GWS ACTIONS 2002
ARGENTINA     ENGLAND     GHANA     GUYANA     INDIA     IRELAND     ITALY     MEXICO     PERU     SPAIN     TRINIDAD & TOBAGO     UGANDA     USA

ARGENTINA
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ENGLAND
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GHANA
People’s Education Association in Anum organised a women’s march, carrying placards including "Who listens to the women?" and "Be responsible to your children, Men". The secretary’s Welcome Address reports that rural women lose out under globalization, which is technical and capital based, their poverty deprives them of education, healthcare and technology. PEA calls on the government to reactivate large state-owned farms which were established under the first Republic of Ghana, but have collapsed. The farms provided employment for rural women and girls. Young people have been forced by unemployment to migrate to the cities, leaving older people, women and children without healthcare. PEA therefore calls on the authorities to open a district hospital and to equip schools. They sent 10 demands to the Ghanaian President that:

  1. Society values all women’s work and all women’s lives.
  2. All unlawful savings of third world leaders including Ghana in the developed countries be retrieved and invested in the enrichment of every life particularly women and girls.
  3. Create an allowance and pension for women’s vital biological and caring work (Wages for Housework).
  4. Developing countries’ debt at the World Bank, IMF and other bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies be cancelled. Women forming almost 2/3 of the population in these countries have no work doing to contribute to paying these debts.
  5. All interest rate charges on funds to alleviate poverty should be removed so that women who for the core of poverty would be encouraged to take bold steps to alleviating poverty.
  6. Stop penalizing us for being women.
  7. Make clean water, good healthcare, housing, transport, and literacy accessible and affordable to all women.
  8. Freedom of movement. Especially women and girls (no fear of kidnapping, abduction or murder),
  9. Protection and asylum for women and girls from all forms of violence and persecution, by family members or people in positions of authority.
  10. Create more jobs to employ more women.

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GUYANA
"It was FANTASTIC". The main streets of Christianburg, Wismar, and Mackenzie in Linden rang out with the noise of empty pots and pans banging and of 140 plus women chanting." Action called by Red Thread women’s group brought together Guyanese women of many races – Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, Amerindian, Mixed - supported by about a dozen men. Demands included an end to exorbitant prices for electricity, phones and water as a result of privatisation; affordable land and housing materials for single mothers; pensions and benefits for housewives and domestic workers; daycare and breastfeeding breaks for working mothers; protection of children from rape and car accidents; healthcare and treatment of the mosquito-spread malaria, and for roads to be built. People turned their brooms upside down to show their support. The coming together of the women was especially significant. In the 1960s Indo-Guyanese people were driven out of Linden by the race violence spurred on by the British invasion which brought down the first multiracial independence government in 1953. Now, for the first time, the women had the power to reclaim their first right – not to be at war with their neighbour of another race.
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INDIA
Since 1994 in almost all the 400 villages where the Chhattisgarh Women’s Organisation (CWO) is working there is now a grain bank to prevent starvation and moneylenders who charge high interest. The women, 60 % of whom are Tribal and 40% Dalit, collect, contribute and keep the grains in one place. They maintain records, and during an emergency any member in need can borrow and repay later.
The GWS was celebrated on 14 March when more than 4,000 CWO women members gathered in their office grounds. A crowd stretching 1.5km marched to Pithora City shouting slogans with banners and posters, and gathered outside the office of the Chief Executive Officer of Pithora. On 16 March 10 women visited Chief minister Mr. Ajit Jogi and handed over 27 demands, including an end to violence against women; equal wage for equal work; safe drinking water; health and medical facilities; remove untouchability; land rights; a bonus for Tendu leaf workers (smoking stick leaf). The print and electronic media covered the story with photographs. 

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IRELAND
A 10-hour vigil outside St Nicholas’ Church in Galway town center, called by Women in Media & Entertainment, was dogged by storms, sleet, rain and snow. But thanks to hot food supplied by men supporters, and free refreshments from several pubs, cafes and bakeries, the Strikers were not defeated. They had giant puppets, flags and posters on the church railings. In between the storms they had a Speakout, a Dance of the Brushes and swept the main shopping street clean of corporate greed; dashed into a welfare office, bank, McDonalds and other sites run by multinationals where people joined chants and speeches. At the police station they demanded an end to police-enforced deportations and official racism, and asked what happened to last year’s indictment of Bertie Aherne for war crimes against women in Afghanistan when he let George Bush’s military use Irish airports, breaking Ireland’s long tradition of neutrality. Finally they danced, swept and sang through the Catholic cathedral.
As a result of exhibiting their demands on the wall of the Student Union building, women at the university won free childcare for mothers going on an archaeology field trip; this demand had been fought all year in the Archaeology Dept. and trade union. Protesters condemned the university trying to approve a military degree. At the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis (general conference), Bertie Ahern promised full pensions for homemakers at the non-contributory rate.
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ITALY
In Rome the Welfare International Association had banners for wages for housework and against the Concordate (agreement between the State and the Vatican) and dust pans and brooms. The Latin American Association, an immigrant women’s association and the Union of rational agnostics joined. One of the biggest national newspapers publicized the GWS.

MEXICO
Guerrero
Mexican woman journalist from Voces de Mujeres radio made a speech on 7 March when receiving an award "Distinguished Women of Guerrero". She called on the authorities to implement the Federal Work Law and spoke against big employers, who abuse workers’ rights. She denounced the murders of more than 200 women in the City of Juarez since 1993 which a group of Mexican women are taking to the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights; also calling for the investigation of the rapes of Indigenous women in Montana by the military. Asking why there is not enough money and resources for women and children when $800 billion dollars are spent on the military, she said "for these 800 billion reasons, women in the world, with the slogan Invest in Caring Not Killing’ demand a planet of happiness, living in equality, freedom, justice and peace."

Nigeria

PERU
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SPAIN
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TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Over sixty women attended a grassroots women’s Open house and Speakout at the home/office of the National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE) in Port of Spain. Organisers were delighted by the great response and were overwhelmed by the number of women who came. "The house was full - luckily we rented a tent for outside and the tent was packed. "
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UGANDA
Events took place all over the country. 300 women and girls and 10 men gathered at Kaabong Women’s Centre on the morning of 8th March, joining 50 women from Loyoro who arrived the previous evening. Participants wore T-shirts which were made especially to support for the GWS, donated by a local woman member of parliament, many women wore traditional dress. The march was led by the Strike banner and five women holding brooms sweeping the ground. Singing and chanting "Tomunikisi akicunggat akiyar mere ayara" (invest in caring not killing), they marched through Kaabong senior secondary school, passed the sub county offices, police station and main hospital, stopped at the market, and performed a mini drama about how to stop and report domestic violence. Demanding rights, singing out local demands, including accessible clean drinking water, accessible roads and an end to poverty. After marching they went back to the Centre for a party. More women and men joined, enjoying roasted bull and local brew as they listened to many speeches. The Strike was front page news on national newspaper The Other Voice, which quoted IBWWFH, and interviewed many women in Uganda about why they supported the Strike and what it could do to change their lives.
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USA
Los Angeles:
A noisy and spirited group of about 500 people marched in downtown LA, with puppets, pots and pans and drums, a float for older people and people with disabilities, banners and placards in English and Spanish on 'Welfare Not Warfare'. The multiracial march led by the IWFHC brought together unwaged moms, grandmothers and small children, waged workers and trade unionists including the woman president of Utility Workers Union Local 132 and a contingent from the Homecare Workers Union, welfare and antiwar activists, lots of young people and a number of men. They protested against the Global Loan Sharks at Bank of America and against the theft of women's money at a Social Security office and the Welfare Department. An evening celebration was held for the 3rd year at Alexandria House, a transitional residence and house of hospitality for women and children.
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Massachusetts: women in Western Massachusetts celebrated Strike Day with a rally and dinner, organized by a coalition of the Women’s Congress for Peace, American Friends Service Ctte, and others. Boston: a radio station broadcasting news of the Strike obtained the endorsement of author, filmmaker and humorist Michael Moore.

Monterey: The woman Commissioner of Monterey County Commission on the Status of Women again produced her calendar for Women’s History Month which features the GWS prominently.

New York Manhattan: A woman organised a protest outside a mental institution where she used to be incarcerated in solidarity with those inside. The protest was one of the lead stories in the evening news and was covered by the radio. Flushing: The Greens leafleted with strike materials in Spanish, English, Chinese and Korean with a special focus on lack of affordable housing and the need for a living wage -- two big issues that affect women in that predominately immigrant community. The Global Sweatshops march on March 9 declared it a GWS event.

Philadelphia: Over 75 women, children and men, including two van-loads of students from Bard College in NY, spent the day riding the colourfully decorated Strike Bus to "follow the money trail" through Philadelphia, PA and Camden NJ, one of the poorest cities in the US.  Black, Latino/a, Asian, and white, from age 16 to 87, banged pots and pans in the "cacerolazo" calling out Global Killers at corporations, banks, government and the military, specifically Salomon Smith Barney (money launderers and predatory lenders), Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation (profiteers off of welfare mothers), Glaxo Smith Kline (drug pushers), L3 Communications defense contractors (war profiteers), and Monsanto (poisoners of food and land). National Public Radio covered the event. One highlight was a statement in support of the Strike from Black residents in Anniston Alabama who sued Monsanto for pollution and won.
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San Francisco: There was a lively march co-ordinated by WFH to several State/multinational building, with a big puppet and drummers, and a loud pots and pans protest at the welfare department with over 100 people including many Immokalee farm workers with their banners. Speakers from many groups spoke to a delighted crowd. A gay City Supervisor who has been very supportive, Tom Ammiano, joined the protest at City Hall. By the time the march reached the Federal Building, it had grown to more than 200 people!
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Utah: JEDI for Women, a group of mothers on welfare, held an outdoor rally and read the Strike demands, holding big bold banners and placards demanding "Invest in Caring Not Killing!’ and "Reclaim military spending for caring, feeding, healing and learning!’
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Wisconsin (Milwaukee): The Welfare Warriors sponsored a Photo Bus Tour of Bloated BIG Business to investigate and expose the Corporate Empires that keeps too many Americans and people around the world living in poverty. They targeted a number of businesses such as Walmart, Beverly Nursing Homes, Aramark Children's World and Taco Bell. They exposed the relationship between poor moms who are forced by welfare reform to take any job, anywhere, at any wage, and the corporations who benefit from this glut of low-wage labour. They also targeted the biggest business of all, war, outside the U.S. ARMY BASE where they learned that the US spends $30bn per month for war, $14.5bn for nuclear weapons and $7.8bn for star wars missile system.

International Strike report 2001

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