One year ago, 5 million women, families, and allies across the world raised our voices in unison to demand a better way forward. On that day, we marched. The world took notice.
Women and allies — united together — created the largest day of protest in the history of the United States. The reverberations of that day have been felt across our nation and the world ever since. In 2017, we made our voices heard in the fight against Islamophobic immigration decrees at the airport protests; we made our voices heard in the fight to protect health care. We stood up for black lives and Dreamers. We rang the alarm over threats to our planet. With the #metoo movement, we came out of the shadows to call out those who attack us, igniting a national conversation and concrete change. We will not allow ourselves to be degraded, deprived of dignity, or dehumanized, and we will not be relegated to the shadows.
But protest alone is not enough. We must wield our power through protest and at the ballot box. We have increasingly shown up at the polls and made our voices heard at the ballot box. We are energized by recent key elections in Virginia and Alabama. In every election from this day forward, we will raise our voices through our votes, in greater numbers and with great clarity about who supports a future we can all believe in.
Now it’s time to build our movement together. This movement belongs to all of us, and all of our voices need to be heard loud and clear.
That’s why we’re launching Operation Marching Orders: through this participatory democratic method we can articulate what we want for our country, for our future, and what we’ll fight for in the coming year.