
What is the link between one of Hillary Clintonβs largest donors and the Womenβs March? Turns out, itβs quite significant. Some of my friends participated in the Woman’s March on Sat. Jan. 21. I did not. Why? Because my value as a woman is NOT reflected accurately when it is sponsored by someone like George Soros.
Read on below, make your own decision after doing your own research about this man, and…
InJoy!
NYTLive/NYTimes
{GC note: this is an extraordinary revelationΒ by a βmainstreamβ writer. Here is the link to ββWomanβs Marchβ Partnersβ, her GoogleDocs site with her research.}
Β In the pre-dawn darkness of todayβs presidential inauguration day, I faced a choice, as a lifelong liberal feministΒ who voted for Donald TrumpΒ for president: lace up my pink Nike sneakers to step forward and take the DC Metro into the nationβs capital for the inauguration of Americaβs new president, or wait and go tomorrow to the after-party, dubbed the βWomenβs March on Washingtonβ?
Β TheΒ GuardianΒ has touted the βWomenβs March on Washingtonβ as a βspontaneousβ action for womenβs rights. Another liberal media outlet,Β Vox, talks about the βhuge, spontaneous groundswellβ behind the march. On its website, organizers of the march are promoting their work asΒ βa grassroots effortβΒ with βindependentβ organizers. Even my local yoga studio, Beloved Yoga, is renting a bus and offering seats for $35. The marchβs manifesto says magnificently, βThe Rise of the Woman = The Rise of the Nation.β
Itβs an idea that I, a liberal feminist, would embrace. But I know β and most of America knows β that the organizers of the march havenβt put into their manifesto: the march really isnβt a βwomenβs march.β Itβs a march for women who are anti-Trump.Β
As someone who voted for Trump, I donβt feel welcome, nor do many other women who reject the liberal identity-politics that is the core underpinnings of the march, so far, makingΒ white women feel unwelcome,Β nixing women who oppose abortionΒ andΒ hijacking the agenda.Β
To understand the march better, I stayed up through the nights this week, studying theΒ funding, politics and talking points of the some 403 groupsΒ that are βpartnersβ of the march. Is this a non-partisan βWomenβs Marchβ?
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, a march βpartner,β told me his organization was βnonpartisanβ but has βmany concerns about the incoming Trump administration that include what we see as a misogynist approach to women.β Nick Fish, national program director of the American Atheists, another march partner, told me, βThis is not a βpartisanβ event.β Dennis Wiley, pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ, another march βpartner,β returned my call and said, βThis is not a partisan march.β
Really? UnitedWomen.org, another partner, features videos with the hashtags #ImWithHer, #DemsInPhily and #ThanksObama. Following the money, I poured through documents of billionaire George Soros and his Open Society philanthropy, because I wondered: What is the link between one of Hillary Clintonβs largest donors and the βWomenβs Marchβ?Β
I found out: plenty.
By my draft research, whichΒ Iβm opening up for crowd-sourcingΒ on GoogleDocs, Soros has funded, or has close relationships with, at least 56 of the marchβs βpartners,β including βkey partnersβ Planned Parenthood, which opposes Trumpβs anti-abortion policy, and the National Resource Defense Council, which opposes Trumpβs environmental policies. The other Soros ties with βWomenβs Marchβ organizations include the partisan MoveOn.org (which was fiercely pro-Clinton), the National Action Network (which has a former executive director lauded by Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett as βa leader of tomorrowβ as a march co-chair and another official as βthe head of logisticsβ). Other Soros grantees who are βpartnersβ in the march are the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. March organizers and the organizations identified here havenβt yet returned queries for comment.Β Β
On the issues I care about as a Muslim, the βWomenβs March,β unfortunately, has taken a stand on the side of partisan politics that has obfuscated the issues of Islamic extremism over the eight years of the Obama administration. βWomenβs Marchβ partners include the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has not only deflected on issues of Islamic extremism post-9/11, but opposes Muslim reforms that would allow women to be prayer leaders and pray in the front of mosques, without wearing headscarves as symbols of chastity. Partners also include the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which wrongly designated Maajid Nawaz, a Muslim reformer, anΒ βanti-Muslim extremistβΒ in a biased report released before the election. The SPLC confirmed to me that Soros funded its βanti-Muslim extremistsβ report targeting Nawaz. (Ironically, CAIR also opposes abortions, but its leader still has aΒ key speaking role.)
Another Soros grantee and march βpartnerβ is the Arab-American Association of New York, whose executive director, Linda Sarsour, is a march co-chair. When I co-wrote a piece, arguing that Muslim women donβt have to wear headscarves as a symbol of βmodesty,β she attacked the coauthor and me as βfringe.βΒ
Earlier, at least 33 of the 100 βwomen of color,β who initially protested the Trump election in street protests, worked at organizations that receive Soros funding, in part for βblack-brownβ activism. Of course, Soros is an βideological philanthropist,β whose interests align with many of these groups, but he is also a significant political donor. In Davos, he told reporters that Trump is aΒ βwould-be dictator.β
A spokeswoman for Sorosβs Open Society Foundations, said in a statement, βThere have been many false reports about George Soros and the Open Society Foundations funding protests in the wake of the U.S. presidential elections. There is no truth to these reports.β She added, βWe support a wide range of organizations β including those that support women and minorities who have historically been denied equal rights. Many of whom are concerned about what policy changes may lie ahead. We are proud of their work. We of course support the right of all Americans to peaceably assemble and petition their governmentβa vital, and constitutionally safeguarded, pillar of a functioning democracy.β
Much like post-election protests, which included a sign, βKill Trump,β were notΒ Β βspontaneous,β as reported by some media outlets, the βWomenβs Marchβ is an extension of strategic identity politics that has so fractured America today, from campuses to communities. On the left or the right, itβs wrong. But, with the inauguration, we know the politics. With the march, βwomenβ have been appropriated for a clearly anti-Trump day. When I shared my thoughts with her, my yoga studio owner said it was βsadβ the marchβs organizers masked their politics. βI want love for everyone,β she said.Β
The leftβs fierce identity politics and its failure on Islamic extremism lost my vote this past election, and so, as the dawnβs first light breaks through the darkness of the morning as I write, I make my decision: Iβll lace up my pink Nikes and head to the inauguration, skipping the βWomenβs Marchβ that doesnβt have a place for women like me.
EDITORβS NOTE: This story has been updated to include a statement from theΒ Open Society Foundations.
Asra Q. Nomani is a formerΒ Wall Street JournalΒ reporter. She can be reached atΒ asra@asranomani.comΒ or onΒ Twitter.
Share this: Send the word out using these buttons!