(en) US, New York, Rochester Anarchists and Supporting the Women?s Equality Agenda

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It?s confused many non-anarchists in the Rochester-area, and it would likely confuse many 
anarchists not in Rochester Red & Black: A legislative proposal, largely being pushed by 
New York?s nearly autocratic Governor and likely being used a cynical ploy for higher 
political office has been endorsed by Rochester Red & Black, the local organization of 
Anarchist-Communists. I know, it seems almost absurd on its face. So, I?ll explain as one 
member of Red & Black, why I voted for this endorsement. ---- For those of you outside of 
New York State, the Women?s Equality Agenda is a ten-point program that Governor Andrew
Cuomo put forward in his State of the State address in January.

A number of major organizations in the State, primarily the New York Civil Liberties 
Union, Planned Parenthood, YWCA, and the National Organization of Women have been 
supporting and pushing the agenda to become a bill covering all ten points that becomes
law in New York State.

For the past 6 months, regional steering committees have been established and hundreds of 
organizations asked to endorse the legislation. Since then the campaign has been pretty
heavily steered by the Governor, and has had a legislative tactical plan (petitions, local 
lobby visits, statewide lobby visits in the capital, etc.). So why did an anarchist 
organization stand behind the effort? Well, in a lot of ways it?s a pretty fantastic 
proposal and one that has really ignited a strong statewide conversation about gender 
equality.

Beyond Single Issues and Inter-sectional

Just last year, New York State passed a provision allowing for gay marriage. This was a
huge achievement. But, it has been argued by many that the LGBT movement has been 
overwhelmed by this one issue despite many other vitally important issues to the LGBT 
community ? safety from abuse and assault, LGBT youth homelessness, access to health care 
that addresses their concerns, and recently the right to citizenship for LGBT immigrants. 
Of course, it?s not shocking that the issue most highlighted was one that was a higher 
priority for the more economically comfortable, white, LGBT community. And issues in 
working class and communities of color didn?t gain the same prioritization.

The Women?s Equality Agenda was a real step away from that movement challenge. There are 
ten points, and they strike on a number of really crucial areas including reproductive 
health, workplace harrassment, discrimination, and pay, access to quality affordable 
housing, and more. There is a powerful unity of inter-sectional issues here. Many of these 
issues largely faced only by working class women and some faced largely by women of color.

Anti-Discrimination in the Workplace

The Women?s Equality Agenda has a number of points that directly relate to the workplace, 
and has gained the support of local and statewide labor organizations. It ensures that 
workers can share what they make openly and other measures to achieve pay equity. It 
closes loopholes to ensure that all workplaces have to follow anti-sexual harassment laws. 
It requires workplaces to make accommodations for pregnant working women, rather than 
forcing them into unpaid leave. And, it allows women that sue over harassment or 
discrimination to include legal fees in their suit.

Some of these measures, like openly sharing your pay, actually have an impact beyond 
simply pushing against pay inequity and actually strengthen the ability of workers to 
organize a union in their workplace. In each of these cases, the legal tools being 
strengthened are on the worker side against management or owners. Now, certainly a more
powerful way to really ensure that there is no pay inequity and even win paid maternity
leave would be through mass union organization into militant unions. But the reality right 
now is that the vast majority of working women don?t have a realistic likelihood of being 
union members any time soon. Do we advocate abandoning them to the discriminatory 
workplace conditions that they are facing now because they aren?t using our perfect models 
to militant rank and file workplace activity? I would hope not. Is there ground to argue 
that putting these laws into effect won?t necessarily stop all of this discrimination and 
that serious changes in the balance of workplace and industrial power are necessary? 
Absolutely and as anarchists we need to be there to remind people of that basic truth all 
the time.

In the meantime, these are some powerful workplace reforms to win and I?d prefer to embed 
myself in the movement fighting for them so that I have any credibility when pointing out 
these realities.

Housing Justice

Rochester Red & Black has chosen to focus primarily on a movement for Housing as a Human 
Right. Anyone looking for an apartment to rent now can tell you how many times you see in 
a listing for housing ?NO Section 8? ?NO SSD? ?NO Assistance?. To renters that survive 
partly on some form of housing subsidy, you?re very clearly told, this neighborhood (or
this quality of housing) is not for you. Of course, 74% of people using those subsidies in 
New York State are women, largely women of color. The WEA would prohibit this form of 
discrimination. This not only benefits women, it benefits many working class men that rely 
on these subsidies. It helps communities of color to de-concentrate urban poverty. It 
helps the children and families of the men and women that are receiving these subsidies.

The WEA also prohibits discrimination of victims of domestic violence in housing and 
evictions. Right now, if there is domestic violence in a home and the police come to the 
house, the landlord can evict both the abuser AND the abused through zero tolerance 
provisions. And, that eviction can be found in background checks making it difficult for 
victims of domestic violence to find decent housing afterwords.

The fact that these provisions aren?t already law is absurd. Now, obviously the 
commodification of housing and the capitalist landlord-tenant relationship are the roots 
of this sort of discrimination. And, passage of these laws wouldn?t ensure that these 
things never happened again. And, a more effective tool for simultaneously fighting this 
discrimination and changing the underlying power imbalance would be the organization of
tenant unions and community organizations capable of fighting back for the people are 
stuck facing these sort of horrible evictions of refusals to rent. But, if there is an 
opportunity to put in place a law that even stops half of these abuses, I want to be 
alongside the people fighting for that law. And of course, we should continue to advocate 
for militant tenant and neighborhood organization as a more sustainable and powerful solution.

The Bad.

Given that this bill is pushed by a Governor, particularly one planning to run for 
president, it should be obvious that the bill isn?t going to be perfect. In fact, one of 
the major problems with the bill is that Cuomo will try to use this as a notch in his belt 
for his presidential bid. And, myself and plenty of others in New York don?t look forward 
to a day where Cuomo could be president.

The bill is also purposefully trans-exclusive. When the 10 points were originally coming 
together there was a call to incorporate the Gender Expresssion Non-Discrimination Act 
(GENDA) as a part of this bill. GENDA simply adds gender expression to the list of ways
that workplaces, housing and other public institutions can?t explicitly discriminate. 
Cuomo made is pretty clear that GENDA would not be added to his proposal and the trans 
community was largely sold out in favor of a bill that was more likely to pass.

For fear of rousing the ire of the anti-choice movement, the WEA also does little to 
actually expand or encourage genuine reproductive justice. Although it does codify 
currently existing federal rules into state law. This was a silly misunderstanding of the 
anti-choice movement, who don?t really need a logical reason to support or oppose 
anything. So, the bill is still in the cross-hairs of the anti-choice movement who claim 
to support the other 9 points, but are willing to hold them all up to stop the piece on
reproductive health.

Real Movements are Rarely Pure

I?m sure there are a number of other problems with the WEA that I didn?t list. Likely ones 
I haven?t ever heard of (and please do post them, finding strong anti-capitalist and 
feminist critiques of this has been really difficult!). But, at the end of the day, as 
anarchists we need to step aside from the notion that we need to be engaged in pure 
campaigns. We need to be able to engage in the broad movements around us, holding our 
analysis and critiques close to heart and telling them to our allies in these broader 
movements.

In my involvement in the movement for WEA, I?ve worked with new organizers and activists 
that I hadn?t really worked with before. I?ve had great conversations about some of our
reservations with the bill. I?ve had great conversations about the important gaps of the 
bill and the need for future victories and movements. These conversations have happened
with people that were certainly more centrist and liberal than me and I?ve seen them move 
further to the left. And, I?ve identified people that may not publicly seem like radicals 
who certainly are when you get to know them. There are a lot of these allies for a lot of 
reasons, and we need to be able to acknowledge their reality and work with them as allies 
that can?t always be as ?out? as we are.

What does US Especifismo look like?

To the anarchist movement out there that will call us reformists and sellouts, all I can 
say is that we are engaged in the difficult process of discovering what an effective 
especifismo looks like in the United States. We don?t argue that all of our moves are 
perfect, but that we?re all experimenting with ways to grow the influence of anarchist 
thought in this incredibly right wing nation. I think we?ve had some success in Rochester, 
and much of it has come from a willingness to engage allies and movements that certainly 
aren?t perfect either. I look forward to hearing more on the organizing experiments of 
anarchists in other places and movements. And, until a better model appears, I?m excited 
to be a part of the movement in New York for a Women?s Equality Agenda!

This entry was posted in Anarchism, Feminism, Housing, LGBTQ by Colin O. Bookmark the 
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ONE THOUGHT ON ?ROCHESTER ANARCHISTS AND SUPPORTING THE WOMEN?S EQUALITY AGENDA?