Why local organizers support the Women's March despite controversy

The 2017 Women's March completely changed Angie Beem's life.

"The Women’s March got me out of the house, got me involved, made me educate myself, got me politically educated, and gave me something meaningful to do," says Beem, who is the board president for Women's March Washington State.

Last month, however, Beem announced the board's decision to dissolve, pointing to the national Women’s March refusal to "acknowledge and apologize for their anti-Semitic stance."

Allegations of anti-Semitic remarks made by leaders of the national organization behind the Women's March in D.C., as reported by Tablet Magazine in December, have sent shockwaves across the country, leaving those who found a political voice by rallying in the streets and sharing empowering hashtags, doubting the movement's future.

But on Saturday, the march will go on. Only, it seems, in a much more fractured way as local groups, like Beem's, forge their own paths, some distancing themselves from the national organization. In addition, several Democratic women leaders with presidential aspirations who attended the inaugural march in 2017, like Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris, will be skipping the event.

"The Women's March movement is so, so much bigger than the fallible humans that lead it — that includes me and my team," Liz Hunter-Keller, one of the public relations leads for Seattle Womxn Marching Forward, said to Mashable in an email.

The organizers embroiled in controversy remain on the team hosting the D.C. march, which began as a way for women and allies to act on their frustrations following Donald Trump's presidential win. The organizers deny the allegations of anti-Semitism, as well as accusations that some representatives support Louis Farrakhan, a controversial Nation of Islam minister known for his anti-Semitic comments and telling Jay-Z to cover Beyoncé up. (One organizer, Tamika Mallory, was seen at a February 2018 event where Farrakhan said "the powerful Jews are my enemy." Mallory has received much of the criticism after refusing to explicitly condemn Farrakhan during an interview on The View.)

When Mashable reached out to the national Women's March for comment, organizers pointed to a November statement, which reads: "The Women’s March exists to fight bigotry and discrimination in all their forms — including homophobia and anti-semitism — and to lift up the voices of women who are too often left out."

While local groups, including Washington and Phoenix, have distanced themselves, many, including Beem, are still hoping to maintain the movement's momentum amid the controversy, organizing rallies and advocating for marginalized communities. Florida organizers, expressed their disappointment for the national group's response to the "condoning of Louis Farrakhan" in a Twitter thread, but made clear they will not abandon the movement.

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Despite the controversy at the national level, Beem remains focused on the Washington state marches, encouraging people to participate and help fund local rallies. After its dissolution, the Washington State chapter will join Smart Politics, a nonprofit organization that helps progressives effectively communicate with adversaries. Prior to the drama, the chapter supported local city branches in Olympia, Wenatchee, and Walla Walla. Groups in Seattle and Spokane acted independently.

"Each individual city [in Washington] is still having a 2019 Women's March and we still need your financial support to make that happen," Beem wrote on Facebook. "We still have much to say and want to finish this march with a strong message."

For its part, the Seattle chapter issued a statement on Facebook on January 16 that explained it is legally and financially independent from the national arm of the Women's March and condemned Farrakhan's transphobic and anti-Semitic remarks.

The chapter has been working on its 2019 projects since last August.

"We have worked with 100 different organizations, speakers, leaders, communities ... the thing is, for us it was always about moving beyond the march," Hunter-Keller wrote.

There will be more than 60 "unique" events between January 19-21, according to Hunter-Keller. The itinerary consists of marches, rallies, workshops, lectures, trainings, and panel discussions, as well as community events to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

While some cities have canceled their marches, including Eureka, California and New Orleans, Jazmine-Marie Cruz, a 19-year-old Chicagoan, is adamant about her city being represented. After hearing there was no 2019 Women's March in Chicago, she started organizing a youth-led sister march called the Young Women's March Rally.

"It was very important for me that in some way, I could sort of inspire other young girls who were like me to take a role in activism and take a role in society," says Cruz.

The Women's March chapter in Illinois backed her efforts, raising awareness for the event on social media and connecting Cruz to advocacy organizations in Chicago.

The reactions from people closer to Cruz haven't been as positive, though. Facebook friends asked why she was standing with the Women's March. To explain, Cruz points to the organization's official statement on anti-Semitism, which she believes demonstrates the leaders' clear condemnation of bigotry.

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Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, a Jewish political action committee that advocates for progressive policies, showed their support for the march on Twitter and in a Washington Post op-ed.

Ginna Green, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action’s chief strategy officer, views the march as an opportunity for progressives to concentrate their energy and let the world know that they are not going to stand by and let white nationalism win. (Bend the Arc: Jewish Action has partnered with the Women's March since the inaugural event, and Green serves on the Women's Agenda committee.)

"We are going to build this world, and I think that showing up on Saturday is a demonstration of that," says Green.

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A national coalition of Jewish women of color plans to attend the D.C. Women's March. In an open letter, the women explained how they came to that decision, noting that they are committed to fighting "the growing threat of white supremacist and white nationalist violence" in the U.S. They are banding under the hashtag #JWOCmarching, which stands for Jewish women of color marching.

"We’re using this hashtag to create a space inside of this national conversation about the Women’s March where Jewish women of color who live at the intersection of the conversation that is taking place actually have a voice. And we have something to say because we live those experiences," says Shoshana Brown, a member of Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) and a national organizer with #JWOCmarching.

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Ultimately, various chapters agree that the movement is more about local groups and grassroots efforts than the national leaders.

"I have chosen in the past not to march, and this year, I am choosing to march because I am feeling that expansiveness and I feel that because we are going as a coalition, as all of what is happening with #JWOC marching, it’s creating a space and a seat at the table for people like myself to own our power and to say, we are here," says Brown.

Hunter-Keller echoes that sentiment.

"There is so, so much more to the Women's March movement than the four NY-based leaders. We are proof that a sea of women working (and marching) together, compromising and fortifying on each others' behalves, is indeed the force of nature we thought it might be."

Looking forward to January 2020, the next anniversary of the Women's March, Beem says she wants to be marching through the streets then, too, celebrating that "we've got all of the racists out of Congress."