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Why men support
the Strike... Men have generally more time and more money than women, but it doesn’t mean we have enough! Most men are struggling to survive, are getting poorer and/or are enslaved to a job or to a war which is destroying us every day. We support this Women's strike because, like women, we want to work less and have more money. We too want our unwaged work recognised and paid with money, resources, time, land, peace and rights. And we know that as long as women work too much, even more than men, for too little, even less than men, their pay and conditions are the standard that is applied to men. How can men support the Global Women's Strike?
I SUPPORT THE GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE BECAUSE . . . My daughter works as a primary school teacher in Coventry. She works very hard for what I believe is a modest salary. She is currently under a great deal of stress due to the many extra curricular activities which she is expected to do. This is outside the remit of her job description, but she realises that, apart from a strong commitment to the children she teaches, if she is to progress further in her career, she has to do this extra work in order to justify her position. Although she does not begrudge this extra work it places a great deal of stress and means that she has a restricted social life, which is difficult for a young woman of 26. I hope that this strike will highlight these and many other issues which confront women in today's society in this country and all over the world. Richard, Housing co-op worker, UK They stop the money to the refugees so that benefits claimants can feel lucky, then they cut benefits so that low wages earners can feel lucky, then they start cutting the wages so that those who get a frozen pay check can feel lucky. Where does this end? I think a women’s strike will cut through that and I am certainly in favour. John, typist with a "frozen pay check", UK I have two kids and their financial existence is mainly dependent on me. It means I'm tied to the job, because I will probably always make more than their mothers. Don't get me wrong - I love my kids and want to have a relationship with them. I just don't want that fundamental relationship to be shaped by how much I can pay. And both of us - the parents - are tied to each other long after we may want to be. It is definitely time for a change - time for women to have the financial independence so they can choose who they want to be tied to. Only when they have that kind of independence will my choices increase. I'll be working with the Wages for Housework Campaign on the day of the strike - doing whatever is necessary so my daughters get to live in a different world. Sam - working for a trade union. A reason I’m for the strike? How about the predicament of a young nephew of mine? Off he goes to college a couple years back, and sure enough finds a sweetheart and gets her pregnant. They have the kid -- maybe just because it's been made to seem so horrid not to -- and then they break up. My nephew's done right by the mom and paid the child support faithfully, but he can’t find work at much more than minimum wage, and child support takes half of it. How’s he supposed to live on half minimum? Well, I’ll tell you: by leaning on a new girlfriend! And now he’s fathered a child by her and while they planned it and to marry, how will they finance the new child’s upbringing? On a woman’s wage (assuming she goes back out to waged work, probably necessarily much sooner than is best for the child) plus his half minimum? I think mothers deserve the support of everyone for the work of rising children, including financially, as do all women for all the work they do holding society together. Child support shouldn't fall solely to the biological father, at least not without taking into account ability to pay. Women and men both need to be able to relate to each other sexually without reaping a lifetime of punishment. Women have been held down, and what goes around comes around to hold men down too. I say, "Go, sisters! What can I do to help?" Dean, low-waged uncle with struggling nieces and nephews, US. My sister-in-law and brother had a hard time making ends meet when the kids were still young. She was able to get on the gov’t WIC program and the bit of groceries they got thru that,little as it was, helped them keep their noses above water. I don't know if WIC still exists but the government seems to be taking every thing else away, even from single moms, and it aint right. Every mother I’ve ever known, starting with my own, has worked her ass off raising her kids, doing whatever the thousand things her particular situation demanded of her. Women deserve a break and then some and I’m thrilled they’re going for it. And thrilled not just for the women. Like most men I don’t have enough money or time of my own either, and however much the women are able to win -- and with men’s support that may be greater -- will be that much public money and resources NOT going to bombs or prisons or directly to corporations bent on lengthening hours and lowering wages for everyone. Dean, brother and son, part-time waged, US. My girlfriend is a hardworking, conscientious and committed disabled woman working for a community group. This work includes helping her disabled sisters to claim their rightful benefits entitlements, as well as campaigning for the extension of civil rights to disabled people. This work, though recognised and appreciated by others in the community but not the state, is unwaged. She shares this status with millions of her sisters around the world, who are often ‘duty bound’ to feed, clean for, nurse and tend to their families as well as holding down a so-called ‘proper’ job. Not supporting the Women’s action is tantamount to agreeing to this status quo ante. Sean, unwaged, UK My mother recently died. Her death made me think more than I had done in the past about all the work she had done, in her family as a child, then taking care of me and my father and other relatives, as well as taking part in the Resistance, bringing food and messages to her brothers who were fighting the fascists. Her work gained very little recognition and no money. In supporting the women's strike I feel I'm paying homage to her memory. I will help spreading the word, translating the strike material into Italian. Giorgio, immigrant from Italy, UK I watched my mother ruin her health bringing up us four children, virtually on her own, often without any house keeping money each week from my father. My mother worked not only in the home as a housewife, but in the many part-time jobs she had to have to make up for the lack of house keeping. If she had been paid for all the work she did unpaid, life would have been a lot easier for her and her children as well. She perhaps could have taken the rest she so badly needed, and us four children could have eaten better and had some new clothes instead of everybody's hand me downs. But most important she could have spent more time with us instead of running off to her next part-time job to earn today's dinner. This is why I support the Global Women's Strike, to recognise the tremendous amount of hard work women are putting in all unpaid to keep their families going. Bob, UK When I was a child I was constantly aware that my mother was occupied day in day out with what she called her "voluntary work". She had given up her paid job (primary school teacher) when she married my father, and now she felt morally bound to carry on working as hard or even harder at all sorts of social responsibilities, most notably her "war work" in the Citizens' Advice Bureau (between 1939 and 1945); and both during and after the war she attended innumerable meetings and gatherings and committees, most of them (I guess) connected with the church, but extending themselves into a great variety of aspects of public life. Not only did she not get paid for all this, I don't think she even got thanked. Except once, when the Borough Council offered to put her name forward for a medal because of her war service in the Advice Bureau. She indignantly refused this, because she said the council bureaucrats had systematically sabotaged the Bureau's efforts all through the war out of petty territorial jealousy, and she wasn't going to be beholden to such double-faced hypocrites for a place in the Honours List. She said once, "Of course I'm only little Mrs A., who everyone knows is always ready to do anything with such a cheery smile, and don't they just take advantage!" Advantage in fact was taken from top to bottom of the nation - if it hadn't been for millions and millions of women, the likes of my mother, the war effort would have totally collapsed - to say nothing of the peace effort in subsequent years. And of course it still goes on. I believe if she were still here, my mother would have thoroughly supported the Global Strike for the recognition and valuing of women's unwaged work.. As she's not here, I'll do it for her. Exactly how, I don't know. I'll wait and see what seems to be needed. John, writer, born in England, living in Ireland. The biggest single issue affecting the affecting the majority of people on this planet is poverty. Its use as a method of subjugation affects women more starkly than men. Women bear most of the responsibility and are still made to feel that their primary role is to bear children. It seems ludicrous in a society which prizes childbirth so highly, that single mothers who decide to keep their children are then penalised financially. The best indication of how much regard we have for our future is how well we treat its caretakers. Give women their dues. All power to all the people. Jed Forrest. Time has come to change this Global system of oppression. Women after all do make the world go round with all their unpaid labor and work. Time has come, we (the world) can no longer stand by and ignore the cries of the suffering. We men must also stand up and support our women in this fight for the future of our children and for a better world. It is time to act with our hearts and not anything else. Fellow men, lets do the right thing, lets change this system and make the world a beautiful place. I leave you all with this quote: "Keep love in your hearts, keep reaching for the stars, peace and love" Nidal M. Hijazi, Santa Clara University Arriving at this global challenge by the women's worldwide strike action deserves positive support from every one of us who take up the fight against oppression and tyranny. My point of view is we have reached the stage where we cannot leave any angle of the struggle to chance. Therefore the women's struggle for equality and justice must be seen by we men as part and parcel of the class struggle, involving us side by side. Now the technology has revolutionised our world to the point where there is no more hiding place for deceptions, I deem it necessary for us to get together to find ways on how we can work on a common programme to be able to build a world structure of democratic centralism, where all sexes, races and religions will have voices in shaping the collective interests of humanity -- united in one world. So sisters: the highest source of regeneration. Long Live the Women's deep commitment to revolutionary freedom and struggle for humanity! Joseph Odusanya The reasons why I support Women’s Strike: women work hard. After their job, they have duties in the house and they make sure that everything is OK. If she is a single mother, she suffers financially. I know a woman who was deported back to her country and she left her daughter of two years old behind. In my own experience, as an asylum seeker, I know it is extremely painful to be separated from your child or your family. This is not only in the UK. This is global, women suffer abuses worldwide, sexual abuses. Often they have no right to say, because they could lose a job or a place in the house or any help they get. This is why, we all men, we should support women in all kind of needs and situations. Hussein, from Uganda, living in the UK I will be supporting the strike on March 8 by carrying out unpaid work supporting my disabled partner as I have been doing so since she became disabled. I am certain that there are millions in this position but generally I would imagine that it would be women carrying out this work and probably not in a position to afford to do so. As the Government continues to attack people in this situation alongside single mothers while concentrating resources on those with less need of them. The strike will be doing useful work if it brings this to people's attention. Anthony, London UK The non-female staff members of The Socialist, a US based democratic socialist magazine, add our voices and actions to the Global Women’s Strike, and not just because it’s the politically correct thing for lefties to do. Working women in our home base of Chicago are more likely to live in poverty, receive less social benefits, and have less access to education. Their lives are actually regimented, fenced in by the demands of work, family, community and maintaining their sanity. They have almost no time or energy to pursue their own interests, and usually can’t even just goof off for a while (and if they do they feel guilty). And the pressures on immigrant women in our neighbourhoods - from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe - are more intense, as they must balance the demands of two cultures.So in honor of the Global Women’s Strike, we pledge to a) carefully listen to the working women around us, and make sure we hear and understand the practical issues which they daily confront, and b) support their efforts, in any way we can, to make sure their voices are heard. Loud and clear. Eric Schuster, Editor, The Socialist - Chicago USA I support the strike and will be showing that by telling as many people as possible about it and helping set up a window display at the local Human Rights and Environment Centre. Several female friends who are especially inspiring and competent end up having to do more in the workplace for less wages. They have so much to offer the management of the organisations they work for (both corporate and public sector) yet are being held up by sexist attitudes and actions to women in power. I need women like them to be making the big decisions about how our organisations respond to the community. In my work as a mental health nurse, I often see the ramifications of the lack of recognition of what is considered to be traditionally women’s work. So I think it is really important for those women and men who I work with and who carry out the child care, cooking, cleaning, shopping etc, that this work is recognised as important, essential and invaluable. A lack of recognition takes a wonderful energy from us all. My stepmum is a woman who has worked an incredible amount in her life since arriving from the Philippines to Australia. She put her brothers through school and has provided a great foundation for much of the family to get settled here. I see the celebration of International Women’s Day to be a celebration of what she has created around her. My own Maman. . . the strike recognises the incredible work she has done (and still does) to raise me. When I think of her role, I also think of women who immigrate to other countries and face sexism, racism and isolation and yet fight on to improve the situation. She lost her vision, her husband’s support, her sanity and yet still managed to bring us up. What a commitment! I feel I could go on and on. . . Good luck with the strike. . . Yours optimistically Cerdic Hall M en are like children, taking women for granted as they did their mothers. If we were adult, we would realise women work more than men and should receive much appreciation and rewards. Rev. Sir John AlleyneI am a Kenyan man living in the UK. I am the tenth born of a family of twelve. The reason I am supporting the strike is that my mother has done so much work in bringing us up and nobody seems to recognise the work she has done. My father died back in 1970 due to a bullet wound and my mother brought us up single handedly toiling from morning to evening. This is a new beginning of a new millennium that the society has to wake up and recognise the work of women all over the world. Geoffrey M I support the Global Women's Strike because this call for action reveals the economic and social injustices women and girls/mothers and grandmothers face. Women are deprived of basic benefits, resources and entitlements that are reflected by what the women going on strike are demanding. Government and corporate and company/employer economies are higher than ever and yet the past economic imbalances women face and are struggling to overcome and change, remain based on old world priorities and values. It is time for a change. I am a grandfather in my 70's and find that I can still change old habits. I am and have been a friend and supporter of the International Wages for Housework Campaign for a number of years. For the strike I'm helping with mailings, distributing flyers and am letting other men know why I support the strike that is also in men's interest. On March 8th I plan to videotape strike activities and help wherever needed. Alex, Los AngelesW hat I am doing is: I have sent a check for $100 (to your San Francisco office) I am standing ready to join with those who are organising visible public actions in and around the Monterey Peninsula, California. Charles Turk, Ph.D. Monterey County, CaliforniaI support the Global Women’s Strike because I watched both my mother and sister constrained by a male dominated world, undervalued and underpaid for their work until their deaths. As a young man, I felt unable to help them better their positions in life and I bitterly regret this now. That people should be discriminated against purely because of which gender they happen to have been born, to me, is ridiculous and the sooner it changes, the better. John, bi-sexual man, building maintenance surveyor, UKI have solidarity and empathy with the liberation of women because I'm against all injustices and discriminations, I'm for equality. I suffer myself in my flesh from anti-Breton racism and the ethnocide of my nation in Brittany by the French Republic, their forced assimilation to the dominionist Parisian culture. I suffer also from institutionalised biphobia and homophobia, heterosexism and sexual-orientation segregation (I cannot speak, dress or walk as I'd like, I cannot love and have a normal sexual life, I have endured all my life insults from men and women and aggression especially if I act normally, I risk being beaten up or raped in the street or put into a fascist death camp, I cannot adopt children, I cannot be open about my love life at work, education about all sexualities is forbidden in schools, many non-heterosexual teenagers commit suicide). I suffer from oppressing gender roles that force me to wear dull clothes, walk straight as a man, and go out of the home to work. I suffer from the dominionist, aristocratic and cruel European culture that enslaves all life and kills love, compassion and unity, where if I/you have no money you are likely to die in the street. I have noticed the effect of testosterone, the hormone of aggression and perhaps nastiness, both in males and females, and most men have lots of testosterone, so they need a good self-control to offset that. I support feminist activists and like the radical book of Judith Butler "Gender Trouble. Feminism and the subversion of identity." I know that most of the work in the world is done by women and that they play a major role in the development of children, our future. Fight misogyny and support their strike! (I hope I have not been sexist in what I've written! Jean(-Francois), anti-speciesist, anti-heterosexist, anti-sexist, antiracist, inclusivist, England. As a memento for my father’s mother, who worked in a textile factory in Biella (Northern Italy), protagonist of the first strikes for the reduction of the working day (18 hours a day!) at the beginning of the last century, and with the very vivid memory of my mother’s devotion to her family as a clerk and a housewives, as well as my wife’s, who died prematurely, I want to live in a better society, which should not substitute women’s power over men to men’s over women - which would mean to fall into the same social error - but for a real sharing both of power and earnings, for a better quality of life. For everyone. Giovanni, Italian pensioner
March 5, 2000 Men’s Meeting to Support Women in Guyana They called on us here, though an individual, to make a statement. This meeting is a meeting of men. It is just that and not a meeting of any organisation. Instead of making a statement of words, it is felt that a Step should be taken. This kind of step should help in the practical recognition of women. That means, not just to say, "Women are great, Women are respected, " but to make demands which can help to give them dignity. They have been fighting for it. We have to ask whether it is not time for more and more and more men to show where we stand. The Women demanded at Bejing as a first step that women's work be given a value in the country's currency. Men do unpaid work, too. But the great bulk of it is women's work. Governments at Beijing agreed. Most have done nothing! There is one proposal on the table: A PENSION FOR WOMEN, PAID IN ALL COUNTRIES THROUGH THE NATIONAL INSURANCE OR SIMILAR SYSTEM. Where one person does the housework, the preparation and the cooking and rearing the future work force, all this is freeness to governments and business. A way to START to compensate the home workers must be found. In a few cases home workers may also be men! )| (house husbands) Please give your opinion. You are free to agree, disagree, and recommend. We hope some people will offer to show how it can work, if it is agreed. This meeting can make other recommendations too. The results of our gathering will be sent in the names of all of us- 'we happy few we band of brothers. ' for international action. This is not all that women are demanding. We say that the National Insurance Systems are there. Is it a smart thing to begin with pension time, making it clear that this is only a gesture of compensation? What about severance pay? Please join the discussion. If you do not wish to speak, please write your opinion and recommendations. MEN'S WORKSHOP 13 SAYS SUPPORT WOMEN'S ACTION Thirteen men sat in a workshop for up to four hours on March 5 to look at women's wrongs. The workshop took place in Buxton-Friendship a village out of the city. The men agreed, disagreed and argued, but were all resolved to support the Guyana women's March 8 action and push campaigns to stop many abuses. Finally they said they were bound to support the women's public Strike 2000 action and in particular the Vigil for Monica Reece, a young woman whose body was dropped on a public street to become the proverb for the long string of unsolved murders which followed. Other recommendations:
A 1. Since benefits must flow from contributions in a National Insurance or social security scheme, then the contributor for the housewives' (or spouses') pension must be found. One strong recommendation was that the government should fill this contribution gap. Another recommendation was: the homeworkers should be regarded as self-employed persons and regarded for insurance. There should be a formula for paying the contribution. Eusi Kwayana Convenor
Recently I took on the household chores for two months while my wife was working on strike-related activities in London. Being responsible for all the day to day activity revolving around our daughter and two dogs was hard work. (See below for letter I wrote while she was away.) The one redeeming aspect of the situation was knowing that it would be over in two months. If I come back for another life, it better not be as a single mother - I don't know how they do it day in day out. I will be doing household chores to help my wife in her efforts to make the strike as successful as possible. John, US Letter to my wife in London, December 1999Hi. Sounds like things are going great at home, you say? Here is just one example of how great things are going at home without you: I came to the office last night at 7:30 to finish some work because I had helped our daughter K. with her hieroglyphics homework during the day. She started playing with the dogs in the family room. They knocked over the phone. The phone dialled the automatic 911 number. The police talked to K. and then sent a patrolman to the house. K let the officer in the house and got his card. She only called me after he had left. I suggested to her that an earlier call would have been helpful so I could have been at the house when the officer arrived. Also: So other than that and more that I am forgetting at the moment - things are great at home. John TO BE CONTINUED . . . Issued by PAYDAY men’s network, organising with the Wages for Housework Campaign for payment of all unwaged work PO Box 287 London NW6 5QU, UK |