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Report
of picket published in Women say No war -- Invest in Caring, Not Killing The Global Women’s Strike is holding a daily community Picket & Open Mic opposite Parliament, protesting wars against Iraq and against other people of colour around the world. Earlier, weekly pickets led up to the 8th March Global Women’s Strike day, when women took strike actions in over 70 countries. The key demand is that the billions squandered on military budgets should be spent instead on the essentials of life: food, clean accessible water, decent housing, healthcare. Why is war the priority for which all of us round the world must give our right to survive? Women the first carers and the poorest of the poor everywhere, pay the highest price for war. Not surprisingly, we highlight its hidden destruction. Women are 70% of the victims of armed conflict, and in Iraq 500,000 children have died as a result of sanctions -- despite agonising efforts by their mothers. But since our survival is not an economic priority, so women’s survival work is unseen. No wonder women are the hidden backbone of anti-war activism, and even more women than men oppose war. At the Open Mic anyone can express their views against war. People listen intently to deeply personal, often inspiring testimonies, punctuated by powerful chants, poetry and songs. One woman described it as "real democracy" and aims to start something similar in Manchester. During the Commons debate MPs like John McDonell used it to let hundreds protesting outside know the voting inside for and against war. Women in the Philippines just sent news of their month of protest and their government's clampdown. Indo-, Afro- and Indigenous Guyanese women have come together across divisions of race, religion, language, to protest war. Other highlights include: Sonia, a 9-year-old Asian girl putting questions to Bush and Blair about the morality of bombing children; Benjamin Zephaniah reciting dub poetry; a Congolese man speaking about Clare Short's complicity in the war in Congo which has killed two million people; Eritrean and other refugee women speaking of fleeing rape in war zones, only to be refused refuge by a UK government that backs and profits from dictatorships. Asian children describing their anti-war school walkouts; pensioners, veterans, military families and other military refuseniks. A man from Iraq, and a Falklands veteran moved everyone to tears. This picket is part of worldwide protests, every minute, every hour opposing the slaughter in Iraq. Asian women are together with African and other women and communities everywhere fighting for our lives, in total opposition to this devastation of people and the planet. |