Abortion Rights Freedom Ride 2014:
GROUND ZERO TEXAS
The VisionMission.Draw a line in Texas this summer. Through our mass resistance we must change the political calculations of the courts and politicians so that they do not feel they can get away with any more clinic closures. We must create a political situation where they fear that any negative ruling will not only inflame resistance, defiance and protest, but will also undermine their legitimacy in the eyes of millions. And we must do so in a way that begins to turn the tide in this fight nationally.
Strategy.
More thinking on this strategy...
Abortion Rights are at a Crossroads: This is NOT a Time to Lay Low - It is Time for Massive, Uncompromising Struggle! by David Gunn, Jr. and Sunsara Taylor Video (below): Abortion Rights Freedom Ride 2013: Rally in Fargo |
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Three Elements.
The Ride will consist of three major components, which synergize with and strengthen each other:
- A Statement signed by people from many walks of life, including major luminaries, artists, public figures, religious leaders, etc. which recasts the moral and political terms and the thinking of millions.
- Nationally Web-Cast "People's Hearing" - public speak outs in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley which draw out the true dimensions of the emergency. People do not know of clinic closures, scope, or stakes. Combine mass testimony from before Roe and from today, the breadth of a wide-range of community leaders and health care providers, and the prominence of well-known individuals.
- Confrontational, dramatic, non-violent political protest that delivers the verdict of these hearings to appropriate individuals/institutions. Protesters will brandish bloody coat-hangers, images of the women who died from illegal abortions, and shackles representing female enslavement.
While people are encouraged to take part in all three components (click any of the above to find out more), individuals can meaningfully take in one of them without being ready to take part in all of them.
On the ground day to day the Freedom Riders will do mass outreach with tens of thousands of stickers, palm cards, coat hangers, and DIY instructions, collect stories, stage flash protests, conduct media work, blog, release videos and involve growing numbers of people on the ground and throughout the country in waging this fight in ways big and small. This will culminate in a...
On the ground day to day the Freedom Riders will do mass outreach with tens of thousands of stickers, palm cards, coat hangers, and DIY instructions, collect stories, stage flash protests, conduct media work, blog, release videos and involve growing numbers of people on the ground and throughout the country in waging this fight in ways big and small. This will culminate in a...