Wages for Housework Campaign 01 November 2000 Dear Sisters and Friends
FOR A WORLD WHICH VALUES ALL WOMEN’S WORK & ALL WOMEN’S LIVES! We hope that you received the mailing about the Global Women’s Strike -- we enclose another just in case. There was a fantastic response to the Strike 2000 with women and girls in 64 countries taking part. Preparations for a bigger and better Strike on International Women's Day 8th of March next year are well under way and we are starting earlier this year to give people more time to plan how they may want to take part. Our Global Women's Strike Caravan will be travelling through UK towns and cities during the second week of November. We are writing to ask if you would host a Caravan stopover, either a speaking event or something smaller and less formal. The idea of a caravan came from the Sans Papiers* in France and we want to use it to spread the word about the Strike round the country, meet people and compare notes about what they and others are pressing for or working on and how we might work together, make new friends, and widen our network and the power of women’s priorities. Women all over the world used the Strike 2000 and the Strike Demands to strengthen their local and national demands, and many wrote statements about why they were participating. For example, students went on strike against tuition fees, mothers for payment for the crucial work of raising the next generation, women pensioners for recognition of a lifetime of often invisible work which entitles them to a decent pension for a start, asylum seekers against rape, detention and deportation, prostitute women against council attempts to evict them from their homes, and all of us for all these reasons and many others. You can see everyone’s statements on our website along with other exciting news. The demands for the Strike 2001 have been updated so they more fully represent the needs and situations of us all globally, as grassroots women and girls. In many countries men were active in supporting the Strike, and have written Striking Statements about why they supported the women they knew taking part in the Strike. We are hoping that people we meet through the caravan will be inspired to take part in whatever way they can. You may already celebrate International Women's Day to recognise the massive contribution of women and how little we get back. Taking part in the Strike is a great way to do this. We will bring some great music including our Strike song, our exhibition and maybe even some performers -- of course we would be delighted if any local talent would join in. We'll be happy to discuss the practicalities in more detail such as which date would be best for you and what kind of event is possible. If you are interested in inviting us to visit your estate, place of work, trade union branch or other organisation, please tell us. It doesn’t have to be a big event -- it could be an informal get together, or setting up a Strike stall together in the local shopping centre, or arranging for display of our exhibition in the local library, or inviting our participation in a meeting or event you’re already planning . . . So far we’ve heard from Canterbury, Manchester, Liverpool and Brighton. As a grassroots women’s organisation we get no funding to cover the expenses of the Strike -- last year it cost us a fortune! If you could do fundraising or make a collection to help cover travel and other expenses, it would be greatly appreciated. STOP THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT! Power to the sisters, Didi Rossi * undocumented immigrant and refugee people led by African women and men campaigning against deportation and for papers for all.
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