Fighting for the Right to Vote in Georgia
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| DSA members Greg Ames, Daniel Hanley and Lorraine Fontana arrested at Georgia Secretary of State's office. (Credit: Reid Freeman Jenkins) |
By Barbara Joye
On Monday, Oct. 27, eight men and women were arrested when they refused to leave the Georgia Secretary of State’s office until some 40,000 registration applications submitted in three counties are processed and the voters’ names entered on the rolls so they can participate in the mid-term election. A group of about 60 supporters held up signs saying “Let us vote!” in the hallway outside the sit-in. The arrestees -- who included three DSA members -- and their supporters are participants in Moral Monday Georgia (MMGA, see below). Early voting is already underway in Georgia.
The National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights has filed a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp on behalf of Third Sector Development, the national NAACP and the Georgia NAACP, asking for a writ of mandamus, which would order the counties to do their jobs and register the missing names by Nov. 4. The three counties of course have large minority populations and are Democratic strongholds. (Two other counties have been dismissed from the suit since it was filed.)
Thinking About Gender - Part 1
Posted
on Democratic Left
· August 25, 2014 12:31 PM
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| Wikimedia |
By Christine R. Riddiough
Editors' note:
We scheduled this post and the next in celebration (perhaps ironic celebration) of Women's Equality Day, which commemorates U.S. women achieving the right to vote by the ratification in 1920 of the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Since then, notions of female and male continue to evolve, and new contestations emerged.
In its October 15, 2013, issue, the New York Times asked the question, "Are ‘Trans Rights’ and ‘Gay Rights’ Still Allies?" Two things in that debate (and in other similar discussions on the Internet and at conferences) stood out for me as a socialist feminist:
- the fact that the question was asked at all
- the fact that, in talking about these gender-related issues, there is no mention of the fight for women's rights/liberation
From a socialist feminist perspective the response to the title question has to be a resounding "Yes." But the failure of the article (and to a large extent the LGBTQ movement) to really address the second point shows the limits of the question.