International Women’s Day 2011

Mother’s March:

Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day

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To mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, the Global Women’s Strike is holding the 2nd Annual Mother’s March on Tuesday, March 8, in San Francisco. The Mother’s March also takes place in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and in other parts of the state, as well as in Haiti, Guyana, India, Peru & the UK.

Why March?
This is a crucial year for mothers & caregivers who are raising children and/or caring for loved ones on low incomes, in poverty, in war-torn, coup-torn, occupation-torn countries from Palestine to Egypt, from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Haiti to Mexico, from the Philippines to Kenya, and Nigeria.

The GWS march is for communities of color, those in urban and rural areas, and other impoverished communities suffering from loss of jobs, lower wages, cuts in education, welfare, healthcare and childcare, those facing homelessness, foreclosures, and criminalization.

women-day-thumbMothers produce/care for the world’s people. Most women do caring work: grandmothers, mothers, daughters, partners. Unrecognized, unpaid or low-paid, women care for children, elders, people with disabilities, and each other.

In Haiti and Palestine, wherever there is occupation, women do survival work without which resistance would be impossible.

Budget cuts increase hunger and threaten those of us on lowest incomes, starting with communities of color.

Poverty, uncaring social services & immigration laws tear children from us. Everywhere people risk their lives to bring change – from Palestine to Egypt, from Haiti to Colombia, from the Philippines to Kenya & Nigeria

Everywhere mothers are standing together with others and winning some victories.

Help fight for change.
Help end the inhumane policy of arresting and jailing mothers and other vulnerable people trying to survive against brutal market forces.
Help end police using our children for target practice, as in the case of Oscar Grant.
Help make our and your demands heard.
Help make a case for an end to war and for resources to go to the caring of people and the planet.

 

Message from the World March of Women:

                                                                         WSF-2011


We have started 2011 with hope and revolution in our hearts and minds, as we support the struggle for self-determination and participatory democracy in northern Africa and the Arab world. The peoples of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria have demonstrated that mass uprisings of women and men do have the power to topple governments and dictatorships. Women’s voices and actions are crucial to the construction of people power, and on International Women’s Day we commit ourselves to struggle alongside our sisters to ensure their active participation in their country’s transition processes.

One year on from the launch of our 3rd International Action, we – feminists and activists of the World March of Women – continue to march, resist and construct alternatives. We renew our commitment to organise collectively until all of us are free from the oppressions and discriminations that we face as women. We are committed to strengthening, consolidating and expanding our permanent, grassroots movement around the world.

To read more of this statement in English click here

To read this in Spanish click here.

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   Letter of solidarity with the struggle of women in the world -Adopted on 11th February 2011, in Dakar, Senegal, during the World Social Forum by World March of Women: 

We cannot accept that attempts to maintain the current system in place are made at the expense of women. In this regard, we say no to intolerance, to the persecution of sexual diversity and to cultural practices that undermine the health, body and soul of women.

We condemn all kinds of violence against women, in particular, femicide, the trafficking of women, forced prostitution, physical violence, sexual harassment, genital mutilation, early marriage, forced marriage, rape, rape used as a systematic weapon of war, and impunity for those who commit these acts of horror against women.

Here’s the full text in English and here’s the full text in Spanish.