National Women’s Liberation at the 2019 Women’s March, New York City. Photo: Jenny Brown/NWL

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate with a political program to break the power of the billionaires and win women some relief — and power over our lives.

Fifty years of feminist agitation has brought us progress, but now the main block to women’s freedom is the power of billionaires. The rich have a stranglehold, setting the political agenda and appropriating the resources we all collectively create as workers — including the work we do bearing, raising, and caring for each other.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign is the best way right now to put a spotlight on these truths and push forward our feminist program. The stakes couldn’t be higher for women.

The billionaires and their allies are uniting to stop these ideas from spreading, so we should expect a difficult fight. From fifty years of analyzing, organizing and mobilizing, we know that the forces against us will only cede ground in the face of a massive, organized, united movement. The Bernie campaign is part of building that movement. Every door we knock, every conversation we have pushes us forward. Join us!

WE ARE WOMEN

We are women — exhausted, heartbroken, stressed out, mistreated and insulted. Our work is exploited and our self-determination blocked.

We are struggling to care for our children, while we work at jobs that take everything out of us, along with caring for aging parents and sick family members.

We are forced to make do when our healthcare system — hijacked by insurance companies — denies us and our loved ones care. We provide medical care at home, unpaid, when hospitals discharge our loved ones quicker and sicker to ensure insurance company profits.

“I am a Sanders supporter because I’m a feminist. Feminism should be about independence and power to control our lives as women. We are often isolated picking up the pieces for what our society does not provide. Right now I am working long hours at work, taking care of a loved one who is recovering from a massive stroke, trying to raise a child and dealing with all the pitfalls of our terrible healthcare system and underfunded education system….We have the money for endless war and corporate giveaways, but not educating and supporting the people? No. Putting our resources towards healthcare, education, paid family leave and a green new deal is what the entire planet should be doing right now.” — Candi, Florida

We are fighting with our spouses over time — dividing up the day by minutes — when the reality is there is not enough time even if each partner did half the work. We work too many hours!

“I want a shorter workweek. This is a major block to me parenting right now. I want to actually see and raise my kids and do political work, without feeling fatigued, depressed, dragged. I’m organizing for Bernie Sanders because of what he’s tapped into in so many people in this country. I want to build that movement — those people who see their own need for universal programs like national health insurance and paid parental leave, free college and fair wages. Our power is ignited right now and I want to win these changes, whether through this election, or through the next steps that ordinary people take in building toward those wins.” — Allison, New York

Childcare costs more than college and college costs more than we can afford, leaving us in debt peonage and making us dependent on others for our survival.

While other countries provide paid family leave for a year or more, we face unpaid leave and punishment on the job when we do care work at home. One quarter of employed moms take two weeks or less off after childbirth.

Our care work is unpaid or underpaid. Childcare teachers, almost all women and disproportionately women of color, are the lowest-paid profession in the country. Yet without childcare, the economy would grind to a halt. Employers gain, while we lose, struggling to afford housing, heat, and food.

“With Medicare for All, I will be free to seek the care of my choice and that I need without having to worry about having to stay in my present job or deal with unpredictable costs. Sanders also includes a plan for eldercare with his universal healthcare plan so along with my own personal health concerns, I will no longer have to worry about how my dad and other elderly family members will be able to afford rising costs of their medication and other health care.” — Stephanie, New York

Conditions are so bad that we are refusing to have children, even when we want them, because we can’t deal with the stress, expense, and uncertainty and lack of time (as a result the birth rate is the lowest it has ever been).

We are denied sovereignty over our bodies. Increasingly we are forced to run an expensive obstacle course to get birth control or abortions.

Women’s March 2019. Photo: Jenny Brown/NWL

On the job we are sexually harassed, bullied, discounted and humiliated by supervisors, co-workers, and customers. Most of us can’t afford to lose our jobs, so we endure it. Most of us don’t have unions, so we can’t grieve it.

We stay in dead relationships because we can’t afford to live alone on our wages, or we rely on a partner’s health insurance. When we are under 26 we are made dependent on parents for their health insurance, giving them unjustified power over us. If we’re on Medicaid or in the military, we can’t get abortions under our health care.

We are struggling every day to compensate for budget cuts that have destroyed our parks, libraries, hospitals, transit systems, and schools while trillions are spent on the military, destroying other people’s lives and countries. When we demand more here, we’re told “there’s no money.”

But women don’t need “help” with “our” tasks, we need power! And to have more power in our relationships with men, on the job, and over our lives, we have to crack the power of the billionaires.

They’re the ones that are stopping us from having a national health care system that covers everyone. Medicare for All would mean we were no longer dependent on jobs or marriage for our healthcare.

“As a former Warren supporter, I will be voting for Bernie Sanders in the New York State primary as my life and the life of my friends, family, and basically everyone else, will be so much better if we have universal health care not tied to jobs, spouses, parents, or limited by the state plans available through Obamacare. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate now who is asking for a completely universal healthcare program that includes mental health, reproductive health (including abortion), and community-based care.” — Stephanie, New York

They’re the ones that fight any proposal for paid family leave (they even tried to block unpaid leave!) We can fight all we want to have male spouses do half the childrearing and care work, but unless men have paid leave, we won’t win this battle house by house.

They’re the ones who cut back our safety net — so more of us fall through. Then we’re forced to stay with men we don’t get along with just to survive. With decent unemployment benefits or a livable minimum wage, we could leave and live our own lives.

They’re the ones who say we can’t afford schools and parks and libraries and trains — because they need another tax break or another weapons system to protect their profits overseas.

They’re the ones stopping us from organizing the unions we need, that can win us equal pay and keep us from getting fired when we stand up to sexual harassment.

They’re the ones funding anti-abortion and anti-birth control legislation, trying to force us to do the work of raising the next generation without putting in any of the resources (childcare, paid leave, school funding) that would make it feasible. This is how they get maximum care work out of us for minimum expense.

“I want a champion in the White House who fights for abortion rights, not against them, who supported Anita Hill not grilled her in a demeaning way and who stands up for the little people like me and my family.” — Candi, Florida

They’re the ones making billions off our student loans. We pay for years and years and still owe the same amount as when we started — or more!

They’re the ones suppressing our wages so that we have to work longer and longer hours to survive, and make it impossible to survive on one income, forcing us to compromise in our relationships in ways we wouldn’t if we had other options.

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate that has a political program to break the power of the billionaires and win us some relief — and power over our lives.

1. Bernie’s campaign is the only one that is not dependent on money from the very corporations and rich people whose interests are in direct conflict with our freedom. Biden has been a dutiful servant of banks and pushed through a national bankruptcy law on their behalf that destroyed the lives of countless working people.

2. Bernie’s campaign slogan, “Not me, Us” communicates the truth that it is always grassroots movements of people who have won us the things we need, not politicians, judges or insiders.

“To my dear white liberal friends: Here’s a tangible way to stand with people of color and do something to materially improve our lives: Listen to us. Listen to the candidate, Bernie, who has won us over because he has the best policies to improve our lives and the movement to make it happen. No more racist policies and billionaire-funded campaigns that want to drag us back to the neoliberal status quo that held us down even before Trump got into office. We need you now, more than ever.” — Diana, New York

3. Bernie’s campaign has put Expanded and Improved Medicare for All back in the spotlight. We’ve been arguing for twenty years that this would advance women’s freedom vis-a-vis men because we would have healthcare guaranteed regardless of marriage or employment. The plan also provides pay for 43 million unpaid family home caregivers, long a feminist demand. Biden, by contrast, wants to make tiny tweaks to the Affordable Care Act.

4. “Free abortion on demand, no forced sterilization” has been the slogan of our movement since 1969. Bernie’s plan includes free abortion and birth control. For 40 years, the Democratic Party had been happy to support the Hyde Amendment to deprive Medicaid recipients of their reproductive rights. Because Medicaid pays for sterilization, but not abortion, the effect is to push permanent surgery on low-waged women. Medicare for All would end this barbarity. Bernie’s 2016 campaign forced the Democratic Party to finally come out against the Hyde Amendment, while Biden supports Hyde (though recent pressure made him flip flop), and he voted for the misnamed “Partial Birth Abortion” ban.

Women’s March 2019. Photo: Jenny Brown/NWL

5. Bernie’s Free Childcare and Pre-K for All proposal outstrips anything we’ve seen proposed in any U.S. campaign. It would create a system of free — not means-tested — childcare for all children from infancy through pre-K. Even Warren’s plan was means-tested. Our only quibble is the plan says that childcare is a family responsibility yet the sacrifices fall on mothers — it’s true about mothers. But we argue that caring for children is a communitywide responsibility, because all benefit from children being born and raised. Bernie’s plan includes a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights ending the racist exclusion of domestic workers from labor protections.

6. Higher Education. Bernie’s plan for College for All and Cancel All Student Debt would make it possible for us to work fewer hours and get the education we want without suffering and owing for decades. And it would decrease our dependency on our parents — good for rebellious girls and LGBTQ youth who may not have supportive families.

March against appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, Sept. 2018. Photo: Jenny Brown

7. #MeToo. Bernie’s campaign proposes ending “at will” employment which means you can legally be fired for any reason or no reason. To fight sexual harassment and assault on the job, we need the right to speak up without losing our livelihood. “Just cause” laws protecting us from random firing would help, and unions would help more. Bernie will support our long-time fight for laws making it easier to organize a union and get a first contract without delays.

8. Equal Pay. Since the 1960s, half the progress closing the pay gap comes from men’s wages going down to meet ours. Raising the minimum wage would immediately help because women are more likely to make less than $15 an hour. And guess who has equal pay? Women in unions. Biden has a reputation for being union-friendly, but in fact he has served corporate desires, voting for NAFTA, and pushing through cuts that decimated the public workforce across the country.

National Women’s Liberation joins fast food worker protest. Photo: WUFT.

9. Social Security. Social Security has freed women in a very profound way: Women are no longer dependent on their offspring to support them in old age. This removed the pressure to quickly find a reliable man, get married, and have kids. While women’s financial independence and freedom to not have kids is buoyed up by this program, almost invisibly, the only thing we hear about Social Security is that it’s biased against women who work in the home. In fact, women who divorce get half their spouse’s Social Security after ten years of marriage, whether they worked outside the home or not. Bernie’s program would strengthen Social Security and increase payments by including the rich in the payroll tax. By contrast, Biden was the hatchet man for the Obama administration when it tried to make a deal with the Republicans to cut Social Security.

Universal Programs vs. Means-Testing

Recently we’ve witnessed feminism, and the idea of intersectionality, being used against the idea of universal programs. In a recent Nation article, Suzanna Walters writes that universal programs are all very well, but they won’t cure sexism or racism. Hillary Clinton said the same thing in 2016 about breaking up big banks. But this ignores how male supremacy, white supremacy, and capitalism work together.

Women have the most to gain from universal programs. Means-tested programs — provided only to those whose income and assets are below some government-determined threshold — are a patented way for the power structure to divide people: the vast majority of struggling people who don’t qualify against the even more struggling group of people who do. They provide an opportunity for racists to lie and say that only “certain” people are benefitting, turning white people against people of color when we need to be allies. Meanwhile, the billionaires laugh all the way to their tropical island hideaways.

“Bernie’s proposed programs are actually truly universal. I’m tired of compromising. … I’m not confident anyone can beat Trump, nor do I think he’ll accept defeat or leave office peacefully and willingly, but I’d rather support Bernie than anyone else because we’re building a movement. Bernie is our greatest organizing tool right now. That’s something I’m willing to rally behind.” — Emily, Florida

Walters thinks we need specific programs, for example, to reduce Black maternal mortality, and suggests that universal programs aren’t specific enough to help. This contraposition is nonsense. We can have Medicare for All, so everyone can get the care they need, and ALSO have a specific plan to reduce Black maternal mortality. Britain has both. About seven hundred women die every year in the United States from complications from pregnancy or delivery according to the CDC. Meanwhile, researchers say 68,000 lives would be saved every year if we had Medicare for All.

Means testing requires an expensive bureaucracy to determine who qualifies, and this gives power to petty tyrants with sexist and racist attitudes who furthermore enforce sexist and racist regulations (non-standard family? non-white culture? non-English language?) And they suck up our time as we try to prove our income and worthiness. The Affordable Care Act requires this paperwork every year — it’s worse than housework! With universal programs, by contrast, there’s no question whether someone is “deserving” or “qualifies.” Everyone is and everyone does. This not only saves money on bureaucracy, it creates much-needed social solidarity.

Universal programs can unite everyone — this is the mighty force needed to enact big demands. By contrast, means-tested programs are more vulnerable to cuts because the beneficiaries are few, and for this reason alone have little political power. Programs that everyone expects to benefit from, like Medicare or Social Security, have a much broader base to defend them. These programs unite the many to defend against the attacks of the 1 percent. This is why billionaires hate them.

“Other childcare proposals aren’t really universal, even when they’re called that — the best require you to pay 7 percent of your income. They wouldn’t help me and my family at all. Bernie’s plan is universal — to expand the public schools year by year, just like we are doing in New York City. It’s totally possible and would absolutely help me. And I would fight like hell to pass it and hold on to it!!!” — Erin, New York

Opposition to universal proposals is sometimes disguised as a populist attack on the privileges of the rich. Landlords in New York argue against rent control on the basis that a few super-rich people are paying cheap rents. But this is a transparent attempt to break tenant power. Pete Buttigieg argued college shouldn’t be free to all, because what about billionaires getting free college? But with the kind of taxation proposed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the super-rich would pay in much more than they would get out, so why shouldn’t the program be for everyone? As Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “Universal public systems are designed to benefit EVERYBODY! Everyone contributes & everyone enjoys… Universal systems that benefit everyone are stronger [because] everyone’s invested!”

Consciousness-Raising with Bernie

Bernie’s campaign has been, in effect, a national consciousness-raising session on our economic struggles. Consciousness-raising, adapted from the Southern Civil Rights Movement, was the original program the Women’s Liberation Movement used to compare our experiences, analyze our conditions and figure out what to do.

In consciousness-raising we discover that the situations we’re in are not our personal fault. We hear from others who tried different strategies (for example when we have young children, working full time, working part-time, or staying home full time) and we find all the options have unacceptable costs. In other words, there is no personal solution. Therefore we can conclude there is something wrong with the system, not with us. Over the years we have also held worker consciousness-raising sessions which include men and exclude bosses.

Bernie’s campaign has been using a similar strategy to teach people in the U.S. that we are not to blame for the fact we’re broke. Whether we work hard or can’t find work at all, 60 percent of us are not able to come up with $500 for an emergency. But we’re all pretending things are OK, because we are ashamed we are not making ends meet. The shame comes from blaming ourselves. Bernie’s town halls and rallies encourage people to speak up about their struggles. When we tell each other our pain, and discover we’re not alone, we can stop blaming ourselves for a situation which is caused by our corporation-coddling economic system that regularly mints billionaires with our unpaid wages. Then we can look for nationwide solutions (and aim our rage at those truly responsible) rather than blaming ourselves.

NWL collects testimony about health care.

The Bernie campaign even used one of our questions to raise consciousness about the cost of childcare: “How would your life be different if you had guaranteed childcare?” Since 2016, we’ve used this question in meetings about healthcare, childcare, eldercare, and paid leave. We’ve even set up tables and asked passersby to write their testimony and post it on a bulletin board. The Campaign for New York Health adopted our question on healthcare for their campaign: “How would your life be different if you had guaranteed healthcare?” We need more of this!

Why is a Women’s Liberation group endorsing an “old white guy”?

National Women’s Liberation is not a lobbying or electoral group — we’re an independent dues-paying feminist group to fight back against male supremacy and win more freedom for women. We study how male supremacy and white supremacy work together with our Women of Color Caucus. We believe that change comes about from the actions of everyday people — not politicians, the courts, lobbyists, or the media. So why are we endorsing a presidential candidate?

We believe the Bernie campaign’s program will advance the goals of women’s liberation in a way that timid half-measures will not.

The U.S. political system forces us to focus on individual characteristics rather than a platform or program. But we think that what a campaign stands for is much more important than the candidate. That said, Bernie has a strong track record of fighting on the right side of the movements for racial and sexual equality and working-class power. Biden has a track record of waffling on, and then voting for, the worst policies of our era: school segregation, fiscal tightfistedness, rampant incarceration, usurious bankruptcy laws, abortion restrictions, and endless war.

“Sanders has led in making universal health care central to the democratic candidate debates, I couldn’t believe I saw the candidates polled on that and everyone had to say yes. I also think he catapulted the concept of student loan forgiveness. Our job is partly to push forward on these openings of expanded understanding and support.” — Alexandra, Florida

Our group is rooted in two germinal Women’s Liberation Movement organizations: Gainesville (Florida) Women’s Liberation, the first group in the South, founded in 1968, and Redstockings, founded in 1969 in New York. At their inception, these groups argued vigorously that an independent feminist movement was needed to free women. As a result of their efforts, the Women’s Liberation Movement was very successful, winning progress on reproductive freedom, appearance and dress codes; integration of all-male spaces and workplaces; men doing childcare and housework; better sex; divorce equality, and educational equality. But the things we’ve made progress on were ones didn’t cut too deeply into the power of employers and the rich. Now we have to fight the 1% if we are to win more progress for women. While we believe that now is a moment to focus on class, an independent women’s liberation movement is still needed to “struggl[e] for specifically feminine claims at the same time as carrying on the class war,” to quote Simone de Beauvoir.

Why endorse at this late date?

While the road ahead is tough, most of our members are in two high-stakes states with Democratic primary votes coming up: Florida (March 17) and New York (April 28). Our coordinating committee met March 1, and overwhelmingly voted to endorse Sanders. The few opposed were either skeptical of the utility of electoral politics or supported Elizabeth Warren, who was still running then. Many of us liked Warren and would gladly have campaigned for her were Sanders not in the race. But we felt that Sanders’ program with truly universal childcare, healthcare, and free college components better pushed forward our interests as women. And Bernie’s campaign communicates that even great plans won’t go anywhere unless they have a movement behind them. We have also been arguing that we need organizations funded by everyday people, like the Bernie campaign, not by corporations or their foundations or PACs.

About Biden, we agree with Elizabeth Warren, who said at a rally on March 2, “No matter how many Washington insiders tell you to support him, nominating their fellow Washington insider will not meet this moment. Nominating a man who says we do not need any fundamental change in this country will not meet this moment. Nominating someone who wants to restore the world before Donald Trump, when the status quo has been leaving more and more people behind for decades, is a big risk for our party and our country.”

What about beating Trump?

In every poll taken to date, Bernie Sanders beats Trump. Biden does too, by about the same margin, but Biden does not have an enthusiastic campaign behind him. People are supporting him due to fealty to a conservative Democratic party leadership or because they believe the media drumbeat that he is “more electable.” But turnout is the most important thing in U.S. elections — most people don’t vote. So while polls may show that the two leading candidates have an equal chance to beat Trump, polls don’t measure enthusiasm and organization. And with all the voter suppression we expect to experience in November, enthusiasm and organization are the way we win. We also hear that Bernie Sanders is “too far left,” or the U.S. electorate “would never elect a socialist.” But polls show overwhelming support for the measures his campaign is highlighting, while half of young people think socialism is better than the system we have now.

Politics as usual is killing us. It’s time to go for what we really want.