event and the rain on March 10 dampened the numbers, but not the energy. World Dance for Humanity gave the crowd much of that energy with their performance of “Break the Chain.”

 

Organizer Michal Lynch kept things moving

The March 10 event was timed to celebrate International Women’s Day. Local molecular biologist Tanya Hyde gave a brief history of International Women’s Day.

The first commemoration of International Women’s Day was on February 28, 1909 in New York. But when women gained the vote in Russia in 1917, March 8 became a date for women to celebrate and this became the official date from then on. In 1975 the day was officially recognized by the United Nations.

Sharon Byrne spoke as representative of Safe At Home, about human trafficking.

She observed a strange scene one day on State Street at Paseo Nuevo. A woman was asking for money and she had two young children with her. The children were clinging to each other in fear, but paying little attention to the woman. She learned that the woman and the children had been dropped off by a well-dressed man in a Cadillac Escalade. He had dropped off the woman the previous day with a different pair of children.

Ms Byrne asks that we all pay more attention to notice such situations. She notes how there are many businesses with immigrant workers. Yet we never see these workers in the supermarket or out and about elsewhere in the community. She noted that many of these workers are being held against their will. Their “employers” hold their documents so they have no ability to leave. And most of these workers are women.

California offers help through the Safe At Home Program. We need to let these workers know that this help is available.
Here is more information.

The organization Health Care for All was out to remind people that true universal health care would save women’s health and lives. They advocate for a single payer solution by simply making Medicare cover everyone. And/or starting with a California single payer solution.

They invite people to join here http://www.healthcareforall.org/

The March 10 attendees had some creative signs.

They marched down to the Dolphin Fountain and back. In the rain.

Because of the mud slides it was not possible to have coverage of the January 20 event at the time. But here are a few photos to show that people were out in large numbers then!

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Written by sbrobert

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  1. Why is President in quotations? Are you talking about the owner of Edhat, or are you in denial that Donald Trump is the President of The United States of America? If the latter, can you provide a link or a google search term to find him using the “c” word publicly during his term as POTUS?
    I will agree that Edhat is a safer environment to use that language rather than downtown SB out in the open where kids might see it and use it.

  2. The sign that reads, “I’d call Trump a CUNT but he lacks Depth and Warmth” is a bit misleading. It should read something like “Trump is a CUNT because he lacks Depth and Warmth.” The term “CUNT” in the latter is used more accurately than in the first usage (in my opinion). If I were going to create a sign to demean the current president, I wouldn’t use the “C” word at all because some people find it somewhat offensive. It is much the same as those who used the term “monkey” or “ape” to describe our last president and his first lady. Not nice, and completely uncalled for.

  3. If people in this day and age are able to use pop culture references to make a point, so too, can people in this day and age use historical references to make a point. To assist with understanding, I was describing in cliff’s notes the types of people (men in particular in this case) who would abhor the thought of a sexual abuser among their ranks, and that those men were of significant economic, professional, and moral variance.

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