World

Politics, World

Op-Ed: Why the anti-Trump marches aren’t just about America

Op-Ed: Why the anti-Trump marches aren’t just about America

On Saturday, protesters marched in more than 600 cities worldwide. The majority were women. They marched in Washington and London and Paris, but they also marched in Accra and Nairobi and Cape Town – places which some observers have suggested have far more direct problems than President Donald Trump. That’s missing the point, writes REBECCA DAVIS.

Why aren’t you marching against President Zuma?”

Why aren’t you marching against rape in the townships?”

Jacob Zuma must be loving all this Trump stuff because it’s the perfect distraction from the Cabinet reshuffle he’s planning.”

These were some typical comments directed towards the march that took place in Cape Town on January 21 in solidarity with protests worldwide on the back of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. From one perspective, the cynicism on display is understandable. In a country as awash with social ills as South Africa, to protest against the democratic election of a rich world leader might seem at best an example of selective activism and at worst an illustration of privilege writ large.

That the march took place in Cape Town – a city which according to popular stereotype positively prides itself on being “unAfrican” – does it no favours on the PR front. Similar criticism was attached to a sister march which took place in Borrowdale, one of Harare’s most elite suburbs.

On the very same day that Trump was being sworn in, some might point out, the Gambia’s dictator Yahya Jammeh had still failed to leave town after being ousted. Where were the marches in continental solidarity with the citizens of the Gambia? Did the residents of Banjul gather round their TV sets in openmouthed disbelief to watch the global outpouring of anger at the peaceful transition of power to the next American president?

But to view the marches worldwide as specifically expressing dissatisfaction with Donald Trump’s ascent to power is to take a blinkered perspective. True, some of the marchers in Cape Town and elsewhere were American expats of a different political persuasion to Trump wishing to express a particular form of betrayal. For others, though, the protests’ meaning extended well beyond the ostensible catalyst of Trump’s election.

In Cape Town, organisers took pains to localise the protest. Among the speakers was the head of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union. Sex workers advocacy group SWEAT had a strong presence. The event manifesto spoke of the need to protect women’s rights worldwide. Though some protesters’ placards indicated disgust with Trump, the majority expressed a far wider sentiment: a growing rage among women worldwide at being treated by policy-makers as baby ovens, sex objects, or children.

Trump himself is only a symbol. A symbol of the impunity of powerful men when it comes to sexual assault; when it comes to openly appraising women on their appearance; when it comes to vowing punishment for women who want to control when or if they give birth. He is one of countless male leaders to espouse such views. He is not special.

It is, of course, especially galling that a man who could conduct himself with such brazenness has been rewarded with one of the most powerful seats on Earth in 2017. It was noteworthy to see, particularly in the States, the number of elderly women who came out to march on Saturday, some bearing signs which read: “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit”. The sense that a man like Trump could be made president after so much struggle, activism, education and legislating about women’s rights for the past decades is a bitter pill to swallow.

But it is also a necessary pill. The fact that so many women – almost all white – voted for Trump should not be forgotten either. It is not magical proof that American women, deep down, endorse his contempt for women. It is a lesson about patriarchy and how difficult its lessons are to unlearn.

Those who scoff at African women marching in tune with Americans should remember, too, that the effects of Trump’s presidency will be felt by women beyond the borders of the USA.

One of the most iconic photos to come out of Trump’s ascendancy so far has to be the snap of the new president on his first day in the Oval Office, reinstating a ban on US funding for healthcare providers in foreign countries which offer services related to abortion. As a tweet doing the rounds put sit: “As long as you live you’ll never see a photograph of 7 women signing legislation about what men can do with their reproductive organs”.

Photo: US President Donald J. Trump signs the first of three Executive Orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 23 January 2017. Standing behind the President, from left to right: US Vice President Mike Pence; White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus; Peter Navarro, Director of the National Trade Council; Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President; Steven Miller, Senior Advisor to the President; unknown; and Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist. EPA/Ron Sachs / POOL

In one sense this move should come as no shock. The issue of reproductive rights has been kicked between successive Republican and Democrat administrations since President Ronald Reagan, with Democrats suspending the foreign abortion policy whenever they’re in power and Republicans reinstating it whenever they get into office.

But Trump’s action extends it by freezing all funds to such NGOs, rather than preventing them from using US taxpayer dollars for abortions. It is a clear sign that he intends to live up to at least some of the pledges of his campaigning; as White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, Trump “has made it very clear that he’s a pro-life president”. The old adage goes: When America sneezes, the world catches a cold. When America is run by a man who hates abortion, women in Africa and elsewhere will find it more difficult to safely terminate unwanted pregnancies.

America can do what it likes with its aid, but here’s some recommended reading for those wedded to the narrative of the developing world perpetually holding out a begging bowl to the rich: a new study which finds that poor countries send about $2-trillion more to the rest of the world annually than they receive back. Saturday’s global marches can also be seen as an expression of profound frustration with the imbalance of that relationship and the continuing power of men in the White House to shape the course of women’s lives elsewhere.

The attempts by some male commentators to ridicule and demean the women’s marches are also noteworthy. As governments throughout the ages have found, the sight of people coming together in their masses to express dissent can be both powerful and frightening. We are not used to seeing women as either.

Has there been another occasion in history when millions of women on seven continents marched together on the same day? Over the past decades, global feminism has been increasingly fractured and siloed into interest groups. What Saturday proved is that the old-fashioned notion of solidarity among women still exists, and can be rallied when situations demand. It’s too soon to tell, but this may be some kind of tipping point. For that, we have Trump to thank. DM

Photo: A woman in pink gloves attends the Million Woman March in Washington, DC, USA, 21 January 2017. Protest rallies were held in over 30 countries around the world in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington in defence of press freedom, women’s and human rights following the official inauguration on 20 January of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America in Washington, USA. EPA/JOHN TAGGART

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.