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Report from London Cacerolazo! PRESS
RELEASE . . PRESS RELEASE .
. .PRESS RELEASE . . . From:
WinWages (Women’s International Network for Wages for Caring Work) 26-27 JANUARY – INTERNATIONAL POTS & PANS PROTEST FOR WOMEN IN ARGENTINA:London,
Barcelona, Lima, Los Angeles, Philadelphia
SATURDAY 26
SUNDAY
27
In
response to the collapse of the economy, millions of people in Argentina
have taken to the streets to demonstrate their total rejection of IMF/World
Bank policies and of the governments which have implemented them.
The first massive ‘cacerolazo’ – pots & pans protest –
on 19 and 20 December brought down the government.
Many other ‘cacerolazos’ have taken places all over the country
since, and neighbourhood assemblies have been attended by thousands of
people working out what to do. Tonight, 25
January at 8pm Buenos Aires time, the people of Argentina have called the
first National Cacerolazo. On
26 & 27 January, women in London as well as in Peru, Spain and the USA
will hold cacerolazos, demonstrating international support for our sisters
in Argentina who are raising the voices of grassroots women.
It is not an accident that the banging of pots & pans has
become the symbol of the Argentinian uprising – women have been
prominent in these protests, and pots & pans are the ‘tools of the
trade’ of those who do the vital but unrecognised work of feeding and
caring for all the people of the world.
The pots are now empty in most Argentinian households, but they are
loud. No surprise that 60% of
delegates from neighbourhood assemblies to the General Assembly in Buenos
Aires have been women. It
is women who carry the greatest yet the least recognised burden of
policies of genocide and theft imposed by the IMF/World Bank and
implemented by corrupt politicians, trade unions and NGOs all over the
world. Women and men from
countries of the South will highlight the effects of such policies on
women in their home countries. The Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe
(Housewives Trade Union of Santa Fe), an autonomous
grassroots organisation, is holding daily women’s assemblies in the
poorest neighbourhoods and is circulating the attached Women’s
Manifesto. SAC co-ordinates
the Global Women’s Strike in Argentina and is part of the WinWages*
network, which includes organisations of domestic workers, Indigenous and
other rural workers, sex workers and other grassroots women, in Guyana,
Peru, India and Uganda, as well as other women’s organisations in
Ireland, Spain and the US. The
Strike network extends to women in over 60 countries. Following
the wise example of the Argentinian movement which has rejected all
parties and their affiliated trade unions and NGOs, politically aligned
speeches will not be welcome at our protests. Women’s
Manifesto by SAC in English & Spanish Contact:
Nina Lopez-Jones and Didi Rossi News from our sisters in Argentina Letter to Governor of the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina Interview with Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Sante Fe Support needed for our sisters in Argentina Dec 2001 Pronunciamiento organización de Mujeres Aymarás PACHA ARU, Peru
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