“First we march, now we act.”
A smorgasbord of student identities rallied under the slogan on Wednesday afternoon at Cal State Long Beach’s Women’s Gender & Equity Center for “CSULB Huddle,” a political discussion group formed in response to the nationwide Women’s March in January.
The Women’s March LA was part of a worldwide resistance day following President Trump’s inauguration to unite in solidarity against racism and sexism.
The introductory meeting took place at Liberal Arts 1 Room 102.
CSULB Huddle was organized by students Hyla Rachwal, a women’s gender & sexuality studies major, and psychology major Derynne Fuhrer as part of their senior internship project.
This event’s project, like 6,000 other Huddle groups around the U.S., was part of the “Ten Steps for Action in 100 Day Plan” set forth by The Women’s March organization to get people politically engaged and keep the march’s momentum going.
“All these issues were raised after the march – now what do we do?” Fuhrer said.
Rachwal and Fuhrer wanted to create an open space with information and resources for students to have a concrete place to start from in their activism.
“We want students to know how they can be more involved, we want them to be more educated on our government, what they can do individually, we want them to be empowered,” Rachwal said.
Fuhrer was compelled to start this project because she felt it was irresponsible for U.S. citizens to just sit and talk about human rights issues oppressed groups face instead of actually doing something. She thinks that the U.S. will get to where we want to be by making issues important enough for people to want to take action.
“As a nation we have to care enough not to be complacent … it requires showing up and being engaged,” Fuhrer said.
CSULB Huddle also plans to partake in the postcard project called “Hear Our Voice,” established by The Women’s March to write letters and postcards to local representatives on the issues the community wishes to pursue.
Fuhrer brought up the issue of being a privileged person who wants to be an ally but doesn’t know how. Being a white woman from South Africa, she said she had a hard time accepting she has privilege at the expense of oppression of others.
Fuhrer said that one has to fearlessly look at their own privilege and ask: “How do I show up for [people of color]?” and “How does my privilege allow me to show up and help?”.
“Something I am hoping to get out of this is that, as a white woman that shows up in intersectional spaces with other women and people of color, I would like to become more comfortable with where is there space for me to have an opinion and help as much as I can,” Fuhrer said.
Rachwal said she hopes to build a movement on campus that’s intersectional and not broken, one that includes people from all backgrounds and spaces.
“There are different things we can do to move forward, there’s no one way. We need to take several approaches to succeed,” Rachwal said.
The Women’s and Gender Equity Center Coordinator, Pam Rayburn, explained that it is up to the current generation of students to make sure change happens in their community.
“Students need to recognize [their] part in this, it’s [their] civic duty. [They] have to feel compelled to be engaged,” Rayburn said.
Women’s gender & sexuality studies major student Aelexis Frutos said she knew the Women’s March indicated the start of something revolutionary, and she needed to do more to stay involved in the activism movement.
“I felt [it] was a great start to something,” Frutos said. “This is historical.”
The introductory meeting was an informal talk consisting of separate envisioning activities and an information session about the events this month,Women’s History Month and on to the end of the semester.
Guest speakers from different departments on campus are scheduled to speak on Wednesday meeting days about different themes, like engaging in local government and media literacy. Planned Parenthood representatives will speak on the future of the organization under the current administration, as well as reproductive health information sessions.
There will be nine official meetings from March to the end of the semester. The last one will be a film screening with a celebration lunch.
Rachwal stated that the gaps between meetings will be controlled by students. They can be about any topic, issue or event students are passionate about.
