Women organizing for the Global Women’s Strike on March 8 are in Washington (and in front of the US Embassy in London) today to protest Bush’s inauguration as president of the US and therefore the world, and the policies of both the Republican and Democratic parties for which women and children around the world pay the highest price.

This is a crucial mobilization. Bush stole the election by denying the votes of four million people. Many were kept from voting by Jim Crow tactics including police intimidation. He has further signaled his intentions by appointing supporters of the Ku Klux Klan, military, big business, opponents of welfare, anti-choice advocates and others from the extreme right. As a cover for his sexism and Old South racism, he has appointed women and Black people ready to shuffle to his tune. Black people are not fooled: 93% of Black voters voted against Bush. The Supreme Court that sanctioned Bush’s illegitimate victory is now considering a ruling to overturn the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Many marched, fought and died to win the vote and other rights – we are not going back!

Racism has many uses. Bush used racism to steal the election and to further conquest of the world. And the Democratic Party refused to even report how Black people were cheated of their votes. Denied the vote (which US governments use as justification to invade and bomb other countries), we must represent ourselves – as Black women, as women of color, as Third World, immigrant and refugee women, as anti-racist women and men of whatever race and nationality.

While $80 billion would provide the basic needs for the world, lifting millions of people out of dire poverty, Bush is already committed to spending $500 billion on Star Wars (which lackey Blair supports). Further US military intervention in Colombia, the Caribbean and other countries where Indigenous and other people of color are demanding peace, recognition and economic justice, is even more likely under Bush. Bush denies the threat of global warming, and supports further ecological devastation in Alaska and other areas. And despite evidence of racial profiling that condemns Black men to be the majority on death row and growing opposition to the death penalty, Bush, as governor of Texas, ordered the execution of more prisoners than all the other US states put together.

Women already do 2/3 of the world’s work – starting with caring, survival and justice work – mostly unwaged, with Black and other women of color at the bottom and carrying the greatest burden of work. Women grow most of the world’s food, but agribusiness has eaten up family farms, and farms owned by women and people of color are disappearing even faster. Welfare reform, other cuts and attacks on affirmative action have imposed more work and poverty and increased homelessness. Women and immigrants are the fastest growing prison population; 80% are mothers who face permanent separation from their children. Under Bush we will be forced to work even harder to raise our children, sustain our communities and struggle to prevent war, privatization, criminalization and cuts. Every step Bush and his henchmen take must be totally opposed around the world.