Want to Fight Sexual Violence? Look to the Labor Movement | Sheerine Alemzadeh
A recent article in the Nation pointed to the rise of women in workplace justice campaigns as a path forward for a stalling movement. But it’s not just the labor movement that needs more women leaders. The women’s movement needs more labor leaders too.
As an anti-rape activist, I propose taking a look at our sisters in the labor movement and learning by example to build our constituencies and gain momentum on difficult and long-ignored workplace violence issues. Through forging alliances with new voices in the labor movement, anti-rape activists can open pathways for marginalized voices in our advocacy, broaden our priorities to include economic justice goals, and reinvigorate the anti-rape movement in unprecedented ways.
We are starting to do this in Chicago. Just a few days after the Nation article came out, the Coalition Against Workplace Sexual Violence (CAWSV) met in a small conference room at Rape Victim Advocates, a Chicago-based rape crisis center. The group has been meeting every month for close to a year and a half. Labor organizers from Chicago worker centers like the Chicago Coalition of Household Workers, Latino Union, ARISE-Chicago and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos regularly meet with anti-rape advocates, attorneys and government officials to bridge the anti-rape and labor rights movements through dialogue, resource sharing, and collaborative education for workers and activists. Several worker centers that participate in the CAWSV are local affiliates of larger national organizations.
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