@hightor,
Thanks! That is a good link.
The Tablet (I hadn't known of this media operation previously) has a very thorough piece of reporting on what has gone on, who's been involved, etc. It's long and I don't expect many/any to read it but
here it is.
From what I can discern, the initial friction arose as a consequence of two or three (out of perhaps a dozen) figures in the Women's March organization showing themselves as sympathetic to Louis Farrakhan, particularly as regards his anti-Semitic remarks and ideas (and excusing this through pointing to Farrakhan's work for disadvantaged blacks). That's the nub of it all. Beyond that, there are some questions regarding propriety of money issues.
But mainly this appears to be an example of how difficult it is to build and manage such a diverse coalition of citizens and groups. If there is dirty-tricks hankypanky of the sort I suspected, it is not immediately evident. Still, the right can be counted on to push this conflict in order to discourage women from organizing. Finally, I'll just quote (from the Tablet piece) two of the central figures I found most credible.
Quote:When [Mercy] Morganfield (long-time activist and daughter of Muddy Waters) tries to sum up how and why it all went wrong, she sees the downfall of the Women’s March in a hunger for fleeting recognition and publicity that eclipsed the movement’s real political power. “The reason I joined the Women’s March is because I believe women could truly be the most powerful voting bloc this country has ever seen,” Morganfield said. “The problem with the Women’s March is that in order to stay in the news, they had to be like ambulance chasers: They chased every issue that could get them media coverage. That’s not strategy; that’s tactics.” Nor is she holding out hope that critical media attention will prove any more beneficial to the co-chairs than the adulation they received early on. “The response that gives them the most sympathy is ‘This is white women trying to come out against women of color,'” said Morganfield. “The context is always, ‘the white media are trying to bring down women of color.’ And in this case, they’ll probably say it’s white Jewish women, which of course discounts the fact that there are black Jews. There’s somewhere close to 300,000 black Jews! What about them? It’s just divisiveness.'”
For her part, Wruble agrees—and has pivoted her energy to a new organization devoted to women’s activism, called March On. “At March On, we approach things from a bottom-up rather than a top-down way. We take the lead from local organizers, and we understand that there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to organizing. Our organizers come from all walks of life and backgrounds. We’re diverse and intersectional in ways that people often don’t think about. Many women in red states, for example, couldn’t follow an organizing playbook crafted out of D.C. or New York City. The red states couldn’t participate, for example, in a general ‘women’s strike’—people would lose their jobs.”
