To: NOW Activists
From: Patricia Ireland, Kim Gandy, Elizabeth Toledo & Karen Johnson
Subject: World March of Women 2000 Update
Date: February 16, 2000

The backlash against women is widespread. Women's civil rights are up for grabs in this country in 2000. In this year's elections, all three branches of government -- the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court -- hang in the balance. Never before has the need for a national, feminist march been more apparent, more necessary.

The October 15^th World March of Women 2000 in Washington, D.C. will be the last national mobilization before the elections. We are asking every NOW chapter in the country to send a delegation to the march. We are asking you to organize for this march like women's lives depend on it, because they do.

Women's economic well-being, health and safety are at risk under the Republican Congress' agenda. Research money for breast and cervical cancer, funding for mammograms and family planning for poor women, and programs to implement the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) are threatened as are other hard-won advances for women. Our efforts to expand federal hate crimes legislation to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation and disabilities have been stymied by conservatives in Congress. Even efforts to improve the popular Violence Against Women Act have been thwarted by the enemies of women in the House and Senate.

With George W. Bush's multimillion dollar campaign war chest and John McCain's inexplicable appeal to independents and moderate to conservative Democrats, clearly we are facing the greatest threat to women's rights since the Reagan and Bush administrations. The mean-spirited campaign rhetoric spawned by Republican demagogues must not demoralize us, but must serve to inspire a massive campaign to turn the tide of politics.

Our problems do not stop with the White House or the Congress. The U.S. Supreme Court, which is just one justice away from the overturn of the already eroded Roe decision, will issue several important decisions this term. The High Court will decide whether survivors and victims of gender-motivated violence will continue to have the right to sue their attackers in federal court under VAWA's civil remedy.

The justices will also rule on the constitutionality of bubble zones to protect women entering health clinics, and will review a Nebraska abortion procedures ban. Given recent rulings, we know we cannot count on the Court to undo the dirty deeds of Congress and state legislatures. We must not let George W. Bush -- whose favorite justices are Scalia and Thomas -- nominate the next justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

We must mobilize to stop the war on the poor, to stop all violence against all women and to stop George W. Bush's so-called "compassionate conservatism."

We are counting on you to make October 15^th a defining day for our movement, our nation and the world. We are depending on you to motivate every person in your community who wants to end poverty and stop violence against women to come to Washington. We need your hard work to make October 15^th the kick-off for the critical, final weeks of organizing for the 2000 elections.

We have put together a package to help with your organizing efforts. Enclosed you will find:

• March Fact Sheet
• Sample Phone Script
• Organizing Tips
• Sample Press Release
• Phone Bank Tips
• March Endorsement Form

We will fight back for women's lives in the streets of Washington on October 15 and in polling booths across the nation on Election Day 2000!