The third annual San Diego Women’s March, one of dozens scheduled across the United States, will take place downtown on Saturday .
Marchers will gather at Waterfront Park on the embarcadero at 10 a.m. for the four-hour event. San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, City Attorney Mara Elliott and state Sen. Toni Atkins are among the myriad speakers and public figures expected to attend this year’s march.
Service on Metropolitan Transit System trolley lines will increase to every 15 minutes to accommodate the thousands of people expected.
The inaugural march in 2017 sprang up as a response to President Donald Trump’s inauguration and drew millions of marchers across the U.S. and around the world. Political scientists from the universities of Connecticut and Denver estimated that it was the single largest march in U.S. history.
This year’s marches come amid controversial comments made recently by national Women’s March co-founder and co-chair Tamika Mallory. The organization has been criticized for its association with Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the black nationalist Nation of Islam. Mallory, in a recent appearance on The View, skirted a question by Meghan McCain about whether she condemns Farrakhan’s various anti-Semitic statements, such as when he declared “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”
Organizers of the San Diego march have distanced their local grassroots effort from the national organization and it’s surrounding controversy.
“In regard to issues concerning antisemitism, Women’s March San Diego does not condone language or actions from any person or group that target, disparage, denigrate, threaten, or harm another person or group,” the Women’s March San Diego Executive Board said in a statement, noting that the San Diego chapter is separate from the main organization. “Since our inception, Women’s March San Diego has oriented our mission of harnessing the political power of diverse women and their communities toward creating transformative social change.”
— City News Service
