Thank you for attending Women’s March 2019 Buffalo/WNY!!! #International Women’s Weekend #WomensWave

Many thanks to all who came out to the Women’s March!! Some 500 braved ferocious winds to support women’s rights and to oppose all forms of oppression!! Nya weh to Jocelyn Jones, Seneca! The Haudenausanee Thanksgiving address – ie, the Gnonyoh – was key to making the Women’s March – Buffalo/WNY be the special time it was. Many thanks to our wonderful speakers who illumined and inspired us; to the beloved Drea D’Nur and the WNY Resistance Revival Chorus, who encourage and uplifted us; and to our 70 committed cosponsors who publicized, supported, and who we’ll be working alongside all year long. Thanks too to the Police and the City, who allowed us to move the rally to the City Hall steps – safety first! And thanks to all who’ve come before, to those suffering in the intersection especially, and to those youth coming along to make it all happen! It will take all of use, and we’re doing it – together!! Nya weh, Asanti, Sucran, Gracias, and Thanks to All!!

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Also, there has been concerns about particular issues/banners/goals at the Women’s March. We practice inclusivity, and we don’t all think the same way. The women’s movement is intersectional, and we may not always agree or share beliefs, but we’re here in solidarity for all aspects of our community in the ways we can be, in combination with our own beliefs and values. We hope to continue to foster understanding of women’s rights and, as stated on our website, the rights of all oppressed people.

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WOMEN’S MARCH-Buffalo/WNY will be held on Sunday, March 10, 3-4:30pm, Niagara Square. (A no-permit gathering on Friday, March 8, 4:15pm at Niagara Square will be held with the possibility for an International Women’s Day walk). We’re also encouraging everyone to support the Women in Black vigil on that Saturday, 12-1pm, at Elmwood and Bidwell, and National Women’s Month events here in Erie County. http://www2.erie.gov/csw/index.php?q=feature/womens-history-month-calendar-events-0

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Women’s March Buffalo/WNY  (WM) will be held Sunday, March 10, 3-4:30pm at Niagara Square, Buffalo NY!!! International Women’s Day Weekend. Also see below for more events, including Poster/Sign-making Party and discussion forums. 

Stand up for Principles, the Spirit, and specific local goals.

We are a mother/”sister march” to the national (and international) Women’s March(es) and affirm the values and principles of the National Women’s March. We strive to live up to our principles of truth and love, peace and justice; equity, nonviolence, and care for Mother Earth – a true challenge for all of us as we continue learning, growing, and trying to be the change**

Join truth-telling voices, music, marching, and #powertothepeople! Let’s #UnitetheStruggles!!

To register/rsvp (and to be counted!), please go to our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/312799659345450 AND the Women’s March sister march rsvp page at https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/third-annual-womens-march-womenswave. Thank you.

**We will also have two Women’s March/Women’s Movement Forum and Discussions that we invite you to! 2/28, 5:30-7pm, Central Library, 1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY. And 3/13, 5:30-7pm, Frank E. Merriweather Library, 1324 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo, NY. We look to see you there!**

In addition, we will have a Poster/Sign-Making party,  Thursday, 3/7, 5:30-6:30pm, WNY Peace Center, 1272 Delaware Avenue, parking and entrance at the back of the building. 

Below:

• A map of the march
• The Program
• Our Statement & Local Goals (to work on over the next year)
• cosponsors
• info re cosponsoring
• quick reference & important notes
  • March Agreement (~= nonviolence in actions, words, spirit)
  • logistics including public transportation, parking, march route
  • safety – peacekeepers/marshalls, following traffic laws, police
  • signs (including signmaking session immediately before march)
• response to issues re Women’s March – National

The Program:

– 3pm Gnohnyoh Indigenous traditional opening, “thanksgiving” address – Jocelyn Jones, Seneca
– followed by Intro to the Women’s March, cosponsors, and welcome – Vicki Ross and others

WOMEN’S MARCH – BUFFALO/WNY STATEMENT

The Women’s March of Buffalo/WNY, opposed to all forms of oppression, seeks to increase equity and equality for women and all oppressed people by ensuring structural and systemic changes in our local government, local businesses and organizations, and within society at large in order to guarantee a women’s right to health, safety and freedom from violence. We seek this regardless of racial, economic, or citizenship status; and value the dignity and humanity of women of color, women with disabilities, and lgbt/queer and gender non-conforming people, and everyone’s equal place in the movement and in society.

LOCAL GOALS

WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT:
– Women on the Common Council
– Increased voter registration – and especially for women
– Buffalo as a CEDAW city (see above)

WOMEN’S RIGHT TO EQUALITY IN BUSINESS, ORGANIZATIONS AND THE WORKPLACE:
– Increased leadership within businesses, organizations and the workplace
– Pay parity for women
– Ensuring that jobs that are primarily staffed by women such as home health care, day care, etc., receive fair pay, full respect, and safe working conditions
– Buffalo as a CEDAW city (Convention for the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women, an international UN Convention passed by 130 countries. USA is not a party to the Convention.)

HEALTHY AND EMPOWERING EDUCATION SPACES FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN:
– Implement DASA in schools (measurable goals: each school has a DASA officer, has signed on to the 5×5 platform, each school lists ways they are complying with DASA, each school lists ways they are increasing compliance with DASA)
– Addressing bullying in schools
– Increased high school graduation rates for girls
– Increased access to higher education for girls and women
– Accountability and resources for addressing sexual assault in schools
– Provide students and youth with a resource guide for addressing prominent issues

WOMEN’S RIGHT TO HEALTH:
– More advocacy for women in the healthcare system (measurable goals: address language, cultural and other barriers in the healthcare system, for women of color, women living in poverty and low-income women, and women in general, by: having more doulas in hospitals, more birth education in hospitals, more advocacy in hospitals).
– destigmatize and improve access to pregnancy prevention and termination/abortion, and pass the Reproductive Health Care Act which preserves women’s right to choose in NYS no matter what happens to Roe v. Wade nationally.
– Buffalo as a CEDAW city (see 1st goal, above)
– Buffalo as a Sanctuary/certified Welcoming city

WOMEN’S RIGHT TO SAFETY AND FREEDOM FROM VIOLENCE:
– Decrease the harm that men cause to women
– Decrease sexual assault in WNY and larger society
– Decrease domestic violence in WNY and larger society
– Increased awareness and actions about the war machine, including divestment
– Providing equal representation to counter-recruit the military, equal access to alternatives to the military; preventing the ‘economic draft’.
– Address the disparities and conditions in the Erie County Holding Center, including passing County Law 78 which mandates a professional Advisory Board with teeth for the Sheriff’s Dept.

CARE FOR MOTHER EARTH:
– Full cleanup of the longstanding nuclear waste in West Valley, including continued rejection of DOE’s proposal to relax definition of High Level Radioactive Waste
– No new fossil fuel pipelines in WNY, especially No Northern Access Pipeline (NAPL)
– Increased awareness and actions about Mother Earth, our connection to it, and our dependence on it and the creation.
– Decreased local carbon footprint
– 100% Renewable WNY (Of note: Buffalo & Erie Co already uphold Paris Accords)

COSPONSORS

We’re so grateful to our cosponsors!, currently 70 and still increasing:

For more information or to be involved, contact Info@wnypeace.org; or 716-332-3904.

#WomensWave       #UnitetheStruggles

QUICK REFERENCE AND IMPORTANT NOTES ***

We’ve compiled helpful information for you below.

MARCH AGREEMENT

**All marchers must agree to and abide by this agreement** which is:

*We will be nonviolent in action and words.

*We will be respectful of all people and property we encounter.

*We will not carry anything that can be construed as a weapon.

*We will not possess drugs or alcohol.

*We will use this event to advocate for women’s rights and human rights, rather than as a partisan platform.

*We will hold ourselves and one another accountable for our behavior.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION Metro Rail is free aboveground in downtown Buffalo. If parking is difficult near Delaware Ave., you may want to park closer to Niagara Square (faster to get to your car after the rally!) or near in any of the lots near the Bisons Arena, and then take a free train to Fountain Plaza. If you prefer to park outside the city and ride the train in, you can use the free park-n-ride at UB or LaSalle Station (North Buffalo). The train ride from these stations costs $2 per rider (each way). There is more information about the Metro Rail here: http://gobuffaloniagara.org/wa…/metro-bus-rail/park-n-rides/ To go straight to Niagara Square, take the train to Lafayette Station and proceed to Niagara Square.

PARKING There is street parking and ramp parking. (Hopefully despite the new parking regulations, there won’t be any need to feed the meters – we will keep you posted.)

Please AVOID using Paladino-owned (Ellicott Development Corp.) parking ramps. For details: www.BoycottPaladino.com. • A map of all downtown parking is available at: http://www.buffaloplace.com/…/2016PubliclyAvailableParking2… • Save time and money with park-and-ride! http://gobuffaloniagara.org/ways/metro-bus-rail/)

RALLY: the Rally will be on the East side of Niagara Square, starting at 2:45pm, with a traditional Indigenous gnohnyoh (thanksgiving); then at 3:00pm (women) speakers addressing the various local goals posted elsewhere on this page, with youth groups and music interspersed. Then we march. When we come back to the concluding part of the rally, there will be (men) speakers, and a gnohnyoh to close the gathering.

MARCH The march will start at about 3:50pm and proceed up Delaware past the US Courthouse and the Immigration Court, where we can remember true respect for Rule of Law/Constitution and our Statue-of-Liberty pledge to the world; then take a right onto Mohawk; then right on Franklin, going past the County offices and Old County Hall; right on Church to a right onto Delaware, bringing us past the Erie County Holding Center, scene of dire need and big problems. We do NOT have a permit to march in the street, or to use bullhorns or other amplified sound systems on the march. Please be sure to march on the sidewalk and abide by traffic signals.

A map of the march route will be posted on this page. Help keep yourselves and your fellow marchers safe by creating a line on the sidewalk throughout the march. Even with a permit, we cannot block roads, so please go to the park surrounding the monument, or gather on the sidewalks on the outside of Niagara Square if the park fills. We have a sound system reserved and you should be able to hear our speakers and musicians from wherever you stand.

SAFETY We are expecting a safe, secure, family-friendly event. We will have peacemakers and marshalls directing the march – they’ll be wearing yellow vests. We have also been in contact with the Buffalo Police Department and they are aware of our plans. You will see a police presence; this is typical for a public demonstration and is not cause for concern. Legal observers will also be present. If there are any groups that protest our rally with a counter-message, keep calm (deep slow breathing helps), listen, don’t react, and bring a peacemaker over if you need to.

SIGNS Signs will not be provided, so please make and bring a sign with you, if you’d like to carry one. Make the sign that is meaningful for you, bearing in mind that we are a **nonviolent** action (which includes being nonviolent in our words) and that many people will be bringing children. There is a sign making event on Thursday, 3/7, 5:30-6:30pm, at the WNYPC/NRC building, 1272 Delaware Ave, entrance & parking round back. You can make signs there! We look forward to seeing you with your creative and inspiring signs!!

RESPONSE TO ISSUES RE WOMEN’S MARCH – NATIONAL

** We are aware and mindful of issues surrounding the Women’s March, and have decided to not give way to the division. We support the principles and intention of the Women’s March, and have faith in all of the organizers’ ability to continue to address these issues; to continue to learn, grow and revise; and to work towards unity within the women’s movement. We are all works in progress and no movement has been without its hurdles. This moment in the women’s movement presents the need to address historical concerns within the movement, and to light a path towards healing, harmony and inclusion. We see this as a time when the community should not step backwards away from these concerns, but push forward to a place where all women can come to the table with solutions towards healing, and towards our greater harmony and progress.

These inclusion issues will be dealt with at our local level through the two Town Halls we are having as forums for discussion and working through these issues:

• Thurs, Feb 28, 5:30-7pm – Central Public Library, Lafayette Square, Central Meeting Room (Downtown Buffalo);
• Weds, March 13,5:30-7pm – Merriweather Library, 1324 Jefferson Ave (cnr Utica), Buffalo.

Inclusion in the March and the Movement, and how to achieve our local goals will both be on the agenda. This is an exciting opportunity to make progress in many ways. We hope to see you at either or both town halls, as well as, of course, at the Women’s March – Buffalo/WNY.

WM 2019 flyer2 bw