What to Know
- Two competing Women's March events will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday on opposite ends of Manhattan.
- The Women’s March NYC will start at Foley Square, while the Women’s March Alliance will begin their event at by Central Park.
- Accusations of anti-Semitism within the national group has resulted in an air of distrust between the NYC groups, The New York Times reports
On the second anniversary of the Women’s March on Washington, New Yorkers will have to choose between two competing marches.
The Women’s March Alliance, the 2017 and 2018 Women’s March on NYC organizer, will start its march on 62nd Street Saturday morning. A downtown rally hosted by The Women’s March NYC, a chapter of the national group Women’s March, Inc., will congregate at Foley Square at the same time.
Although the two organizations discussed a potential unification in the fall, accusations of anti-Semitism against the national group resulted in an air of distrust between the groups, according to a published report by The New York Times. On top of this, the schism is also fueled by accusations of control and a lack of inclusivity.
According to the New York Times, one of the leaders of the national group, Linda Sarsour, an activist from Brooklyn, tried to wrestle for control over this year’s march with Katherine Siemionko, the founder and president of the Women’s March Alliance, Siemionko alleges. When this conversation happened in October, the Women’s March Alliance held the only parade permit for the day of the event.
Sarsour told the Times Siemionko refused to cooperate with the Woman's March group and that they were only trying to make the Alliance more inclusive to immigrant and minority communities. Siemionko alleged Sarsour was "threatening" and tried to get control of the protest.
The Women’s March NYC instead partnered with the New York Immigration Coalition.
Local
The publication reports that in January, the Immigration Coalition also urged the Alliance to merge the marches, but by then, Siemionko said it was too late.
Nearly 49,000 people have marked themselves as “interested” in the Women’s March Alliance Facebook event for the march, with 14,000 people marked as “going.” Meanwhile, the Women’s March NYC Facebook event shows 26,000 interested and almost 6,000 going.
Despite the ongoing clash between the two groups, both events will fight for women’s rights on Saturday.
The Women’s March NYC will start at 10 a.m. at Foley Square, where there will be a rally that will highlight the leadership seen in response to the Trump Administration’s continued attacks on communities of color and immigrants. The programming is organized to honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They are set to host Gloria Steinem and the New York Immigration Coalition.
On the other side of town, the Women’s March Alliance will begin their event at 10 a.m. by Central Park, with entrance points at West 72nd Street and Central Park West, West 72nd Street and Columbus. After a short rally with entertainment and speakers, the demonstration will march south, cut over to Sixth Avenue and finish at 44th Street.
If you don’t feel like picking sides, a third protest will take place in the main hall of Grand Central Terminal. The Non-March for Disabled Women is sponsored by activist group Rise and Resist and will begin at 2 p.m. The goal of their event is to give people with disabilities an opportunity to support the movement too.
