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The Women’s March Announced Its "We Belong Together" Action

by Seth Millstein
Sarah Morris/Getty Images News/Getty Images

After Donald Trump won the presidential election, the Women's March quickly emerged as the preeminent anti-Trump protest movement. An estimated 500,000 Americans marched the D.C. streets in opposition to Trump the day after he was inaugurated, and that energy has only increased throughout the course of his presidency. The protest's organizers soon launched a "10 Actions In 100 Days" campaign, and on Monday, the campaign released its seventh action, called "We Belong Together."

The foundation of our movement is rooted in the bonds that we share with each other, with our families — those we are born into and those we choose — and with our communities. We believe that families and children should live free from fear of discriminatory policies that threaten to divide us, and tear parents away from their children. Children have a unique vantage point in experiencing what is happening in our society, and their voices on these issues are particularly powerful.

The group encourages supporters to engage and educate young people about how discriminatory policies affect their lives, and just as importantly, enlist those children to help spread the intersectional feminist message around which the Women's March is centered.

The previous six actions that the Women's March has proposed have all been very important and substantive; they've included, for instance, writing letters to representatives and attending town hall meetings.

However, this most recent action may well be the most forward-looking one yet. That's because, rather than trying to affect immediate change, "We Belong Together" is focused on recruiting future generations to help implement that change. It's aimed at instilling a progressive, equality-centric mindset into children at a young age. That may not change anything in the short term — but it will years down the line, as it's these children who will grow up to be the activists and politicians of the future.

Although there are still three actions left to go, the Women's March has already covered an impressive swath of ground with the proposals it's unveiled so far. In addition to direct activism aimed, the group has encouraged supporters to "Reflect & Resist" — that is, to read up and educate themselves about feminist politics, and have discussions with like-minded activists.

The Women's March really is taking an all-of-the-above approach to progressive activism. By encouraging America's youth to get involved, it's asking intersectional feminists to make an investment that could pay off big time decades later.