Kamala is not for the people: women unite and fight for a pro-people system!
On July 21, 2024 president Joseph "Genocide Joe" Biden stepped down from his 2024 re-election campaign through an announcement on social media. Along with ending his bid for re-election – he extended his support to Kamala Harris as the nominee for the 2024 race, writing: "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this." Since his endorsement, Kamala has earned enough delegate support to become Democratic nominee and has been endorsed by top leaders of the Democratic Party – including Hilary "the Hawk" Clinton and Former President Barak Obama.
While the White House frames the decision for Biden to step down due his health and advice of his advisers and colleagues – let us make one thing clear – his stepping down is a signal the overall crisis in the United States' two party system which does not serve the needs of the majority of people and is slowly losing power and influence in an increasingly polarized world. Biden is stepping down, in part, because of the immense pressure from the tireless work of organizations and the masses of people who have been holding him accountable for his support and funding of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people; his failure to meaningfully defend rights of the majority of women, LGBTQ+ people, migrants, refugees, and workers who have been impacted by the Biden-Harris administration's legislation and supreme court rulings; and his overall clear subservience to big business, military contracts and for-profit schemes.
Kamala’s nomination shows a calculated move by the Democrats to maintain power by approving a candidate that has a chance of beating Donald Trump. Her nomination shows the desperation of the two-party system to maintain control while both democrats and republicans serve the same interests of billionaires, multi-national companies, and the war industry. Under the Democrat Party's leadership – women around the world have suffered from unfair trade deals, increased global inflation, and skyrocketing military spending which seeks to stockpile bases and weapons around the world. We have seen an incalculable number of women and children slaughtered due to US tax dollars supporting the genocide in Palestine; we have seen the climate crisis spread out of control leading to increased rates of migration and death.
Given this unprecedented moment in political history, the time is ripe for us to accelerate the demands of the working and exploited people. The Democrat Party is posturing Kamala Harris as the next nominee to appeal to voter sentiments on gender equality, race, and representation. Kamala Harris is not an ally of the majority of women and working people around the world. Her 35 year career in law and politics has exposed her stance as pro-business, pro-war, pro-militarism, and anti-people.
Just days after Biden's announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington DC to meet with Biden and Harris and to address US Congress. While his intention to solidify unyielding political and finiancial support from the United States, he was met with mounting pressure from the American people in protest of the killings of the Palestinian people. While Kamala Harris reasserted her “unwavering commitment” to Israel and promised to always ensure that the country can “defend itself”, the tone shifted as she distanced herself from Joe Biden's staunch war policy on Gaza and commented on the "scale of human suffering in Gaza" and calling the war "devastating". Let us not be decieved by Kamala's seeming empathy, as her unwavering support of Israel equates to unwavering support of genocide. Let us not forget that this is the Biden-Harris administration, meaning Kamala has co-signed all of his policies and supported the murder of too many Palestinians even before the October 7 Al Aqsa flood. Blood is on her hands.
Before serving as Vice President, Kamala served as San Fransisco's District Attorney from 2004-2011. During this time investigations have shown that Harris regularly protected state employees from scrutiny in cases of mishandling or tampering with evidence. She consistently fought to uphold wrongful convictions that should have led to the release of thousands of incarcerated men and women due to tampering, mishandling, and false testimony. After assuming the role of California Attorney General in 2011, Kamala passed a truancy law aimed at reducing the number of student absences in order to maximize school budgets. This disproportionately impacted low income families of color and continued the long history of a legal system that advances domestic colonialism by criminalizing black and brown households and separating families. The program to reduce truancy is a total failure and exacerbated the war and criminalization of low-income families, especially migrant, black and single parent households. While Harris was praised and uplifted for her role as California Attorney General for being the first woman of color to hold the position – her gender and race do not supersede the substantial lifelong impact her policies have had on working people in California.
For four years as Vice President, Harris has supported stripping away the rights of migrants, women, and LGBTQ people. Harris has repeatedly claimed that she champions women's rights by fighting to ensure women have access to abortion rights. Today working and exploited women face historically high rates of inflation, housing costs and debt burden – the repeated focus on abortion access shows that Kamala is out of touch with the real needs of the majority of American women. Part of this is due to the fact that Kamala regularly traveled abroad for diplomatic trips. In her first two years as Vice President Kamala traveled to 19 countries – helping negotiate free trade deals, military agreements, and ensuring strong diplomatic ties with US semi-colonies. Being away from the US has caused her to be further alienated from the realities Americans face today, and also exposed her true role as Vice President – maintaining America's dominance globally. While she regularly praises herself and the democrats for defending the rights of workers – she takes donations and advisement from billionaires like Media Giant Michael Bloomberg, Oil Heirs Gordon and Ann Getty, Movie Mogul George Lucas, and Tech Widow Laurene Powell Jobs. Kamala is not a champion of women's or workers rights but instead is a pawn of billionaires who seek to control the country’s policies through financing politicians.
In 2022, Harris made a visit to Palawan, Philippines to solidify US' commitment to the islands amidst growing tensions with China over the long disputed West Philippine Sea. During one of her stops, she addressed a room full of women leaders and rights advocates calling for "freedom from violence", when in fact the decades long subservience of the Philippine government to the US government has done nothing more but cause further destruction and devastation to the Filpino people, especially to the women. Increased US militarization to secure its econmic interests, US military impunity over the rape and killing of women, and millions in US military aid has been the cause for the extrajudicial killings, human rights violations and infringement on Philippine soveriegnty, a far cry from the "freedom from violence" she claims to be working toward. The chronic enomic crisis in the Philippines driven by monopoly capitalist greed and corruption drives thousands of Filipinos to migrate abroad, majority of whom are women. As more and more poeple are forced to migrate abroad, to the US and other countries, they are met with systemic challenges such as: human trafficking, wage theft, economic hardship, record breaking inflation, inaccessible health care and unaffordable housing. Gabriela USA Secretary General states, "Filipino women in this country must link arms with other migrant and working class communities in the US to expose the roots of their migration and suffering, and the solution is not to support either of these parties but to call for an overhaul of the entire capitalist system that is upheld by this country's 2 party system". IWA joins members of GABRIELA USA in demanding US out of the Philippines, and we will continue to demand US out of Everywhere!
As we gear up for a historic election year in the US, we call on all IWA members, progressive and concerned women, and all working class Americans to not lose sight that the true fight extends beyond the ballot box. Meaningful solutions for women's advancement come from the majority of people ourselves who are clamoring for the right to health, education, nutrition, and an end to US military aggression and violence around the world.
As the alliance of grassroots women's organizations globally – IWA calls on freedom loving women in the United States and around the world to unite together to demand that the needs to the toiling people of the world be addressed over billionaire interests. We call on freedom loving women to defend against fake narratives of progress and women's advancement with the nomination of a woman to the Democratic ticket.
We reject symbolic attempts to appeal to our needs and uphold the right for all people to fight for a truly genuine pro-people system that upholds the integrity and rights of the people, both here in the U.S. and in the world. We have an opportunity to raise the true demands of working and exploited women this August 19-22 at the March On the DNC in Chicago. We call on our members to mobilize in mass to show the power of the growing women's movement here in the United States and around the world!
Women UNITE - fight for a pro-people system!